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Australian film maker Gabriel Shipton wants his new documentary “Ithaka”, which will have its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on Sunday, to shine a new perspective on his brother, the polarizing Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.

“It’s a story that’s never been told before,” Shipton, who produced the film, told Variety. “We’ve learned Julian’s story through media headlines, but I wanted to tell this story through his family. To explore the human side that people haven’t seen.”

“Ithaka” begins in April 2019 when the images of Assange, arrested and dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London were splashed across screens worldwide. From there writer-director Ben Lawrence (“Hearts and Bones”) focuses on Assange’s 76-year-old father John Shipton, and Assange’s former secret fiancée, Stella Moris. They have spent the past two years relentlessly campaigning for Assange’s release, while trying to assemble some normality into...

Ben Lawrence and Beatrix Christian’s Hearts and Bones was named best original feature film screenplay at the Australian Writers’ Guild’s annual Awgie Awards yesterday evening, while Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps took home the adaptation prize for Penguin Bloom.

Two of 2019’s top dramas, The Hunting, written by Niki Aken and Matthew Cormack, and Total Control (Episode 3), by Pip Karmel, were recognised in the television categories, while The Heights, lauded for its depiction of contemporary Australia, won Peter Mattessi the Awgie in the television serial category, ending a run of 16-straight years for Neighbours and Home and Away.

Playwright Suzie Miller’s critically acclaimed one-woman play Prima Facie took out the evening’s highest honours, winning the 2020 Major Award, the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre, and in the stage category.

The one-woman play holds a mirror up to the Australian legal system, exposing...

The Surrogate, All I Can Say, Driveways also sell.

Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films has announced a slew of deals following the virtual AFM and Ventana Sur markets.

Tribeca selection Lorelei (pictured) starring Pablo Schreiber and Jena Malone, has been sold to HBO Europe for Eastern Europe. A US announcement is imminent on the film.

SXSW drama The Surrogate has gone to Studio Soho Distribution for UK and Ireland and HBO Europe for Eastern Europe, with Starz picking up US cable rights.

The film opened in the US through a virtual theatrical release orchestrated by Visit’s sister company Monument Releasing,...

Ben Lawrence took home the main prize – Best Direction in a Feature Film (Budget $1M+) – at last night’s Australian Directors’ Guild (Adg) Awards, for his debut narrative feature Hearts and Bones.

Held virtually and hosted by Greta Lee Jackson and Nina Oyama, this year’s Adg Awards also saw female directors take home 10 of the 19 prizes – marking the first time ever that women have made up more than 50 per cent of winners.

Among them were Josephine Mackerras, who took home Best Direction of A Feature Film (Budget under $1M) for the French-language Alice; Maya Newell whose In My Blood It Runs saw her win Best Direction of a Documentary Feature, and Emma Freeman, who won Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Mini-Series for Stateless: Episode 3.

The guild suggests this reflects the push for gender parity in the industry. Traditionally, women have been extremely underrepresented in director roles, and last week,...

"You have opened a door to the past... I must go through." Gravitas Ventures has released the official US trailer for the indie photographer drama Hearts and Bones, which is finally getting a US release on VOD this fall. The film originally premiered at a few key film festivals last year, and it already opened in Australia earlier this summer (watch the first trailer). The Australian drama stars Hugo Weaving as a veteran war photographer, who befriends a Sudanese refugee while back home in Australia. Preparing for an upcoming exhibition, his new friend gets involved in his process and questions whether photos from a massacre in his village should be displayed. The film also stars Andrew Luri, Hayley McElhinney, & Bolude Watson. It's a solid drama with a complex relationship at its core, explored in a compelling way thanks to Weaving taking on such an intricate role. He's matched by Luri's profound performance as well.

We have a new trailer for Hearts and Bones. This is the latest from filmmaker Ben Lawrence, who has primarily been known for his documentary work up to this point. Lawrence his trying his hand at a narrative feature this time, with Hugo Weaving in the leading role as a wartime photographer suffering from Ptsd. As we can see from the trailer, it looks like an intense and emotional journey with a centerpiece performance from Weaving.

The trailer kicks off with Hugo Weaving recounting some of the threats he's dealt with as a photographer covering dangerous situations on the battlefield. We get a sense of his moral compass as well as the distress that has entered his day-to-day life as a result of his work. Things take a turn when he encounters a man who lived in a town that suffered a great tragedy, one that he photographed. The two bond,...

Anshul Chauhan’s Kontora won best picture in the feature film category of the Japanese Film Competition.

Maria Sodahl’s Hope received the Grand Prize in the International Competition of this year’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in Japan, which took place virtually and wrapped on October 4.

The Norway-Sweden co-production, which is based on the director’s own experiences, tells the story of a woman with six children waiting to receive a cancer diagnosis. “I thought the director herself is asking the question of ‘living’ by snuggling up with the protagonist,” said Japanese filmmaker Masa Sawada, who served as jury president.

Monica Zanetti’s screenplay of Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt), Ben Lawrence and Beatrix Christian’s Hearts and Bones and Ally Burnham’s Unsound have been nominated for best original feature in the 53rd annual Awgie Awards.

The contenders for the feature film adaptation prize are Thomas M. Wright and Erik Jensen’s Acute Misfortune, Lisa Hoppe’s H is for Happiness, Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps’ Penguin Bloom and C.S. McMullen’s The Other Lamb.

The TV series prize promises to be a close race between episodes of Glen Dolman’s Bloom, Michael Petroni’s Messiah for Netflix, Belinda Chayko’s Stateless, Samantha Strauss’ The End and Pip Karmel’s Total Control.

Timothy Hobart, John Ridley, Jeremy Nguyen, Alan Nguyen and Michele Lee’s Hungry Ghosts will square off against Matthew Cormack and Niki Aken’s The Hunting for best miniseries.

In the TV serial category it must...

‘The Invisible Man.’

In this unprecedented, fractured year for Australian cinemas, finally enough Aussie films have been released to compile the top 10 titles.

In the chart from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, the contrast between the pre-covid-19 releases and those that entered the market after cinemas re-opened, could not be starker.

Arguably the $15.03 million total would have been somewhat higher had Natalie Erika James’ Relic , Unjoo Moon’s I Am Woman and Dean Murphy’s The Very Excellent Mr Dundee not gone straight to Stan or Amazon Prime.

In addition, early digital releases including Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, Maziar Lahooti’s Below and Kriv Stenders’ Brock: Over the Top deprived audiences of the chance to see them in the optimum way.

The closure of Victorian cinemas, the lack of major new releases and limits on sessions and seating capacity could mean a grim outlook for cinemas,...

Sophie Hyde, pictured here on the set of ‘Animals’, has been nominated for two Adg Awards.

First-time feature directors Thomas Wright (Acute Misfortune), John Sheedy (H is for Happiness), Ben Lawrence (Hearts and Bones) and Natalie Erika James (Relic) will vie for the Australian Directors’ Guild (Adg) Award for Best Direction in a Feature Film ($1 million or over) against Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Wayne Blair (Top End Wedding).

Up in the $1 million or under category are Josephine Mackerras for Alice, Imogen Thomas for Emu Runner, Lucy Colman for Hot Mess, Luke Sullivan for Reflections In The Dust and Samuel Van Grinsven for Sequin In A Blue Room.

The Adg announced nominees for its annual awards today, with winners to be announced in Sydney at a ceremony October 19. A record 202 entries were received this year, up from 117 in 2019.

“At these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we come...

‘I Am Woman.’

Unjoo Moon’s debut feature I Am Woman will premiere on Stan as a Stan Original on August 28 – the latest in a growing list of Australian films to bypass cinemas as the pandemic continues to depress the theatrical market.

This follows the straight-to-streaming deals for Dean Murphy’s comedy The Very Excellent Mr Dundee,, Natalie Erika James’ Relic and digital releases Maziar Lahooti’s Below (July 8), Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones (May 6) and Alexs Stadermann’s animated feature 100% Wolf.

Cinemagoers may well feel aggrieved about missing the opportunity to see these films in cinemas, although Hearts and Bones and 100% Wolf did play on a handful of screens, as did Kriv Stenders’ Brock: Over the Top.

But distributors can hardly be blamed for opting not to spend up to a million dollars on marketing while ticket sales remain at historically low levels. Transmission Films had planned cinema...

‘The Assistant.’

As more cinemas around Australia opened their doors, ticket sales improved last weekend from a low base as several art house titles led by Kitty Green’s The Assistant entered the market.

Exhibitors blame the lack of new mainstream releases rather than any discernible reticence to return to cinemas.

“Business is incredibly quiet, with no new films in the market,” says Geoff Chard, national programming manager at Village Cinemas, which re-opened eight complexes last week with another six to follow this Thursday and the remainder later in July.

“Titanic, released 23 years ago, was number four for the weekend. That makes perfect sense as the films released in February and March are still the top films, albeit on very low grosses.”

At Cinema Nova, where The Assistant was the most popular title, ticket sales were spread fairly evenly among the retro releases. CEO Kristian Connelly says: “For many moviegoers...

‘Brock: Over the Top.’

Kriv Stenders’ feature documentary on motor racing legend Peter Brock, Brock: Over the Top will start to roll out in cinemas on Thursday before its Premium VOD release on July 3.

The movie produced by WildBear Entertainment’s Veronica Fury and other PVOD releases such as Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones and Alexs Stadermann’s animated feature 100% Wolf are benefiting from the willingness of some independent cinemas to screen films just before or while they are available on home entertainment.

This is a boon for the VOD platforms recently launched by Dendy Cinemas, the Ritz Cinema in Sydney and Melbourne’s Classic, Lido and Cameo Cinemas and the Golden Age Cinema.

However the usual 90-day theatrical window is expected to be reinstated when cinemas around the country are back in business, except for alternate content releases such as musical concerts and National Theatre Live.

Bonsai Films’ Jonathan Page,...

‘The Invisible Man.’

Universal’s The Invisible Man is getting a second lease of theatrical life thanks to drive-ins and newly re-opened cinemas in Western Australia, Adelaide and Alice Springs.

Leigh Whannell’s psychological thriller was the top grosser last weekend as the top 20 titles rang up $456,000, a whopping 148 per cent up on the previous frame, according to Numero.

Including the Queen’s Birthday holiday in most states, nationwide takings totaled $514,000.

Whannell’s film starring Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer and Michael Dorman earned $66,000 on 10 screens over those five days in week 15, lifting the total to $8.06 million.

That means the movie co-produced by Blumhouse Productions’ Jasom Blum and Goalpost Pictures’ Kylie du Fresne has grossed $160,000 since cinemas shuttered in March, although it was released on Premium VOD on April 1.

Seven drive-in cinemas in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Heddon Greta near Newcastle and Yatala in South-East Queensland are generating tidy sums.

Ryan Corr in ‘Below’ (Photo credit: David Dare Parker).

Madman Entertainment will release Maziar Lahooti’s debut feature Below on digital platforms and on DVD on July 8, bypassing cinemas.

Ryan Corr and Anthony Lapaglia star in the refugee detention centre action-drama produced by Nick Batzias of Good Thing Productions, Veronica Gleeson and Kate Neylon.

It will be the third Australian title to go straight to home entertainment since Covid-19 disrupted the film industry. Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones went out as a Premium VOD release via Madman on May 6.

Flying Bark Productions’ animated feature 100% Wolf, scripted by Fin Edquist and directed by Alexs Stadermann and produced by Barbara Stephen and Alexia Gates-Foale, is taking the Pvod route from tomorrow. The voice cast is headed by Jai Courtney, Rhys Darby, Jane Lynch, Samara Weaving, Magda Szubanksi and Akmal Saleh.

In the pre-pandemic era, all three would have played in cinemas.

Madman, Front Row, Gravitas Ventures, NonStop among international buyers.

Visit Films has closed a wave of deals including territories on Berlinale entries Minyan and White Riot, and Sundance selections Dinner In America, The Last Shift, and Feels Good Man.

The New York-based company licensed the drama Minyan starring Samuel H. Levine and Ron Rifkin in Germany and Austria to Salzgeber and in Benelux to Arti Film.

Sundance comedy Dinner In America with Kyle Gallner and Emily Skeggs has gone to Madman in Australia and New Zealand and Lev Cinemas in Israel. Visit closed a deal on Richard Jenkins dramedy The Last Shift...

‘Hearts and Bones’.

Director Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones has sold to Gravitas Ventures for the Us via Visit Films.

Produced by Matt Reeder and written by Lawrence with Beatrix Christian, the film made its world premiere in competition at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival, before bowing internationally in Toronto.

The drama follows the relationship between a war photographer (Hugo Weaving) and a South Sudanese refugee (newcomer Andrew Luri), who later discover a photograph that threatens to destroy them both. Hayley McElhinney and Bolude Watson also star.

The Us deal was negotiated by Ryan Kampe and Lydia Rodman on behalf of Visit Films and Nick Royak and Brendan Gallagher at Gravitas Ventures.

Hearts and Bones is Lawrence’s narrative feature debut, following on from award-winning documentary Ghosthunter.

Lawrence said:, “I’m thrilled that Gravitas will present Hearts and Bones to a larger international audience. The response from our festival tour...

From the director of Ghosthunter, this slow rumination on the lingering effects of wartime trauma is consistent, if not cinematic

Film-makers like it when critics use the word “restrained” to describe their work because it implies an intellectual rigour mostly absent in the excessive spectacles of mainstream cinema. Audiences who are looking for something more substantial like it too, for the same reasons. So for what it’s worth, let me say this right off the bat: director Ben Lawrence’s Sydney-set drama Hearts and Bones, which revolves around the relationship between a war photographer and a South Sudanese refugee, is certainly restrained.

It is a human-oriented drama that builds a thoughtful and contemplative space, empathising with characters grappling with difficult circumstances outside the common experience. It is also the kind of drama you sometimes want to grab and shake to life. Get the lens a little dirty; knock the...

Exclusive: Visit Films has licensed U.S. rights for drama Hearts And Bones to Gravitas Ventures.

The Toronto 2019 world premiere stars Hugo Weaving (The Lord Of The Rings) as Dan, a renowned war photographer struggling

with Ptsd, who forms an unexpected bond with Sebastian, a Sudanese refugee, until one of his photographs unearths a dark secret from Sebastian’s past. Also starring are Andrew Luri, Hayley McElhinney, and Bolude Watson.

The deal was negotiated by Ryan Kampe and Lydia Rodman on behalf of Visit Films and Nick Royak and Brendan Gallagher at Gravitas Ventures.

Pic is directed by Ben Lawrence and written by Lawrence and Beatrix Cristian. Matt Reeder produced under his company Night Kitchen Productions. The movie also played at the Sydney, Melbourne and Hamptons film festivals.

Lawrence stated, “I’m thrilled that Gravitas will present Hearts And Bones to a larger international audience. The response from our festival...

‘Hearts and Bones.’

Madman Entertainment had dated Ben Lawrence’s debut feature Hearts and Bones for an April 30 premiere on 40 screens, the marketing campaign was ready and Hugo Weaving was set do a a publicity tour.

That was until the sky fell in – all cinemas closed due to the pandemic – so the distributor and producer Matt Reeder had to rethink their strategy.

The upshot: The drama which follows Weaving’s war photographer and a South Sudanese refugee (newcomer Andrew Luri), who discovers a photograph that threatens to destroy them both, will be available to buy on digital platforms for $19.95 from May 6.

“Matt and Ben are fully on board with the decision; this is a great time to experiment,” says Madman Entertainment MD Paul Wiegard.

Wiegard is confident the download-to-own offer will get significant take-up through iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Sony PlayStation, Telstra and Fetch TV. That will be followed by...

‘I Am Woman’.

This year’s Gold Coast Film Festival will be bookended by two Aussie features, opening with Unjoo Moon’s Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman, and closing with the locally shot comedic thriller Bloody Hell, directed by Alister Grierson.

The April festival dropped its full program today, announcing more than 100 films, including four world premieres: Kriv Stenders’ documentary on Silm Dusty’s wife Joy McKean, Slim & I; Hayley MacFarlane’s Swimming for Gold; Josh Hale’s House of Inequity and Serhat Caradee’s A Lion Returns.

Other local films to screen include Never Too Late, Smoke Between Trees, Disclosure, Hearts and Bones, Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks, Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road, Dark Whispers Vol 1, The Show Must Go On, Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt), Morgana, and Love Opera.

Ahead of its premiere on the ABC April 19, the festival will also screen...

Ryan Kampe screening all three in the market.

Visit Films heads to the Efm in Berlin this week with a slate bolstered by Sundance acquisitions The Last Shift and Feels Good Man, and Berlin Panorama selection Minyan.

Ryan Kampe and his team will screen all three in Berlin, alongside previously announced punk rock documentary and Generations selection White Riot, Park City premieres Summer White and Dinner In America, and Toronto title Hearts And Bones starring Hugo Weaving.

The Last Shift stars Richard Jenkins and Shane Paul McGhie and screened in the Premieres section. Jenkins plays a fast food worker about...

‘High Ground.’

For Madman Entertainment 2019 was the distributor’s most consistent year ever, with 14 films each grossing more than $500,000 at Australian cinemas – and the 2020 slate looks even stronger.

Stephen Johnson’s High Ground, Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, Christopher Nelius’ feature doc The Sideshow, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 and the third edition of the 1990s Bill & Ted comedy franchise are among the stand-out titles.

“While it is fair to say that holistically, the independent or mid-range theatrical space is facing unique challenges our job is to seek out remarkable films which will start conversations, cut through the pack and connect with audiences to a level that seemingly defies these trends,” Madman MD Paul Wiegard tells If.

“When evaluating content for theatrical release, we are looking for titles that are specifically relevant for a theatrical audience. It needs to be content which demands a big screen experience,...

Fifty years ago this week, Simon and Garfunkel released Bridge Over Troubled Water.

It was not only their most successful album — selling millions of copies and earning them six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year — but it was also their final LP. They reformed several times over the next four decades for nostalgic tours, and even a one-off single in 1975, but the album marked the end of their creative partnership.

To celebrate the anniversary, the duo is releasing the new digital Ep Simon & Garfunkel – Live at Carnegie Hall 1969 to streaming services.

‘The Nightingale’.

Last night’s Aacta Awards saw a trifecta for Jennifer Kent, who took home Best Film, Best Direction and Best Screenplay for The Nightingale, with star Aisling Franciosi also winning Best Lead Actress.

Set in 1825, The Nightingale follows a young, female Irish convict (Franciosi) who chases a British officer through the Tasmanian wilderness bent on revenge after he committed an act of violence against her family, and who along the way enlists the help of an Aboriginal tracker. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2018, with Kent the only female director in competition. It won the Special Jury Prize and Baykali Ganambarr the Marcello Mastroiaani Award for his debut performance.

Produced by Causeway Films’ Kristina Ceyton, Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky, and Kent, the period tale beat out The King, Judy & Punch, Hearts and Bones, Ride Like A Girl and Top End Wedding for the Best Film prize.

Kirsty McGregor and Gemma Brown won Best Casting in a Feature Film for ‘Hearts and Bones’.

The Casting Guild of Australia (Cga) named 10 actors as its top emerging talent of 2019 and celebrated the best casting of the year at its annual awards Friday evening in Melbourne.

Leading the winners was Kirsty McGregor, who took home three awards, including Best Casting in a TV Comedy for Foxtel’s Mr Inbetween (series 2) and further two with colleague Gemma Brown, including Best Casting in A Feature Film for Hearts and Bones, and Achievement in Casting for ABC children’s series The Unlisted.

Annie Murtagh-Monks won Best Casting in a TV Drama for her work on The Heights series 1, while Best Casting in a TV Miniseries and Telemovie went to Angela Heesom for Sbs’s The Hunting. Best Casting in a Short Film went to Stevie Ray for Strangers.

Annie Murtagh-Monks won Best Casting...

Slate sales on SXSW winners Alice, Saint Frances, Tito.

Visit Films has concluded a raft of deals on its Afm slate that includes documentaries White Riot and The Sanctity Of Space, and Toronto drama Hearts And Bones starring Hugo Weaving.

Company president Ryan Kampe and director of sales Lydia Rodman have licensed White Riot in the UK (Modern Films), Australia and New Zealand (Icon Film Distribution), Films We Like (Canada) and Benelux (Periscoop). Rubika Shah’s punk rock documentary won the Grierson Award for best documentary at BFI London Film Festival and an international premiere is being lined up for a major festival.

‘Hearts and Bones’.

The casting directors behind Hearts and Bones, Judy and Punch, The Nightingale and Unsound will duke it out for the feature film prize at the upcoming Casting Guild of Australia Awards.

To be held November 29 in Melbourne, the awards will be hosted by actors Zahra Newman (Wentworth) and Mark Coles Smith (Picnic at Hanging Rock), with special guest Aacta Award-winning producer Todd Abbott from Guesswork.

In TV drama, the casting directors behind Diary of an Uber Driver, The Heights (series 1), Total Control and Wentworth (Season 7) have each been recognised with nods, while in the TV Miniseries & Telemovie category it will be a battle between those who worked on Lambs of God, On the Ropes, Secret Bridesmaids Business and The Hunting.

Casting Guild of Australia president Kirsty McGregor leads with seven nominations, three of which are shared with Gemma Brown and one with Stevie Ray (Diary of an Uber Driver...

Nominations for the 9th annual Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) Awards were unveiled in Sydney on Oct. 23, with Jennifer Kent‘s “The Nightingale” sweeping the film nominations with 15 nominations. The period thriller follow-up to Kent’s horror directorial debut “The Babadook” was followed closely by Anthony Maras‘ true story thriller “Hotel Mumbai” and Oscar nominee David Michod‘s Netflix period picture “The King,” with 13 bids apiece. On the TV side, gothic period drama “Lambs of God” shattered Aacta records with 14 nominations across TV categories, with an additional four subscription television award nominations. Winners will be revealed at a luncheon on Dec. 2 and a ceremony two days later.

Other nominees this year include Timothee Chalamet (“The King”), Dev Patel (“Hotel Mumbai”), Ben Mendelsohn (“The King”), Hilary Swank (“I Am Mother”), Ann Dowd (“Lambs of God”), Rachel Griffiths (“Total Control”) and Jacki Weaver (“Bloom”). Previous Aacta Award winner Damon Herriman...

‘Lambs of God’.

Lingo Pictures’ four-part TV drama Lambs of God has collected an unprecedented 18 Aacta Award nominations, while Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale leads in film with 15 nods.

The Australian Academy revealed the full list of nominees for the annual awards today, with almost 60 to be presented across two events in Sydney in six weeks time.

Some 15 films are up for awards, though four dominate almost every category: Kent’s revenge tale, Anthony Maras’ debut feature Hotel Mumbai and David Michôd’s Netflix-backed The King, which each received 13 nominations, and Mirrah Foulkes’ dark comedy Judy & Punch, which earned nine. Each is nominated for Best Film alongside Rachel Griffiths’ Ride Like A Girl and Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding.

Up in the Best Indie Film category (budgeted under $2 million) are Thomas M. Wright’s Acute Misfortune, Heath Davis’ Book Week, Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy, Imogen Thomas’ Emu...

Macario De Souza, the writer/director behind ‘6 Festivals’.

Screen Australia has announced production funding for three feature films and one online project, to a total of $1.4 million.

The slate includes supernatural drama You Won’t Be Alone from writer/director Goran Stolevski and producers Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings of Causeway Films; and 6 Festivals, a drama centred on a group of friends who commit to a bucket list of music festivals over one summer from writer/director Macario De Souza.

Also receiving funding are writer/director Tyson Johnston’s Streamline, about a prospective teen Olympic swimmer to played by Levi Miller; and Moments of Clarity, an online animated comedy about the existential truths of ordinary life from writer/director Tim Logan.

In addition to the above slate, completion funding was supplied to See Picture’s comedy feature June Again. Written and directed by JJ Winlove and produced by Jamie Hilton,...

‘Hearts and Bones’ stars Andrew Luri, Bolude Watson, director Ben Lawrence and star Hugo Weaving.

For director Ben Lawrence, the reaction to his feature debut Hearts and Bones at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) was both “emotional and overwhelming”.

Lawrence reports the standing ovations at every screening and the outpouring of praise for the cast, particularly for South Sudanese immigrant Andrew Luri in his acting debut, made a huge impact.

Of the film’s Canadian reception, Liane Cunje, Tiff Discovery and International programming associate said: “I’ve run the gamut of audiences reactions here at Tiff for films we programme from around the world, and I’ve never witnessed such an emotional celebration after a screening as the one I saw after Hearts and Bones.”

The film, which made its world premiere in competition at the Sydney Film Festival in June, screened as part of the Tiff Discovery program,...

Hugo Weaving learned upon making his latest film “Hearts and Bones” that it’s not just soldiers who suffer from Ptsd and the horrors of war.

Weaving plays a war photographer struggling with post traumatic stress, and in researching his role he said he was shocked at the number of war photographers and correspondents that suffer the same trauma as the subjects they photograph.

“How many of them actually suffer from Ptsd is actually quite extraordinary,” Weaving told TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman following the film’s international premiere at Tiff. “Not only people who are actually combatants are affected by it, but also civilians and people who are reporting on it. It’s something that traumatizes everyone.”

Also Read: Why 'Military Wives' Director Peter Cattaneo Wouldn't Call His Feel-Good Movie a 'Comedy' (Video)

In the debut feature film from director Ben Lawrence, Weaving connects with a Sudanese refugee...

We have a trailer for you to check out for the Australian drama Hearts and Bones, starring Hugo Weaving.

The film deals with a war photographer who goes home to Australia between tours and, while dealing with severe Ptsd, prepares for an exhibit in which he will show the photos from his career. A Sudanese refugee (played by Andrew Luri) now living in Australia has a lot to lose if one particular photo goes public, so he befriends Weaving’s character, and the two embark on a friendship, both riding the emotional waves of a life post-war.

Hearts and Bones was directed by newcomer Ben Lawrence, who co-wrote the screenplay with Beatrix Christian. The film also stars Hayley McElhinney and Bolude Watson.

This looks like a heavy film, but a powerful one with an important story to tell. Check out the trailer below, and let us know if you’re interested in this film.

"You don't have to put yourself through this..." One of the many new films premiering at the Toronto Film Festival this month is this one - Hearts and Bones, an Australian drama marking the narrative debut of filmmaker Ben Lawrence. This originally premiered at the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals already, now playing in Toronto to continue its festival run internationally. The indie drama stars Aussie actor Hugo Weaving as a veteran war photographer, who befriends a Sudanese refugee while back home. Preparing for an upcoming exhibition, his new friend gets involved in his process and questions whether photos from a massacre in his village should be displayed. The film also stars Andrew Luri, Hayley McElhinney, and Bolude Watson. It's a solid drama, reminding us how important connection and understanding is in our world. This is a full-on promo trailer that sets up the whole film, but it's still a...

‘Top End Wedding’, ‘Hearts and Bones’ and ‘The King’ are among the 34 longlisted films.

Some 34 feature films will compete for nominations for this year’s Aacta Awards, and the longlist covers a diverse range of titles, from box office earners like Top End Wedding and Storm Boy, through to critically lauded films like The Nightingale and micro budget indies such as Suburban Wildlife.

However, perhaps the most notable inclusion in the longlist is David Michôd’s Netflix Original The King, which premiered at Venice Film Festival last week to an eight-minute standing ovation.

Typically, to be eligible for Aacta Awards, a film – even when made for a streaming platform – must have paid cinema screenings in Australia or local festival play.

Aacta has made an exception for The King, which is not due to play in Australian cinemas or in festivals before its release on Netflix later this year, because of...

After witnessing famed Australian war photographer Daniel Fisher (Hugo Weaving) endure a traumatic experience in Iran during the opening of Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, the sudden shift to a taxi driver (Andrew Luri’s Sebastian Ahmed) will seem abrupt. It’s not, however, a coincidence that the latter recognizes the former’s name on the radio since they have a shared history courtesy of a small Sudanese village. Dan was on assignment during a massacre fifteen years ago that claimed the lives of Sebastian’s family. One documented the nightmare to guarantee the world couldn’t ignore this atrocity while the other subsequently spent years trying to forget it. What should Dan do when the refugee asks him to exclude those sensitive, personal images from his new exhibit? Where do truth and decency diverge?

It’s a complex subject spanning the artistic merits of non-fiction work to the human cost documented within.

(L-r) John Sheedy, Daisy Axon, Julie Ryan, Lisa Hoppe and Tenille Kennedy (Photo credit: Court McAllister).

John Sheedy’s feature debut H is for Happiness, an adaptation of Barry Jonsberg’s young adult novel My Life as an Alphabet, has won this year’s $100,000 CinefestOZ Film Prize.

Announcing the award at the Saturday night gala, jury chair Rachel Ward said: “If we have the power as jurors to change the world to be a better place, then voting for H is for Happiness to win the CinefestOZ 2019 is our contribution. As juror Alex Dimitriades added, H is also for Hope.”

The other finalists were Owen Trevor’s Go!, Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure.

Sheedy said: “The competition was so tough. There were five amazing films, I saw all of them. To be chosen in such good company...

‘The Australian Dream’.

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) opener – director Daniel Gordon’s The Australian Dream – has proved an audience favourite, winning the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The film, which was also nominated for an Aacta Award earlier this week, explores race, identity and belonging from the perspective of former Sydney Swans captain and Australian of the Year, Adam Goodes. Written by Stan Grant, it opened at Miff to a seven minute standing ovation.

The winner of the Best Narrative Feature went to Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which depicts a romance between a painter and her subject. It won Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm in Cannes earlier this year.

John Sheedy’s debut feature H is For Happiness, which stars Daisy Axon, Wesley Patten,, Richard Roxburgh, Emma Booth, Miriam Margolyes, Joel Jackson and Deborah Mailman, was the runner up in the narrative awards.

(L-r) Jon Bell, Catriona McKenzie and Andrew Dillon (Photo credit: Mark Rogers).

To his direct descendants and the wider Aboriginal community, Pemulwuy, Australia’s first Indigenous resistance fighter, was a martyr, a leader, a patriot and a warrior.

Putting the man and his deeds in a contemporary context, writer Jon Bell says: “If Australia was invaded tomorrow and one man managed to keep those invading forces confined to the city areas for 10 years, he would be enshrined in Australian lore and there would be a national holiday.”

Bell is part of a creative team of leading black and white figures who are preparing a biopic on Pemulwuy, a member of the Bidjigal clan who led the opposition to British forces’ attempts to take over traditional hunting grounds from the early years of the colony until he was shot dead in 1802.

Phillip Noyce, who has wanted to tell this story for...

‘The Australian Dream.’

Daniel Gordon’s The Australian Dream and Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones will have their international premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In addition, Eva Orner’s Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator will be among 25 titles in the Tiff Docs section, along with The Australian Dream.

Good Thing Productions and Passion Pictures’ The Australian Dream opened the Melbourne International Film Festival. Written by Stan Grant, the film looks at race, identity and belonging from the perspective of former Sydney Swans captain and Indigenous rights activist Adam Goodes.

In 2013 Goodes sparked a national conversation about racism after requesting a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter be removed from the ground after calling him an “ape.”

Madman Entertainment will launch the film on 100—plus screens on August 22.

Lawrence’s debut feature Hearts and Bones, which had its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, will screen in the Discovery program.

Produced...

Marta Dusseldorp, Glenn Gainor, Alex Dimitriades and Ben Young will join chair Rachel Ward on the jury which will determine the winner of this year’s $100,000 CinefestOz Film Prize.

Owen Trevor’s Go!, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness, Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure will compete for Australia’s biggest film prize.

“The quality of this year’s Film Prize finalists is exceptionally high and we are delighted to have a jury of equal calibre to decide on the winner,” CinefestOZ chair Helen Shervington said.

Dimitriades made his acting debut in Michael Jenkins’ The Heartbreak Kid followed by Ana Kokkinos’ Head On. Other film performances include Three Blind Mice, Ghost Ship, Deuce Bigalow, Kings of Mykonos, Summer Coda, The Infinite Man and Ruben Guthrie.

His TV credits include The Slap, The Principal, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Wanted,...

‘Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan.’

The box office results for the Australian films and feature docs released in cinemas this year underline yet again the deep polarisation in the indie film market between the higher earners and the also-rans.

The top five titles – Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding, Shawn Seet’s Storm Boy, Anthony Marais’ Hotel Mumbai, Damon Gameau’s 2040 and Richard Lowenstein’s Mystify: Michael Hutchence – accounted for $15.8 million or 93 per cent of the Oz releases’ takings.

The Aussie films plus holdovers racked up nearly $17 million through the end of July, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.

That’s a long way below the $40.6 million generated in the same period last year, led by Peter Rabbit’s $26.6 million, Breath’s $4.4 million (finishing with $4.6 million) and Sweet Country’s $2 million.

Surveying the challenges facing the indie film business, Transmission Films’ Andrew Mackie tells If:...

Owen Trevor’s Go!, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness, Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure will compete for Australia’s biggest film prize.

Those are the finalists for the $100,000 prize at CinefestOZ, which will run from August 28 to September 1 in Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River and surrounds.

CinefestOZ festival chair Helen Shervington said it had been another stellar year for the film prize entries and this year’s finalists are the cream of the crop.

The prize was established in 2014 to recognise excellence in Australian filmmaking and is awarded on the gala night by a five-member industry jury, this year chaired by director/writer Rachel Ward.

Scripted by Paper Planes‘ Steve Worland and produced by See Pictures’ Jamie Hilton and Sonia Borella, Go! stars William Lodder, Anastasia Bampos, Darius Amarfio-Jefferson, Dan Wyllie, Cooper Van Grootel, Damian De Montemas,...

Time spent in a modern war zone can be traumatic for participant and observer alike, yet across continents and cultures, the shared experiences of living and loving in the wake of such experiences can be startlingly similar. This is multi-faceted and overarching theme woven throughout Ben Lawrence’s sensitive and affecting new Australian drama “Hearts and Bones,” an impressive narrative feature debut from the winner of last year’s Sydney Film Festival documentary prize for “Ghosthunter.”

Lawrence’s thoughtful drama also casts an illuminating light on the current hot-button issue of immigrants to Australia and their place in the social fabric, specifically in the Western Sydney suburbs in which it is filmed. The film’s second-place finish in the narrative section of the fest’s audience award (behind Samuel Van Grinsven’s “Sequin in a Blue Room”) suggests it struck a chord with traditionally partisan Aussie audiences, and with proper handling,...

‘Sequin in A Blue Room’.

Sydney Film Festival announced its audience awards today, with best narrative feature awarded to Samuel Van Grinsven’s Sequin in a Blue Room and best documentary to Selina Miles’ Martha: A Picture Story – both Aussie films.

Sequin in a Blue Room, a queer coming-of-age story, is Van Grinsven’s debut feature, completed as part of an Aftrs Masters project and produced by Sophie Hattch. It stars Conor Leach in his film debut, alongside Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and Anthony Brandon Wong.

Martha: A Picture Story, documents the life and work of NYC photo journalist Martha Cooper. It is the first full length documentary film from Miles, and was executive produced by Jennifer Peedom and and produced by Daniel Joyce.

Two other Australian films – Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones and Imogen McCluskey’s microbudget debut Suburban Wildlife – were also voted in the top five narrative films,...

‘Judy & Punch’. (Photo: Ben King)

Two Aussie films, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, will be among the 12 features in official competition at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (Sff).

Also up for the festival’s $60,000 Sydney Film Prize are Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away, which was nominated for two Oscars; recent Cannes selections such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, and Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau; Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award winner Monos, from directors Alejandro Landes and Alexis Dos; Joanna Hogg’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner The Souvenir; Nadav Lapid’s Golden Bear winner Synonymes, as well as Sacha Polak’s Dirty God, Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya, and Kiwi director Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird.

Sydney Film Festival launched the full program for its 66th...

(L-r) Catherine Armstrong, Josh Pomeranz and Dave Hollingsworth (Photo credit: Daniel Asher Smith).

Strengthening its management team Spectrum Films has promoted Catherine Armstrong to general manager, Sydney, and hired Dave Hollingsworth as executive director.

Both moves have been triggered by the resignation of general manager Adam Scott, who departs next month to take up an international position yet to be announced.

Armstrong’s promotion rewards her efforts over the past three years as head of post production. Hollingsworth, who starts on Monday, will oversee the technical operation and workflow as well as focusing on the company’s strategic growth in Australia and internationally.

Both report to managing director Josh Pomeranz, who tells If: “Catherine has made an outstanding contribution to the company and this promotion is a natural progression for her.

“Dave’s experience internationally with post and VFX divisions in Vancouver and Los Angeles, Warner Brothers Studios post facility...

Claudia Karvan, Noni Hazlehurst and Stephen Curry. (Photo credit: Andreas Bommert)

Writer-director Jj Winlove could not have wished for a better cast for his debut feature June Again.

Now shooting in Sydney, the comedy-drama stars Noni Hazlehurst as June, a woman who experiences a medical miracle, after which she has only a few days to bring together her estranged children, save the family’s wallpaper business and rekindle an old flame.

Claudia Karvan and Stephen Curry are playing her children in the movie produced by Jamie Hilton, Michael Pontin, Drew Bailey and Isabel Stanfield for See Pictures.

The Wellington-born Winlove wrote the screenplay in 2017, aiming to appeal to older cinemagoers. His La-based agent, Verve’s Parker Davis, and his manager Scott Carr shopped the project and Hilton pounced.

He wrote several more drafts until the producers started the casting process via casting director Kirsty McGregor. The three leads all sparked...