The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, 3-5 October 2025

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The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, 3-5 October 2025

20 September 2025

A large blue spacecraft hovers above a futuristic cityscape of Sydney, Australia, with tall buildings and structures. The background features a large, bright yellow sphere, possibly the Moon, with a gradient sky transitioning from orange to red.

Running since 2020 I believe, this year’s Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival is on from Friday 3 October until Sunday 5 October 2025, at Event Cinemas, on George Street, in Sydney’s CBD. Eleven features will be screened, with many having their Australian premieres.

One title, The Eagle Obsession, trailer, a documentary directed by American filmmaker Jeffrey Morris, will have its international premiere at the festival.

Also known as The Eagle has Landed, the film explores travel to the Moon, both actual and imagined. William Shatner is among those appearing in the film, along with Barbara Bain and Nick Tate, who starred in 1970’s sci-fi TV series, Space 1999. Now I get the eagle reference…

The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival Awards ceremony also takes place on the closing evening.

The spectacular banner for this year’s festival, as seen above, which is a futuristic representation of the skyline of Sydney’s CBD — spot the iconic Westfield Tower towards the left — was created by Australian filmmaker and artist Joshua Reed.

Where no Star Trek syndication royalties have gone: to William Shatner

12 September 2025

William Shatner, the Canadian actor perhaps best known for portraying Captain Kirk, in the original series (TOS) of sci-fi TV series, Star Trek, claims to have not been paid a penny for the shows that screened in syndication. After the show’s original run, between 1966 to 1969, after which the series was cancelled, some TV stations began broadcasting re-runs.

It seems incredible to think that Star Trek might not have become the cultural phenomenon it is today (that is, numerous movies and spin-off shows), if not for those re-runs during the 1970’s, which ignited broader interest in the story.

I imagine none of the other (original) Star Trek cast members received any residual fees either. It seems no one gave any thought, at the time, to the notion of TV shows being re-screened after their original run concluded. Perhaps though cast members received compensation in kind, when negotiating their fees to appear in the later series of movies.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Shatner also said he’d only ever seen a small number of the original TV shows, and none of the spin-offs. Of course the point can be made that there’s no use watching the shows since you were in them, and presumably know what happens.

But the experience of participating in a broadcast production, be it a TV show or a movie, is a world removed from viewing same. This is something Keir Dullea, who portrayed astronaut David Bowman, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, touched on at a special screening of the film, in Sydney, in 2006.

Dullea said all he could see — particularity during the close-up scenes where his character appeared to directly face the audience — were cameras, and production crew and equipment.

As a result, he said he didn’t get a true sense of the story until watching the finished product. This despite being right in the middle of proceeding at times. It can’t have been much different for Shatner. But we’re talking Captain Kirk here, someone whose perspective is a little different…

Future Boy, a book by Michael J. Fox, and a missing Gibson guitar

20 August 2025

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey through the Space-Time Continuum, is a book written by American actor Michael J. Fox, of, of course, Back to the Future (BTTF) fame, in conjunction with TV and film producer, Nelle Fortenberry.

Fans of the 1985 time-travel caper, and Fox himself, probably already know the story. Fox was also on the cast of TV sitcom Family Ties, and during the filming of BTTF, would shuttle back and forth between the sets of TV and film. TV during the day, film by night. If working two jobs each day was tiring, Fox sure as hell didn’t show it, as he seemed to do nothing but burst about the screen in BTTF.

Future Boy delves deeper into this story, through interviews with the cast and crew of both Family Ties and BTTF, and will be published on Tuesday 14 October 2025.

That’ll definitely be a red-letter day for BTTF aficionados.

And in other news, BTTF cast and crew are searching for the guitar, the Cherry Red Gibson ES-345 to be precise, which Marty McFly played when performing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, at the Enchantment Under the Sea high school dance.

This is no publicity stunt (I don’t think). BTTF producers realised the iconic guitar was missing when they went to film the sequel, Back to the Future Part II, back in 1989.

They’re hoping to find it today, soon, this century, to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of BTTF, and the release of a documentary about the film, Lost to the Future, which I think goes to air later this year. Members of the cast, including Fox, Harry Waters Jr, Lea Thompson, and Christopher Lloyd, are among those who have issued an appeal for information in the search for the Gibson.

I’d forgotten 2025 was such a red-letter year in the history of BTTF. I think this calls for a screening this evening of BTTF.

Vale David Stratton, Australian film critic

15 August 2025

The family of the noted film critic announced his death, at age 85, yesterday, Thursday August 2025.

I used to do some film writing (I still do occasionally) but would never describe my efforts as critique. Nonetheless, I used to be invited to preview screenings and premieres, and from time to time Stratton would be present.

Stratton, together with long time collaborator Margaret Pomeranz, were recently inducted onto the Australian Film Walk of Fame, becoming the first non-actors to be accorded the honour. If that doesn’t speak volumes about the regard in which Stratton’s work was held, I don’t know what does.

Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, return for Northern Lights trip

12 August 2025

It seemed pretty clear 2020’s The Trip to Greece was the final jaunt for British foodies Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. This after travels to the north of England, Italy, and Spain.

But now a new six-part series, The Trip To The Northern Lights, where the pair will venture around Scandinavia, starts production later in 2025, and presumably screens sometime in 2026.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film by Peter Weir, released fifty years ago

9 August 2025

Yesterday, Friday 8 August, marked fifty years since Picnic at Hanging Rock, trailer, premiered in Adelaide, South Australia. They story about some students of a girls’ school who go missing during a picnic, continues to captivate, and baffle, film watchers.

The Sydney born Australian filmmaker Peter Weir has made a slew of top-notch movies. These include Gallipoli, Dead Poets Society, and The Truman Show, but Picnic at Hanging Rock is by far — to my mind at least — his most enigmatic.

The screenplay was based on the 1967 novel of the same name, by late Australian author Joan Lindsay. Much of mystery enveloping the film stemmed from the belief it was based on actual events. The story is in fact fiction (thankfully).

I re-watched Picnic at Hanging Rock a few years ago, and soon after saw a lesser known Weir feature, The Plumber, which is truly bat shit mad/disturbing. Take a look at the trailer. If not already, Weir’s work should be required learning at Australian film schools.

War of the Worlds 2025, with Ice Cube, scores ZERO on Rotten Tomatoes

8 August 2025

Jesse Hassenger, writing for The Guardian:

The real question is how audiences have made it through an unconvincing cheapie like War of the Worlds — a sci-fi epic that seems to take place in real time yet features a vast and coordinated worldwide mobilization of multiple armed forces — without shutting it off in disgust (it boasts a rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

Check out the trailer. The 2025 adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel — published as a book in 1898 — directed by American filmmaker Rich Lee, had been sitting in the store room since production wrapped five years ago.

War of the Worlds’ zero percent score on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, is in sharp contrast to the one-hundred percent score achieved by 2022’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. At least for a time.

I only learned a few years ago Wells’ novel has an Australian connection, being written as a protest against the treatment of Indigenous/First Nations people in Tasmania, at the hands of British colonisers. In a bid to sway public opinion, Wells portrayed a terrifying invasion of England by powerful extra-terrestrials, to help people comprehend the atrocities taking place in Australia.

Cast of The Castle reunite, but not for a sequel, nor a prequel

16 July 2025

Alisha Buaya, writing for Media Week:

Uber has reunited Australian film icons, stars of The Castle, Michael Caton, Stephen Curry and Anthony Simcoe, to highlight Uber Green’s transition to a fully electric rideshare product.

The Castle was made by Australian actor, comedian, and filmmaker, Rob Sitch. The 1997 film is a feel good, David versus Goliath comedy, about a working class family attempting to stop property developers taking their home, their castle, away from them.

But wait until you see where the home is located.

The Uber promotion informs riders they now have the option to hire an EV for their journey. As yet, I’m not sure just how much of The Castle — aside from the stars — comes into this.

Emulate Wes Anderson with Shoot Like Wes, a book by Adam Woodward and Liz Seabrook

3 July 2025

Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, on the set of Wes Anderson's film Asteroid City

Perhaps the world is still sufficiently pre-peak the work of American filmmaker Wes Anderson, to the point that photographers still want to emulate his style in their work. If you believe the former, and are among the latter, then Shoot Like Wes, a book by British journalist and film critic Adam Woodward, and London based photographer Liz Seabrook, might be for you.

Inspired by the distinctive vision of director Wes Anderson, Shoot Like Wes is packed with rich imagery and in-depth analysis of the auteur’s remarkable body of work. This is the only guide you’ll need to create your own cinematic masterpiece, transforming everyday scenes into vibrant, storytelling moments worthy of the big screen.

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books, film, photography, Wes Anderson

Fifteen years ago, my interview with Claire McCarthy, Australian filmmaker

30 June 2025

In 2010, Claire McCarthy’s publicity company kindly gave me the opportunity to ask her about her then upcoming film, The Waiting City, which starred Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton. I published the interview on this day fifteen years ago.

I remember feeling a tad apprehensive preparing my questions as I hadn’t seen the film beforehand, and subsequently didn’t think they were particularly original. All seemed to be well (or well enough) on the night though, as they say.

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