Category Archives: Latest News

Makeshift screens, censored films and ASIO: how the Melbourne International Film Festival began 70 years ago

Documentary, Film, Latest News

Lisa French, The Conversation, 26 January 2022

Two women reading the film program
Author provided.

On the Australia Day weekend in 1952, a group of die-hard film buffs put on a film festival. They had selected the leafy hills of Olinda in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges for the event. They expected 80 people – but more than 600 turned up!

In the 1950s, very few Australian films were being made. Those that were produced were largely documentaries, with narrative features extremely rare. Despite this, an avid film culture flourished through local film societies.

Australian film buffs were thirsty to see international films from Europe and Asia, but local cinemas only screened Hollywood fare. Australian authorities would, however, allow international films to enter the country for exhibition at a film festival.

A crowd outside a mechanic's institute.
80 film fans were expected. More than 600 showed up. Author provided

So a festival in Melbourne was excitedly planned.

That first event, as ambitious as it was popular, is now celebrating its 70th anniversary. It grew into the internationally renowned Melbourne International Film Festival, which will commemorate its 70th anniversary in August this year, making it one of the world’s oldest film festivals.

Sleeping in a church hall

The Australian Council of Film Societies, who convened the festival, chose Olinda because it was a popular tourist destination with plenty of accommodation.

Due to the numbers of film buffs who flocked there, the guest houses were fully booked. Many locals threw open their doors to accommodate the influx, but it was not enough.

My mother was one of many who went along and had to bed down in a church hall.

A crowd outside a country church.
The town accommodation was so booked up, some had to sleep in the church. Author provided

The appeal of the film festival was so great that some people travelled back and forth from Melbourne daily.

Among the attendees were many who would become prominent Australian filmmakers, like Tim Burstall, John Heyer and Stanley Hawes.

Interviewed in the documentary Birth of a Film Festival, Burstall remembered making the journey to Olinda with artist Arthur Boyd. They packed their families into Boyd’s 1929 Dodge and headed for the hills.

A man stands in front of a screen, talking to a crowd
Many of Australia’s future filmmakers attended the event. Author provided

The large attendance forced the organisers to arrange additional screening venues. They set up a makeshift screen under the stars, and borrowed another hall in a neighbouring town.

Frank Nicholls, who was president of the Australian Council of Film Societies, had to rush reels from the hall in Olinda to another in Sassafras by car, causing a delay mid-screening if he was late with the next reel.

The festival was so popular, extra screens needed to be set up – including an outdoor cinema. Author provided

Organisers invited national and international luminaries including Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel. Although Chauvel did not attend, his telegram was included in the “programme alterations”:

My best wishes to all and my regrets not being able to be present.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies was invited but in a letter to Nicholls (kept in a scrapbook by volunteer Mary Heintz), he delegated the invitation to the Minister for the Interior, Mr W.S. Kent Hughes.

Hughes presented the Juilee Awards for films made in Australia. He gave a speech outlining government plans to support documentary and independent producers, and stayed to watch the opening night under a canopy of stars.

The first film festival program

Jean Cocteau’s famous 1946 film Beauty and the Beast opened the festival to great acclaim. Others screened included Robert J. Flaherty’s Louisiana Story (1948), as well as many Australian documentaries, clips from early Australian films, and some historic French short works by Georges Méliès.

An exhibition of film stills was set up at the local school. Author provided

One of the local highlights was a film made for the Department of Immigration titled Mike and Stefani (1952), directed by Ron Maslyn Williams. It won a prize for its depiction of two war-broken refugees granted visas to come to Australia.

The festival weekend also included talks and an exhibition of film stills at the local school.

The press picked up on the vigorous debate swirling around the festival that weekend. On January 31, the Adelaide News reported attendees expressed dismay at censors banning films like Roberto Rossellini’s The Miracle (1948), which was deemed sacrilegious.

Success – and suspicion

The Olinda Film Festival was a huge success.

Nicholls described Olinda in The Sun of January 29 1952 as “the most comprehensive” film festival ever held in Australia, screening “hundreds of Continental, English, Australian and Oriential films and even a Russian propaganda production”.

But not everyone celebrated the festival’s success. Even with Menzies’ support, it was discovered after the event that, while cinema enthusiasts were enjoying the event, ASIO was watching. Evidently the Australian government regarded the film festival as a prime draw-card for subversive characters intent on overthrowing authority.

A man and a woman read a program
The festival screened hundreds of films from around the globe. Author provided

Still, the success of Olinda – far greater than anyone could have foreseen – earned the festival a permanent place in Australian and international screen culture. It demonstrated that non-commercial films could interest large audiences, and Australian films could do the same.

Nicholls went on to become the first chairperson of the Melbourne Film Festival and later of The Australian Film Institute. At the 50th celebration of the 1952 event, Nicholls said:

The festival was a goer, and it’s still going strong. But there was never quite one like Olinda.

Material in this article was sourced in interviews and research for Birth of a Film Festival (directed by Mark Poole and produced by Lisa French in 2003), about the first festival and its 50th anniversary celebrations.

AIDC 2022 program announced

Documentary, Latest News

We’re beyond thrilled to unveil the AIDC 2022 program which features a stellar line up of speakers, sessions, screenings, industry initiatives and networking events designed to celebrate and elevate our nonfiction screen industry.

Across 40-plus sessions from 90-plus speakers – including four 2022 Academy Award®-shortlisted filmmakers, and speakers from as far and wide as the USA, Denmark, India, the UK and New Zealand – the AIDC 2022 program has something for everyone.

This year’s highly anticipated return to ACMI, Melbourne will feature spotlight sessions with extraordinary global talents like Jonas Poher Rasmussen, director of the multi-award-winning and Oscar®-shortlisted Flee; Netflix docuseries titans the Way Brothers (Wild Wild Country, Untold), Oscar-winning Australian documentarian Eva Orner (Burning, Taxi to the Dark Side), immersive storytelling evangelist Loren Hammonds (TIME Studios, NY), trailblazing independent producer Ted Hope (ex-Amazon Studios), and a special in-conversation with Darren Dale and Jacob Hickey of prolific Australian production house Blackfella Films – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Other session highlights include an exploration of journalism and documentary with leading investigative filmmaker Nanfu Wang, director of the Oscar®-shortlisted In the Same Breath, Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, makers of the Oscar®-shortlisted Writing with Fire, and Australian journalist and filmmaker Yaara Bou Melham; plus a deep dive into the art of the interview in audio documentary with Osman Faruqi, Marc Fennell, Ruby Jones and Camille Bianchi; and a special International Women’s Day session focusing on women making waves in specialist factual with Janet Han Vissering (Nat Geo Wild), Colette Beaudry (SeaLight Productions), and Bettina Dalton (Wildbear Entertainment).

There’s also a range of sessions focusing on specialist topics such as Indigenous storytelling, music documentary, observational documentary, social experiments in factual television, and the digital creator economy, alongside AIDC-exclusive sessions with Australian streamer Stan and philanthropic organisations the Judith Neilson Institute and Shark Island Foundation announcing major new initiatives for nonfiction screen creators. 

The 2022 conference presents an unparalleled opportunity to learn from, network, and do business with some of the most interesting creators and movers and shakers in the worlds of nonfiction screen and digital media.

To provide the widest possible access, AIDC 2022 has been designed for the first time ever as a hybrid event, giving delegates the choice to attend in-person at ACMI, or to participate entirely online – with passes available for all preferences.

And so, we welcome you to come and explore this year’s theme with us, Bearing Witness, acknowledging the tireless work of documentarians to bring us stories from the frontline, the margins and underground. We recognise that it’s been a tough time for our sector and it’s been a long time since we got together, and we’re so looking forward to welcoming you to AIDC 2022.

EXPLORE THE PROGRAM:

FULL PROGRAM REVEALED FOR AIDC 2022

Australian Film Box Office November 2021

Film, Latest News

Australian films capture 16% market share. Jackie Keast, IF magazine 3 December 2021

‘The Dry’.

In the three years before the pandemic, Australian films contributed less than 5 per cent of the total national box office per year.

The same held mostly true in 2020, where local features captured only a 6 per cent market share.

But 2021 has not been a typical year. According to Numero, to date, at a total of $71.4 million (excluding holdovers), Australian films have contributed 16 per cent of the national box office.

Now, that market share will likely shrink somewhat before year end, with the theatrical market starting to recover post-lockdown and splashy films such as Dune, Encanto, Spider Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections entering the market.

However, the current figures still speak to just how much Australian films like Peter Rabbit 2, The Dry, Penguin Bloom and High Ground helped exhibitors during the difficult first half of the year when there was little Hollywood product.

It also speaks to the breathing room Australian films received then, when many films were allowed more screens and more time to build word-of-mouth and momentum. All of top 10 highest grossing local films of the year opened on more than 100 screens.

Distributors and exhibitors also threw significant weight behind those releases with regards to marketing and promotion, as did Screen Australia via its Our Summer of Cinema campaign.

Box office for Australian filmsShare (%)
2016$24.1 million1.9%
2017$49.4 million4.1%
2018$56.2 million4.5%
2019$40.2 million3.3%
2020$22.6 million5.6%
2021$71.4 million (as of Dec 1)16% (as of Dec 1)

The box office share of Australian films over the past six years.

As IF has already reported, this is the second highest grossing year for Australian film on record (not adjusting for inflation). The highest was 2015, when ticket sales tallied $88 million, spurred on Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dressmaker, Oddball, The Water Diviner, Paper Planes and Last Cab To Darwin.

Indeed, if the country had not faced extended lockdowns in NSW, the ACT and Victoria – leading to larger local films like Roadshow’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson moving to 2022 – that 2015 record may have been surpassed.

Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly reflects that 2021 offered Australian film a rare opportunity to gauge true audience interest, without “the distraction of an endless parade of American blockbusters.”

“Seeing the remarkable success of The Dry, Penguin Bloom, High Ground, June Again and many more releases reveals a genuine interest in Australian stories, which reinforces the appeal of seeing ourselves on the big screen,” he says.

Prior to the release of the latest Bond instalment No Time To Die a few weeks ago, The Dry was the top grossing title of the pandemic at Sydney’s Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, and its most successful Aussie film in years.

“The big takeaway for us though was that the successes of the film was due to how extremely good it was and because it had mainstream audience appeal. People weren’t turning out to see it because it was locally made but because it looked and sounded like a film they wanted to see, was based on a best seller and had a well known star in the lead. It ticked a lot of boxes,” general manager Alex Temesvari tells IF.

“Penguin Bloom and High Ground also had appeal to bigger audiences than usual again thanks in part to little competition from Hollywood product at time of release.

“There is certainly a case to be made for producing and nurturing more high quality local content that actually appeals to mainstream audiences as opposed to just cinephiles and giving them the best shot at finding an audience in cinemas.”

Notably, almost all of the $71.4 million to date was amassed by titles released in the first half of the year, prior to the Delta outbreak. It is also worth noting that only six titles crossed the $1 million mark.

Since June 1, 23 new Australian films entered the market, totalling just $1.9 million. Most of that was taken by Transmission’s Buckley’s Chance, which grossed $925,233, Madma’s Nitram, which made $467,441 and Mushroom’s 20th anniversary re-release of Chopper, at $100,148.

Not included in this is Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which is an Australian-New Zealand co-production, with See-Saw Films among the production companies. While the film was distributed theatrically by Transmission Films, no box office was publicly reported ahead of its release on Netflix yesterday.

Of course, all films that have released in the second half of the year have faced a disrupted market, given COVID lockdowns in the country’s largest theatrical markets.

Some films, like Umbrella’s Streamline, which opened September 2, had a short, limited release into states that were open before moving onto Stan. Sharmill Films documentary Palazzo di Cozzo released nationally September 16, but only opened in its native Melbourne last weekend.

The highest grossing Australian film of the year is UK co-production Peter Rabbit 2, which finished just shy of $22 million for Sony, closely followed by The Dry, which ended on $20.7 million for Roadshow. Both films rank among the top 15 highest grossing Australian films of all time.

Warner Bros.‘ Mortal Kombat came in at third, amassing $9.3 million. While some may not regard Mortal Kombat as an ‘Australian film’, it qualified for the Producer Offset, was shot in Adelaide, and was directed and produced by Australians Simon McQuoid and James Wan respectively.

Penguin Bloom finished on $7.5 million, and High Ground on $3 million.

The highest grossing feature documentaries of the year were Madman’s Girls Can’t Surf, which earned $619,475, followed by ABCG Films’ My Name Is Gulpilil, which gathered $421,641.

Moving into 2022, the key challenge for Australian films that intend a theatrical release is securing enough screens and marketing support to find an audience. With feature-length work for streaming platforms now eligible for a 30 per cent Producer Offset, some filmmakers may choose to bypass cinemas. This will no doubt continue to be a key conversation into the year ahead, including at the next stage of the Australian Feature Film Summit spearheaded by Sue Maslin, Gino Munari and others.

Aussie films dated for next year include Madman’s Shane (January 6), Gold (January 13) Blind Ambition (March 3), River (March 24) and How To Please A Woman (May 26), Studiocanal’s Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (February 10), Dark Matter Distribution’s Loveland (February 10), Paramount/Umbrella’s Falling for Figaro (February 24), Radioactive Pictures’ Ruby’s Choice (February 24), Roadshow’s The Drover’s Wife the Legend of Molly Johnson (May 5) and Warner Bros’ Elvis, from Baz Luhrmann (June 23).

Other titles expected for release next year are Robert Connolly’s Blueback, Gracie Otto’s Seriously Red and George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, all Roadshow, Bonsai Films’ Blaze, starring Yael Stone and Simon Baker, Madman’s Bosch & Rockit and Nude Tuesday, and CinemaPlus’ Sweet As.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard director Patrick Hughes launches Australian film company

Directing, Film, Latest News

Karl Quinn Sydney Morning Herald 11 January 2022

One of Hollywood’s most in-demand action directors is setting up shop in Australia with the ambition of bringing a rolling slate of big-budget genre productions to the country.

Action movie director Patrick Hughes (centre) is setting up shop in Melbourne, with three features already in the pipeline. His partners in Huge Films are Greg McLean (executive producer) and writer James Beaufort.
Action movie director Patrick Hughes (centre) is setting up shop in Melbourne, with three features already in the pipeline. His partners in Huge Films are Greg McLean (executive producer) and writer James Beaufort.

Patrick Hughes, the Australian director of The Hitman’s Bodyguard and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, has launched a new company, Huge Film, in partnership with Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) and James Beaufort. McLean will serve as executive producer, with Beaufort as Hughes’s co-writer. The team will be based in Melbourne. Action movie director Patrick Hughes (centre) is setting up shop in Melbourne, with three features already in the pipeline. His partners in Huge Films are Greg McLean (executive producer) and writer James Beaufort.

The first production from Huge Film (a mispronunciation of his surname that also describes the kind of movies he makes) is the sci-fi action thriller War Machine, which was announced in November. The second, a Netflix thriller called The Raid, has been announced today, with action maestro Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Rock, Transformers) producing.

Also in development is a third instalment in The Hitman’s Bodyguard franchise.

For Black Rock-born Hughes, who self-financed his first feature, the Omeo-set modern-day Western Red Hill (2010) before being enlisted by Sylvester Stallone to direct The Expendables 3 (2014), setting up shop on home ground is the realisation of a dream decades in the making.

“For the past 22 years I’ve worked all around the world, shooting commercials and then movies,” he says. “Now I feel like I’ve reached a new stage in my career where I’ve got a bit of sway and I can say, ‘this is where I want to work’.”

Hughes and Ryan Reynolds on the set of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.

Hughes lauds the combination of federal and state government incentives that have made it feasible for the kind of Hollywood-financed big-budget films he directs to be made locally.

“For the first time in my career, Australia’s location incentives are globally competitive, so making big-budget action movies on my home soil is now a viable reality,” he says. “I’ve never before been able to drive to work, and to come home and say to my kids ‘how was your day’. This is the dream for me.”

Hughes and McLean (who produced Red Hill) date their friendship back to 2001, when as a pair of student filmmakers they found themselves in the same St Kilda bar on New Year’s Eve with just $5 to their names.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/the-hitman-s-bodyguard-director-patrick-hughes-launches-australian-film-company-20220109-p59mto.html 2/4

13/01/2022, 10:18 The Hitman’s Bodyguard director Patrick Hughes launches Australian film company

Over the one beer they could each afford before heading home they swore they would one day make it. With Huge Film, they look to have made good on that commitment.

In announcing War Machine in the Hollywood trade press in November, Erin Westerman, head of production for Lionsgate (the mini-studio behind the Hunger Games franchise, and the producer of War Machine), described Hughes as “simply one of the best action directors working today”.

He is certainly one of the busiest. His latest film, The Man From Toronto, starring Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart, will be released in cinemas in August.

Although locations for War Machine, which is likely to cost more than $US80 million, are yet to be revealed, this masthead understands it will be shot in New Zealand, with some studio scenes and all post-production to be based in Melbourne.

Locations for the Netflix action thriller The Raid are also yet to be confirmed, but Hughes has had plenty of time to put his mind to it. In 2014, he told this masthead that the remake of Welsh director Gareth Evans’s 2011 film set in an Indonesian high-rise was to be his next project, following his Hollywood debut with The Expendables 3.

But Hughes and the studio parted company over differing visions for the film: they wanted a straight remake, while he wanted to explore the world of undercover Drug Enforcement Agency operatives. The version of The Raid Netflix has commissioned will reflect that.

Lifeline for Aust producers as TIF Temporary Interruption Fund extended

Film, Latest News, Television

Screen Producers of Australia media release 12 January 2022

Screen Producers Australia (SPA) today warmly welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement that the Temporary Interruption Fund (TIF) for screen productions will be extended for a further 6 months until 30 June 2022.

The announcement reflects the continuation of difficulties in accessing screen production insurance due to the coronavirus pandemic and provides much-needed support for screen businesses as they strive to keep cameras rolling and thousands of Australians in jobs.

SPA CEO Matthew Deaner said:

“We are extremely pleased with this decision from the Morrison Government. The TIF has been of substantial benefit to investment, employment and sustainability in the sector, and we are grateful for the strong support the Government has shown the sector through the creation and extension of the fund. The TIF has been instrumental in ensuring continuity of activity in the sector during the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated challenges in the financing market.

“Our advice to Government has been that the challenges arising from COVID-19 associated with the confidence in the market associated with the financing of Australian content are persistent and will continue. This means that the underlying market gaps which justified the creation of the TIF are still in place, and are likely to be for some time.

“The extension of the fund announced by Minister Fletcher today not only protects businesses and thousands of jobs but also ensures the pipeline of much-loved Australian content continues to flow, to the benefit of Australian and international audiences. This is a great result for Australian screen content, businesses, employment and audiences.”

Australian TV drama in 2022: most anticipated

Latest News, Television

From Heartbreak High on Netflix, to The Twelve on Foxtel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart on Amazon, and Troppo on ABC, here are some of the shows we’re looking forward to in 2022, as well as a few already unveiled.

Rochelle Siemienowicz Screen Hub 20 January 2022

While many parts of the Australian screen industry have been Covid-quiet in the last year, television drama production has been going on at a heady pace despite critical shortages of key crew. Looking through the list of what’s coming to smaller screens in 2022, we see a number of writers, producers and companies popping up multiple times, meaning some of them have been very busy indeed.

The shows on offer are diverse (with pleasingly diverse writers and casts), though many of the storylines favour intrigue, mystery, crime, courtrooms and past traumas reemerging. Also evident is an eye to international audiences and broadcasters while also depicting contemporary Australian society.

We look forward to covering more of these dramas, as well as online series, comedies and light entertainment in future articles.

Heartbreak High (Netflix)

Don’t expect any teacher-student romances in Netflix’s 2022 eight-episode series inspired by the original 90s show. Reimagined for a new generation, and set at ‘Hartley High’ in Sydney, the new drama is produced by Fremantle Media and features a diverse young cast – as indeed all the incarnations of the story have famously done, though of course diversity in 2022 is a much expanded concept.

The synopsis promises a classic high school drama scenario: ‘A discovery makes Amerie [Ayesha Madon, The Moth Effect] an instant pariah at Hartley High, and causes a mysterious and very public rift with ride-or-die Harper [Asher Yasbincek, The Heights, Rams]. With her new friends – outsiders Quinni [Chloe Hayden, Jeremy The Dud, Sister From The South] and Darren (James Majoos, Fangirls, Grand Horizons] – Amerie must repair her reputation, while navigating love, sex, and heartbreak.’

Nostalgic parents will enjoy Rachel House (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) playing the school principal who thinks she’s a ‘woke ally’ but is ‘really more of a Karen’.

Chris Oliver Taylor and Carly Heaton are executive producers, Sarah Freeman is producer, Ana Jimenez is development exec, and Anna Curtis is associate producer.  Setup director is Gracie Otto along with Neil Sharma Jessie Oldfield and Adam Murfett. Heartbreak High is created by Hannah Carroll Chapman (The Heights), who wrote with Matthew Whittet, Marieke Hardy, Meyne Wyatt, Thomas Wilson White and Natesha Somasundaram with script producer Megan Palinkas.

Mystery Road: Origin (ABC)

In this third series about the enigmatic Indigenous detective, Mark Cole Smith, a proud Nyikina man, takes over the role of Detective Jay Swan from Aaron Pederson. This six by one-hour season, shot in WA, heads back in time to 1999 and the hometown mystery that made the man who he is.

Mystery Road: Origin is produced by Bunya Productions (Greer Simpkin, David Jowsey and Penny Smallacombe) for the ABC. It is directed by Dylan River and written by Blake Ayshford, Steven McGregor, Kodie Bedford and Timothy Lee, and executive produced by Sally Riley.

Mark Cole Smith takes on the role of young Jay Swan in Mystery Road: Origin. Photo via Bunya Productions.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Amazon Prime)

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is the seven-part adaptation of Holly Ringland’s 2018 international bestselling novel following a young girl whose violent childhood casts a violent shadow over her adult life.

‘After a family tragedy in which she loses both her abusive father and beloved mother in a mysterious fire, nine-year-old Alice is taken to live with her grandmother June on a flower farm, where she learns there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past.

Set against Australia’s breathtaking natural landscape, and with native wildflowers and plants providing a way to express the inexpressible, this enthralling family drama spans decades, as Alice grows from a child into a woman. Her journey is epic and visceral, building to an emotional climax as Alice finds herself fighting for her life against a man she loves.’

Produced by Made Up Stories’ Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky, together with Amazon Studios and Endeavor Content, the Amazon Original drama series will star Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alice Hart, as well as Sigourney Weaver (who is also executive producing), Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell and Tilda Cobham-Hervey.

Adapting the book for the screen is Australian writer Sarah Lambert (Lambs of God), who also serves as showrunner. All episodes are directed by Glendyn Ivin (Penguin Bloom), and the series will launch on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Barons (ABC)

Heading back in time to the 1970s, is Micanical Media and Fremantle’s Barons, a drama about surfers who turned their passion into big business, starring Sean Keenan (Glitch, Puberty Blues), Jillian Nguyen (Clickbait) and Ben O’Toole (Amazing Grace).

Barons was shot in NSW and created by Michael Lawrence (Bra Boys) and Liz Doran (Molly, Please Like Me).

Troppo (ABC and iview)

Based on Australian author Candice Fox’s bestselling novel Crimson Lake, Troppo is an eight-part crime series shot in Queensland. It stars US actor Thomas Jane (The Punisher) who is also executive producer. He plays disgraced ex-cop Ted Conkaffey, confronting his traumatic past alongside Amanda Pharrell (Nicole Chamoun, Fighting Season), an eccentric PI with a disturbing criminal past. As they try to uncover the whereabouts of a missing Korean family man and tech pioneer, they discover a string of bizarre deaths and are thrust into a fight for survival and sanity in the wilds of Far North Queensland.

Created by Yolande Ramke (Cargo, The Haunting of Bly Manor), Troppo is an EQ Media Group and Beyond Entertainment production in association Renegade. Jocelyn Moorhouse is setup director.

Significant Others (ABC and iview)

Award-winning writer and creator Tommy Murphy (Holding the Man, Devil’s Playground), describes Significant Others as a six-part ‘character-driven series with an undertow of intrigue. It follows a family tearing each other apart over a missing loved-one. It is equally about how they put themselves back together.’

Produced by Fremantle Australia, Significant Others tells the story of a single mother who fails to return from her morning swim, leaving behind two teenagers and a fractured family searching for clues in the rubble of the catastrophe.

The writing pedigree is strong, with Tommy Murphy writing alongside Sue Smith (Brides of Christ, Saving Mr Banks), Louise Fox (Glitch, Broadchurch), Niki Aken (The Hunting), Blake Ayshford (Mystery Road) and Vonne Patiag (The Unusual Suspects). The series will be executive produced by Chris Oliver-Taylor (Glitch) and Justin Davies (Beautiful People). ABC Executive producers are Louise Smith and Sally Riley. Matt Reeder (Hearts & Bones) is series producer.

Savage River (ABC and iview)

Savage River, produced by Aquarius Films, is ‘an intriguing murder mystery set in regional Victoria, starring Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why), with all six episodes directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse.

The TV series is co-created by Tasmanian writers Belinda Bradley, Franz Docherty working with lead writer Giula Sandler (Murders at White House Farm and Glitch), with Aquarius producers Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford also joining the writing team. Developed and commissioned by the ABC, worldwide rights for the six-part crime drama have been acquired by Dynamic Television.

After the Verdict (Nine)

After the Verdict follows four very different people who have just finished jury duty on a high-profile murder trial. As they return to normal life, they begin to question their verdict and take matters into their own hands, investigating the murder themselves.

Created, written and executive produced by Subtext Pictures’ Ellie Beaumont and Drew Proffitt (House Husbands, Dead Lucky), the six-part series will premiere on the 9Network in Australia with Entertainment One (eOne) handling international sales. Set up director is Peter Salmon, and directors are Ben C Lucas and Fadia Abboud, with Jo Rooney as producer and executive producers Greg Sitch and 9Network Head of Drama, Andy Ryan.

Michelle Lim Davidson (The Newsreader) and Tess Haubrich (Wolf Creek) join the previously announced Sullivan Stapleton, Magda Szubanskiand Lincoln Younes (Grand Hotel, Doctor Doctor) in After the Verdict’s exceptional cast, with Virginia Gay (Judy and Punch), Emma Diaz (Diary of an Uber Driver), Richard Brancatisano (Harrow), Nicholas Brown (Wakefield), Hazem Shammas (Safe Harbour) and Vivienne Awosoga (Wentworth) also to appearing in the series.

The Secrets She Keeps, S2 (Network Ten)

A second season of the compelling psychological thriller from 2020, The Secrets She Keeps, will be unveiled this year on Network Ten. Reprising their lead roles are Jessica De Gouw (Operation Buffalo, The Crown) as Instagram-perfect mother of three, Meghan, and Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey, The Spanish Princess) as Agatha, an obsessed woman with an unimaginably dark past. In the first season – spoiler alert! – Agatha kidnapped Meghan’s newborn baby, concluding with her arrest, but what about Meghan’s own secrets? For a start, who is the baby’s father?

Shot in Sydney, The Secrets She Keeps is written by Sarah Walker (Wonderland, Wentworth) and Jonathan Gavin, and based on the psychological thriller novel by Michael Robotham. It is produced by Lingo Pictures.

The Twelve (Foxtel)

In his first major Australian TV role in a while, Sam Neill headlines this Foxtels Originals series about 12 jurors, ordinary Australians, with struggles of their own, who must decide the case of a woman accused of killing a child. Joining Neill in the cast are Marta Dusseldorp, Kate Mulvany Brooke Satchwell, and Hazem Shammas.

Set and shot around Sydney with production beginning in November last year, The Twelve is a ten by one-hour crime drama. It’s written by Sarah Walker, Brad Winters, Anchuli Felicia King, Leah Purcell and Tommy Murphy, with Greg Waters as script producer. Setup director is Daniel Nettheim. The series will be produced by Ian Collie, Rob Gibson and Ally Henville (Easy Tiger), and executive produced by Michael Brooks and Hamish Lewis (Warner Bros.) and Liz Watts (Spirit Pictures).

AUSTRALIAN TV DRAMA ALREADY UNVEILED

Here are some of the new Australian TV drama series we’ve already enjoyed on screens this January:

The Tourist (Stan, from 2 Jan 2022)

Filmed and produced in South Australia, the six by one-hour Stan Original Series The Tourist stars actor Jamie Dornan as an unnamed British man who finds himself in the red heart of the Australian outback, being pursued by a vast tank truck trying to drive him off the road. ‘An epic cat and mouse chase unfolds and The Man later wakes in hospital, hurt, but somehow alive – except he has no idea who he is. With merciless figures from his past pursuing him, The Man’s search for answers propels him through the vast and unforgiving outback.’

Created and written by UK writers Harry and Jack Williams with their company Two Brothers Pictures (Baptiste, The Missing, Fleabag), and produced by SA producer Lisa Scott of Highview Productions, the series also stars Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alex Dimitriades, and Damon Herriman.

Wolf Like Me (Stan, from 13 January 2022)

Written and directed by Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters), Wolf Like Me is a six by 30-minute miniseries produced by Stan in association with NBCUniversal and Peacock. It stars Isla Fisher and Josh Gad as Mary and Gary, a couple in a new relationship who both have baggage.

‘Gary is an emotional wreck and struggles to provide for his daughter since the death of his wife. Mary has a secret she can’t bring herself to share with anyone. The universe brought these two together for a reason, they just need to keep following the signs.’

The accents and setting are American, but the series, produced by Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky of Made Up Stories (The Dry, Penguin Bloom), and it was filmed in the Inner West of Sydney and regional NSW.

Our reviewer, Guy Davis, enjoyed the series very much, and said: ‘Both leads express their inner wounds with a feeling of individuality and authenticity, like they’ve been carrying their burdens for a long time and learned to shoulder them in their own ways.’

Love Me (Binge, available now)

Binge’s first Australian original drama commission has been acclaimed and widely enjoyed since it premiered on Boxing Day as a welcome escape to Covid-Christmas reality. All six episodes of the romantic drama set in pristine-looking Covid-unaffected Melbourne are directed by Emma Freeman (The Newsreader, Glitch).

The story follows three members of a family as they experience love at distinct times in their lives, from grief-stricken 60-something Glen (Hugo Weaving), to thirty-something Clara (Bojana Novakovic) worrying about her decreasing fertility, and Aaron (William Lodder) in his naïve lovestruck twenties. Bob Morley and Heather Mitchell are especially good as nuanced love interests, with the first season concluding on a satisfying but mysterious note, ready for a sequel.

Based on the Swedish drama Älsak Mig created by Josephine Bornebusch, Love Me is written by Alison Bell, Leon Ford, Blake Ayshford, Adele Vuko, produced by Aquarius Films’ Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford, and executive produced by Michael Brooks, Hamish Lewis, Brian Walsh, Alison Hubert-Burns, Lana Greenhalgh and Josephine Bornebusch.

Clare Stewart, interim CEO of Sheffield DocFest, explains how she is building a five-year strategy

Documentary, Latest News

BY MONA TABBARA Screen Daily 28 JANUARY 2022

Steering the ship for the 29th edition of UK documentary festival Sheffield DocFest (June 23-28) is an exacting task, even for a veteran such as Clare Stewart, who is the interim CEO of the event for this edition.

Clare Stewart

SOURCE: UDALL EVANS

CLARE STEWART

The Australia-born Stewart has previously worked as festival director of the Sydney Film Festival and of the BFI London Film Festival. She has now relocated to Sheffield where she will be predominantly based for her one-year tenure and is working closely with Asif Kapadia, who is the guest curator for this year. 

“I’ve come in deliberately as interim CEO, I’ve not come in as festival director,” says Stewart. “I have a distinct purpose, and that purpose is to help build a five-year strategy and bring together the people who will forge the creative platform for the festival.”

Part of the plan is to ensure DocFest is positioned as an international hub, unfettered by Brexit. “We’re still global in our focus, and we’re going to play very strongly into that broader church that Sheffield has been historically in the documentary ecosystem. Europe still very much looks to the UK as a gateway to the US, and we’re certainly hearing a lot from our US delegates about their interest in returning to live market meet-ups.

”There’s a vibrant role for the festival to play in its marketplace context – it’s the only UK film festival that has a substantive marketplace at all.”

Diversity of form is another way in which Stewart plans to make DocFest distinctive. “Some of our European colleagues in this arena have been leaning more heavily to artistic films with stylistic ambition. That’s still very much the kind of film that will be welcome in our programming context, but we also have space to move into other kinds of documentary films, some with more broad appeal, some that are pushing more into the investigative journalist space, and those that are also rougher around the edges and potentially finding it difficult to land a festival platform.”

Stewart is not looking to disentangle DocFest from the behemoth UK broadcasters, and increasingly the US streamers. “Balance is an important word and it is definitely what’s being aimed at in programming terms,” she says.

“I see broadcast as playing a very vital role in the shape that documentary takes internationally, and streamers are taking an important role in that space as well. It’s about being format agnostic, as well as funding agnostic. Do I see that independent filmmaking should be valued as highly as any other contributor in the documentary space? Of course I feel that. Our role is to create the context for coexistence and dialogue.”

Controversial few years 

Stewart got her feet under the table in early November and an intensive first three months followed as she made sure she was up to speed on where Sheffield DocFest is at following a two-year pandemic cycle. It took place online in 2020 and as a hybrid event in 2021. 

“We’re gunning for an in-person event in June,” Stewart explains. “It’s interesting to look at the likes of Cop26 doing a lot of events outdoors – it’s about playing to those strengths about where we are in the calendar and looking at alternative ways to do things in an outdoor space.”

It is not just Covid that has brought the festival into an era of uncertainty – DocFest has been plagued with senior staffing issues, including the departure of festival director Cíntia Gil in August of last year over what the festival termed “artistic differences”. At the end of that month, the programming team issued an open letter criticising the festival’s board of trustees following the departure of Gil and the way in which their own contracts had been terminated, questioning in the letter “the purpose and ethics of festivals run by boards predominantly made up of broadcasters and commissioners with a vested interest in showcasing projects whose distribution future is already predetermined”.

Luke Moody, the festival’s former director of programming, also left on difficult terms in 2019.

“I have every respect for the creative leadership of Cíntia, and also I have a great deal of empathy for the challenge of doing a festival in the pandemic. The message I want to convey is one of reassurance,” affirms Stewart, pointing towards the “incredible skillset of our recent appointments” as evidence that the festival is moving in a positive direction.

“Asif [Kapadia’s] curatorial approach is going to be really interesting because it’s spread across all facets of what it is to be in that documentary space from both the programme to filmmaker contributions.”

Punching above its weight

The biggest challenge that Stewart believes the festival faces is resource. “Coming into this festival, I felt it’s been punching above its weight for a long time in terms of its resource portfolio,” admits Stewart. “It’s extremely tenacious, in a good way. There are partnerships in place that have stood by the festival in a complicated set of conditions, but we’re down on Creative Europe money and also our three-year partnership with Wellcome Trust has come to a close. Wellcome Trust was supporting a fantastic programme called Exchange, which was underwriting a lot of free, community-driven events.

“We’re looking at our position and thinking, How can we be ambitious about the build back up, look at alternative ways of doing things in outdoor space and, at the same time, fill a space that has opened up, around especially that Creative Europe money? It’s complicated.”

Run Rabbit Run directed by Daina Reid begins shooting

Directing, Film, Latest News

Variety January 24, 2022 by Patrick Frater

Run Rabbit Run cast
Alex Vaughn, Lauren Bamford.

Top Australian actor Damon Herriman and U.K.-Italian star Greta Scacchi join “Succession” star Sarah Snook in horror-thriller “Run Rabbit Run” from “The Handmaid’s Tale” director Daina Reid. The film starts production in Victoria and South Australia this week.

Snook replaced Elizabeth Moss who was previously attached, but who dropped out late last year due to scheduling clashes. Snook plays a fertility doctor whose firm grasp on the cycle of life is put to the test as her young daughter begins to exhibit increasingly strange behavior.

The script was written by acclaimed South Australian novelist Hannah Kent (“Devotion,” “Burial Rites”) from an original idea developed with Carver Films. Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw of Carver Films (“Relic,” “Partisan,” “Snowtown”) are producing.

Los Angeles-based XYZ Films is executive producing, financing and handling world sales, having taken over sales duties from STX International which previously touted the project at 2020’s virtual Cannes Market. Storyd Group’s Deanne Weir and Olivia Humphrey and Filmology’s Jack Christian and D.J. McPherson are also executive producing.

The film’s director of photography is Bonnie Elliott. Production designer is Vanessa Cerne. Costume designer is Marion Boyce. Make up and hair designer is Angela Conte. Casting director is Allison Meadows, Mullinars. Casting editor is Sean Lahiff.

The film has major production investment from XYZ and Screen Australia, in association with Film Victoria, the South Australian Film Corporation and Soundfirm. Umbrella and Maslow Entertainment are handling Australia and New Zealand distribution.

Herriman has credits including “Judy & Punch,” “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood,” “Mindhunter,” “Justified” and “The Tourist.” Scacchi has credits including “The Player” and Looking for Alibrandi.”

The three established stars are joined by newcomer Lily LaTorre in a significant role. And by Trevor
Jamieson (“Storm Boy,” “Bran Nue Dae”), Neil Meville (“Five Bedrooms,” “Brilliant Lies”), Naomi Rukavina (“Pawno,” “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”),  Georgina Naidu (“SeaChange,” “Newton’s Law”), Genevieve Morris (“Bloom,” “No Activity”), Katherine Slattery (“Balibo,” “The Secret Life of Us”) and newcomer Sunny Whelan in supporting roles.

Reid has previously directed Snook in limited series “The Secret River.” Reid has also directed Apple TV’s “The Shining Girls,” HBO’s “The Outsider” and Amazon’s “Upload.”

Deanne Weir and Olivia Humphrey launch Storyd Group

Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

by Sean Slatter IF Magazine January 25, 2022

Deanne Weir and Olivia Humphrey.

Female-led Australian feature films and content-related technology start-ups are the focus of a new company launched by entrepreneurs Deanne Weir and Olivia Humphrey.

Born out of a shared passion for local stories told through a gender lens, Storyd Group will work with filmmakers, founders, and investors to find new audiences and support innovation in storytelling, technology, and finance models within the country’s independent film sector.

The company’s first official film investments are Gracie Otto’s Seriously Red and Daina Reid’s Run Rabbit Run, the latter of which commences production this week.

Both Humphrey and Weir have also invested Renée Webster’s How to Please a Woman, which is being produced by Tania Chambers and Judi Levine.

Elsewhere, Storyd has optioned Lyn Yeowart’s debut novel The Silent Listener for screen adaptation and has made investments in two content-related technology start-ups – Viewie, an app where anyone can publish and watch videos about their favourite tv shows and movies; and Omelia, a new tool designed to help writers and game designers develop, plan, structure, and manage stories in real-time.

Humphrey, who spent 20 years in media distribution before founding global indie film streaming platform Kanopy in 2008, said she and Weir would use their experience to help filmmakers find new forms of finance and explore better paths to market.

“Female-driven projects find it more difficult to access funding, distribution and exhibition opportunities, so Storyd intends to play a role in bringing a more balanced view of the world to our screens,” he said.

“Our investments in film-related start-ups will complement our vision for a globally competitive and robust Australian independent film sector.”

Weir, who helped set up Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce during her time on the agency’s board and is also chair of the Sydney Film Festival and For Film’s Sake, said the venture combined the pair’s love of film with their business experience and investment funds under a “very clear” gender lens.

“Olivia and I have known each other since our Austar days nearly 20 years ago,” she said.

“It was a joy to watch her create Kanopy from nothing, taking the risk to move her family to San Francisco and build the company into an international success. 

“Since Olivia’s exit from Kanopy we have been talking about the intersection of storytelling and technology, and the entrepreneurial mindset needed for Australian screen creatives to succeed in an ever-changing global market.

“We are both passionate advocates for gender equality, and we want to see more screen stories about women, told by women.”

The sector has never been stronger’: Alex West on the way forward for documentaries

Documentary, Latest News

IF Magazine January 20, 2022, by Sean Slatter

Incoming head of documentary at Screen Australia believes the sector is strong, despite COVID. In part, this is due to the sector’s success in retaining the Gallipoli clause allowing overseas shoots, and keeping the threshold for qualifying Australian production expenditure at $500,000 rather than $1 million.

West told IF the documentary department was working on reforms within the existing funding programs that reflected the state of the sector in 2022.

“Those changes will be a response to some of the things that have been going down and will be about providing simplicity,” he said.

Prior to the onset of COVID and the introduction of the federal offset reform, Screen Australia planned to revise the documentary funding programs, including alterations to the development, producer, and Ccommissioned programs.

There was also a proposal to replace the Producer Equity Program (PEP), which provides a direct payment of funds to producers of eligible low-budget Australian documentaries, in favour of a creatively-assessed completion fund.

It came after funds for the PEP were exhausted well before the end of the 2018-19 financial year, leading Screen Australia to cease processing applications in April 2019.

Having initially been scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2020, the revisions were pushed back until 2021 as a result of the pandemic, with the existing versions of the programs remaining in place last year as the sector faced more uncertainty.

West said that although the agency as a whole was evolving its guidelines, he was not “the kind of character who blows in and needs to smash things around”.

“As a practitioner, I was always conscious that you could do a project that you spend a year getting up, where you go through the system and you get funded, and then you go back for another project that you are developing and the rules have changed,” he said.

“I’m quite conscious of not changing rules for the sake of changing rules.”

In regards to the PEP, he said the issue of funds being exhausted too early was “problem on all budgets”, noting the agency’s job was to “constantly apply the things we have to the demand we receive”.

“At the moment, the fund is ticking along quite nicely and there is the fundamental [argument] underlying everything that there never was, is, or will be enough resources to fund [projects] in a subsidy-based system because demand and creativity is so high,” he said.

The Secret World of Fungi received funding through Screen Australia’s Producer Program last year.

“But if you take that as a given, I’m not looking to introduce any massive changes on PEP because what I really like about it is that it was developed in response to filmmakers’ desires for a low intervention measure that covers the more indie end of the spectrum and enables people doing their own work on their own projects to send them in.

“I think that’s a setting which is extremely valuable and one that the industry wanted going back quite some time.”

West may be relatively new to the role, but he has more than 25 years of screen experience, having worked as a documentary producer, filmmaker, writer, and director, as well as in screen agency investment program management.

Speaking about his own experience with Australian documentary production, he said the sector had never been in a stronger position, craft-wise or creatively.

“It’s amazing to see the titles that we’ve seen released in the past couple of years and the stuff that’s coming through in the next few months, as well as the creative capability and insight the producers and directors have.

“For me, the films speak to the health of the creative elements of the sector; the practitioning and creation have never been better.

“We enter this phase with more money in the pot, a strong sense of creative agency amongst producers, and a sector that is becoming ever more diverse.”