Showing all posts tagged: Australian film
Big Chef, Little Chef by Kerrod Cooper wins LUMIX 72-hour filmmaking challenge
19 September 2023
Sydney based Australian filmmaker and editor Kerrod Cooper has been named winner of the inaugural LUMIX seventy-two hour filmmaking challenge, with a short film titled Big Chef, Little Chef. Cooper’s production is a glimpse into the life of a troubled TV chef, portrayed by Sydney based actor Danny Kim, as he films one of his shows.
In Big Chef, Little Chef, a charismatic children’s show presenter — in an empathetic performance by Danny Kim — whisks young viewers into a culinary adventure filled with laughter and learning. But behind the cheerful facade, he must grapple with a simmering internal struggle as the hustle of the kitchen mirrors the intensity of his emotional past.
After opening for entries earlier this year, ten contenders were invited in July to make a short film of three to six minutes duration, within seventy-two hours. They also had to work to the theme of broken, and incorporate an egg into their work, surely no small ask on a tight time frame, but something Big Chef, Little Chef achieves without blinking it seems.
The works of all ten shortlisted filmmakers can be seen here.
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Australian film, film, filmmaking
The Rooster, a film by Mark Leonard Winter, with Hugo Weaving
8 August 2023
A scene from The Rooster, a film by Mark Leonard Winter.
The Rooster, trailer, is the debut feature of Australian actor turned filmmaker Mark Leonard Winter, starring veteran actor Hugo Weaving, and Phoenix Raei. The Rooster had its world premiere on Saturday 5 August 2023, at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). This sounds like a brooding, atmospheric, Australian feature not to be missed:
Dan (Raei, Below, MIFF Premiere Fund 2019; Clickbait) works in a remote police outpost in regional Victoria, but when a childhood friend is discovered dead following an incident at the local high school, his judgement and credentials are thrown into question. Consumed with guilt and suspended from the force, Dan decides to camp out in the forest, where he encounters a cranky jazz-listening, shotgun-toting, ping-pong-obsessed misanthrope (Weaving, Lone Wolf, MIFF Premiere Fund 2021; Measure for Measure, MIFF Premiere Fund 2019). At first transactional, this bond soon becomes transformative for the broken men. But, surrounded by trees, far away from any trace of civilisation, is everything really as it seems?
I’m still looking for details about a wider theatrical release for The Rooster, but it will screen several times during MIFF, between now and Sunday 13 August 2023.
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Australian film, film, Mark Leonard Winter
Sigrid Thornton joins the Australian Film Walk of Fame
27 July 2023
Melbourne based Australian actor Sigrid Thornton was last night inducted onto the Australian Film Walk of Fame, at a ceremony at the Ritz Cinema, in Randwick, Sydney, where the Walk of Fame is located. Similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard, in California, Australian actors are likewise honoured by a star embossed emblem on the footpath outside the Ritz Cinema.
Thorton’s prolific acting career, in film, television, and stage, spans five decades. Her film credits include The Getting of Wisdom, Snapshot, The Man From Snowy River, Face To Face (which I wrote about here), and Slant, the 2022 debut feature of Australian filmmaker James Vinson.
Thornton joins other acclaimed Australian actors who have a star on the Walk, including Deborah Mailman, Leah Purcell, Gary Sweet, Roy Billing, and Claudia Karvan.
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Australian film, film, Sigrid Thornton
The Australian LUMIX 72-hour short filmmaking challenge
14 June 2023
Applications are open until Monday 26 June 2023 for the inaugural Australian LUMIX seventy-two hour filmmaking challenge. To be in the running, aspiring entrants need to submit a film clip of thirty to sixty seconds duration. From there, ten selected filmmakers will be invited to make a short film three to six minutes long, and will have seventy-two hours to do so. Check the details here.
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Australian film, film, filmmaking
Acting is not a glamorous career says Russell Crowe
7 December 2022
New Zealand born Australian actor Russell Crowe, also president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, speaking at the AACTA Awards this evening:
“The perception of glamour is merely a marketing tool that we take advantage of when it suits us. The reality of a creative life is workdays that never finish, crippling imposter syndrome, and the juggling act of trying to find a way to make your living in the gig economy,” said Crowe.
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Australian film, film, Russell Crowe
Elvis directed by Baz Luhrmann wins eleven AACTA Awards
7 December 2022
Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has cleaned up at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, held at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion tonight, with his latest feature Elvis.
Among the eleven ACCTA Awards haul for the Elvis Presley biopic, were best director, best film, best lead actor, going to Austin Butler in the title role, and best supporting actress to Olivia DeJonge, for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley.
Other productions to be recognised included The Stranger, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, and River, which won the best documentary ACCTA. Full list of winners here.
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Australian film, Baz Luhrmann, film
Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters by Mandy Sayer
22 November 2022
The McDonagh Sisters, Isabel, Phyllis, and Paulette, were Australian film producers active almost one hundred years ago. Based in Sydney, the trio made six films, including two documentaries, in an age of filmmaking that saw the transition from silent features to sound, or talkies.
The youngest, Paulette, was one of only five women film directors in the world. Phyllis produced, art directed, and conducted publicity. And the eldest, Isabel, under her stage name Marie Lorraine, acted superbly in all the female leads. Together, the sisters transformed Australian cinema’s preoccupations with the outback and the bush — and what they mocked as ‘haystack movies’ — into a thrilling, urban modernity.
Their work and lives are the subject of a new book, Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters: Australia’s First Female Filmmaking Team, published by UNSW Press, by Sydney based Australian writer and novelist Mandy Sayer.
The sister’s stories are a fascinating chapter in the history of both Australian film production, and Australia itself. Sayer’s book will help introduce their now often overlooked work to a new generation of people with an interest in Australian filmmaking and its past. For a glimpse of the McDonagh’s work, have a look at this trailer for their 1930 film The Cheaters.
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Australian film, Australian literature, history, Mandy Sayer
The 2022 Virtual Indigenous Film Festival
24 May 2022
Now in its fourth year, the 2022 Virtual Indigenous Film Festival is an event held exclusively online, showcasing Indigenous Australian film. This year’s event takes place from Thursday 26 May 2022, until Monday 30 May.
My Name is Gulpilil by Molly Reynolds, Off Country by John Harvey and Rhian Skirving, and Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow by Philippa Bateman (trailer featured above), are among titles being livestreamed during this year’s festival.
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Australian film, film, Indigenous film, trailer
The Australian Feature Film Summit 2022
28 March 2022
The Australian Feature Film Summit (AFFS) takes place in Sydney on Thursday 12 May 2022, with the goal of bringing all involved in the feature film production process, including exhibitors, distributors, producers, and investors together for the first time.
The mission of the AFFS is to harness the current success of the Australian feature film sector and strategise how to make more commercially successful and culturally relevant films going forward.
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Flicker Fest 2022, showing at Bondi Beach
4 January 2022
Flicker Fest, the world’s favourite short film festival (if I may say so…) takes place this year at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, from Friday 21 January, to Sunday 30 January 2021. This year’s event seems to have a Great Gatsby feel… dig out your glad rags, and get ready to party hard.
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