Australian films prepare to storm Cannes Film Festival 2012

Source: The Sunday Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph reports

Australia will storm the Cannes Film Festival with both barrels blazing this week and, yes, there will be blood.

A bootlegging western, a hard-boiled gangster story and an explosive Southern noir tale will see a posse of Aussies swagger onto the Croisette, gunning for accolades and attention in a festival pegged to be the most violent yet.

You want names?

Nicole Kidman vamps it up as a bleached blonde floozy in The Paperboy, Kylie Minogue turns auteur's muse in the eccentric French indie Holy Motors, Mia Wasikowska dons a bonnet to play an Amish lass alongside Guy Pearce's sadistic sheriff in Lawless, while the criminally underrated Ben Mendelsohn gets a chance to shine opposite Brad Pitt's mob enforcer in Killing Them Softly.

The black cat that stopped momentarily filming of the Anne Fontaine-directed The Grandmothers

Scene stealer ... The black cat comes from nowhere and wanders in to the filming of a scene for "The Grandmothers" with Ben Mendelsohn. Picture: John Grainger Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Filming on the Aussie-based romantic drama The Grandmothers was momentarily halted this week when an uninvited visitor strolled into proceedings.

The cast, including Ben Mendelsohn, Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, watched on in bemusement as a black cat wandered on to the Sydney set before scampering away.

But not before animal loving Mendelsohn stopped the traffic to make sure the well-groomed moggie safely negotiated the inner city street.

It temporarily stopped the cameras rolling on the raunchy drama which has been shooting at Seal Rocks for the past three months under the guidance of French director Anne Fontaine, who is making her first foray into English-language filmmaking.

The movie's topic ruffled some feathers. The film, based on the book of the same name, has Watts' and Wright's characters falling in love with each other's sons.

The younger men are played by Australians Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville. Samuel is known from The Twilight Saga series and Frecheville shot to fame in Animal Kingdom.

Grannies with real glamour star in new Hollwood flick The Grandmothers

All-stars: Naomi Watts features in The Grandmothers Source: Getty Images

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

A ROLL-call of Aussie stars has been announced for the next locally-based Hollywood flick The Grandmothers.

Ben Mendelsohn and Gary Sweet are to join Naomi Watts and Robin Wright-Penn in The Grandmothers, which began filming on the mid-north coast this weekend.

With the Sydney production of The Great Gatsby wrapping up, The Grandmothers is set to be the next big Tinseltown production in town.

Watts and Wright-Penn will be joined by Aussie up-and-comers James Frecheville and Xavier Samuel who play their unlikely paramours.

Mendelsohn and Sweet lead the supporting cast and are joined by Sophie Lowe (Beautiful Kate, The Slap) and Jessica Tovey, making her feature film debut.

The eight-week shoot will begin in Seal Rocks and move to central Sydney.

It will be directed by Anne Fontaine, who had a major Hollywood hit with Coco avant Chanel.

Both French and Australian producers are also behind the flick, which is expected to inject thousands into the local economy and continue a strong run of Aussie-based productions putting Australia back on the film map.

Based on the Nobel Prize for Literature winner, The Grandmothers is described as a "heart-wrenching story of two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other's teenaged sons".

Frecheville, who found fame in his feature debut Animal Kingdom, will play the love interest of Wright-Penn and told Confidential this week that he is in good company.

"We have a very good team. It's going to be a great experience," he said.

The film's production begins as The Great Gatsby -- which has filmed in Sydney since last August -- finally wraps up.

Emile Sherman, Ben Mendelsohn and Lizzy Gardiner recognised in 2012′s Who’s Who

Colin Delaney, Encore Magazine, reports

Emile Sherman, Ben Mendelsohn and Lizzy Gardiner have been recognised for their services to Australian arts with inclusion into 2012′s Who’s Who in Australia book.

Recognising high achievers in the arts as well as media, business, politics and sport, Who’s Who in Australia is an annual biographical publication.

Sherman, the Oscar-winning producer of The King's Speech, Mendelsohn, actor of Animal Kingdom, and Gardiner costumer designer of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert are joined by other arts and media figures such as author and journalist Peter FitzSimons, appointed CEO of the Ten Network James Warburton, and Ten news presenter Helen Kapalos as well as entertainer Tim Minchin and Masterchef host Gary Mehigan.

Hugh Martin, CEO of Who’s Who in Australia’s publisher, Crown Content told Encore: “Emile Sherman, to win an oscar is a huge achievement anyway. Not all that many do in the role of a producer, I don’t know how many have done previously. That film was a great success with at least one already prominent Aussie who is in the book. Interestingly his family is a big supporter of the arts.”

“The same with Ben Mendolsohn. There has been a lot of roles he’s had over the years. He’s one of the great character actors of his generation of Australian actors.

On Lizzy Gardiner, Martin said: “There’s someone who has a very significant track record in film and fashion as well and maybe there is a case to say she should have been included previously. It’s a bit like the life-time achievement recognition. It tends to be less about just the most recent 12 months, albeit that is a significant contributing factor, but there are these people who have been working tirelessly and un-recognised in some areas and should be recognised.”