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The film The Dinner Party will screen at Dendy Cinemas in Canberra, after a successful debut at the National Film and Sound Archive.

“Trying to get this film into cinemas has been a hard push, mainly because we are unknown filmmakers, from a city [Canberra] that has seen little if any film come out of it and therefore an unknown market, but due to increasing demand for people to see it on the big screen, it will start screening at Dendy Canberra starting on February 21,” ” producer Brendan Sloane told Encore.

The fim’s national release through PackScreen was cancelled last year.

“After approaching many cinemas in Australia and not releasing as planned in 2010, I hooked up with Accent for a DVD release but held onto the cinema rights as I always believed this film would launch in Canberra,” explained Sloane. “The Nfsa gave me a premiere and a Saturday matinee; they...

“‘The Australian film industry has a top-heavy structure and the money goes to the people at the top.”

Producer Brendan Sloane is disappointed in the Australian film industry financing system.

He told The Canberra Times that filmmakers should be “aware of what they’re up against” when they send their projects to the funding bodies, because they’ll be “looked up as competition”.

Sloane’s project The Dinner Party is currently screening at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. Its national release through PackScreen was cancelled last year.

The producer went on to suggest that bureaucrats “are using these positions to fund their own films”.

What should the agencies do to change the perception of a “club” where only certain practitioners get funding? How can their processes be more transparent to eliminate these rumours?...

PackScreen director Peter Castaldi says the company is “regrouping” and although he did pull the October 7 release of The Dinner Party, he did not “leave it at the altar” as stated by the film’s producer on Twitter.

“I certainly offered to carry the film over to 2011 and his director Scott Murden was fully supportive of that offer. However Brendan Sloane wanted to handle the release himself and get it out this year….so no, he wasn’t left at the altar…..I was!” Castaldi told Encore.

“This product is very time consuming and expensive – no poster or key art , usually trailers that don’t work, no Epk or DVD extras, etc, so it requires a lot of lead work. Without releasing The Dinner Party (which frankly, no one else will touch) I have lost money, real dollars, and a lot of time. The same can be said of every...

Independent thrilller The Dinner Party will no longer be released by PackScreen on October 7, as originally planned.

“We are now with Accent Film Entertainment, set for February DVD. Talk about being ‘left at the altar’,” producer Brendan Sloane told Encore via Twitter.

Sloane said on Twitter: “Our distributor [PackScreen] folded three weeks ago – fucking great huh!!! Anyhoo we are now with Accent distribution and are set for release feb 2011.”

He continued: “Can anyone answer this question – why does it take two weeks to sell an Aus film in London and two years to sell an Aus film in Australia???”

Encore has contacted Sloane and PackScreen director Peter Castaldi for further comment.