News

Leading Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton has signed on to direct First Warrior, an epic feature about Australian Aboriginal resistance fighter Pemulwuy. Aussie stars Sam Worthington (Avatar, Hacksaw Ridge) and Jason Clarke (Oppenheimer, Zero Dark Thirty) have boarded the project in lead parts, while a casting search is said to be underway for the lead role of Pemulwuy.

A Bidjigal man of the Sydney tribes, Pemulwuy led a 12-year resistance against British settlers moving into his people’s traditional lands as Australia was colonized in the late 1700s.

One of Australia’s most admired directors, Thornton broke through in 2009 when his directorial debut, Samson & Delilah won the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or prize. His 2017 film Sweet Country took home Venice’s Special Jury Prize and his most recent work, The New Boy, starring Cate Blanchett, premiered at Cannes last year.

First Warrior is supported by the Bidjigal, Dharawal and...

Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films and Scarlett Pictures have teamed up to co-produce “The New Boy,” from award-winning Indigenous Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton.

Blanchett will star in the film, set in 1940s Australia, alongside Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. Written and directed by Thornton, “The New Boy” depicts the story of a 9-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett), where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Georgie Pym will produce the project for Dirty Films alongside Scarlett Pictures principal Kath Shelper.

“What a joy to finally be collaborating with Warwick — a filmmaker whose warmth, wit and humanity we have admired for so very long,” Blanchett said on behalf of Dirty Films. “We can’t wait to be on the ground...

Else Blangsted, a holocaust survivor who became a successful film music editor on movies like “Star Trek IV — The Voyage Home” and “The Color Purple,” died at her home in Los Angeles of natural causes at the age of 99.

Born in Wurzburg, Germany, Blangsted came of age in a Jewish family as the Nazis took power. As a teenager, she gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock but was told the child was stillborn. She fled Germany in 1937 and eventually made it to Hollywood, where she took on jobs on movie sets including as an extra in the Cecil B. DeMille film “Samson & Delilah.”

Also Read: John Ericson, Star of 'Honey West' and Classic MGM Films, Dies at 93

After some apprentice work, she took a job as a music editor, starting in television before moving in 1955 to a film career that saw her work with composers like Dave Grusin...

‘Emu Runner’, which debuted at Tiff, will screen as part of Adelaide’s feature competition.

Adelaide Film Festival launched its full program today, including a variety of highlights direct from Venice, Toronto and Telluride.

Among the films announced today are Venice’s Golden Lion winner Roma, from director Alfonso Cuarón; the Coen Brothers’ best screenplay winner The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate, for which Willem Dafoe won best actor.

Overall this year’s program includes more than 130 features, documentaries, shorts, virtual reality and installation works, including 17 world premieres and 30 Australian premieres.

Almost 45 per cent of the films in the line-up are Australian. They include, as previously announced, some of the most anticipated local films of the year, such as Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, which just won Venice’s Special Jury Prize and the Marcello Mastroianni award for star Baykali Ganambarr; Anthony Maras...

Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country has won the best feature honor at the 11th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) at a ceremony in Brisbane, Australia on Thursday.

The win marks the second time that Thornton and an Australian film have won the top award at the APSAs, which cover 70 countries. Thornton’s debut feature, Samson and Delilah, won the best film award in 2009.

Sweet Country’s Apsa win also follows a special jury award for the period western at the Venice Film Festival in October and a win in the Platform section of Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Editor Jill...

Australia’s fantasies about its past are a real problem, says the Indigenous director ahead of the world premiere of his new film, We Don’t Need A Map

Has the symbol of the Southern Cross become comparable to a swastika? That is the provocative question at the heart of Warwick Thornton’s new documentary We Don’t Need a Map.

The Indigenous, Alice Springs-born artist, best-known for directing 2009’s devastatingly brilliant Samson and Delilah, generated considerable controversy when he raised that prospect – expressing concern it was going to happen, rather than stating it had – seven years ago.

Continue reading...

Warwick Thornton.s doco.'We Don't Need A Map' will open the 2017 Sydney Film Festival..

Warwick Thornton.s We Don.t Need A Map will open this year.s Sydney Film Festival, with the event also marking the documentary.s world premiere..

The latest film from the Samson and Delilah director explores Australia.s relationship to the Southern Cross through colonial and indigenous history through to the present day..

We Don't Need A Map will compete in the festival.s Official Competition. Among the 12 films in the running for the $60,000 prize are Aussie theatre director Benedict Andrew.s debut feature Una, which stars Ben Mendelsohn, as well as Sofia Coppola.s Beguiled.and Michael Haneke.s Happy End, both of which will come to the festival from Cannes.

Overall the festival program boasts 288 films from 59 countries, including 37 world premieres. Bookending the fest will be Korean director Bong Joon-ho.s Cannes film.Okja,...

In the first part of Hollywood’s Golden Era when classic beauties such as Gene Tierney, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich and Merle Oberon ruled the screen, Heddy Lamarr was the fairest of them all. In fact, her face became the inspiration for Walt Disney’s animators when they created the Snow White figure. By any measure except critical acclaim, Lamarr had a successful career. She starred in blockbusters like Cecile B DeMille’s Samson and Delilah and the steamy White Cargo (that had her impersonating a woman of color). And given the chance, she did hold her own against some of...read more...

What would an awards show be without an accolade for Meryl Streep? At Sunday night’s Golden Globes ceremony, the living treasure was the only talent able to walk into the auditorium with advance knowledge of her win, thanks to her previously announced Cecile B. DeMille Award win.

The HFPA’s version of a Lifetime Achievement award, the Cecile B. DeMille Award is given to recipients for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.” Named after the legendary director of such films as “Cleopatra,” “Samson and Delilah” and “The Ten Commandments,” the award was first given out in 1952 and has been doled out continuously since, save for the 1976 and 2008 ceremonies, where it was not awarded to anyone.

Read More: ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ Review: Meryl Streep Shines As the World’s Worst Singer in Tricky Drama

Streep’s honor was — appropriately enough — introduced by America’s other best living actress, Viola Davis,...

Roland Gallois, Aftrs' new Head of Editing.

Aftrs has unveiled its new Heads of Producing, Screenwriting, Editing, Sound, Radio, Design and Interactive.

Head of Editing is Roland Gallois, Head of Sound is Stephen Murphy, Head of Producing is Peter Herbert, Head of Screenwriting is Dr Pieter Aqulia, Head of Radio is Fyona Smith, Head of Screen Studies is Matt Campora, Head of Design is Igor Nay and Head of Interactive is Catherine Gleeson.

.This is an impressive group of people who will bring tremendous skills and creative vision to their roles," said Aftrs CEO Neil Peplow..

"As the School implements its new strategic plan, Future Vision 2021, these Heads of Disciplines will take responsibility for their specialist subject area across the entire suite of course offerings, ensuring integrated learning and a cohesive, comprehensive approach."

Roland Gallois' credits in the cutting room include features Samson and Delilah, Slow West, The Hunter and Manny Lewis.

Dear Naz,

Right from the opening moments of The Night Of, I’ve wanted to believe in your inherent goodness, to draw a correlation between your big, beautiful eyes and your inevitable innocence — and this week’s episode finally gave me a shred of hope.

RelatedCriminal Minds Vet Shemar Moore Talks ‘Karma’ After Thomas Gibson’s Firing

Sure, last Sunday’s new contender for big-bad status, the hilariously named Duane Reade, gets as much attention this time around as Jeb Bush on the November ballot (more on that in a moment), but two other parties emerge as contenders for...

It's really surprising how much more evidence there is to be uncovered while Nazir's trial is already underway.

That's the main point I took away from The Night Of Season 1 Episode 6, and I'd like to think that I watch enough Forensic Files to know if I were ever in the same position as Naz, my attorneys would be armed with enough information to stop an invading army.

Another surprise? The District Attorney has a name. Mrs. Weiss. Apparently, she likes to be called "Missus." All this time, and I was still just calling her the Da because nobody seemed to refer to her by name. When you like to be referred to thusly, I can see why.

Does the presentation by the opposing counsel make a difference during a murder case? If so, Mrs. Weiss won't stand a chance against Chandra. Mrs. Weiss is a dour, whining woman, even when she's addressing the jury.

A review of tonight's The Night Of coming up just as soon as I tell you why not to put sailors on the jury... "But maybe I did kill that girl. That's what you're thinking." -Naz Naz's trial finally begins in "Samson and Delilah," as The Night Of continues to introduce or elaborate on alternate suspects even as we get more and more signs that the defendant was capable of committing the crime of which he's accused. With Duane Reade in the wind, Chandra and Jack alternate playing Nancy Drew this week, with Chandra getting to know Mr. Day, the funeral director who showed an unusual level of interest in Andrea when Naz stopped at the gas station, and Jack chasing down more information about Andrea's stepfather Don Taylor. The former encounter is disturbing in the extreme, with Day's particular brand of misogyny and religious fervor presented so coldly and...

L-r: Warwick Thornton, Beck Cole, Thibul Nettle, Natasha Wanganeen, Isaac Lindsey, Tess O'Flaherty, Edoardo Crismani, Kiara Milera, Georgia Humphreys, Dylan Coleman and Garth Agius.

Five aboriginal filmmakers from Sa will receive $20,000 each to make a short, along with mentoring and professional development from industry figures.

Edoardo Crismani, Isaac Lindsay, Kiara Milera, Thibul Nettle and Dylan Coleman will all receive funding and support as part of the new Safc Aboriginal Short Film Initiative.

The five selected filmmakers plus another five are this week participating in an intensive 5-day Production and Development Workshop at Safc.s Adelaide Studios. They are joined by three non-indigenous emerging producers who will be partnering on three of the projects.

The workshop is being led by writer-directors Beck Cole (Here I Am) and Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah)..

Other guest lecturers at the workshop include film editor Tania Nehme (Tanna, Charlie.s Country), and cinematographer Allan Collins (Mad Bastards,...

Bangarra founder and frontman Stephen Page has just returned from Melbourne, where he screened Spear, his first feature, at Acmi.

The dance film, which premiered at Toronto last September, sprang from an early Bangarra piece of the same name.

"When I created Spear in 2000, we had Archie Roach singing his poetic, streetwise songs onstage. Hunter [Page-Lochard, the director's son and star of both Spear and the upcoming Cleverman] was a six year-old onstage. It was one of Wayne Blair's first acting jobs".

So many years later, Spear is now Page's first feature, though the director is no stranger to filmmaking..

"I did a dance film called Colours in 1990 that I choreographed with Victoria Taylor for the Sydney Dance Company. It was all based on colours, so each colour had a short dance story and then it was all patched together. I think Screen Australia was involved. I only got reminded about it four months ago, I forgot I actually did it".

"I...

One of the Cannes Film Festival.s top officials will serve as the president of the jury at this year.s Adelaide Film Festival. Christian Jeune is the Deputy General Delegate and director of the film department at the festival, which he joined in 1983 while studying languages at a college in Nice.

Among his duties he is responsible for scouting films for official competition, Un Certain Regard and the short films competition.

As deputy to festival director Thierry Frémaux, he also negotiates with filmmakers, producers, film commissions and sales agents as well as coordinating screenings and press conferences His fellow jurors are Annemarie Jacir, Director of Philistine Films, one the leading figures of the .Arab New Wave.; Variety.s chief Asia critic Maggie Lee, who has programmed festivals in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore and is programming consultant for the Tokyo International Film Festival; and 52 Tuesdays director Sophie Hyde, a partner in Closer Productions.

Museum Hours: Wiseman’s Tour through London’s Famed Museum

If you’ve never been to The National Gallery in London, England, one of the most preeminent museums in the world, then Frederick Wiseman’s latest documentary, the simply named National Gallery, will appear to be something of a soothing, handsomely photographed introduction. Like a phantom floating through crowds and into behind-the-scenes operations, there’s even a bit of priceless perspective to be had on a tour, here presented as the learning experience many take for granted when they’re strewn haphazardly through the landscape of privileged youths. As solemn and well-thought as this documentary usually is, at a running time of three hours and without much more of a thrust than an all-encompassing experience of the renowned establishment, attentions spans may teeter in and out of sharply honed focused as our consciousness’ are restlessly pulled into the works on display themselves,...

At a brisk 180 minutes, National Gallery is hardly one of Frederick Wiseman’s documentary marathons, but it still brims with ideas. After the classrooms in At Berkeley (2013), here the incredibly spritely octogenarian filmmaker focuses on the halls of the National Gallery in London, and contemplates ways of looking, storytelling, and, through this, the nature of cinema itself.

While, as always, the structuring device of the film is the institution of the museum, here Wiseman feels more playfully direct in his editing process—though never didactic. In shooting details of paintings, cutting between oil painted visages and the flesh one of the guests, and capturing the gallery’s gesticulating guides, Wiseman points the audience time and again to the different ways we perceive the world, be in through art, film, poetry or dance.

During the Toronto International Film Festival, I talked to Wiseman about this theme of looking, the genesis of...

Films based on the Holy Bible are as popular now as they were in the 1950s and 1960s when studios gave us epics like The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, The Greatest Story Ever Told, King of Kings, Samson and Delilah, and many others. Recently, Son of God made quite an impact in cinemas and there’s plenty more coming our way. Ridley Scott’s Exodus tells the tale of Christian Bale’s Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt. Nicolas Cage will help those seeking answers to the disappearances of loved ones and face the disastrous consequences of being Left Behind.

Darren Aronofsky’s Noah hits Blu-ray and DVD giving those who didn’t watch the movie in theaters an opportunity to see the latest Hollywood Biblical saga. Many might not know that it was actually based on a graphic novel Aronofsky and co-writer Ari Handel made with Canadian artist Niko Henrichon.

As fully expected, Peter Greenaway’s latest endeavour, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, is a sexually charged, surreal and abstract feature film. Fans of the unique auteur, or simply those familiar with his work, will be nonplussed as to the unconventionality of the piece, and fully aware of what they’re getting themselves in for. Conversely, those who haven’t yet seen a Greenaway production, will be wondering just when they’re going to awake from this somewhat deranged daydream.

Ramsey Nasr plays Goltzius, a printmaker who hopes to convince the distinguished, if erratic, totalitarian The Margrave (F. Murray Abraham), who we’re introduced to when on the toilet, calmly peeling an apple. The aim is to convince him to part with some of his wealth, in exchange for live entertainment, performed by Goltzius’ elaborate troupe. However the several vignettes they display provoke much controversy and discussion, as they explore...

At once a love story and a brutal portrait of poverty and addiction, this was a movie only an Indigenous filmmaker could have created

Like the petrol fumes its co-protagonist inhales throughout this seductive but harrowing romantic drama, the sense of irony in the opening scene of Samson and Delilah is both harsh and intoxicating. Just as it did upon its release in 2009, it feels like a watershed moment, a throat-gripping introduction to a kind of Australia so often out of sight and mind.

Continue reading...

X-Men franchise director Bryan Singer, whose first two features debuted at the Sundance Film Festival — including The Usual Suspects in 1995 — was one of the industry figures named to the Sundance juries that will judge this year’s films when the festival begins next week. Singer, who has X-Men: Days of Future Past due in May, will be one of five members of the U.S. Dramatic Jury. Other members of the juries include Tracy Chapman, Lone Scherfig, Leonard Maltin, and screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). A complete list of the juries, courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival, can be viewed after the jump.

Continuing their collaboration after Tim Winton.s The Turning, producer Robert Connolly and Indigenous director/choreographer Stephen Page will bring to the big screen an adaptation of Page.s dance theatre work Spear.

That.s one of two films commissioned by the second Hive Fund, an initiative of the Adelaide Film Festival in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts, Screen Australia and ABC Arts.

The other is Girl Asleep, the third in a trilogy of rites-of-passage Windmill Theatre stories by writer Matthew Whittet and director Rosemary Myers.

Page, the Bangarra Dance Theatre director and choreographer, directed one segment of The Turning. His feature directing debut, Spear is a contemporary hybrid feature film where two Aboriginal clans from urban and remote communities live in an apocalyptic world and must decide who will be the new leader for the next 100 years. The work will explore what this means to Indigenous men through dance,...

From the story of a teenage daughter of a parent undergoing gender transitioning to North Korea's first rom-com, our pick of the Adelaide film festival

It has been more than two and a half years since the last Adelaide film festival, a long stretch even for a city nurtured on (and thankfully leaving behind) the notion of only hosting major arts events biennially. But anguished cinema junkies can rejoice, with a fresh-look festival bringing joy to October away from the city's crowded "Mad March" calendar. If you're a little rusty and intimidated at the sight of the full package of features, shorts, seminars and parties, then here are 10 filmic delights not to miss.

52 Tuesdays

There is sizzling anticipation for this local production and it will be one of the most prized tickets of the festival. Shot once a week over a year, Sophie Hyde's drama charts the relationship between...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The name Wakefield Poole may not mean much to mainstream audiences but in the 1970s he was quite a controversial filmmaker. Poole initially trained for the ballet then drifted into movie making. In 1971, Poole released Boys in the Sand, the first "up market" hardcore gay movie. It caused quite a sensation and was immediately embraced by long-suffering gay males who heretofore had to be content with low-end, quickly shot pornographic "loops" that played in Times Square grindhouses. Poole's film was taken seriously by the critical establishment and actually earned praise in reputable publications like Variety. The film actually cracked Variety's list of the top 50 grossing films in America, an amazing achievement for a movie with limited appeal and distribution. It also made a gay movie icon of actor Casey Donovan. Poole and Donovan followed this project up with another hardcore porn flick, Bijou, which was released in...

This ambitious adaptation of Tim Winton's short stories is a beautifully, unapologetically Australian film

In the midst of an off-season for Australian cinema comes a bold and audacious crazy quilt of a film that resembles its own mini-Aussie New Wave. Tim Winton's The Turning, which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Saturday, is being marketed as "a unique cinema event." That it is to say the least. The passion project of creator Robert Connolly, this three-hour epic is a wholesale adaptation of Winton's short-story collection. Each of the book's 18 stories is interpreted on film by a different team of filmmakers, including collaborators from the worlds of theatre, photography, visual art and dance.

Connolly has said he wants the film to feel like a group exhibition. To that end he's secured quite a slate of notable Aussie directors, including Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah), Tony Ayres (The Slap...

We’ve seen a few omnibus films over the past few years where multiple directors sign on to helm a series of what are essentially short films to compile into one ambitious feature. We’ve had some good ones (Paris Je’taime) and some not so good ones (Movie 43), but from the looks of this first trailer for The Turning, it seems we may have something that falls into the former.

Seventeen different directors will each take a chapter from Tim Winton’s generational spanning novel of interconnected short stories to create what looks like a truly ambitious piece of filmmaking. The film also marks the directorial debuts of actors Cate Blanchett, Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham and also boasts the directing talents of Snowtown’s Justin Kurzel and Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah).

Featuring an ensemble cast of stellar acting talent including Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Hugo Weaving,...

Catch up with the last seven days in the world of film

The big story

This week has been trailer week: the biggest things around, film-wise, have been a clutch of snappy little promos teeing up very different films. First we had the new Scorsese: The Wolf of Wall Street, with Leo DiCaprio doing a Goodfellas-style job on the trading-floor fatcat.

That was followed by Frozen, Disney's Christmas cartoon; it's a (very loose) adaptation of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Then, biggest of all, the return of Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend Continues. We said it was kind of a big deal, and it is.

In the news

Star Wars: Episode VII – casting wishlist revealed

Edward Snowden story on way to the big screen

Films made in 3D are a marketing gimmick, says director Alan Parker

3D movie improves man's vision after lifetime of impairment

Russell Crowe...

In tonight’s episode of Grimm, a death in a video game spells out death in real life. The killer enjoys a good puzzle, which is where Sgt. Wu comes in. Played by Reggie Lee, Wu is a stalwart of Grimm, but frequently underused. In tonight’s episode, “Nameless” Wu gets to shine by figuring out puzzles that help lead Portland police to the killer. We chatted with Reggie about his role in tonight’s episode, Wu’s fate in the series, a preview of the rest of the season... and dogs. We both love dogs.

In tonight’s episode, Wu gets more of a storyline than he usually does!

Yes! I will be live-Tweeting the East Coast feed. I rarely watch because I don’t like to watch myself. Actors tend to self-direct as they watch. You never want to self direct because then you get into your head.

The $800,000 Hive Production Fund has called for applications with the successful projects set to premiere at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival and screen on ABC Television.

The initiative - which is funded by the Adelaide Film Festival, the Australia Council for the Arts, Screen Australia and ABC Arts - supports screen-based projects from Australian artists and filmmakers and is seeking cross-.platform ideas and strategies.

The inaugural Hive Production Fund supported three films:

Tender, a documentary from director Lynette Wallworth (visual artist) and producer Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah); I Want to Dance Better at Parties from directors Gideon Obazarnek (ex Chunky Move artistic director) and Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man); The Boy Castaways, a rock musical dramatic feature film from director Michael Kantor (Ex Malthouse Theatre artistic director), producer Jo Dyer (Lucky Miles and Ex Sydney Theatre Company Ep), producer Stephen Armstrong (Ex Malthouse Ep) and executive producer Robert Connolly...

The $800,000 Hive Production Fund has called for applications with the successful projects set to premiere at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival and screen on ABC Television.

The initiative - which is funded by the Adelaide Film Festival, the Australia Council for the Arts, Screen Australia and ABC Arts - supports screen-based projects from Australian artists and filmmakers and is seeking crossâ€ÂÂ.platform ideas and strategies.

The inaugural Hive Production Fund supported three films:

Tender, a documentary from director Lynette Wallworth (visual artist) and producer Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah); I Want to Dance Better at Parties from directors Gideon Obazarnek (ex Chunky Move artistic director) and Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man); The Boy Castaways, a rock musical dramatic feature film from director Michael Kantor (Ex Malthouse Theatre artistic director), producer Jo Dyer (Lucky Miles and Ex Sydney Theatre Company Ep), producer Stephen Armstrong (Ex Malthouse Ep) and executive producer...

From the lobby scene in The Matrix to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader squaring off in The Empire Strikes Back, the most effective movie fight scenes generally rely on objects designed for inflicting harm.

Every once in a while though, a gun runs out of bullets, a knife gets kicked out of reach, or a screenwriter becomes bored. The result is an impractical, yet effective use of a common object as a weapon.

"Did he really just beat that man to death with a dildo?" He sure did -- and that's not even the weirdest improvised weapon in our supercut above. Enjoy!

In order of appearance:

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) - Dildo

Samson and Delilah (1949) - A donkey's jawbone

The Boondock Saints (1999) - Toilet

Deadly Friend (1986) - Basketball

Nacho Libre (2006) - Corn

Single White Female (1992) - Stiletto

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) - Television

Sleeper (1973) - Bleu cheese

Hot Shots!

ABC rock musical drama The Boy Castaways has finished filming in South Australia.

The drama, which was recently shooting at Her Majesty.s Theatre in Adelaide,.is one of the first to be financed through the Hive Production Fund and features musical talent such as Tim Rogers from You am I, cabaret star Paul Capsis, and Aria Award-winner, Megan Washington.

The feature will have its premiere at the 2013 Adelaide Film Festival (held October 10-20) and will then be broadcast on ABC1.

The $600,000 Hive Production Fund (later lifted to $800,000) also supported two other screen projects in late-2011 which will premiere at the 2013 Adelaide Film Festival: Tender, a documentary from director Lynette Wallworth (visual artist) and producer Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah), and I Want to Dance Better at Parties, from creative director Gideon Obazarnek (ex Chunky Move artistic director) and director Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man).

The Hive Labs bring together Australian artists across film,...

Company You Keep: Greenaway’s Latest a Beguiling, Sumptuous Cinematic Film

One seems to forget that Peter Greenaway has been prophesying the death of cinema (for well over a decade now) after watching his visually sumptuous new film, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, which sees the auteur in top form, combining his arresting visionary panache with his signature taboo baiting subject matter in the realm of the high brow. The subject matter is a hard sell, and those unfamiliar or unaccustomed to Greenaway’s unclassifiable narratives (or lack thereof) will most likely be as baffled as ever, but fans of the director and/or offbeat, striking cinema will hopefully embrace one of the infrequent working Greenaway’s best films to date.

Hendrick Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr), a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, takes his employees, known as the Pelican Company, to visit the Margrave of Alsace...

The Devil’s Playground

A series which picks up the story of classic feature film The Devil’s Playground 35 years on, is among 11 productions to receive Screen Australia funding.

Return to the Devil’s Playground is a six-part series produced by Matchbox Pictures’ Helen Bowden and Blake Ayshford and directed by The Strait’s Rachel Ward and Dead Europe’s Tony Krawitz.

Writers on the production are Ayshford, Cate Shortland, Alice Addison and Tommy Murphy.

The series picks up the story in 1988, 35 years after Fred Schepisi’s The Devil’s Playground, where main character Tom Allen, a psychiatrist and a secular confessor to the Catholic clergy, becomes entangled in political and theological intrigue.

The series is executive produced by Penny Chapman, Simon Burke, who played the original character of Tom Allen and is the current Actor’s Equity president, and Penny Win.

Screen Australia’s overall investment across the 11 productions...

Sarah Spillane’s low-budget feature, Around the Block, points to inventive business models as it seeks to capitalise on the success of indigenous films says Ed Gibbs.

Although noticeably absent during Encore’s set visit, the shadow of the film’s Hollywood star, Christina Ricci, can be felt in the two-storey house in Sydney’s inner west where production is underway for the micro-budget feature Around the Block.

Ricci, who declined to do any press ahead of the film’s release, agreed to sign on to the project after writer/director Sarah Spillane’s producers, Sue Armstrong and Brian Rosen of Tree Films, inked what’s becoming an increasingly popular deal for features from first time filmmakers.

An undisclosed share of the profits, should they be forthcoming, will make up for the modest remuneration received up front.

Sarah Spillane on set

Ricci’s input – filling the role of the arts...

The 17th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk) has announced its lineup. The festival will run from 7th to 14th December, 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Some of the highlights of the lineup are festival favourites of the year Amour, Chitrangada, Samhita, The Sapphires, Drapchi, Miss Lovely, Me and You, Celluloid Man, and Baandhon.

Fourteen films will screen in the Competition section while seven contemporary films will be screened in “Indian Cinema Now” section.

Complete list of films:

Competition Films

Fourteen feature films from Asia, Africa and Latin America will compete for the coveted “Suvarna Chakoram” (Golden Crow Pheasant) and other awards.

Always Brando by Ridha Behi (Tunisia)

Inheritors of the Earth by T V Chandran (India)

A Terminal Trust by by Masayuki Suo (Japan)

Shutter by Joy Mathew (India)

Today by Alain Gomis (Senegal-France)

The Repentant by Merzak Allouache (Algeria)

Sta. Niña by Manny Palo (Philippines)

Present Tense...

Screen Australia has chipped in $200,000 to lift this year.s Hive Production Fund to $800,000.

The funding announcement - which adds to equal installments by the Adelaide Film Festival, the Australia Council for the Arts, and ABC Television - was made last night by South Australian Minister for the Arts, John Hill, at the Melbourne Festival. Screen Australia previously supported the initiaitive through development funding for script workshops.

The Hive Production Fund was inspired by the Hive Lab, which brings filmmakers and artists together in a creative environment. The artists at this year.s lab include Bill Henson, Dr Brenda Croft, Eddie Perfect, Sam Haren, Daniel Koerner, Rachael Swain, Cat Jones, Lally Katz and Sean Riley; filmmakers Samantha Lang, Sophie Raymond, Sascha Ettinger Epstein, Paola Morabito, Nassiem Valamanesh, Eddie White, Natasha Pincus and Lucinda Clutterbuck; and artist and filmmaker John Gillies.

Last year.s inaugural $600,000 Hive Production Fund supported three projects...

A writer and producer on EastEnders has claimed that the source of all of the soap's storylines can be found in the Bible. Jennifer Robins is a former series producer and current storyliner on the show, and made the comments to an audience of media executives and religious leaders at the BBC's 'Re:Think' conference. The Telegraph reports that Robins told the crowd: "The prototype of every EastEnders story can be traced back to one source: David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lions' Den, Samson and Delilah, Sodom and Gomorrah, the fall, all the Bible stories." She also argued that "EastEnders slays all before it when it is moral to its core", before continuing: "Like the parables it offers hope and a morality where the good are rewarded and the bad punished either by death, rapid exit or karmically bound forever (more)...

I recall when I interviewed him in May, he mentioned that he had a handful of projects on the horizon that he couldn't quite talk about back then, for any number of reasons; I assume this may have been one of those projects. Towards the end of the video interview below (uploaded to YouTube yesterday), the Brit thespian reveals that he's been shooting an epic project for the History Channel here in the USA titled simple, The Bible. Specifically, he plays Samson (as in the story of Samson and Delilah) - the Israelite who was granted supernatural strength by God (his strength is in his hair) in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats like wrestling a lion, and...

ABC indigenous telemovie Mabo posted a lacklustre audience of 544,000 viewers on Sunday night.

The multi-million dollar tale about about Eddie and Bonita Mabo (played by Jimi Bani and Deborah Mailman), and the fight for indigenous land rights, was directed by Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae, First Australians) and written by Sue Smith (Bastard Boys, Brides of Christ).

Other recent indigenous films screened on the ABC have fared better including Perkins's Bran Nue Dae, which averaged 720,000 viewers in January last year, according to The Australian, while Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah was seen by about 1 million viewers when it first aired in 2010. However, Samson and Delilah was strongly supported by the ABC at an early stage of production, which allowed the broadcaster to skip the usual DVD release window, elevating its audience.

ABC managing director Mark Scott took to Twitter, saying: "I think #Mabo will grow a large, devoted audience over time - through iview,...

The Weinstein Company announced today that they have acquired from Goalpost Film worldwide rights, with the exception of the UK & Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, Israel, Portugal and airlines, to The Sapphires. The film, directed by acclaimed Aboriginal actor and theater director Wayne Blair, stars funnyman Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, Friends With Kids), Deborah Mailman (Radiance, Offspring), who was the first Aboriginal actress to win the AFI Award for Best Actress, Jessica Mauboy (Bran Nue Dae), an Australian pop artist who was the runner-up on Australian Idol in 2006 and breakout stars Shari Sebbensand Miranda Tapsell. The screenplay was written by Aboriginal playwright Tony Briggs, whose mother and family members were part of The Sapphires group, and Keith Thompson. Warwick Thornton, previous winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Samson And Delilah, is the film’s Director of Photography. The announcement was made today by TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein,...

The role of completion bonds, which protect screen investors from budget and schedule overruns, is being examined by Screen Nsw.

A spokesperson for Screen Nsw confirmed that the state agency is undertaking an industry survey "to ascertain current industry practice in relation to completion bonds, as the approach to risk assessment varies across screen agencies and broadcasters".

Screen Australia and most state agencies generally require a completion guarantor on any feature film or TV series in which they invest, giving an extra layer of certainty that a film will be completed on schedule and on budget.

However, completion bonds can add a significant amount to already tight production budgets even when the risks being insured for are relatively low. Screen Australia board member and filmmaker Robert Connolly raised the issue in an Aftrs white paper in 2008, arguing for greater flexibility as a way to extract more from declining budgets.

The...

Taylor Kitsch, John Carter The John Carter trailer (please scroll down) was another Super Bowl event earlier this evening, more important for some than the game itself. Perhaps even more important than appearances by Clint Eastwood and Madonna, not to mention all the car commercials. Now, Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars isn't exactly a very well-known novel nor is John Carter a major pop action figure. Though he'd better become one, considering that Walt Disney Studios has invested a reported $250 million on this actioner/sci-fier, the first live-action feature directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton of Wall-e fame. One thing Disney surely can't afford is another Mars Needs Moms box-office cataclysm. In the title role, Taylor Kitsch is an earthling who happens to land on Mars, where he must battle huge monsters, fight huge armies, and display huge biceps. By the looks of the John Carter trailer, the...

Home grown short films are on display as well as music at the Homebake Festival with the Homebake Cinema Pavilion.

Award-winning short films have been selected to screen alongside musical acts Grinderman, The Triffids, Cut Copy and Gotye and Icehouse performing Flowers.

Filmmaker Kieran Darcy-Smith has made the selection.

Expect early short films by filmmakers David Michod (Animal Kingdom), Glendyn Ivin (Last Ride, Offspring), Nash Edgerton (The Square), Gregor Jordan (Two Hands), Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) and Greg McLean (Wolf Creek).

Darcy-Smith told Encore: “I’ve found short films from filmmakers who have gone on to do much better things, as a way of providing inspiration. They might be ten years old but you can see the creative signature.”

“I also try and uncover films that I think are indicative of a great team of filmmakers, people who I think should be encouraged to do more.”

As a result,...

The art film related Hive Production Fund has announced its first films to receive funding.

The Hive Production Fund was launched in February. The aim of the fund is for filmmakers and artists work on single art film projects.

The fund has received significant support. Originally set up between the ABC and Adelaide Film Festival, each contributing $200,000. The Australia Council came on board in July also donating $200,000.

An additional $70,000 has been committed by the Adelaide Film Festival through its Film Investment Fund.

Director of the Adelaide Film Festival Katrina Sedgwick said: “It is important the silos get broken down between film and the rest of the arts. The calibre of these projects and collaborators illustrate the potential for ground-breaking new work to be created for the screen when we facilitate new conversations between diverse practitioners and offer different funding avenues to enable these cross-pollinations.

Three quite different productions have received...

'Rock Of Ages' Star Diego Boneta Looked At To Play 'Adam' Hollywood is about to get Old Testament on this shit. Having presumably exhausted comic books, fairy tales and board games as sources of inspiration for their tentpoles, the big studios are going Biblical in search of the next big thing. Francis Lawrence is working on a futuristic take on "Samson and Delilah," Dwayne Johnson and Taylor Lautner are looking to face off as David & Goliath, there are a pair of films about Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee in the works, one of which is from Mel Gibson, and overnight…...

Studio Ghibli, London

If you've never stepped into the universes of Hayao Miyazaki and co, it's time you discovered what you're missing. These aren't just some of the best animated children's movies ever made; they'e some of the best movies full stop. The vibrant fantasy worlds, airborne adventures and noble junior heroes of Studio Ghibli's movies fascinate kids, but they're richer, more challenging and more psychedelically epic than most of what passes for grown-up fantasy. Avatar looks like Mr Men compared to, say, Princess Mononoke – which deals with similar themes with considerably more nuance. Having first championed them 10 years ago, the Barbican brings back Ghibli classics, from Laputa: Castle In The Sky and My Neighbour Totoro (the best one for young viewers), right up to previews of their latest, Arrietty, a version of The Borrowers.

Barbican Screen EC2, Wed to 31 Jul

Liverpool Arabic Fim Festival

Partly as a result of the Arab Spring,...

As America's film distribution system continues to change a few new faces are aiming to provide an alternative to NetFlix in the online VOD world. And Indiepix is looking like a pretty intriguing prospect for fans of international indies and off the beaten path fare.Four thousand films currently in the library, offered on DVD and streaming online, among the new releases titles covered here like Samson And Delilah, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, The Beast Pageant, Women Without Men, and more. It's worth taking for a spin....

Serial killer feature Snowtown will have its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as part of Critics. Week. .It.s a great honour that Snowtown has been invited to screen in Critics. Week at Cannes and I am proud that all the wonderful work the cast and crew put into the film will be seen by an international audience,. director Justin Kurzel said. Along with producers Anna McLeish, Sarah Show (of Warp Films) and much of the cast, Snowtown marks Kurzel.s feature debut...making the film eligible for this year.s Camera D.Or Award. Local filmmaker Warwick Thornton won the award in 2009 for Samson and Delilah. A confronting two-hours centred around the South Australian 'Bodies in Barrels' murders;...