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Multi-award-winning Dutch-Australian director Rolf de Heer’s films expand creative horizons in the ways he deals with character, narrative and dialogue. Heads were turned with the Venice Grand Jury Prize-winner Bad Boy Bubby (1993), the story of a 35-year-old man-child who, after being locked away his entire life by his mother, escapes into a “real” world that appears more bizarre than his previous existence.

De Heer’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winner Ten Canoes (2006) was a riotously funny morality tale set in pre-colonized Australia — the first shot entirely using Indigenous languages. The Survival of Kindness, winner of Berlin’s 2022 Fipresci award, meanwhile, was a gripping dystopian tale stripped almost entirely of any dialogue — but one that still made its message about the horrors of racism perfectly clear.

In the days ahead, the 73-year-old De Heer will turn film watcher rather than maker as he takes up a place on the main competition...

Last Man Standing

Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung is to be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the upcoming Asian Film Awards. The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and shifts back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung is expected to accept the award on Sunday March 12 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

“I’m so happy and surprised that I can still win awards these days, especially an award that affirms my entire performing career,” said Hung in a forwarded statement. He has a career as actor, action choreographer, director and producer that stretches some 60 years.

His acting credits include action comedies “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” and “Odd Couple” paranormal horror comedies “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and “The Dead and the Deadly,” comedy film series “Lucky Stars” and gangster action film “Shanghai, Shanghai.”

In...

Lady in a Cage: de Heer’s Dystopia Explores the Enduring Echoes of Colonialism

Dutch-born director Rolf de Heer has been a mainstay of Australian cinema since the mid-1980s, though his most well-traveled films dealt specifically with a reclamation of the country’s Indigenous population. Titles like Ten Canoes (2006) and Charlie’s Country (2013) featured Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil. Gulpilil died at the age of sixty-eight in 2021, which seems to have led de Heer to his most distressing film to date with The Survival of Kindness, a more experimental take on racism and colonialism featuring newcomer Mwajemi Hussein.…...

While Rolf de Heer has a prolific career comprising dozens of movies from diverse genres, the filmmaker is mostly known and awarded for his unique exploration of the aboriginal perspective of Australian history. With The Tracker, Ten Canoes, and Charlie's Country, de Heer gave voice to native people in front and behind the cameras, forcing people everywhere to reflect on the scars left behind by colonization. Almost a decade after his last movie, The Survival of Kindness comes to remind us why de Heer is so important for international cinema, as he pushes the boundaries of his filmmaking technique to tackle race conflicts and power.

Questions of authenticity and authorship in cinema – who gets to tell what stories — are thorny ones. With his trilogy of films on the Aboriginal experience, The Tracker, Ten Canoes and Charlie’s Country, Dutch-born white Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer has managed to avoid charges of cultural appropriation. This is due in large part to de Heer’s obvious respect for Indigenous culture and traditions and to his working method, which involves deep collaboration with the communities involved, as well as the on-screen talent, most famously with the late, great Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil.

For his new film, The Survival of Kindness, De Heer again takes on the ugly legacy of racism and colonialism. The film, which premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, is the story of a Black woman (identified in the credits only as Black Woman) and her harrowing odyssey out of captivity. Shot entirely without intelligible dialogue,...

In his films The Tracker, Ten Canoes and Charlie’s Country, Rolf de Heer has mixed lyrical allegory with naturalism and genre conventions, ethnographic docudrama with morality tale and Aboriginal storytelling traditions to reclaim the dignity of Indigenous Australians and decry the injustices of white colonization. The collaborative spirit of those projects — notably with the great Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, who died in 2021 — has enabled the Dutch-born writer-director to avoid charges of cultural appropriation.

His new film, The Survival of Kindness, returns to the theme of racism, this time as a minimalist tone poem entirely without intelligible dialogue, its key characters identified in the credits only as BlackWoman, BrownGirl and BrownBoy. The dystopian vision is set against harshly beautiful landscapes that are recognizably Australian yet distinctly abstract in their depiction of place and time.

The degree to which this lament for humanity connects with any audience will vary wildly. Some will...

Visionary Dutch-Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer, known for several landmark films including “Ten Canoes” and “Charlie’s Country,” is in competition at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival with “The Survival of Kindness.”

An allegory for racism, the film follows BlackWoman, who is abandoned in a cage on a trailer in the middle of the desert. She escapes and walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to canyon to mountain to city, on a quest that leads to a city, recapture and tragedy.

Many of de Heer’s films are born with a single image in his mind. In the case of “The Survival of Kindness” this was an image of Peter Djigirr, the filmmaker’s closest Indigenous friend, who co-directed “Ten Canoes” and co-produced “Charlie’s Country” and acted in both of them, locked in a cage on a trailer abandoned in the desert.

“In the same way that the image of...

The late David Gulpilil will receive Aacta’s highest honour, the Longford Lyell Award, for his outstanding contribution to Australian cinema on Wednesday.

The legendary actor died on Monday, aged 68, four years after a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.

Aacta began work on the tribute and award six months ago, with Gulpilil accepting the honour a few weeks ago from South Australia as he was unable to travel.

First presented in 1968, the award honours Australian film pioneer Raymond Longford and his partner in filmmaking and life, Lottie Lyell. Previous recipients include Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Paul Hogan, Jack Thompson and Jacki Weaver.

Aacta has said this year’s prize acknowledges not just Gulpilil’s incredible body of work, but his role in creating more diverse, inclusive, and truthful Australian stories.

A Mandjalpingu man from Ramingining, Arnhem Land, Gulpilil’s first role was in Nick Roeg’s 1971 film Walkabout as a teenager.

David Dalaithngu, actor, dancer and Australian cultural icon, is credited with helping reinvent Australian film. His role in Walkabout (1971) contributed to the end of blackface being used in Australian cinema. Dalaithngu had a string of successful roles in the 1970s and 80s including in Storm Boy (1976) and Crocodile Dundee (1986). His longest creative collaboration was with director Rolf de Heer, with whom he worked for more than 15 years. Together they crafted The Tracker (2002) for which Dalaithngu won an Aactar award, Ten Canoes (2006) and Charlie’s Country (2014) for which Dalaithngu won best actor in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.

Walkabout (1971) Max L. Raab Productions & Si Litvinoff Film Production. Storm Boy (1976) Ambience Entertainment production. Crocodile Dundee (1986) Paramount Pictures Studios. Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) Rumbalara Films, Olsen Levy & Showtime Australia. Charlie’s Country (2014) Adelaide Film Festival & Bula'bula Arts Aboriginal. My Name is Gulpilil (2021) Vertigo Productions...

Legendary Indigenous actor David Dalaithngu, known for his roles in Walkabout, Storm Boy, and Ten Canoes, has died aged 68.

His death comes after he attended the premiere of documentary My Name Is Gulpilil at the Adelaide Festival earlier this year, defying a terminal lung cancer prognosis from 2017 that had only given him six months to live.

The news was confirmed on Monday night by South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, who described the trailblazing actor as a “once-in-a-generation artist”.

“It is with deep sadness that I share the passing of an iconic, once-in-a-generation artist who shaped the history of Australian film and Aboriginal representation on screen – David Dalaithngu Am,” he wrote in a statement.

“My thoughts are with his family, and his dear friend and carer Mary Hood.”

A Mandhalpuyngu man from the Arafura Swamp region in Arnhem Land, Dalaithngu was just 16 when he starred in his breakout role in Nicolas Roeg’s 1971 film Walkabout,...

David Gulpilil, an actor who who lit up the screen in his 1971 debut film “Walkabout” and recently starred in a biographical documentary about his remarkable life, has died. Gulpilil was diagnosed with lung cancer four years ago. He was 68.

The Australian actor was a pioneering indigenous performer with talents including acting, singing and painting. His film credits include “The Last Wave,” “Crocodile Dundee,” “The Tracker,” “Rabbit-Proof Fence,” “Ten Canoes,” “Goldstone” and “Charlie’s Country.” TV credits include “Pine Gap” and “The Timeless Land.”

“It is with deep sadness that I share with the people of South Australia the passing of an iconic, once-in-a-generation artist who shaped the history of Australian film and Aboriginal representation on screen – David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu (Am),” said South Australia’s Premier Steven Marshall in a statement.

“David Gulpilil was from the Mandhalpingu clan of the Yolŋu people, and was raised in the traditional ways in Arnhem Land.

The actor starred in films including ‘Walkabout’, ‘Crocodile Dundee’ and ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’

David Gulpilil, one of Australia’s most recognisable actors both locally and abroad, has died at the age of 68.

In a statement issued today, the premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, described him as an “iconic, once-in-a-generation artist who shaped the history of Australian film and Aboriginal representation on screen”.

Gulpilil was first cast in Walkabout (1971), directed by Nicolas Roeg, and has been a feature of Australian cinema for the past 50 years, including roles in two local films that are among the highest-grossing releases ever in Australia: Crocodile Dundee...

David Gulpilil, the revered Indigenous Australian actor and dancer, known for his performances in films such as Rabbit-Proof Fence, Crocodile Dundee, The Tracker and Walkabout, has died aged 68 following a battle with cancer.

Gulpilil’s death was confirmed Monday in a statement by South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. “It is with deep sadness that I share with the people of South Australia the passing of an iconic, once-in-a-generation artist who shaped the history of Australian film and Aboriginal representation on screen – David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu (Am),” he posted on social media.

Gulpilil received mainstream recognition for his performances in blockbuster comedy Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Phillip Noyce’s drama Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), which garnered the actor his first best actor prize from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.

He was also well known for 2002 feature The Tracker, in which he played the title character, and further collaborations with director...

Veteran Australian director Rolf De Heer (“Ten Canoes”) is shooting a new film titled “The Mountain,” for which Italy’s Fandango Sales is launching sales at the online AFM.

“The Mountain” (pictured above in a first-look image) tells the story of a central character named BlackWoman, who is abandoned in a cage in the middle of the desert. Following her escape from the cage, “she walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to mountain to city, to find … more captivity,” reads the film’s synopsis.

“BlackWoman walks and walks, past ruins and dunes until she finds boots, and skeletons and skulls, a wrecked world where few survive and your newly gained boots can get stolen at the point of a gun.”

“Those responsible are reluctant to release their privilege, and BlackWoman, escaping once more, must find solace in her beginnings,” it adds. The film stars Mwajemi Hussein, Deepthi Sharma, and Darsan Sharma.

Top: Nara Wilson, Julie Ryan. Bottom: Kath McIntyre, Petra Starke.

The South Australian Film Corporation (Safc) has made a host of new staff appointments, including new hires in Julie Ryan and Kath McIntyre, and promotions for Nara Wilson and Petra Starke.

Ryan will join Safc as a production executive. A prolific producer behind films such as Red Dog, Ten Canoes, Hotel Mumbai and H is for Happiness, Ryan comes to the agency from her company Cyan Films. Prior to that, she worked with director Rolf de Heer for more than 10 years. Across her career, her films have premiered at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Venice.

McIntytre has been appointed development and industry development executive. A factual director and field producer, McIntyre has worked for the past six years a program director of the Screenmakers Conference, and has held roles at Kojo as a business development executive and a tutor for Matchbox Pictures...

Julie Ryan.

Producer Julie Ryan was in post-production for Hotel Mumbai when writer Lisa Hoppe’s script for H is for Happiness came across her desk. She loved it straight away – by page 40, she’d recognised it would make a heartwarming, funny family film.

Due to make its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival next month as the Family Gala film, H is for Happiness is based on Barry Jonsberg’s children’s book ‘My Life is an Alphabet’ and marks the feature debut of theatre director John Sheedy.

It follows Candice Phee, played by Daisy Axon, a 12-year-old with boundless optimism and a unique view of the world, determined to bring her dysfunctional family back from the brink. Alongside Axon (Judy & Punch) are Wesley Patten, who worked with Sheedy on his acclaimed short Mrs McCutcheon, Richard Roxburgh, Emma Booth, Miriam Margolyes, Joel Jackson and Deborah Mailman.

Ryan,...

Anni Browning accepts the 2017 Spa Award to Film Finances for Best Service and Facilities.

In 22 years with Film Finances Australasia, Anni Browning experienced numerous highs and faced a few challenges as the cinema industry ebbed and flowed.

Browning, who has stepped down as MD of the completion bond company but is still a consultant, supported Rachel Perkins’ debut feature Radiance.

She took one of her biggest risks on a Rolf de Heer movie, which she counts as one of her proudest achievements.

The biggest trend during her time has been the proliferation of low budget films, despite the need to pay crews and allocate reasonable money for post- production. Film Finances bonded a lot of films budgeted at $1 million- $1.5 million and one-off feature docs costing as little as $100,000- $200,000.

One thing which has not remained constant is the insurance bond premium. When she started it was as high as 6 per cent of the budget.

Mad Max: Fury Road has been named the best Australian movie of the century. Recently, the Australian website Flicks.com surveyed a total of 51 critics from the country. 26 of whom were men and 25 women, making for a pretty even split and diverse group. It was the largest poll of Australian movie critics in history and, when all of the votes were tallied, director George Miller's dystopian masterpiece came out on top.

The Top five is rounded out by 2010's Animal Kingdom, 2009's Samson and Delilah, 2000's Chopper and 2001's Lantana. Sitting just outside the top five is the modern horror classic The Babadook, which was released in 2014 and gained notoriety for its originality and overall quality. Director Jennifer Kent has been in the running for several high-profile jobs, such as Captain Marvel. The 2001 musical Moulin Rouge, which was a major box office success and stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor,...

Mad Max: Fury Road has been named the best Australian movie of the century. Recently, the Australian website Flicks.com surveyed a total of 51 critics from the country. 26 of whom were men and 25 women, making for a pretty even split and diverse group. It was the largest poll of Australian movie critics in history and, when all of the votes were tallied, director George Miller's dystopian masterpiece came out on top.

The Top five is rounded out by 2010's Animal Kingdom, 2009's Samson and Delilah, 2000's Chopper and 2001's Lantana. Sitting just outside the top five is the modern horror classic The Babadook, which was released in 2014 and gained notoriety for its originality and overall quality. Director Jennifer Kent has been in the running for several high-profile jobs, such as Captain Marvel. The 2001 musical Moulin Rouge, which was a major box office success and stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor,...

Tanna.

This year's Academy Awards will feature a healthy contingent of Australians, with films as disparate as Lion, Hacksaw Ridge.and Tanna vying for top awards.

21 years after Braveheart won the top gong, Mel Gibson has been welcomed back into the Academy fold, with Hacksaw Ridge nominated for six Oscars: Best Picture (producers David Permut and Bill Mechanic), Best Director (Gibson), Best Actor (Andrew Garfield), Best Sound Editing (Robert Mackenzie, Andy Wright) and Best Sound Mixing (Robert Mackenzie, Andy Wright, Kevin O'Connell, Peter Grace).

Hacksaw is also up for Best Editing for Kiwi John Gilbert, who edited Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and is clearly a new Icon favourite.—.he's currently cutting Gibson's next acting vehicle,.The Professor and the Madman, in which the star appears alongside Sean Penn..

Gibson called the nomination "a truly wonderful honor..

.I.m especially happy for Andrew Garfield,...

The first production still has been released from Cargo, starring Sherlock.s Martin Freeman.

Currently shooting in South Australia, the film is based on Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling.s 2013 Tropfest short. Ramke wrote the script, and tshe and Howling are making their feature directorial debuts.

Causeway Films producers Samantha Jennings (The Pretend One) and Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook) are working alongside Addictive Pictures. Russell Ackerman (Hellboy II) and John Schoenfelder, with Mark Patterson attached as South Australian producer.

Cargo follows an infected man stranded in rural Australia in the aftermath of a violent pandemic. He desperately seeks a new guardian for his infant child, and a means to protect her from his burgeoning zombification.

Salvation may lie with an isolated Aboriginal tribe, but to gain access he must first earn the allegiance of a young Indigenous girl on a tragic quest of her own.

Freeman stars alongside David Gulpilil (Charlie.s Country,...

The Water Diviner and The Dressmaker dominated the feature categories at the 19th Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards held at The Establishment hotel ballroom in Sydney.

Russell Crowe.s drama won the prizes for feature film soundtrack of the year, best sound design and Assg members. choice for best film soundtrack.

Jocelyn Moorhouse.s dramedy was feted for best film sound recording and sound mixing .

The Syd Butterworth lifetime achievement award went to James Currie, whose career spans 38 years and includes A Month of Sundays, Charlie's Country, Red Dog, Ten Canoes, Man of Flowers, Incident at Raven.s Gate and Bad Boy Bubby.

The Principal was named best sound for a TV drama series while Deadline Gallipoli — episode 2 was best sound for a telefeature and Only the Dead best documentary sound.

The Greg Bell student encouragement award was given to Alex Gastrell, a recent North Sydney Tafe graduate. The full...

When I saw Rolf de Heer's Bad Boy Bubby in an arthouse theatre back in the mid-90s, I was totally unprepared for such raw and nihilistic filmmaking. A violent and dark film, it was clear from that one film that de Heer was a massive, fearless talent. The director, born in The Netherlands but an emigrant to Australia at a young age, has delved deeper into Australian and Aboriginal lore over the years, working with famed actor David Gulpilil on a number of projects, including 2002's The Tracker and 2006's Ten Canoes. The latter film provided one of my most interesting film festival experiences; a tale told in the indigenous language, due to a logistical hiccup the version we saw had no subtitles. With a...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Melbourne International film festival celebrates an enduring career with Walkabout, Charlie’s Country, Ten Canoes and an important new film

David Gulpilil: the lessons I learned from Charlie’s Country

David Gulpilil is the first Aboriginal person that I can remember.

As a Generation X kid in the anodyne, white European eastern suburbs of Melbourne, you didn’t (knowingly at least) encounter any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people on the trams or in the supermarkets in my part of the city.

Continue reading...

Melbourne International film festival celebrates an enduring career with Walkabout, Charlie’s Country, Ten Canoes and an important new film

David Gulpilil: the lessons I learned from Charlie’s Country

David Gulpilil is the first Aboriginal person that I can remember.

As a Generation X kid in the anodyne, white European eastern suburbs of Melbourne, you didn’t (knowingly at least) encounter any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people on the trams or in the supermarkets in my part of the city.

Continue reading...

The special quality of Charlie’s Country is the profound camaraderie shared by its director, Rolf de Heer, and its star, David Gulpilil (Walkabout, The Last Wave). The two have worked together before (The Tracker, Ten Canoes), but the origins of Charlie’s Country are personal to an exceptional degree. In 2011, de Heer learned that Gulpilil had landed in jail; he got in touch with the washed-up performer, and the germ of a story — intrinsically inspired by Gulpilil’s drink-addled life experiences — blossomed.

Co-written by de Heer and Gulpilil, the movie has a bracing (if unsurprising) narrative of societal suppression: Northern Territory dweller Charlie (Gulpilil) finds his roaming Aboriginal lifesty...

Tertiary students in Australia would rather watch online. documentaries such as John Pilger.s Utopia and Gilliam Armstrong.s Love, Lust & Lies and Aussie features than Hollywood blockbusters. That.s apparent from a list of the most popular videos streamed in 2014 on Kanopy, an online platform for universities, colleges and their students.

Excluding instructional videos, 20 of the 30 most watched titles in Australia last year were local productions. Silver Linings Playbook is the only recent Hollywood film to figure in the top 30.

.Students have access to hundreds of Us blockbusters yet they are choosing to watch videos like Utopia, Freedom Writers or Samson & Delilah more regularly than the mainstream Us blockbusters,. Kanopy CEO Olivia Humphrey tells If.

.Crossing the Line, Samson & Delilah, Ten Canoes, Muriel.s Wedding, Looking for Alibrandi, Head On, Lantana and My Brilliant Career all outperform even The Hunger Games.

.It's surprising because student viewing behaviour on Kanopy...

Wayne Blair, Rachel Perkins, Greg McLean, Cameron and Colin Cairnes get green lights for new Australian films, including a new feature starring Kevin Bacon.

The directors of two of Australia’s biggest hits of the last five years, Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae) and Wayne Blair (The Sapphires) have had new films financed in Screen Australia’s last funding round for the year.

Six films in all got a green light: another is Jungle from Wolf Creek director Greg McLean, who recently made his first Us film, 6 Miranda Drive, and has cast Kevin Bacon in this cinematic recreation of the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg managing to survive in the Amazon rainforest.

Perkins will direct the adaptation of the extremely popular book Jasper Jones in Western Australia next year. No cast are yet attached to the coming-of-age murder mystery written by Shaun Grant who was thrust into the limelight when the film of his debut script [link=tt...

Director/writer Bentley Dean and his family lived for six months in a remote Melanesian village earlier year.

Far from an extended holiday, Dean devoted his time to researching, casting and preparing to shoot Taboo, a novel romantic drama set on the island of Tanna near Vanuatu.

The screenplay by Dean, his co-director/co-writer Martin Butler and John Collee, will follow two teenage lovers who risk their lives for marriage, forcing the village to choose between traditional duty and individual freedom.

Screen Nsw funded development, Screen Australia has approved production investment and filming will starting next month, with Dean doubling as the DoP and Butler handling the sound. Dean and Butler will produce with Carolyn Johnson (Son of a Lion).

Dean has already filmed rehearsals with the cast, all locals, and says he is ..constantly floored. by the performances.

He showed the cast Rolf de Heer.s Ten Canoes on...

David Gulpilil is the undisputed King of Aboriginal actors. Since his debut in Nicholas Roeg’s unforgettable Walkabout, followed a couple of years later by his stunning performance in Peter Weir’s The Last Wave, Gulpilil has been the cinematic face of Aborigines for the last 45 years or so. Yet until he collaborated with Rolf de Heer in 2007′s award winning Ten Canoes, he was often stuck playing supporting roles to white leads. Only a sucker would disparage Jenny Agutter or Richard Chamberlain, but it’s Gulpilil that provides the heart of their respective films, his characters representing mysterious, unknowable spirituality.

In Charlie’s Country, his second collaboration with de Heer, this mystery begins to peel away. Traditionally films about Aboriginal beliefs involve a white Australian becoming inadvertently initiated into a world they can’t comprehend, often with tragic results. Here, we see Australia from a firmly Aboriginal perspective; a litany of discrimination,...

Rolf de Heer.s Charlie.s Country has been selected as the Australian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards®.

The entry is a tribute to the creative team and more broadly for the Australian film industry. If the film is nominated it would be the first official Australian entry to do so.

De Heer said, .David [Gulpilil] and I are delighted that Charlie.s Country is Australia.s nomination. For me, it.s a privilege; for David, it.s the crowning achievement in an extraordinary 44-year acting career..

Charlie.s Country was developed, written, produced and directed by de Heer, and co-developed by Gulpilil. The story centres on the character of Charlie (played by David Gulpilil) who decides to make a stand following the new invasion of his Aboriginal community. and finds he still has a long way to fall.

Following the international premiere at the...

Actor Paul Ireland is set to make his feature directing debut on Pawno, a dramedy set in a seedy pawn shop in Melbourne's western suburbs.

Scripted by actor-turned-writer Damian Hill, the film will follow one day in the lives of 14 characters as they attempt to survive, thrive or maintain their way of life in an often cruel world.

.It is a unique and unapologetic journey into the underbelly of our society,. said Hill, who is producing with Ireland through their company Toothless Pictures.

Due to start shooting in Footscray on November 23, the film.s ensemble cast includes John Brumpton, Hill, Maeve Dermody, Malcolm Kennard, Mark Coles Smith and Tony Rickards.

Hill and Ireland, who formed Toothless Pictures last year, raised $12,500 via crowd-funding site Pozible and the balance of the budget from philanthropic investors after two years of toil.

.Our focus is to tell a compelling, poignant and layered story that will move and entertain,...

When I saw Rolf de Heer's Bad Boy Bubby in an arthouse theatre back in the mid-90s, I was totally unprepared for such raw and nihilistic filmmaking. A violent and dark film, it was clear from that one film that de Heer was a massive, fearless talent. The director, born in The Netherlands but an emigrant to Australia at a young age, has delved deeper into Australian and Aboriginal lore over the years, working with famed actor David Gulpilil on a number of projects, including 2002's The Tracker and 2006's Ten Canoes. The latter film provided one of my most interesting film festival experiences - a tale told in the indigenous language, due to a logistical hiccup the version we saw had no subtitles....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Nathaniel's Adventures at Tiff. Day 1

There's nothing like the fresh smell of na movies in the morning. Or the coffee while watching the movies. I love starting the day with a movie. Always have. It's easy to do that at Tiff where things start rolling at 8:30 Am. So I popped out of bed and hit the theater. At my second movie at 11 Am, two filmmakers in the seats next to me joked that the fairly robust attendance on the first morning of press & industry screenings was because late night boozing hadn't begun yet. "Not so," I interjected, having been to a pre-tiff party the night before and spotting some familiar faces. "I know for a fact that someone here has a hangover." They laughed and I realized, too late, that it probably sounded like a confession. T'was not, I swear! I left that pre-tiff party sober and l-o-n-g before I hear it wound down.

Barring a break-out hit or at least several strong performers, the B.O. total of Australian films this calendar year is highly unlikely to match 2013.s $38.5 million.

Through last Sunday, 34 local films have racked up $16.03 million nationwide. That includes mostly small amounts earned this year by 19 titles that opened in 2013 or earlier.

While the local B.O. results should not be seen as the sole yardstick of any film.s global performance, the industry would have expected stronger ticket sales for David Michôd.s The Rover and last week.s opener, Zak Hilditch.s These Final Hours, while Rhys Graham.s Galore also underperformed.

Rolf de Heer Charlie.s Country is tracking below Tracker, his first collaboration with David Gulpilil, which grossed $818,000 in 2002. Ten Canoes, the second of the .trilogy,. is the highest-earner of de Heer.s career, making $3.5 million in 2006.

Only The Railway Man (which opened on Boxing Day...

Rolf de Heer.s Charlie.s Country got glowing reviews from most Australian film critics, not least for David Gulpilil.s performance for which he was named best actor at the Certain Regard sidebar in Cannes.

Given those plaudits plus eOne.s extensive publicity campaign built around de Heer and the enthusiastic support of exhibitors, the opening weekend of $129,000 at 29 screens, for a per-screen average of less than $4,500, plus $22,300 from previews, isn't great.

However the film may well build on word-of-mouth as audiences respond to the tale of blackfella Charlie, who finds life increasingly tough in his remote community due to the government.s intervention, and resolves to live the old way.

Also, the B.O. figures should be seen in the context of how the director.s films have fared historically in Australia. Tracker, his first collaboration with Gulpilil, grossed $818,000 in 2002. Ten Canoes, the second of the .trilogy,. is...

★★★☆☆When Aborigine actor, dancer and activist David Gulpipil was just sixteen he starred in Nicolas Roeg's masterful Walkabout (1971), accompanying the director and his co-star Jenny Agutter to the Cannes Croisette for the film's world premiere. Unfortunately, tribal business meant that he was unable to attend the first showing of his new film, Charlie's Country (2013), for which he also won the Best Actor award in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. His third collaboration with Dutch-Australian director Rolf de Heer - the others being The Tracker (2002) and Ten Canoes (2006) - Gulpipil also co-wrote the script for Charlie's Country, basing the story partly on his own experiences of discrimination and hardship.

A few more notes from the festival. The big prizes are revealed tomorrow and the festival closes Sunday.

Juliette, Chloe, and Kristen

Sils Maria sometimes referred to as Clouds of Sils Maria  focuses on an actress and her personal assistant and the actresses decision to play a part in a remake of a property deeply connected to her life (which weirdly also exactly describes, at least in part, Maps to the Stars with Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska!!!). Early word is that it's a Kristen Stewart showcase.  This turn of events by no  means surprise me. It's long been a thing which amuses and annoys in equal measure that people Always lose their shit when a non-prestigious actor suddenly holds their own in a substantive role or movie. (Hell, it's so common that this is even the second time this week following Channing Tatum's raves in Foxcatcher) Of course...

David Gulpilil gives a bravura performance in Rolf de Heer.s powerful new drama according to the first reviews of Charlie.s Country, which had its world premiere in Un Certain Regard in Cannes.

The Hollywood Reporter.s David Rooney hailed a .delicate but powerful film that functions as both a stinging depiction of marginalization and as a salute to the career of the remarkable actor who inhabits almost every frame..

Variety.s Eddie Cockrell lauded an .atmospheric and cautionary tale of a .Blackfella. caught between two cultures [which] has all the makings of a solid art house performer."

Co-written by the director and the actor while he was in jail and then in a drug and alcohol rehab centre, the semi-autobiographical film stars Gulpilil as an aging man who struggles to understand how he should define himself as an Aboriginal in modern Australia.

Entertainment One will launch the film produced by Nils Erik Nielsen,...

Cannes – Ever since his indelible first appearance at age 16 in Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout, David Gulpilil to a large extent has been the defining face onscreen of the Indigenous Australian. Now 60, the Aboriginal actor and traditional dancer teams for the third time with director Rolf de Heer – following The Tracker and Ten Canoes – on Charlie's Country, inarguably the most personal project of their collaboration. Equal parts ethnographic and poetic, this eloquent drama's stirring soulfulness is laced with the sorrow of cultural dislocation but also with lovely ripples of humor and even joy. Gulpilil co-wrote the film

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Exclusive: Visit Films has come on board to handle world sales excluding Australia, New Zealand and Italy on the Un Certain Regard selection.

Charlie’s Country marks the fourth film by Rolf de Heer to premiere in official selection at Cannes after competition contenders The Quiet Room in 1996 and Dance Me To My Song in 1998 and Ucr 2006 special jury prize winner entry Ten Canoes.

de Heer and David Gulpilil co-wrote Charlie’s Country, about an Aboriginal warrior torn between his community’s traditional way of life and his new modern existence.

Gulpilil, whose credits include Australia, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Crocodile Dundee, plays the protagonist who heads into the wild to live life the old way after his gun, spear and best friend’s jeep are confiscated.

Charlie’s Country also stars Peter Djigirr, Luke Ford and Gary Sweet. Nils Erik Nielsen, Djigirr and de Heer produced.

The Vertigo Productions and Bula’Bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation coproduction is presented...

David Michôd.s The Rover and Rolf de Heer.s Charlie.s Country will have their world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Rover, a futuristic thriller starring Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Anthony Hayes and David Field, will have a midnight screening out of competition.

Charlie.s Country, which stars David Gulpilil as an aging man who struggles to understand how he should define himself as an Aboriginal in modern Australia, will screen in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.

The South Australian Film Corp. and Screen Australia invested in both films. .This caps off a pretty good 12 months for Safc-backed films,. said CEO Richard Harris, also referring to The Babadook, 52 Tuesdays and The Infinite Man.

"This recognition from Cannes is very significant for the possibilities of the film in the marketplace," de Heer said. "I am so pleased for David, for all his effort to be rewarded and for...

Australia hasn.t had a film selected for official competition at the Cannes Film Festival or the Un Certain Regard sidebar since 2011 and in the Directors. Fortnight section since 2009.

But the prospects are looking brighter this year. According to If.s straw poll among industry figures, David Michôd.s The Rover, Rolf de Heer.s Charlie.s Country and Zak Hilditch.s These Final Hours are promising candidates for one or more of the festival.s competitive sections.

The official competition line-up for the 67th Cannes festival and Un Certain Regard will be unveiled on Thursday night local time by fest director Thierry Frémaux.

Baz Luhrmann.s The Great Gatsby was the opening night film in Cannes last year, out of competition. Julia Leigh.s Sleeping Beauty was the last Australian film to screen in competition in 2011, the same year that Ivan Sen.s Toomelah was invited to Un Certain Regard.

Any list of must-watch films is likely to be so arbitrary and subjective that it buys plenty of arguments, and so it proves with the Taste of Cinema website.s compilation on Australian cinema.

Its selection of 20 Essential Australian Films You Need To Watch overlooks many classics and more than a few stand-outs of the past 30 years.

Writer Liam Clark, a film/literature/music student in Sydney, acknowledges the first-ever feature length film was The Story Of The Kelly Gang in 1906. He then observes, .Since then, antipodean auteurs of the screen have been weaving their imagerial visions into challenging portraits of Outback Australia, racism, crime and hauntingly beautiful stories..

The list omits everything produced before 1971 and there are some questionable choices.

His Essential 20: Strictly Ballroom (1992), Sweetie (1989), Mad Max (1979), Gallipoli (1981), Muriel.s Wedding (1994), Lantana (2001), Snowtown (2011), The Dish (2000), Candy (2006), Dogs in Space (1986), Somersault (2004), Shine (1986), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the...

Rolf de Heer and David Gulpilil's latest collaboration is a slow indictment of the colonialist relationship between white law and Indigenous people

Premiering at the Adelaide film festival, Charlie's Country is the third film in an informal trilogy of collaborations between writer/director Rolf de Heer and actor David Gulpilil. Ten Canoes (2006) showed Aboriginal culture before white settlement, and The Tracker (2002) explored the relationship between white and Aboriginal men in the early 20th century. Now Charlie's Country explores the ongoing repercussions in contemporary Australia.

Charlie (Gulpilil) lives in a remote Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land, where he and the other men of the community struggle with cultural ties in world dominated by white law and both deliberate and incidental racism. With the primarily white police force, Charlie is congenial, fooling them into thinking he is an expert tracker. He uses cultural misunderstandings to his advantage, but then is obligated...

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

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

52 Tuesdays

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

Tracks, the true story of Robyn Davidson.s 2,700 km trek across the outback with four camels and her dog Diggity, will have its Australian premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in October.

But audiences in other States will have to wait until March to see the adventure which stars Mia Wasikowska as Davidson and Adam Driver (HBO.s Girls) as Rick Smolan, the American National Geographic photographer who joined her on several occasions.

Distributor Transmission Films has dated the film for March 6 after deciding to avoid the cluttered pre-Christmas period and to spend more time on developing marketing materials for the campaign.

The November/December frame is crowded with titles such as August: Osage County, a dramedy that stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin, Ewan McGregor, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, The Carrie remake, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Martin Scorsese.s The Wolf of Wall Street, Disney.s Saving Mr Banks,...

A new Adelaide-based production partnership Southern Light Alliance has secured the rights to Gordon Reece.s international thriller Mice. The venture comes from producer Timothy White (Two Hands, The Boys are Back) of Southern Light Films and former film publicity and marketing specialist Anna Vincent. The partnership, formed earlier this year and based in Adelaide, aims to develop Australian projects and international co-productions. White will continue producing through Sydney-based Southern Light Films (which is currently post-producing Ewan McGregor.s Son of a Gun) as well as develop other projects. Mice is the first project for Southern Light Alliance, who has also partnered with Julie Ryan (Red Dog, Ten Canoes) of Cyan films. Mice has been published in 17 countries and released in 12 languages. .Tim White and I have worked together on several projects and saw a real benefit.with setting up a production arm in South Australia,. says Vincent. .When Julie...

Satellite Boy accepted to Berlin film fest

Two Australian films – The Rocket and Satellite Boy – have been selected to the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.

Having its world premiere and nominated for the festival’s Best First Feature Award, The Rocket is written and directed by Kim Mordaunt.

It follows the story of a Lao boy thought to bring bad luck, who must lead his family through his war-torn country to the dangerous Rocket Festival.

The film is produced by Sylvia Wilczynski for Red Lamp Films. It is distributed locally by Curious Film with international sales by LevelK ApS.

Joining it will be Catriona McKenzie’s first feature Satellite Boy, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.

The film stars indigenous veteran actor David Gulpilil as the grandfather of a young boy trying to save his home.

The film is produced by Red Dog and Ten Canoes’ Julie Ryan and David Jowsey,...

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

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

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

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

Sarah Spillane on set

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