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Fred Schepisi with Mary Schepisi, on casting Andorra: "Clive Owen, Joanna Lumley, Toni Collette, Gillian Anderson, and I can’t say the other names …" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Before the Universal Pictures and Working Title Films Bridget Jones’s Baby lunch with Renée Zellweger, Sharon Maguire, Helen Fielding, Eric Fellner, and Colin Firth at Lotos Club, there was a screening of the film arranged by Peggy Siegal at the Park Avenue Screening Room. When I arrived I noticed director/writer Fred Schepisi with his wife Mary.

Geoffrey Rush with Alexandra and Fred Schepisi for The Eye Of The Storm Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2012, Alexandra Schepisi, Geoffrey Rush and the filmmaker met me at The Regency Hotel in New York for a conversation on The Eye of The Storm. And last year, I saw him at the Monkey Bar reception for Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos, starring Kate Winslet with Matthias Schoenaerts,...

Mel Gibson is set to present at the 5th Aacta Awards in Sydney next week.

Gibson, who is currently filming World War II film Hacksaw Ridge in Nsw, will be joined by Manu Feildel, Magda Szubanski, Megan Gale, Erik Thomson, and Brenton Thwaites.

Emma Freedman will host the show.s red carpet.

Birds of Tokyo and UK dance group Rudimental will also perform live at the Ceremony..

Since releasing their debut album Home in 2013 (which sold over half a million copies) Rudimental has received a swag of Awards, including a Brit Award for Best British Single for .Waiting All Night...

Justice Crew recently recorded the Aacta Awards Ceremony show opener on location in Sydney off the back of their brand new single, Good Time; a rhythmic urban track written by Dante Jones and Andrew Bolooki..

The show opener also features top favourite TV talent including Mandy McElhinney, Home and Away...

Exclusive: Australian director Fred Schepisi’s Simon Baker/Leslie Mann-starring romantic drama, The Olive Sisters, has added several cast members ahead of the Efm in Berlin this week. Anthony Lapaglia, Jacki Weaver, Melissa George, Gia Carides, Josh Lucas and Alexandra Schepisi have all boarded the adaptation of Amanda Hampson’s bestselling novel which was short-listed at the 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

The story focuses on Adrienne Bennett (Mann), a successful businesswoman with an enviable lifestyle. But when her business goes down the tubes, her life falls apart and her self-confidence quickly crumbles. She is forced to move from her chic New York apartment to the small rural community of Duffy’s Creek, Australia and the run-down olive grove she has inherited from her grandparents. Initial culture shock give way to a personal treasure hunt through the history of a family she barely knew. As she works to restart her life,...

The first round of Aacta Award winners have been announced today at the 4th Aacta Award Luncheon held at the Star Event Centre in Sydney.

Celebrating screen craft excellence in Australia, 22 awards were presented, recognising the work of screen practitioners working in television, documentary, short fiction film, short animation and feature film.

The Luncheon was hosted by writer/actor/producer/director Adam Zwar, who was also joined throughout the event by a list of distinguished presenters. including Aacta President Geoffrey Rush, David Stratton, Damian Walshe-Howling, Alexandra Schepisi, Charlotte Best and Diana Glenn.

In the feature film category, Predestination took home the most Awards; with Ben Nott Acs taking out the prize for Best Cinematography, Matt Villa Ase winning the award for Best Editing, and Matthew Putland scooping Best Production Design.

Tess Schofield was honoured with the Aacta Award for Best Costume Design for her work on The Water Diviner while...

★★☆☆☆ Poorly timed and fatally flawed, Fred Schepisi's familial Aussie bitchfest The Eye of the Storm (2011) (adapted from the Patrick White novel of the same name) somehow found its way into UK cinemas earlier this year with almost no fanfare. It's hardly surprising when you consider that this is one of the strangest, most mind-boggling dramas outside of Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, seemingly designed as a thespian three-way between Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. Davis is perhaps the only one of this triumvirate to come away with any kudos, such is the flaccid nature of this botched melodrama.

Rampling, last seen in son Barnaby Southcombe's neo-noir I, Anna, hams it up as dying wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Hunter, who watches on with veiled glee as her actor son Basil (Academy Award winner Rush) and aloof, high-society daughter Dorothy (Golden Globe winner Davis) rush to her side in...

The acting's great - but there's a smaller, fiercer movie trying to burst out of this drama about a tyrannical woman on her deathbed

Somewhere inside this baggy, stately, beautifully acted movie there's something smaller and fiercer busting to get out.

Veteran film-maker Fred Schepisi has directed an adaptation of the 1973 novel by Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White. Charlotte Rampling cuts a Miss Havisham-type figure as Elizabeth Hunter, a brilliant and demanding woman slowly dying – and succumbing to morphine-fuelled flashbacks – as she summons her grownup children to her elaborately furnished Sydney home to impose her caprices on them one final time, torturing them with suspicions about what they can expect in her will.

Her putative heirs – to her neurotic personality, if not necessarily her cash – are the successful and conceited stage actor Basil, played by Geoffrey Rush, and the unhappy Dorothy (Judy Davis), still addressed as "Princesse" after a failed marriage to some European aristocrat.

Screen Australia has added another funding round for its Short Film Completion Fund.

Film-makers can apply for up to $40,000 in post-production costs in order to complete their short film.

The additional round may cheer the film-making community following December’s news that the national screen agency’s feature fund had dried up for the financial year.

On the importance of short films, Martha Coleman, Screen Australia’s head of development said: “Short films are hugely important in raising filmmakers’ profiles in the industry and provide an essential stepping-stone in a professional career path. Our completion fund recognises the passion, talent and ambition of new Australian talent who are getting out there by whatever means they have to tell their stories.”

Writer-director Neil Triffett with producer Lee Matthews has received $40,000 to complete their short, Emo (The Musical), a musical comedy which tells the story of an unlikely high school romance between...

Anthony Hayes as Bernie Banton

The ABC has revealed the first look at its new two-part drama Devil’s Dust, produced by FremantleMedia Australia.

Going to air on Sunday 11 November, concluding the next night, Devil’s Dust is based on the James Hardie asbestos saga and inspired by the reporting of ABC journalist Matt Peacock.

The story spans four decades and follows four people.

It features Anthony Hayes as the late Bernie Banton who became the face of the court case. Banton’s wife Karen is played by Alexandra Schepisi, while Peacock is played by Ewen Leslie.

The drama also features the fictional character of Hardie spin doctor Adam Bourke, played by Don Hany. Former Hardie and then News Limited spinner Greg Baxter who featured in the real court case, does not appear in the drama.

The story is based on Peacock’s book Killer Company about the company’s...

How do you make a true life story about litigation against a big cement manufacturer appealing to general audiences? You cast the hell out of it. This is exactly what the makers of Devil's Dust, the story of the James Hardie asbestos scandal and court case have done, and the results look superb. Anthony Hayes (The Square) leads the cast as Bernie Banton, the campaigner who became the public face of the political and legal campaign to achieve compensation for the sufferers of asbestos-related conditions, which they contracted after working for the company James Hardie. Other lead cast include Dony Hany (Rake, Lucky Miles), Daniel Henshall (Snowtown, These Final Hours), Ewen Leslie (Mabo, Dead Europe), Mirrah Foulkes (Animal Kingdom), Henry Nixon (Noise), David Roberts (The Square), Alexandra Schepisi (The Eye of the Storm) and the always-great character actor Alan...

The Australian drama The Eye of the Storm, directed by Fred Schepisi and adapted from the novel by Nobel Prize winner Patrick White, tells the story of Elizabeth Hunter (Charlotte Rampling), as her son and daughter return home to convene at her deathbed. As Sir Basil (Geoffrey Rush), a famous but struggling actor in London, and Dorothy (Judy Davis), a broke French princess, attempt to reconcile with their formidable and tempestuous mother to ensure their inheritance, all Mrs. Hunter wants to do is choose when and how she will die. During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Academy Award-winning actor Geoffrey Rush talked about how he came to be a part of The Eye of the Storm, why he wanted to work with director Fred Schepisi, how gratifying it is to get such great feedback from American audiences about the film, how he went about understanding this character, and...

On a drizzly, still hot and humid, post-storm afternoon in New York, I talked to The Eye Of The Storm director Fred Schepisi, his daughter, actress Alexandra Schepisi and Geoffrey Rush about everything storm related: Shakespeare, Australian manhood in the early 70s, sword fighting, intellectual cuts, and American emotions.

Director Fred Schepisi (his name "rhymes with Pepsi", he confirms) has taken on the seemingly impossible task of bringing Nobel Prize winning novelist Patrick White's book to the screen. "Many have tried and failed," Schepisi states, including Joseph Losey, with an unrealised adaptation of White's Voss. "Too interior," is the problem. Rush, who plays Sir Basil, famous actor, returning son, tortured soul, knew Patrick White late in his life and was involved in a couple of his plays. So were several of the other actors in the film, like Helen Morse (Lotte, German Cabaret artist and cook) John Gaden, and Robyn Nevin,...

TItle: The Eye Of The Storm Sycamore Entertainment Group Director: Fred Schepisi Screenwriter: Judy Morris, from Patrick White’s novelCast: Charlotte Rampling, Georffrey Rush, Judy Davis, Colin Friels, Robyn Nevin, John Gaden, Helen Morse, Alexandra Schepisi, Maria Theodorakis, Dustin Clare Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 8/22/12 Opens: September 7, 2012 Clashes over potential inheritances, featuring sons and daughters who hover over rich, dying parents, can be the basis of soap opera or the foundation of Shakespearean drama. “The Eye of the Storm,” which is in part a tale of two vultures traveling thousands of miles to cajole their dying mother to grant them the bulk of an estate, is a filmed [ Read More ]...

A short film starring Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Jacki Weaver, and directed by Alexandra Schepisi will have its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Lois is about a woman who, after receiving a long-awaited letter, is driven to address unfinished business. It is produced by Rachel Higgins and shot by cinematographer Jeremy Rouse, with funding by Screen Australia.

The film also stars Greek actor Yannis Totsikas who was cast in Tony Krawitz’s Dead Europe, also to screen at Miff.

Schepisi said: “I have always been a big fan of magic realism and love the creative depth it allows. It is the perfect medium to be able to explore the limitless capacity of love and the agony that it can cause. I wanted to create a film that stays ahead of the audience so that they might go on a journey with Lois, without knowing what...

The Film Critics Circle of Australia has announced its nominees for its Annual Awards for Australian Film for 2011.

Burning Man scored the most nominations, with a spot in 10 of 11 categories.

The film is director Jonathan Teplitzky’s third film and tells the story of an out-of-control chef who is struggling with a life crisis.

With the second most nominations was dark thriller Snowtown in eight categories.

The Hunter starring The Willem Dafoe and directed by Daniel Nettheim and The Eye of the Storm starring Geoffrey Rush and directed by Fred Schepsis both received seven nods.

Red Dog, the year’s highest grossing Australian film for 2011, received only three nominations, including best direction for Kriv Stenders while Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach received four.

Ivan Sen’s Toomelah and Julia Leigh’s debut Sleeping Beauty both received one nomination for actors Daniel Connors and Emily Browning respectively.

Animal Kingdom...

Today we have two trailers along with the first poster for The Eye of the Storm. Directed by Fred Schepisi (Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation), it stars Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis, Alexandra Schepisi, Helen Morse, John Gaden and Robyn Nevin, and is based on the novel by Australia’s only Nobel Prize-winner for Literature, [...]

Continue reading The Eye Of The Storm Trailers and Poster on FilmoFilia.

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Through its Short Film Completion Fund, Screen Australia has announced $133,000 in support for four short film productions.

Writer/director Alexandra Schepisi (One Night), also star of The Eye of the Storm and daughter to its director Fred Schepisi, will receive funding for her short Lois, produced by Rachel Higgins. The film stars Jacki Weaver.

Writer/director Sophie Miller (Half Windsor) has received finance for film Spine, starring Snowtown’s Lucas Pittaway, produced by Sheila Jayadex and executive produced by Prue Williams. Spine is the story of a paraplegic.

Also receiving financing is Strange Face, written and directed by Lynne Vincent McCarthy and produced by Samantha Jennings, exploring the world of a socially awkward girl who’s looking for a friend.

Writer/Director Scott Pickett’s The One who Broke Your Heart, also written by Luke Tierney, and produced by Bruce Dawson and Lawrence Lim examines a person revisiting a past relationship.

Screen Australia has funded four short films with almost $133,000 through its Short Film Completion Fund. Spine tells the story of a dramatic event that brings acceptance to someone who has recently become a paraplegic. It is directed by Sophie Miller and stars Snowtown's Lucas Pittaway. Both Scott Picket.s The One Who Broke Your Heart and actress/director Alexandra Schepisi.s Lois (starring Academy Award-nominated Jacki Weaver) deal with a person who longs to revisit a past relationship. Rounding out the group is Lynne Vincent McCarthy.s first short film, Strange Face, which tells the story of a socially awkward young girl who yearns for a friend. .This year we had some really strong submissions for completion funding,. said Screen Australia.s...

Screen Australia has funded four short films with almost $133,000 through its Short Film Completion Fund. Spine tells the story of a dramatic event that brings acceptance to someone who has recently become a paraplegic. It is directed by Sophie Miller and stars Snowtown's Lucas Pittaway. Both Scott Picket.s The One Who Broke Your Heart and actress/director Alexandra Schepisi.s Lois (starring Academy Award-nominated Jacki Weaver) deal with a person who longs to revisit a past relationship. Rounding out the group is Lynne Vincent McCarthy.s first short film, Strange Face, which tells the story of a socially awkward young girl who yearns for a friend. .This year we had some really strong submissions for completion funding,. said Screen Australia.s...

Screen Australia has funded four short films with almost $133,000 through its Short Film Completion Fund. Spine tells the story of a dramatic event that brings acceptance to someone who has recently become a paraplegic. It is directed by Sophie Miller and stars Snowtown's Lucas Pittaway. Both Scott Picket.s The One Who Broke Your Heart and actress/director Alexandra Schepisi.s Lois (starring Academy Award-nominated Jacki Weaver) deal with a person who longs to revisit a past relationship. Rounding out the group is Lynne Vincent McCarthy.s first short film, Strange Face, which tells the story of a socially awkward young girl who yearns for a friend. .This year we had some really strong submissions for completion funding,. said Screen Australia.s...

The Hunter has lead the Aacta Awards with 14 nominations including best film.

The film, by Daniel Nettheim, is also up for best direction, adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound, production design, costume, original music score, and visual effects. Meanwhile, Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, Sam Neill and Morgana Davies are all up for acting awards.

The film has currently made just over $1m at the local box office.

It’s the first year for the re-launched AACTAs, formerly the AFI awards.

The technical awards will be given out at a luncheon on 15 January at the Sydney Opera House, with an evening ceremony for the more ‘public-friendly’ awards held at the Opera House on 31 January.

Running against The Hunter for best film is Red Dog, Mad Bastards, The Eye of the Storm, Snowtown and Oranges and Sunshine.

The Eye of the Storm, was second in the nominations race with 12, of which six are...

Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm has opened confidently, posting a strong first weekend, in its limited release.

Despite opening across just 18 screens, the film earned $196,250, averaging an impressive $10,903 per screen.

Fresh from its international premiere screening at Tiff last week, the posting is the highest opening weekend average for an Australian film this year.

“To achieve the highest screen average in such a stellar year for local films is very special,” said Richard Payten, Managing Director, Transmission Films. “It is also gratifying to see the film embraced so warmly at the Toronto international Film Festival where it was sold out for all screenings.”

The Eye of the Storm is based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Patrick White about two high society siblings returning home to their dying yet manipulative mother’s side. The film stars Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis and Charlotte Rampling, with additional cast courtesy of Alexandra Schepisi,...

In what’s been more than a full year since showing you the first trailer for director Fred Schepisi’s film, check out the new trailer for Eye Of The Storm starring starring Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis, Alexandra Schepisi, Helen Morse, John Gaden and Robyn Nevin.

Looks to be another charming Australian import and as I said last August, I adore Judy Davis. Your eye is drawn to her every nuanced movement throughout the trailer.

Synopsis:

In the Sydney suburb of Centennial Park, two nurses, a housekeeper and a solicitor attend to Elizabeth Hunter as her expatriate son and daughter convene at her deathbed. But in dying, as in living, Mrs. Hunter remains a powerful force on those who surround her. Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Patrick White, The Eye of the Storm is a savage exploration of family relationships . and the sharp undercurrents of love and hate,...

Oscar-nominated actress Jacki Weaver had to be rescued by a lifeguard during filming in Australia last week (ends17Apr11) as a beach scene nearly ended in tragedy.

The 63-year-old star had to shoot a sequence which involved her running into the ocean with her clothes on at Garie Beach, south of Sydney.

Weaver admits she is not a strong swimmer and had to be pulled from the water by lifeguards twice as the waves knocked her off her feet and left her gasping for breath.

She tells Australia's Daily Telegraph, "It's a really beautiful beach but quite treacherous. There was a rampaging surf. In this particular scene I had to run into the water with my clothes on and I'm not a good swimmer.

"I had to do a few takes and each time it was so rough a lifeguard had to rescue me. I was really scared because I had swallowed a lot of water."

Weaver was filming a currently untitled short movie, directed by Alexandra Schepisi.

The 63-year-old star, Jacki Weaver had to shoot a sequence which involved her running into the ocean with her clothes on at Garie Beach, south of Sydney.

Jacki Weaver admits she is not a strong swimmer and had to be pulled from the water by lifeguards twice as the waves knocked her off her feet and left her gasping for breath.

She tells Australia's Daily Telegraph, "It's a really beautiful beach but quite treacherous. There was a rampaging surf. In this particular scene I had to run into the water with my clothes on and I'm not a good swimmer."

"I had to do a few takes and each time it was so rough a lifeguard had to rescue me. I was really scared because I had swallowed a lot of water."

Jacki Weaver was filming a currently untitled short movie, directed by Alexandra Schepisi.

DigiSPAA winner Little Deaths will receive a limited theatrical release at Cinema Nova in Melbourne.

The film, produced by Jason Byrne and featuring  eleven shorts written by Giula Sandler, will begin this limited engagement on November 4.

In Little Deaths, each story comments on and adds to the ones that came before and after. As a feature film, the story of the lonely tollbooth operator (Abe Forsythe) provides the thread that joins the interweaving tales. Whilst he imagines the love stories of those who pass through his toll gate, he discovers one of his own to explore and ultimately, the stories help guide him toward true love.

The shorts were directed by Ben Chessell, Sian Davies, Melanie Brunt, Giula Sandler, Chris Benz, Fin Edquist, Jarrah Gurrie, Genevieve Bailey, Geoff Hitchins, James Teh and Toby Angwin. The cast includes Magda Szubanski, Adam Zwar, Alexandra Schepisi, Abe Forsythe and even Animal Kingdom director David Michod.

Production kicked off today in Melbourne, Australia on acclaimed filmmaker Fred Schepsi's "The Eye of the Storm" according to an official press release.

Based on the classic novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick White, the story is set in Sydney's Centennial Park where two nurses, a housekeeper and a solicitor attend to Elizabeth Hunter (Charlotte Rampling) as her expatriate son (Geoffrey Rush) and daughter (Judy Davis) convene at her deathbed.

But, in dying, as in living, Mrs. Hunter remains a powerful force on those who surround her. The film is described as "a savage exploration of family relationships — and the sharp undercurrents of love and hate, comedy and tragedy, which define them."

Alexandra Schepisi, Robyn Nevin, Colin Friels, John Gaden, and Helen Morse also star in the project which marks the first film Australian director Schepsi has shot in his homeland since 1988's "A Cry in the Dark" (aka. "Evil Angels...