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Tanja Liedtke was a powerful, up and coming force in the world of dance before her untimely death at just 29 years old. Tragically, the cosmopoltian choreographer - born in Germany, schooled in Britian and living in Australia - was knocked down and killed just after being appointed the artistic director of the highly respected Sydney Dance Company. Life In Movement - screening at FilmFest Australia this week - is a celebration of her art that goes far beyond the machinations of her life and the memorial tour that her friends embark on, to encompass questions regarding the nature of creativity and grief.

That the resulting film is an emotional ride is perhaps no surprise when you learn that co-directors Bryan Mason and Sophie Hyde (partners in the film business and life) had a very personal connection to Tanja and her partner Sol Ulbrich.

"Sophie, my partner, and...

London's festival celebrating film from Down Under is back - with a new name and new venues.

FilmFest Australia, curated by the much of the same team who previously looked after the London Australia Film Festival, will run from September 14 to 23 at Clapham and Hackney Picturehouses.

The festival - which has announced actors Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor as its patrons - will open with the European premiere of Not Suitable For Children, which sees Ryan Kwanten's playboy trying to procreate in a hurry after cancer gate-crashes his party lifestyle.

The festival will also feature the UK premieres of Fred Schepisi's The Eye Of The Storm, starring Geoffrey Rush and Charlotte Rampling, Any Questions for Ben?, featuring Snowtown's Daniel Henshall, and thriller Swerve.

In addition there will be European premiere for kitsch musical Goddess. Documentaries include Life In Movement.

Running alongside the main slate are a selection of short films.

Filmmaker Anthony Maras' short The Palace has continued its winning streak, picking up six awards at the South Australian Screen Awards over the weekend.

The Cyprian-Australian co-production, which has garnered a number of awards including the Aacta Award for Best Short Fiction Film, won both Best Short Film and Best Drama as well as picking up awards for its screenplay, direction, editing and cinematography.

Film collective Closer Productions received two awards: short documentary Stunt Love won Best Sound Design while Sundance darling Shut Up Little Man won Best Feature Film. This is the second year in a row Closer Productions has won the feature film category. Last year's winner Life in Movement is currently in cinemas.

For a full list of recipients, see below:

Sasa Genre Awards:

Best Short Film: The Palace - Anthony Maras, Kate Croser & Andros Achilleos Best Drama: The Palace - Anthony Maras, Kate Croser & Andros...

This weekend may have marked a century since the sinking of the Titanic, but it was a different kind of ship that dominated the box office.

Universal film Battleship, based on the board game of the same name, grossed $3,940,610 across 368 screens in its opening weekend. The film, which focuses on a fleet of ships forced to defend the earth against an alien armada, recorded a screen average of $10,679.

Titanic, the other ship-themed film at the box office, came in at sixth place. Fox's 3D re-release of the 1997 James Cameron film has now boosted total earnings to $2 billion worldwide. In China, it made $58 million on its second-time-around debut: the country's biggest opening in history. Takings on local shores were more modest. The film made $1,464,737 on 166 screens.

American Pie dropped to second place in its second weekend ($2,678,211), while the first school holiday weekend without a public holiday saw a boost of 40 per...

The distributor of a critically acclaimed documentary about a Sydney dancer and choreographer, released today, has said he’s unsure whether he’ll get the necessary audience to make a profit on the theatrical release.

Gil Scrine, owner and manager of Antidote Films, distributor of the film Life in Movement, told Encore: “The jury is still out on whether people will come see the film.”

“It’s hard to know how the film will do. I’ve had the figure around $120,000 in mind, which would pay us back for our work and cost.”

Opening across 13 screens nationally today, Life in Movement is directed by Bryan Mason and produced and co-directed by Sophie Hyde about the life of dancer Tanya Liedtke, who died suddenly in 2007.

Scrine said: “The rule of thumb is the distributor takes a third, so if it takes $120,000, then it’ll be $40,000 for us and that will cover...

Life in Movement Trailer. Sophie Hyde, Bryan Mason‘s Life in Movement (2011) movie trailer stars Tanja Liedtke, Anton, Kristina Chan, Julian Crotti, and Amelia McQueen. Life in Movement‘s plot synopsis: “In 2007 the Sydney Dance Company appointed 29-year-old choreographer Tanja Liedtke as their first new artistic director in 30 years. However before she could take [...]

Continue reading: Life In Movement (2011) Movie Trailer: Sophie Hyde, Tanja Liedtke...

Four major Australian feature film festivals have formed a new partnership to support local niche and arthouse films during their cinematic run.

The festivals in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne will work with distributors and undertake targeted marketing for the releases in each territory.

More than 95,000-combined e-newsletter subscribers will be targeted throughout the initiative, which has been in the works for the past 2-3 years.

It.s a positive move from the festival directors at a time when audiences often sell-out festival screenings but not local complexes during their theatrical run. Last year, Australian films grossed just 3.9 per cent ($42.9 million) of the total $1.09 billion at the box office and this was largely because of one film: Red Dog.

Outgoing Adelaide Film Festival director Katrina Sedgwick said it was a promising .experiment. that would hopefully get local audiences seeing these .edgy' films.

.For some of the other more challenging, experimental...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Australian Film Institute (AFI) have launched a new festival to showcase the local films of the past year vying for an Aacta (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award).

The Festival will run from 6 October to 14 November in Sydney and 11 October to 14 November in Melbourne and showcase the 21 feature films, as well as 12 non feature nominees including best short fiction film, Best short animation and Best feature length documentary in lead up for the inaugural Aacta Awards held in January 2012.

“Through Aacta,” Damian Trewhella, AFI Aacta CEO said, “we not only celebrate Australia’s best screen practitioners, but also engage audiences with our great stories; the Samsung AFI І Aacta Festival of Film provides a perfect platform for this at an exciting time for our screen industry.”

The festival aims to showcase the films to generate greater audience reach and engagement. “Having increased awareness of our screen industry...

The AFI (Australian Film Institute) and Aacta (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) have announced the first nominees for the inaugural Aacta Awards to be held in January 2012.

The nominations for best Feature Length Documentary, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Short Film accompany the announcement of 23 feature films at the Aacta launch.

Said Damian Trewhella, AFI Aacta CEO, “From the concert hall to the Outback, and spanning decades, countries and genres, nominees announced today demonstrate the breadth and depth of Australian filmmaking talent. We look forward to recognising Australia’s best and brightest screen practitioners at the inaugural Samsung Aacta Awards in January, building on the proud, 53-year-old tradition of celebrating screen excellence in Australia established by the AFI.”

The nominees for the Aacta for best Feature Length Documentary are:

Life In Movement – about dancer Tanja Liedtke, produced by Sophie Hyde, Bryan Mason Mrs Carey’s Concert – follows...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Balls + Heart: Director Stephen Reedy In One Minute Or Your Money Back Trailer If nothing else, it's worth it to see Shia Labeouf drop a little profanity.