News

Showtime is saying goodbye to a number of titles in July.

The premium outlet has announced the list of movies that are set to disappear throughout the month.

The film Drive Angry, starring Nicolas Cage, will be one of the first titles taken off on July 2, followed by Jasper Jones on July 10 and the Back to the Future trilogy on July 12. Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, will leave on July 15. 

And July 31 is the last call, for now, for films such as Adrift, Almost Famous, The Big Chill, Catch Me If ...

Showtime is saying goodbye to a number of titles in July.

The premium outlet has announced the list of movies that are set to disappear throughout the month.

The film Drive Angry, starring Nicolas Cage, will be one of the first titles taken off on July 2, followed by Jasper Jones on July 10 and the Back to the Future trilogy on July 12. Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, will leave on July 15. 

And July 31 is the last call, for now, for films such as Adrift, Almost Famous, The Big Chill, Catch Me If ...

Milla Bell-Hart and Phil Tarl Denson in Impact 2.

Shaun Grant, Jason Smilovic, Kai Wu, Stuart Beattie and Sarah Heyward are mentoring 14 emerging creators in Impact Australia, the offshoot of Us Imagine Impact founded by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Tyler Mitchell.

Supported by Gentle Giant Media Group and Screen Australia, the inaugural eight-week accelerator program for creative storytellers from across Australia was originally slated to be held in Melbourne.

Due to Covid-19 it is now being held as a virtual program, with a twice-weekly speaker series. It will culminate in Pitch Day, hoped to take place in Melbourne in late 2020, with the ultimate goal of the creators selling their projects.

The 14 creators from across Australia are working on 10 projects:

Carrie Anderson (Nsw) – Bound (TV hour)

Luke Goodall (Vic) and Marc Gallagher (Vic) – Robots Inc. (TV half hour)

Sukhjit Khalsa (Wa) and Perun Bonser (Wa) – One of the Good Ones (TV...

Australian production firm Porchlight Films will cease operations after 23 years of making features that include Justin Kurzel’s “True History of the Kelly Gang,” and Garth Davis’ “Mary Magdalene.” The company also produced David Michod’s 2010 Australian “Animal Kingdom” feature that sparked a successful U.S. TV series.

The three founding partners Vincent Sheehan, Liz Watts and Anita Sheehan will move on to pursue new opportunities individually. Watts and Vincent Sheehan will continue to work on projects currently in development. Anita Sheehan, MD of Porchlight since 2015, will take a short break before pursuing other business opportunities.

The three partners will retain ownership of Jetty Distribution, which will continue to manage the ongoing rights in Porchlight’s catalogue.

Productions currently being financed will continue to be produced under the Porchlight banner into 2021. These include Kitty Flanagan’s comedy series “Entitled” and Nakkiah Lui and Gabe Dowrick’s “Preppers.”

The company’s...

‘Top End Wedding.’

Major and independent film distributors and exhibitors are urging the federal government to adopt a new PG13 classification which they say would benefit family-friendly Australian and international films that get M ratings.

Echoing calls by Screen Producers Australia and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, the Film Industry Associations (Fia) also advocates a uniform classification system across all delivery platforms, with self-classification by the industry, overseen by a government regulator.

“The current review system is no longer fit-for-purpose. It is expensive and unfeasibly time-consuming in an environment where digital distribution has minimised the time between the delivery of a film and its release date,” the Fia says in its submission to the government classification review.

The group represents the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, the Australian Independent Distributors Association, the National Association of Cinema Operators and Independent Cinemas Australia.

Spa and the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association...

Justin Kurzel and Shaun Grant, the Australian directing and writing team behind “Snowtown” and the recent “True History of the Kelly Gang,” will reunite for a TV series adaptation of “The Narrow Road to the Deep North.” The series is being set up at Fremantle.

The underlying novel by Richard Flanagan, published in 2013, chronicles a century dominated by war, with the forced labor on the Thai-Burma Railway as its dramatic heart. The story is told by an Australian doctor who was taken prisoner during World War II and became an unlikely and uncomfortable hero after the war’s end. The book won the 2014 edition of the Man Booker Prize.

Fremantle’s director of scripted entertainment, Jo Porter, will produce the adaptation as a limited series. Other Fremantle executives involved include Chris Oliver-Taylor, Amy Noble and Nat Lindwall.

“Richard Flanagan’s novel has been hailed as a masterpiece around the world.

Raelle Tucker and Jeremy Podeswa.

Bunya Productions is hosting a genre masterclass program in December for mid-career female writers and directors who have compelling ideas for genre TV series or features.

Supported by Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Brilliant Careers initiative, the masterclass will be delivered by director Jeremy Podeswa and writer and showrunner Raelle Tucker.

The residential workshop is part of Bunya Productions’ Engendered program that seeks to support female creatives from diverse backgrounds to develop their TV and feature ideas.

Up to 8 mid-career creatives – or creative teams – will be selected to attend the workshop from December 17-20 in the Kangaroo Valley. Travel and accommodation expenses will be paid by the Engendered initiative.

Applicants, who need to have worked in the film and TV industry as a writer or director or have extensive writing experience in theatre or publishing, are asked to provide a 2-page pitch plus one page...

A thousand years in the making! Today we have the first trailer for the epic new saga Mortal Engines, which comes from the team behind The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Peter Jackson is the mastermind behind this apocalyptic view of the future. And the first footage is jaw-dropping.

Thousands of years after civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, humankind has adapted and a new way of living has evolved. Gigantic moving cities now roam the Earth, ruthlessly preying upon smaller traction towns. Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), who hails from a Lower Tier of the great traction city of London, finds himself fighting for his own survival after he encounters the dangerous fugitive Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar). Two opposites, whose paths should never have crossed, forge an unlikely alliance that is destined to change the course of the future.

Mortal Engines is the startling, new epic adventure...

We’re in that weird pause between the end of summer releases and the onslaught of the fall festival season, so it’s a pretty good time to look and see what offerings there are abroad. And one movie that’s piqued our curiosity is “Jasper Jones.”

Described as Australia’s “Stand By Me,” based on the best-seller by Craig Silvey, and starring Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Levi Miller and Angourie Rice, the story follows a 14-year-old who takes on solving a mysterious murder when his friend discovers a dead body.

Continue reading ‘Jasper Jones’ Trailer: Australia’s ‘Stand By Me’ Starring Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving & Angourie Rice at The Playlist.

Aaron Pedersen as Jay Swan in 'Goldstone'..

Detective Jay Swan, the protagonist in Ivan Sen.s films Mystery Road and Goldstone, is headed to the small screen.

Aaron Pedersen will reprise the role in Mystery Road - The Series, alongside Judy Davis as a small town cop, for the ABC and international distributor All3Media International.

Directed by Rachel Perkins and produced by Bunya Productions. David Jowsey and Greer Simpkin, the 6-part mystery/drama starts shooting in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia in late August..

The plot follows Swan as he investigates the disappearance of two young farm hands on an outback cattle station. One is a local Indigenous footy hero, the other a backpacker. Working with local cop Emma James (Davis), his investigation uncovers a past injustice that threatens the whole community

It is a rare Australian screen role for Davis, who was last seen...

'Jasper Jones', released in March, is the third highest grossing Aussie film this year..

There was a lull in Australian films released theatrically in June so the total grosses for local titles this year have.only ticked up to $42.95 million.

Even so, that is a vast improvement on the paltry 2016 calendar year total of $24.1 million.

No high-profile Aussie title is confirmed to open in the next few months so the 2017 scorecard may not go far beyond $50 million.—.unless there are one or two breakouts or more films are added to the slate.

Umbrella Entertainment is launching Descent into the Maelstrom, a documentary about the Australian band Radio Birdman from brothers Mark and Jonathan Sequeira, on July 20.

Madman is releasing Jeffrey Walker.s comedy Ali.s Wedding in August and Jen Peedom.s documentary Mountain in September, while Transmission has dated Karina Holden.s marine doco Blue for October.

Deal comes as Film Movement aims to expand footprint in documentary arena.

New York-based distributor Film Movement and documentary specialist Bond/360 have struck an alliance to broaden their reach into festivals and the educational sales arena.

Through Film Movement, Bond/360 will enhance the reach of their titles into festivals, community screenings, home entertainment and digital platforms, airlines, and hotels.

Bond/360 will assist in expanding the representation of Film Movement’s catalogue of documentaries and narrative films to educational institutions.

Film Movement has recently moved more aggressively into the documentary space, acquiring more than two dozen features in the last two years, including such titles as My Love, Don’t Cross That River, Randall White’s Hockney, Jack Riccobono’s The Seventh Fire, and Tanja Cumming’s Lodz ghetto film Line 41.

Bond/360 has more than 40 documentary features that will join Film Movement’s library of more than 300 features and 150 short films.

“We are pleased...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Mubi has acquired the U.S., U.K. and Ireland rights to Philippe Garrel’s “Lover for a Day” (“L’Amant d’un jour”), which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Sacd prize from the French Writers and Directors Guild, shared with Claire Denis’ “Let the Sunshine In.”...

Film Movement has secured all U.S. rights to Jasper Jones, an Australian drama from director Rachel Perkins. Adapted from Craig Silvey’s novel, the film will be released this winter. Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Levi Miller, Angourie Rice, Dan Wyllie and Aaron McGrath co-star in the pic that follows Charlie Bucktin, a bookish boy of 14 who lives in a small town in Western Australia. One night during the scorching summer of 1969, Charlie is awoken by local part-Aboriginal…...

'Lion' leads this year's Aussie films, and now ranks as the fifth highest grossing Australian film of all time..

The Australian films released theatrically so far this year have grossed $42.6 million.—.nearly double the meagre 2016 calendar year total of $24.1 million.

The resurgence for Australian cinema has been led by Garth Davis. Lion (Transmission), the stand-out with $29.5 million.

Launched on Boxing Day 2016, Kriv Stenders. Red Dog :True Blue has earned $5.8 million this year, not a terrible result for Roadshow Films but below industry expectations.

Rachel Perkins. Jasper Jones (Madman) brought in $2.66 million and Jeffrey Walker.s Dance Academy: The Movie (StudioCanal) made $2.1 million.

None of the other 37 films tracked by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (which includes holdovers from previous years) has cracked $1 million.

However the market share for Aussie films this year will be a marked improvement on 2016.s 1.9 per cent, which was a sharp...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales..

The fifth edition of the Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean franchise easily topped the Aussie box office last weekend although the debut was well below the previous installment.

Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg and shot in Queensland after an injection of $21.6 million in funding from the federal government plus state government incentives, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales captured $5.9 million on 292 locations, according to ComScore.

That.s 41 per cent below the $9.9 million debut of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 2011. The latter finished up earning $27.2 million, which may be out of reach of the new film.

Pirates 5 scored an estimated $US77 million over the four-day Memorial Day holiday in the Us and $208 million internationally for a global total of $285 million, so the studio may be hard-pressed to recoup the reported $230 million budget.

Cate Shortland (l) on set.

Imagine you.re a young woman from Brisbane, and you decide to quit your job taking photos for a real estate website, and head overseas for the first time, to the cool city where all the other cool young people seem to be heading —.Berlin. There you meet a really nice guy, you go back to his, you have amazing sex. But fast forward to the morning after and you discover he.s locked you in his creepy apartment, and so begins Berlin Syndrome, a dark fairy-tale of a thriller from Australian director Cate Shortland.

You might remember Cate.s first film, Somersault, which came out in 2004. That film probably rings a bell because you either loved it or hated it — it was dragged into a debate that raged at the time about how Australian cinema was in crisis. It was a particularly ill-informed, mostly...

After starring in the blockbuster Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies for Peter Jackson, Hugo Weaving is reuniting with the filmmaker once again. The actor has signed on to star in Universal Pictures and Media Rights Capital's highly-anticipated adaptation of Mortal Engines, joining a cast that includes Robbie Sheehan, Rohan Raftery, Hera Hilmar and Stephen Lang. Peter Jackson is only writing and producing this adaptation though, with his longtime visual effects collaborator Christian Rivers set to make his feature directorial debut.

Variety broke the news on this casting earlier today, although there was no word on who the actor is playing. Subsequent reports have revealed that Hugo Weaving is playing Valentine, which is likely the Thaddeus Valentine character from the original Philip Reeve novels. In the books, Thaddeus Valentine is a Historian, who, in serves this post-apocalyptic world by collecting and preserving artifacts, which most often can be incredibly dangerous.

Shaun Grant.

Screenwriter Shaun Grant has been working non-stop since the release of Snowtown, his first film, in 2011.

Grant divides his time between La and Melbourne these days after wrapping up work on projects as diverse as Deadline Gallipoli, Jasper Jones and Berlin Syndrome at home in Australia.

Now working out of an office in West Hollywood, the scribe is working on several projects, including a long-gestating adaptation of Peter Carey.s True History of the Kelly Gang for producer Liz Watts and Snowtown director Justin Kurzel.

.It.s a beautifully written book,. says Grant. .He.s an iconic character in our country, so of course when Liz approached me I had some trepidation. But the things that scare me are usually the ones I.m drawn to. And Justin and I have been looking to work together since Snowtown..

Like Animal Kingdom before it, Snowtown put a rocket under...

Kong: Skull Island (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures).

Warner Bros. King Kong reboot, Kong: Skull Island, has stomped its box office competition, debuting on $4.7 million from 401 screens; an average of $11,759..

The film, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and partly shot on the Gold Coast, just pipped last week.s number one, Fox's Logan..The Hugh Jackman blockbuster.took $4.5 million, and now sits on a total of $14.9 million after two weeks..

Fellow Fox title Hidden Figures, now in its fourth week, rang up $1.3 million — a drop of only 27 per cent. It now sits on $13.7 million overall..

No other film cracked the million dollar mark this week. However, Lion.s takings of $671,227 pushed its cume to $27.7 million. The Transmission film is now the sixth highest grossing Australian film of all time, and needs only a paltry $5,000 or so to overtake Moulin Rouge and squeeze into the top five..

Behind Lion was another Aussie title,...

Silvey on set with stars Levi Miller and Angourie Rice.

'Jasper Jones' author Craig Silvey came on board to adapt his own novel after multiple drafts had been penned by Shaun Grant ('Snowtown', 'Berlin Syndrome')..

How involved were you in the development process?

I was the second screenwriter to come on board. I was more or less a consultant for a few years [beforehand] while I was touring the book and working on other things. Pre-production tends to move quite slowly. I came on board in a much more influential way later in the process..

Was it strange, returning to a story you thought you had put to bed?

It.s a process of identifying the key elements of the story. I had a really good opportunity to know what those were, simply because I.d toured the book so much and talked to so...

Hugh Jackman in 'Logan'.

Hugh Jackman's final outing as Wolverine pulled in the punters over the weekend off the back of strong reviews and little in the way of fresh competition.

Fox's Logan, directed by James Mangold (The Wolverine), pulled in $7.8 million over its first weekend from 414 screens.—.a whopping screen average of $18,966.

Logan's closest competition, but not really, was Hidden Figures, taking $1.8 million over the weekend. Also from Fox, the Oscar-nominated crowdpleaser has racked up $11.7 million after three weeks, dropping a mere 34 per cent over the weekend.

Transmission's Lion came in third, down only 32 per cent after seven weeks in release to take more than $1 million over the weekend. The See-Saw film has made $26.6 million in Oz so far and is still on 316 screens.

Jasper Jones, Madman's adaptation of the beloved novel by Craig Silvey, debuted in fourth spot with $632,538 over the weekend, bringing its...

Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette lead the filmic adaptation of Craig Silvey’s beloved novel, which director Rachel Perkins has handled with care

Craig Silvey’s bestselling 2009 novel Jasper Jones was greeted with none-too-faint praise, lauded in some circles as Australia’s own To Kill a Mockingbird. The arrival of a feature film from the director Rachel Perkins – on the heels of several successful stage adaptations – raises the question: can the same be said of the movie adaptation? Is this our Mockingbird?

I prefer to think of it as Stand By Me down under, with a bit of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson thrown in.

Continue reading...

Making Jasper Jones ‘in the middle of nowhere with no budget to speak of’, the actor is happy to be on home soil

Toni Collette says her latest character is having a “classic midlife crisis”. It’s an experience that must seem a world away for the western Sydney-born actor, contentedly married with two children and never out of work, even as she longs for more roles on home soil.

On the Western Australian set of the feature film Jasper Jones, Collette says she misses “the space, the light, family, friends, fresh air – all the basics”.

Continue reading...

Leah Purcell at Sydney's Belvoir Theatre. (Photo credit: Anthony Johnson).

Projects from the likes of Jocelyn Moorhouse, Leah Purcell, Vicki Madden, Rachel Perkins, Luke Davies, Sophie Hyde, Nicholas Verso, Abe Forsythe, Craig Silvey and Corrie Chen have received development funding from Screen Australia.

.This round of development funding reflects the vibrancy of the story landscape in Australia with thrillers and romance, crime and comedies, sports dramas and musicals,. said Screen Australia's Senior Development Manager Nerida Moore..

.We have projects from both seasoned storytellers and an exciting group of up-and-coming talents. And we are also seeing a greater mix of platforms from traditional features and high-end television to the ever-growing online drama and narrative Vr spaces..

Among the projects funded, which include 24 features, five online series and two "high-end" television projects, are:

Tasmanian-set gothic crime show The Gloaming, created and written by The Kettering Incident's Vicki Madden, who will produce...

George Miller and Sam Neill..

Sam Neill and George Miller are on board to judge this year's Tropfest..

Jasper Jones director Rachel Perkins and Aussie producer Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies, Gone Girl) will also front the panel, alongside head of jury Rose Byrne.

"It is an enormous honour to add these esteemed filmmakers to the Tropfest Jury in our 25th year,. said founder and chair John Polson.

.We're excited for our judges and audiences alike to experience the finalist films, produced by these young and brilliant minds.

"At a time when gender inequality is a major concern in the film industry at home and abroad, I'm also extremely proud that half of our finalists are women this year.. .

All of the selected film have been inspired by this year's signature item: 'pineapple'.

Tropfest will be held February 11 at Parramatta Park. It will screen nationally on Eleven and globally via Red Bull TV.

El Questro Station, where 'Wonderful Unknown' will shoot. (Photo: Tourism Western Australia)..

Two features, Wonderful Unknown and Dirt Music, as well as a six-part drama series from Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey, are set to shoot in Western Australia, thanks to the $16 million Wa Regional Film Fund.

The fund, launched by the state government.last year, is designed to attract local and international productions..

".Eight months after its launch, the fund has helped secure its first Hollywood-Australian feature and UK-Australian feature as well as a major Australian television series," said Wa Culture and Arts Minister John Day.

.It is estimated they will contribute more than $14 million to the Wa economy..

Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly, Two Hands) will direct Dirt Music, the long-in-the-works adaptation of Tim Winton.s novel.

The screenplay was penned by Jack Thorne (Wonder, The Last Panthers), and the producers are Brits Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey,...

'The Mask', by Ruby Kontaratos.. . The 16 young finalists whose films will screen at Trop Jr, now a standalone event, have been unveiled.. . Each of the selected films has been made by a filmmaker less than 15 years old. Among them is Darwin Schulze, who has now been a Trop Jr finalist four times.. . All have been inspired by this year.s signature item, .mask., and will be judged by a panel led by Justine Clarke (Red Dog: True Blue, Playschool).. . .I am so pleased to once again be a part of Trop Jnr and can.t wait to see the finalists. films," said Clarke. "It is such an exciting thing to witness the future of the Australian screen industry getting out there and making films that families can enjoy together... . Other jury members include Angourie Rice (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Jasper Jones, The Nice Guys), Hunter Page-Lochard (Bran Nue Dae, The Sapphires, Cleverman...

'Glitch'.

Production has kicked off in Melbourne on the second season of Matchbox Pictures'.Glitch, with directors Emma Freeman and Tony Krawitz at the helm. The shoot will continue on location around the city and in regional Victoria until the end of March.

The first season of the zombie drama, created by Louise Fox (Broadchurch, Dead Europe) and Tony Ayres (The Slap, Cut Snake, Nowhere Boys), followed seven people who had inexplicably returned from the dead.

The second season sees .the Risen. unravel the mystery of how and why they are back while contending with a lethal threat..

In October it was announced that Netflix was coming on board as a production partner for the second season, along with Matchbox and the ABC.

.We can.t wait for our audience to see where the story goes. We want to deliver on the promise of answers and keep the thrills and spills coming,...

Check out this slick new image from Chris Peckover’s Safe Neighborhood starring Olivia DeJonge (M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit), Levi Miller (Pan, Jasper Jones, Terra Nova, Red Dog: True Blue) and Ed Oxenbould (The Visit, Paper Planes, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated actress Virginia Madsen (Candyman, Joy, […]...

Kriv Stenders on-set..

More than five years since the original, the team behind 2011.s Red Dog have reunited for a sequel, Red Dog: True Blue — that.s actually a prequel.

Given the fate of the first film.s lead characters, that.s a canny move, though not one driven by box office, according to producer Nelson Woss. .

.There's a tight-knit team of the people behind Red Dog, and we wanted to try and find another film. [Writer] Daniel Taplitz suggested this concept which was almost like a reboot, or an origin story, that allowed us to go back and explore themes that were really interesting to [director] Kriv [Stenders] and I, because we both have young kids...

That idea, of going back to the 60.s, firmed up around two and a half years ago, says Stenders.

.It was great that we some had time off and some time to think about it and...

"We don't know who's out there!" The first trailer has debuted for an Australian coming-of-age drama titled Jasper Jones, adapted from Craig Silvey’s bestselling Australian novel of the same name. The film stars Levi Miller as a 14-year-old boy living in a small town, who is awoken by a local man named Jasper Jones, played by Aaron L. McGrath. Jasper leads him deep into the forest and shows him something that will change his life forever, setting them both on a dangerous journey to solve a mystery that will consume the entire community. This kind of sounds a bit like Stand by Me by way of Australia, and the trailer has a bit of that feeling. This also stars Hugo Weaving, Toni Collette, Angourie Rice, Matt Nable, Dan Wyllie, and Myles Pollard. Not sure when this film will show up in the Us, but it actually looks pretty damn good.

In Rachel Perkins’ new adaptation of Craig Silvey’s award-winning novel, a girl goes missing in an isolated and racially divided Australian town. Expecting to be blamed for her murder, 14-year-old Indigenous outcast Jasper Jones (Aaron McGrath) enlists schoolmate Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller) to help him solve the crime.

With Toni Collette as Charlie’s mother Ruth, and Hugo Weaving as Mad Jack Lionel, the film will be out in Australia on 2 March 2017

Continue reading...

Check out this slick new image from Chris Peckover’s Safe Neighborhood starring Olivia DeJonge (M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit), Levi Miller (Pan, Jasper Jones, Terra Nova, Red Dog: True Blue) and Ed Oxenbould (The Visit, Paper Planes, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated actress Virginia Madsen (Candyman, […]...

Check out this slick new image from Chris Peckover’s Safe Neighborhood starring Olivia DeJonge (M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit), Levi Miller (Pan, Jasper Jones, Terra Nova, Red Dog: True Blue) and Ed Oxenbould (The Visit, Paper Planes, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated actress Virginia Madsen (Candyman, […]...

Sam Neill, Sue Milliken, Anthony Buckley (Photo credit: Peter Jackson).

The 71st Australian International Movie Convention wrapped last week, with a delegation of just over 1,000 converging on the Gold Coast for the five-night-four-day convention.

Seven features screened at Aimc, including three Australian films: Don.t Tell — attended by cast members Jack Thompson Am, Rachel Griffiths, Sara West, Gyton Grantley, Martin Sacks and Robert Coleby; Jasper Jones — introduced by director Rachel Perkins; and Transmission's Oscar contender Lion — attended by mother and son Sue and Saroo Brierley, on whose story the film is based.

Sam Neill followed in the footsteps of Jack Thompson, winning the Aimc Lifetime Achievement award, and used the occassion to read out amusing testimonials from the likes of Bryan Brown, Rob Sitch and John Cleese congratulating him on his award..

Neill.s Hunt for the Wilderpeople director Taika Waititi watched on, fresh from the set of Thor: Ragnarok,...

Sam Neill, Sue Milliken, Anthony Buckley (Photo credit: Peter Jackson).

The 71st Australian International Movie Convention wrapped last week, with a delegation of just over 1,000 converging on the Gold Coast for the five-night-four-day convention.

Seven features screened at Aimc, including three Australian films: Don.t Tell — attended by cast members Jack Thompson Am, Rachel Griffiths, Sara West, Gyton Grantley, Martin Sacks and Robert Coleby; Jasper Jones — introduced by director Rachel Perkins; and Transmission's Oscar contender Lion — attended by mother and son Sue and Saroo Brierley, on whose story the film is based.

Sam Neill followed in the footsteps of Jack Thompson, winning the Aimc Lifetime Achievement award, and used the occassion to read out amusing testimonials from the likes of Bryan Brown, Rob Sitch and John Cleese congratulating him on his award..

Neill.s Hunt for the Wilderpeople director Taika Waititi watched on, fresh from the set of Thor: Ragnarok,...

The Code. . Shelley Birse has taken out the top prize at this year.s Awgie Awards, winning the Major Award for the second season of ABC cyber-thriller The Code..

The first season of The Code also took out the Australian Writers. Guild Major Award in 2014. This year.s award makes it the only series to have been recognised by two Major Awards for both of its seasons. The Code also received the Awgie Award for the Television: Miniseries — Original category.

Overall, more than 25 Australian writers —.from radio, television, film, theatre and interactive media — were honoured at this year.s Awgie Awards, held in Sydney on Friday evening.

Andrew Knight and Osamah Sami.s Ali.s Wedding took out the award for most outstanding script for an original feature, while Shaun Grant and Craig Silvey received the award for most outstanding feature adaptation for Jasper Jones.

Samantha Strauss was honoured for her original telemovie,...

The cast is uniformly good and only enriched by the consistently wonderful talents of Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette

Craig Silvey’s 2009 coming-of-age novel, Jasper Jones, has enjoyed a recent renaissance, with Kate Mulvany’s stage adaptation seeing three separate productions in as many years: at Perth’s Barking Gecko in 2014; at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre earlier this year; now at Melbourne Theatre Company, where it runs until 1 September.

But it was a feature film adaptation that premiered to an enthusiastic home field audience on Wednesday night at the opening of Western Australian film festival CinefestOz, in Busselton.

Continue reading...

Jacki Weaver and Ivan Sen on the Goldstone set.

Ivan Sen.s.Goldstone opened the 2016 Sydney Film Festival before Transmisison released it nationally on July 7, and will make its international premiere at Tiff next month.

The film reunites Sen and his longtime producing partner David Jowsey with actor Aaron Pederson, who reprises the role of Outback detective Jay Swan, first seen in Sen.s 2013 feature Mystery Road.

.He.s a guy from an Indigenous background who.s defending and upholding white law, which has been in conflict with the white establishment for such a long time,. says Sen.

.He.s very divisive, no matter where he goes. He.s loaded with all kinds of political, social connotations. The situations you could put him in and have something quite deep and meaningful come out [of] his experiences are endless..

Goldstone revisits Swan after the loss of his daughter, whose death occurred at...

The founder of Sydney-based Porchlight Films has teamed up with the UK’s See-Saw Films on the prestige drama ahead of a European production start later this year.

Tahar Rahim is in talks to play Judas in the biopic alongside Rooney Mara in the title role. Joaquin Phoenix in is negotiations to play Jesus and Chiwetel Ejiofor is in talks to play the apostle Peter.

Garth Davis will direct from a screenplay by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett.

Watts, who launched Porchlight in 1997 with producer Vincent Sheehan and co-director Anita Sheehan, collaborated with See-Saw on 2012 drama Dead Europe.

Her credits include David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom, The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe, The Rover starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, and Little Fish with Cate Blanchett.

She most recently served as executive producer on eight-part detective series The Kettering Incident and is working in the same role on the feature adaptation of Jasper Jones starring Levi Miller, [link...

Shaun Grant.

The Australian Writers. Guild has unveiled the nominees for the 49th Annual Awgie Awards.

Writers from the upcoming Australian films Boys in the Trees and Ali.s Wedding are nominated alongside the scribes behind Cleverman, Wentworth, Wolf Creek, Please Like Me and Glitch.

Hopscotch's John Collee is nominated twice, for Tanna (with Bentley Dean, Martin Butler and the.Yakel tribe of Tanna Island) and, in the feature film-adaptation category, for The Patriarch.

So is Shaun Grant, for both Berlin Syndrome and Jasper Jones, the latter of which he co-wrote with novelist Craig Silvey..

In a first for the awards, the newly introduced Short Form category received more than 30 entries, the highest number of any category..

23 AWGIEs will be awarded across categories covering the full spectrum of performance writing in radio, television, film, theatre and interactive media. . . . ..

For 49 years, the Australian Writers. Guild has presented the Awgie Awards to...

(L-r): Brooke Silcox and Shakara Walley

Brooke Silcox and Shakara Walley have been named as the recipients of the Screenwest Emerging Producer Initiative.

The initiative provides emerging Western Australian producers with a year of tailored professional development opportunities and project development funding, a package valued at $100,000.

.This is a fantastic program that offers assistance to emerging practitioners who have demonstrated their commitment to becoming established producers. The application process was highly competitive with the outcome resulting in funding two strong candidates,. said Screenwest chief executive Ian Booth..

.This is an amazing career opportunity to further their careers. Both producers will be supported to develop their producing skills, develop new projects and make national and international industry contacts..

Brooke Silcox.s screen experience includes producing the soon-to-be-released feature documentary.Meal Tickets, which will have its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival this August. She is also currently producing...

Angourie Rice in Cannes.

Australian actress Angourie Rice has been cast in the next Spiderman film, currently shooting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rice was singled out by critics for her performance in Shane Black's The Nice Guys, in which she starred alongside Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.

The Melbourne native has previously appeared in Walking with Dinosaurs 3D and These Final Hours in 2013, The Doctor Blake Mysteries in 2014 and Nowhere Boys: Book of Shadows.earlier this year.

As first reported by THR, Rice's role in Spider-Man: Homecoming is being kept under wraps.

The film is the first Spiderman film made under the aegis of Marvel, and stars In the Heart of the Sea's Tom Holland as Peter Parker.

The Jon Watts-directed blockbuster is slated to hit cinemas July 7 next year.

Starring alongside Rice and Holland are Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., Community's Donald Glover and Prometheus star Logan Marshall-Green.

It's only been a few weeks since filming began on Marvel and Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming, and already we've seen a number of set photos as production continues in Atlanta, while several more cast members have been added. Over just the past week, actors such as Abraham Attah, Garcelle Beauvais, Tiffany Espensen and Tyne Daly have signed on, although no details have been given as to who they're playing. Today we have word that the superhero adventure has brought on The Nice Guys star Angourie Rice.

Like most of the new cast members before her, no details were given about which character Angourie Rice is playing, and The Hollywood Reporter doesn't specify if she has already started filming in Atlanta quite yet. While the cast keeps growing and growing, only a few actors' characters have been confirmed, such as Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Marisa Tomei as Aunt May.

Brooke Goldfinch and Catriona McKenzie have been chosen as the director.s attachments on Sir Ridley Scott.s Alien: Covenant..

They will work on the project for five weeks while the production films in Australia.

The Director.s Attachment Scheme is an incentive program funded by Screen Australia and managed by the Adg for emerging directors to develop their craft.

Both Goldfinch and McKenzie are accomplished directors..

In 2016 Goldfinch was nominated for Best Direction in a Short Film at the Adg Awards..

She is a graduate of the Tisch School for the Arts in New York and was selected to direct a segment of the compendium feature film The Colour of Time, starring James Franco and Jessica Chastain.

McKenzie is Aftrs alumni whose debut feature film, Satellite Boy (2012), won the Crystal Bear Special Mention Award for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival. Catriona.s other credits include Redfern Now and Dance Academy.

Simon Baker as Sando with Samsom Coulter (Pikelet) and Ben Spence (Loonie) in Breath.

The Western Australian Government has pumped $16 million worth of funding into the state's screen industry as part of new regional film fund.

The fund will aim to attract signficant levels of production from Australia and internationally.

The funding comes from the state government's Royalties for Regions scheme, a $1 billion program that underpins the government's commitment to developing Western Australia's regional areas into vibrant communities that are desirable places to live, work and invest..

The Western Australian Regional Film Fund will provide strategic finance that will stimulate regional screen industry activity and will be available to Australian and international film or television productions..

Productions must meet several quality criteria including minimum production spend in the regions and State, and likely audience reach..

Applications will be considered on a case by case basis that meet agreed thresholds of...

George Miller at last year's awards.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) will return to Channel Seven in December, following record viewers last year.

Presented by Presto, the sixth Aacta awards will be held on December 7 at The Star Event Centre in Sydney. An extended version of the ceremony will again encore on Foxtel.

The sixth AACTAs will also feature a new award - the Aacta Award for Best Hair and Makeup, which encompasses film and television.

The academy is calling for entries across feature film, documentary and short film award categories, and for jurors across all awards categories.

A host of new television awards will also announced next month as a result of Aacta's new partnership with Astra.

This year will see more than 45 peer-assessed awards presented. Television entries, and jurors for the new TV categories, will be called for when the newly expanded television awards are announced in May.

Exclusive: President Charlotte Mickie announced on Thursday a pair of key deals with Efm buyers on the drama.

Nfp Marketing and Distribution has acquired German, Swiss and Austrian rights to the film starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, while Imagine Film Distribution has acquired Benelux.

Maudie is in post-production and recounts the life story of folk artist Maud Lewis and her unlikely husband Everett. Aisling Walsh directs.

“We’re very proud and happy to have two more passionate and dedicated partners on Maudie,” said Mickie. “It’s an exceptional project that has attracted nothing but equally exceptional collaborators.”

Nfp vice-president Christian Ott said: “After reading the script in May last year we immediately connected with this wonderful heart-warming story about life, love and art and how persistence will lead to happiness. Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke add the magic ingredient. We are proud to be part of a film not to be missed.”

Christian Thomas of Imagine...

First look: Olivia DeJonge as Ashley with Levi Miller as Luke in Safe Neighborhood. Photo by Sean O'Reilly

.

Virginia Madsen (Joy, Sideways) and Patrick Warburton (Ted, Family Guy, Seinfeld) have joined the cast of Safe Neighbourhood, currently shooting at Sydney's Fox Studios and starring Olivia DeJonge (M. Night Shyamalan.s The Visit), Levi Miller (Pan, Jasper Jones, Red Dog: True Blue) and Ed Oxenbould (The Visit, Paper Planes).

Also joining the cast are Dacre Montgomery (Lionsgate.s upcoming Power Rangers) and Aleks Mikic (Joe Cinque.s Consolation, Secret City).

The Storm Vision Entertainment and Best Medicine production is described as "Home Alone meets Scream".

"Set in a quiet American suburb on a snowy evening on the lead up to Christmas, Ashley (Olivia DeJonge), the regular babysitter for Deandra (Virginia Madsen) and Robert Lerner (Patrick Warburton), has to defend their twelve-year-old son (Levi Miller) from strangers breaking into the house -...