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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
From limited theatrical releases to the queer film festival circuit – and being refused classification – 2013 has seen films with LGBT content distributed to audiences by a variety of means. Box office…
I cannot be entirely sure – the building is now entirely refurbished under a new name, and there is no easily accessible record, but sometime around 1970 I believe I saw Peter O'Toole in Waiting for Godot…
Warning: this is not a list of the best movies of 2013. There were plenty of movies released this year that stirred up debates about cinema and who makes it. They were the ones that made me sit up and…
In Blade Runner (1982), Roy Batty, the leader of an outlaw group of Nexus-6 replicants, undertakes a quest to “meet his maker”. When he encounters Chew, the genetic designer of his eyes, he mocks: “Chew…
Four cinemas in Sweden recently pledged to rate films based on whether they pass what is known as the “Bechdel test,” a means of evaluating gender bias in film, named after American graphic artist Alison…