Each of the arts confers upon the cinema something of its own metier. Dance, its movement. Poetry, its structure. Theatre, its situations. Music, its rhythm. Sculpture, its salience. But painting is the…
It’s not just money that emerging filmmakers need – they also need help getting their work screened.
vancouverfilmschool
Earlier this year The Conversation published an article by Rebecca Mostyn about the audience for Australian films. The article includes useful stats pertaining to Screen Australia’s slate of feature films…
Steven McQueen with his 2014 Best Picture Oscar.
EPA/Paul Buck
The last man standing at the recent Academy Awards was the director/producer of the acclaimed 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen. I for one was happy, for complex reasons, to see him there; not least because…
The film adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s memoir Tracks explores how both travellers and tourists experience the Australian landscape.
In the new film Wolf Creek 2, the menacing outback serial killer Mick Taylor asks his unsuspecting tourist prey, “what the bloody hell are you buggers doing out here?” This phrase could equally be used…
Miyazaki has refused to replace hand-drawn animation with CGI.
AAP/PR
Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki has long been considered by critics and fans alike as the epitome of animation, not only in Japan but across the world. With the release of his latest, and possibly…
Catherine Martin, winner of both best costume and production design.
Paul Buck/AAP
Once again the Academy has spoken. The roughly 6,000 members of that exclusive industrial club have had their annual votes counted. More members thought 12 Years a Slave a better film than Gravity, and…
Lupita Nyong'o won Best Supporting Actress at the 2014 Oscars.
Paul Buck/EPA
Oscars nominations and winners this year offered an unparalleled level of racial diversity. In the headline categories, Lupita Nyong’o won for Best Supporting Actress, Alfonso Cuarón was the first Mexican…
As the last of Elton John’s guests stagger into limousines after his annual Oscars after-party, so concludes the proceedings for this year’s film awards season – and I’m left wondering: why do we set such…
Bruce Dern in search of his million.
Paramount Pictures
Despite a respectable six nominations under its belt, you would be forgiven for believing that Nebraska is likely to be outshone by brighter stars come Oscars night. In all probability, Alexander Payne’s…
Gravity has been nominated for ten Oscars, and sauntered away from the BAFTAS with a controversial Outstanding British Film award under its belt too (much of it was shot in the UK, yes, but the stars shining…
Cinema group Hoyts may find itself on the market again, but the giant could face a rocky few years.
Flickr/Devar
Cinema company Hoyts Group is again considering listing on the stockmarket, tipped to take place sometime later this year. It’s expected that the float will be valued at around A$700 million. The group…
Tom Hanks stars in the Best Picture-nominated film, Captain Phillips. Can Hollywood dish out moral lessons?
EPA/Warren Toda
It’s Oscars season and there’s plenty of controversy, as usual, about what’s made the cut and what hasn’t. But I want to focus on what will be the most dramatised moment of Sunday’s award ceremony: the…
No substitute for the real thing.
Bryan Chuck Brennan
Seeing the live National Theatre broadcast of Coriolanus brought home once again how we’re all glued to screens now: our eyes rarely far from and seemingly hypnotised by the lure of the light emanating…
Cult director Godfrey Reggio’s latest film, Visitors, screened in Sydney last week – with a live performance of the Philip Glass score.
Prudence Upton/Sydney Festival
Godfrey Reggio’s film Visitors, which screened last week with a live Philip Glass score at the Sydney Opera House, represents the continuation of an aesthetic project that began with the landmark Koyaanisqatsi…
Sometimes too much is just too much. Martin Scorsese’s latest film is swamped by its excesses.
Paramount Pictures
The Wolf of Wall Street is Martin Scorsese’s Scarface – and that isn’t meant as a compliment. I watched Brian De Palma’s 1983 film again recently. I had been looking forward to it: the Blu-ray edition…
How keen are Australians to see locally made films such as The Sapphires?
AAP Image/April Fonti
Around 25 new Australian feature films are released into the market each year – so who’s watching them, when and how are they watching, and what makes them choose home-grown films over imported blockbusters…
The meaning of independent film has changed since Robert Redford established the Sundance Film Festival in 1981.
EPA/George Frey
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival starts today in Park City, Utah. Launched in 1981 by Robert Redford and friends, this year’s festival showcases a selection of new independently produced films, all vying…
Lupita Nyong'o and Alfre Woodard star in Steve McQueen’s new biopic.
Chris Pizzello/AP
The United States was in the middle of a civil war 150 years ago and, while Abraham Lincoln had just issued the emancipation proclamation, it would still be another 18 months until freedom finally came…
As part of a concerted effort to disengage my brain from work over Christmas, I decided to watch the recently released DVD of The Purge, which Santa had brought me. Heavily criticised as mindless and inane…
HG Wells (left) with actors on the set of Things to Come, a 1936 adaptation of his futuristic novel.
James Vaughan
Cinema did not emerge from a eureka moment, but rather through the incremental innovations of pioneers such as the Lumière brothers, Étienne-Jules Marey and Thomas Edison. So it is unsurprising that filmmakers…