Australia's Oscars - the AACTAs -move to a prime time screening on Channel Ten

AACTA President Geoffrey Rush with Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe at the 2013 AACTA Awards. Source: News Limited

 

 

 Neala Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

The AACTA Awards are moving to prime time.

The AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) Awards have in past years struggled to find a broadcast home worthy of their place as Australia's answer to the Oscars, but today it was announced that Network Ten would broadcast the third AACTAs ceremony at 8.30pm on Thursday, January 30.

Announcing the partnership in Sydney today, AACTA President Geoffrey Rush said, "The reception and ongoing support of AACTA and the AACTA Awards activities both here and abroad over the past two years has been magnificent. I look forward to the continued opportunity to elevate and celebrate Australian screen achievements."

Ten was also the telecast partner for the awards in January of this year, but did not broadcast the event, hosted by Russell Crowe, until 9.30pm.

The big movie winners in 2013 were The Sapphires and Wish You Were Here, while Howzat! and Puberty Blues dominated the TV categories. Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman also attended the event.

Fourteen feature films are currently in competition for the 2014 AACTAs, with screenings to begin today so member voters can whittle the field down to the final nominees.

Next year's AACTAs will again be split over two days at Sydney's Star Event Centre, with an Awards Luncheon on January 28 focusing on more technical categories followed by the glitzy Awards Ceremony on January 30.

Geoffrey Rush is the drawcard in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Geoffrey Rush is the highlight of this musical. Source: Supplied

 

Jo Litson, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

Geoffrey Rush is the big drawcard in Stephen Sondheim's bawdy musical farce A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum set in ancient Rome - and he doesn't disappoint.

Rush gives a glorious comic performance as the cunning slave Pseudolus, out to buy his freedom by winning the hand of the virginal courtesan Philia (already sold to a military captain) for his love-struck master Hero.

He isn't really a singer but it doesn't matter.

However, by surrounding him with performers not known for their vocal prowess, the production suffers at times musically.

Aside from the songs Comedy Tonight, Everybody Ought To Have A Maid and Lovely, it's not the most memorable score anyway.

Some of the best singing comes from Adam Murphy as the all-conquering Miles Gloriosus. As the young lovers, Hugh Sheridan sings well but could invest Hero with a little more charisma, while Christie Whelan Browne is suitably lovely as Philia, playing the ditzy blonde to perfection.Mitchell Butel is hilarious as the hysterical servant Hysterium bringing just the right energy, comic timing and level of camp.

Director Simon Phillips orchestrates the mayhem with a sure touch, eliciting lots of laughs, while Gabriela Tylesova's cartoon-like design is inspired.

But it's Rush's performance above all else that makes the production worth a trip south.

Most powerful players in Australian film

Joel Edgerton, Actor Photo: Anthony Johnson AWJ

The Sydney Morning Herald reports

Winning awards, financing movies or scoring magazine covers is no longer enough to be a major player in the Australian film industry. Rob Lowing crunched the numbers to discover who the real heavy-hitters are.


1 SAM WORTHINGTON (actor, 3796 points)

Avatar is just the gift that keeps giving. Sam doesn't set the photo agencies alight and his Clash of the Titans was undermined by a ballyhooed sequel Wrath of the Titans and a Raspberry Award nomination for worst ripoff. But solid dramas The Debt and Man on a Ledge helped. And no one seethes as cinematically as our Sam …
Year ahead: steady

2 CHRIS HEMSWORTH (actor, 2540 points)

The 29-year-old went stratospheric because of his roles in 2012's top-grossing film (so far), The Avengers, and also Thor and Snow White and the Huntsman.
Year ahead: up (thanks to sequels to the above).

3 GEOFFREY RUSH (actor, 1540 points)

Rush's combination of box-office gold (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; The King's Speech) is boosted by a willingness to return home for local gems (Bran Nue Dae; Eye of the Storm).
Year ahead: steady

4 MIA WASIKOWSKA (actor, 1145 points)

The 23-year-old has barely been seen home recently, moving steadily from blockbusters such as Alice in Wonderland to smaller dramas such as Jane Eyre, Albert Nobbs and The Kids are All Right. She's back for the lead in Tracks.
Year ahead: up

5 STUART BEATTIE (writer, director, 1086 points)

The internationally renowned scriptwriter (the man behind the characters in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) made his directorial debut with the AFI Award-winning Tomorrow, When the War Began. Pity about that Razzie for Beattie's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra script.
Year ahead: up

6 LIAM HEMSWORTH (actor, 823 points)

Chris's little brother scored his own lucrative franchise (The Hunger Games), was anointed into the action-man club (The Expendables 2) and rated ''hotter'' than his brother (photo-agency-wise) thanks to his high-profile romance with Miley Cyrus.
Year ahead: up

7 GUY PEARCE (actor, 621 points)

Film critics like him more than the photographers but Pearce's consummate acting skills shone in Hollywood sci-fi (Prometheus) and Oscar winners (The Hurt Locker,The King's Speech). But he was happy to come home for juicy supporting roles (Animal Kingdom). His latest, Lawless, has already racked up $48 million overseas.
Year ahead: steady

8 ROSE BYRNE (actor, 517 points)

Byrne has barely been home since her Two Hands break-out success and she doesn't rate with most local photo agencies. But she had a monster hit with Hollywood's Bridesmaids and her trashy pop star stole Get Him to the Greek.
Year ahead: steady

9 EMILE SHERMAN (producer, 468 points)

Wins at the Oscars and the BAFTAs (and that worldwide box-office) made the The King's Speech producer our biggest behind-scenes player. He also produced Oranges and Sunshine and his coming projects include the adaptation of Robyn Davidson's desert memoir, Tracks.
Year ahead: up

10 CATE BLANCHETT (actor, 412 points)

No local movies for Cate (but sterling theatre contributions). Her Robin Hood box-office and ''warm'' photo rating keeps her a point above co-star Russell Crowe.
Year ahead: steady

11 RUSSELL CROWE (actor, 411 points)

Just two outings in the past three years (The Next Three Days, Robin Hood) mean Crowe missed the top 10. A lead role (singing?!) in the coming Les Miserables could change that.
Year ahead: up

12 HUGH JACKMAN (actor, 314 points)

Maybe Australia (the movie, not the country) soured photographers' favourite Hugh on coming home. He's spent recent years hosting the Oscars (and rappelling in to help Oprah) and on US fodder such as Real Steel. Next up: Les Miserables and that Wolverine sequel.
Year ahead: steady

13 NICOLE KIDMAN (actor, 284 points)

What the god of movies giveth, he taketh away: Kidman earned big box-office for the woeful Adam Sandler comedy Just Go With It but copped a Razzie nomination. Rabbit Hole's Oscar nomination soothed the pain of another Razzie nom (worst screen couple, alongside Nicolas Cage in Trespass) and iffy box-office for Nine.
Year ahead: steady

14 ABBIE CORNISH (actor, 283 points)

Bright Star earned her raves, that relationship with Ryan Phillippe got her into the mags. Reviled Sucker Punch and Madonna's tepidly received W.E. couldn't dim the lustre of Limitless's worldwide take.
Year ahead: steady

15 JAMES WAN (director-producer) 258 points)

Wan and long-time collaborator Leigh Whannell's Saw movies were (dis)credited with starting the recent glut of torture-porn flicks. Wan clawed back some creative respect with Insidious. The world waits to judge Wan's next, The Conjuring.
Year ahead: down

16 LEIGH WHANNELL (actor-writer 256 points)

Yes, it's true. Thanks to the combination of co-executive producing the Saw franchise, and scripting and acting in housebound horror hit Insidious (starring Rose Byrne), the 35-year-old vaults past better-known peers.
Year ahead: down

17 TERESA PALMER (actor, 239 points)

Solid global box-office for I am Number Four was backed up by a great turn in local flick Wish You Were Here. Now to prove she's not just another pretty blonde …
Year ahead: steady

18 GEORGE MILLER (writer-director, 186 points)

The Happy Feet Two maestro also produced via his renowned company Kennedy Miller Mitchell and both it (and he) stays firmly based in Sydney. If that Mad Max sequel, with The Dark Knight Rises star Tom Hardy, finally unreels …
Year ahead: up

19 NAOMI WATTS (actor, 161 points)

The only name to earn an unequivocal ''hot'' from the photo agencies (especially for pics with husband Liev Schreiber and kids), Watts enjoyed steady returns (and great leading men) with J. Edgar and Fair Game.
Year ahead: up

20 JOEL EDGERTON (actor, 139 points)

The hard-working drama star has had a dream run, with local hits Animal Kingdom and Wish You Were Here, and Hollywood outings Warrior and The Thing. His The Odd Life of Timothy Green just opened to $50 million in the US. Next up: Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby adaptation.
Year ahead: up

THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY …

Baz Luhrmann has been quiet, preparing to unleash The Great Gatsby - so expect him to figure in this list again soon. Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver and Hanna star Eric Bana got pipped at the post, as did up-and-comer Bojana Novakovic (Devil and Burning Man) and Rango voice-star Isla Fisher. And after a few bad years (box-office and press-wise), Mel Gibson scored less than also-rans such as Sanctum's Richard Roxburgh.

HOW WE RATED THEM

We collated our master list of films made and/or released January 2010 to October 2012 from the Screen Australia, Box Office Mojo, Urban Cinefile and IMDb databases, cross-referencing releases with Empire and FilmInk magazines.

For the films' producer(s), director, writer, and five top-billed actors (and we began with a list of 422 names), we awarded two points each per $1 million earned at the Australian box office; one point for each $1 million earned elsewhere in the world (global box office was the telling factor); plus points were also given for major award wins (including Oscars, BAFTAs, AACTAs), major festival appearance and/or prizes (including the Sydney, Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Venice and Toronto festivals), and magazine covers (sampled 2011-2012 from Who, New Weekly, Empire, FilmInk and so on). Voice animation work also counted.

We asked Sydney photo agencies, including Jamie Fawcett's PhotoNews, to rate our top 40 (hello, Naomi Watts). We awarded bonus points to internationally known ''names'' who returned home (good on you, Guy Pearce) and deducted points for Golden Raspberry Award mentions (sorry, Nicole).

Auditioning Now! Sponsors for the 2013 AACTA Awards

AACTA President Geoffrey Rush was quoted saying he'd ''hate to see, for financial reasons, the whole thing (AACTA Awards) come to an unnecessary full stop''. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: PerthNow

Neala Johnson, News Limited Network, reports

The show will go on - even though Australia's answer to the Oscars has lost a major sponsor.

Australian Film Institute CEO Damian Trewhella remains upbeat after it was revealed the AACTA Awards had lost its naming-rights sponsor Samsung.

Industry magazine Encore reported AACTA President Geoffrey Rush as saying he'd ''hate to see, for financial reasons, the whole thing come to an unnecessary full stop''.

Trewhella said the situation is ''not that bad at all''.

''I wouldn't like to be seen to be contradicting Geoffrey too much, but ultimately I don’t think the risk on the scale is a fatal risk,'' Trewhella said.

''GR has been the most phenomenal leader as Pres, and if his remarks help mobilise the corporate sector to get behind us, that's great. It's a call to action.''

Trewhella expects the 2013 AACTA Awards to have great cut-through with the general public and media after a string of populist movie releases this year, including The Sapphires and Kath & Kimderella, and high-rating TV shows.

''There's always swings and roundabouts every year, and this year has been a great swing with The Sapphires, Mental, Howzat, The Voice - it's quite an incredible time. It's probably going to be the best Awards we’ve seen for a long time.''

Samsung had been a major sponsor of the former AFI Awards since 2006, taking over naming-rights in 2009.

It was the title sponsor of this year's inaugural AACTAs (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts), which were revamped during 2011 to align Australia's awards season with those in Hollywood and Britain.

Trewhella quashed fears the AACTAs might collapse just a year after the relaunch.

''The show is going on and it will be going on at full speed. It could be going on at extra speed if we have that particular sponsorship category filled,'' he said.

''Fortunately, it isn't the sky falling. Sponsorship is always a difficult matter but it only makes up one portion of the overall support base. It's not ideal. But it's a great opportunity for another naming-rights partner now.

''Geoffrey, Rusty (Russell Crowe), Cate Blanchett - everybody's behind this. It's a really great event that went very well last year. We've got a few months left to go - if there's somebody out there looking to align their brand with the pinnacle of the Australian film and television industry, here’s the opportunity.''

The AACTAs are hoping to pin down potential replacements within the next six to seven weeks as they work towards announcing nominations for the 2013 Awards in late November.

The AACTA Awards will be handed out in late January in Sydney.

The big winners at the 2012 Awards were Red Dog, Snowtown, The Slap and East West 101.

Magda juggles stage musical and fillm work

Magda Szubanski describes herself as happy and content. Source: Herald Sun

Joanne Hawkins, the Daily Telegraph, reports

She’s the self-confessed "poster girl for imperfection" but actress Magda Szubanski is still as popular as ever.

The comic and public face of weight loss is currently back as alter ego Sharon in the movie Kath & Kimderella and at 51 is busier than ever.

She's just about to start working alongside Geoffrey Rush in the Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and there's also upcoming Film Goddess with Ronan Keating. And, of course, she's back in Sharon's netball kit after a five-year break.

"There's an absolute sense of homecoming when cast and crew get back together as we've all been working together since the dawn of time," she says of working on Kath & Kimderella.

"We're like an old rock'n'roll band. And filming in Italy was fantastic. It was nice to go somewhere other than the Nepean Highway.

"But there is still plenty more to achieve."

An offer Geoffrey Rush did not refuse

Geoffrey Rush will star in The Best Offer. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: News Limited

Luke Dennehy, The Sunday Herald Sun, reports

Melbourne actor Geoffrey Rush's next film will be shot in Italy.

Rush stars alongside Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland in The Best Offer.

The film is about the very competitive world of art auctions.

According to movie bible IMDb, The Best Offer is Rush's first film since Aussie flick The Eye of the Storm in 2011.

Wild weather can't dampen spirits as winner adds some fizz to Tropfest

Crowds enjoying the films Photo: Quentin Jones

Garry Maddox, The Age, reports

In the race between the films and an approaching thunderstorm, the films won - but only just - at the 20th Tropfest in the Domain last night.

In heavy rain and intermittent lightning, a judging panel that included Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Toni Colette, Asher Keddie and John Polson gave the top prize at the country's biggest short film festival to Alethea Jones for Lemonade Stand, a comedy about a man and his grandfather whose efforts to sell lemonade bring a clash with an officious council officer.

She collected her prize in a near-deserted Domain, without a working microphone, amid a few hundred hardy souls sheltering in the VIP tent.

Jones said she was ''absolutely thrilled'' and ready to take the next step in her filmmaking career. Asked whether she planned to step up from shorts to a feature film, Jones said: ''I've got five ready to go.''

She is the third woman to win in the past five years, winning two weeks after signing up for the dole.

In a year in which the 700-plus entries were required to include a ''lightbulb'' as the signature item, Jones's prizes include a trip to Los Angeles to meet film industry executives, a $6000 camera and $10,000 cash.

Second prize went to actor Rupert Reid for Boo!, a comedy about an elderly couple who play tricks on each other, while Michael Noonan's Photo Booth, about soldiers who stumble on a mysterious photo booth, was third.

The festival was almost a repeat for Marie Patane, whose film How Many Doctors Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb? was washed out during the dramatic storm that closed down Tropfest in 2006.

The sequel to that film, How Many More Doctors Does it Take To Change A Lightbulb?, was the final film to screen in torrential rain last night. She won the women in film award.

Veteran Don Reid was named Best Male Actor for Boo!, which also won the Crowd Pleaser Award.

Best Female Actor went to Kate McNamara for the comedy Kitchen Sink Drama, about a proposal gone wrong.

The stellar guest list included Baz Luhrmann, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Gia Carides and Rachel Ward.

On the black carpet, Blanchett said she was ''shellshocked'' by how the festival had grown since the early years at the Tropicana Cafe in Darlinghurst.

''It's more than just the films, we're celebrating the whole industry and it's future,'' she said.

Just back from the United States, Kidman said short films were important for actors as well as filmmakers. ''Each little step is a chance to learn and a chance to grow,'' she said.

The Trop Jr competition was won by two 15-year-old school friends from Melbourne, Max Barden and Tim Sheehan, with Let's Make A Movie, a comic short about choosing a genre to enter the competition.

Tropfest Film Festival judge Nicole Kidman says she is more of a mother athan a film star nowadays

More of a mother than an actress at this time ... Nicole Kidman at the 2012 Tropfest Film Festival at The Domain.Picture: Noel Kessel Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

She recently completed two films and has four more in development but Nicole Kidman says she is much more of a mother than a movie star nowadays.

Supporting her fellow thespians last night at the Tropfest Film Festival in The Domain, Kidman - who can command $13 million per flick - said she has chosen to produce rather than play while her daughters Sunday and Faith are young.

"It takes a lot now for me to want to act," she said.

"I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old. It takes a lot to drag me out of home."

Kidman, in town while hubby Keith Urban works on The Voice, said Tropfest was an important occasion.

"This is how we all got our start, all the people working on the jury and obviously John Polson.

"It's all about film and young filmmakers and giving people a chance. It's fantastic."

Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette all walked the "black carpet" before the screening of the 16 finalists.

Kidman, Rush, Blanchett and Collette are judging the competition this year, along with actress Asher Keddie, Tropfest founder Polson, 2011 winner Damon Gameau and Australian directors Kieran Darcy-Smith and Alex Proyas among others.

Oscar winner and Australian Of The Year Geoffrey Rush to judge Tropfest

Tropfest role: Australian of the Year Award and actor Geoffrey Rush. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: News Limited

The Daily Telegraph reports

Actor Geoffrey Rush will turn film critic as a judge at this year's Tropfest competition.

The newly named Australian Of The Year will also talk at the festival's filmmaker symposium, Tropfest Roughcut.

Rush says he is looking forward to meeting with emerging filmmakers during the discussion day.

"Please join this sexagenarian for a cinematic chat on known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns... it's a Q and A and I'd love to hear from you," Rush said in a statement.

Love And Other Drugs producer Charles Randolph will open the inaugural Tropfest Roughcut with a keynote speech direct from New York.

Australian film editor Jason Ballantine, Kieran Darcy-Smith - whose film Wish You Were Here opened the Sundance Film Festival - and international composer Lisa Gerrard will also present.

Tropfest Roughcut takes place in Sydney on Saturday, February 17, the day before the main Tropfest competition on the Domain.

Kelpie fetches the top prize at new film and TV awards

Olivia Newton John. Photo: Ben Rushton

Garry Maddox, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

IT WAS one more triumphant yelp for Red Dog. The warm-hearted hit film won the top prize at the first Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards at the Opera House last night.

The comic drama by the director Kriv Stenders about a kelpie who unites a mining town in the Pilbara, loosely based on a true story from the 1970s, added best film to the previously announced member's choice award.

But with Red Dog's directing, acting and craft nominees all overlooked, the intense drama Snowtown surprisingly won four of the stylish trophies modelled on the Southern Cross at the replacement for the Australian Film Institute Awards.

Presenters at the black-tie ceremony included the Australian of the Year and academy president Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, Mia Wasikowska, Anthony LaPaglia and Jacki Weaver, with performances by Olivia Newton-John and Megan Washington.

Justin Kurzel's dark Snowtown, which dramatised South Australia's infamous bodies-in-the-barrels murders using mostly non-actors from the Adelaide suburbs where the early crimes took place, won best direction, best actor for little-known Daniel Henshall, best adapted screenplay for Shaun Grant and, in the night's biggest upset, best supporting actress for first-timer Louise Harris.

Henshall took the role of serial killer John Bunting to break away from being cast as an ''affable loser'' in TV shows and commercials. He beat three big names - Geoffrey Rush for The Eye of the Storm, Willem Dafoe for The Hunter and David Wenham for Oranges and Sunshine.

Kurzel cast Harris, a non-actor, as the mother of teenage killer Jamie Vlassakis after seeing her arguing in the street about a dog off the chain.

She was considered a long-shot against Helen Morse and Alexandra Schepisi (both for The Eye of the Storm) and young Morgana Davies (The Hunter).

At the earlier craft awards, Snowtown also won won best editing and sound.

The six-time AFI winner Judy Davis won best actress for playing a fragile expat who returns to see her dying mother in The Eye of the Storm, Fred Schepisi's adaptation of a Patrick White novel.

Hugo Weaving, a three-time AFI winner, won best supporting actor for playing a former ''lost child'' shipped to Australia in the drama Oranges and Sunshine.

The Tasmanian wilderness drama The Hunter led the nominations with 14 but won just two - best cinematography and music score - at the craft awards.

In the TV categories, the drama The Slap won five prizes and the Tim Winton adaptation Cloudstreet had eight nominations but won only best young actor for Lara Robinson.

Asher Keddie, who memorably played Ita Buttrose in the mini-series Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, collected the audience choice award for best performance in a TV drama.

Packed To The Rafters collected the audience choice award for best TV program.

AACTAs shine in LA

Meryl Streep as radiant as ever. Picture: Getty

The Herald Sun reports

MERYL Streep and Jean Dujardin have picked up the top acting honours in the international component of the new Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards.

Formerly known as the Australian Film Institute awards, the award ceremony was attended by a who's who of Hollywood celebrities and Australian A-listers including Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and academy president Geoffrey Rush.

Streep won the award for her role as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

Silent film The Artist - expected to dominate at next month's Oscars - was impressive at the Australian awards picking up best film prize, while its male lead, French actor Dujardin won the best actor award.

The rest of the awards will be handed out at the Sydney Opera House.

Geoffrey Rush gets Australia's top honour

Seven News reports

Sydney, Jan 25, 2012 (AFP) - - Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush was on Wednesday named the 2012 Australian of the Year, the highest award bestowed in his native country, in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in the arts.

Rush, 60, beat a former military chief and a host of other well-known Australians to the award, which was presented to him in Canberra on Wednesday evening by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

He won an Academy Award for his compelling portrayal of troubled pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 film "Shine", an achievement which saw him eventually take the coveted 'Triple Crown' of acting: an Oscar, Tony and Emmy.

"Shine" turned the late-blooming Rush from theatre mainstay to Hollywood star, opening the door to roles including "The King's Speech", which earned him his fourth Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nod.

The craggy, versatile Australian also earned critical acclaim in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers", "Quills" and "Elizabeth", as well as hamming it up in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series and "Finding Nemo".

He said the award was a tribute to the growth of Australia's arts scene from "a relative wasteland into a unique species of native tree that only the soil of this rich country can cultivate."

"We are the plucky country," he said.

"I know that hard-wired into every Australian from every background we love acting the goat, taking the mickey, cracking a joke, spinning a yarn."

New blood straight to the top

Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports

RISING star Daniel Henshall is over the moon at being nominated alongside Geoffrey Rush and Willem Dafoe in the new-look AFI awards.

Henshall has been nominated for best actor for his chilling film debut as serial killer John Bunting in Snowtown .

Other nominations in the category are Rush (The Eye of the Storm), Dafoe (The Hunter) and three-time AFI winner David Wenham (Oranges and Sunshine).

"I'm quite speechless," Henshall said after nominations were released in Sydney yesterday.

"It's an absolute privilege to be nominated with the likes of these guys ... I have been watching them for years."

Daniel Nettheim's Tasmanian thriller The Hunter led the field with 14 nominations.

Winners of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (formerly AFIs) will be named at the Sydney Opera House on January 31.

The awards have been held in Melbourne for the past decade.

The eye of the filmmaker: Fred Schepisi

Excerpt of a story from Encore Magazine (shortened version)

The Eye Of The Storm recently won The Age Critics Award at MIFF. Director Fred Schepisi spoke with Alice Terlikowski about his return to Australian storytelling, upcoming projects and the industry at large.

Roxanne, The Russia House and Six Degrees Of Separation, to name a few, are all under the belt of Australian director Fred Schepisi but it’s his latest work starring Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis that holds a particular significance to the Australian industry.

The 71-year-old director told Encore he’s been working on Australian stories for “quite a long time” but has always aimed to strike a balance between work in Hollywood and at home. The Eye Of The Storm is his first Australian film in 22 years, since Evil Angels – based on the story of Lindy Chamberlain.

“My generation grew up on very few Australian films. In most of the cinemas were American films but if you were really interested you joined a film society and went to festivals and got really engaged by European work. So while you want to work in your own culture and say things with your own country’s voice, you also want to work in other cultures because that’s what you’ve grown up with.”

However, despite 22 years away from the Australian movie-making scene, Schepisi knows what should be done to make a good Aussie film – make it about Australians, in Australia, dealing with Australian issues.

“We need to make films that are about us and deal with our problems, our lives and our feelings. Sometimes that won’t travel, sometimes it surprisingly will. The more specific into a culture something is, the more attractive it can be to people overseas. Are we going to make a lot of films that are going to make a fortune? No. Are we going to make a lot of films that matter to our community? Yes.”

The Eye Of The Storm is not be your typical Australian story in the way, say, Red Dog is.

The film follows siblings Basil (Rush) and Dorothy (Davis) who return home to Sydney to the death bed of their fragile yet manipulative mother, played by Charlotte Rampling. Basil is a knighted actor famous in London while Dorothy married into French nobility. Both are desperate for their mother’s inheritance, to which she is well aware and eager to drag out, if not for just staying alive, but to be cruel to her offspring. It scored The Age Critics’ Award for best Australian feature at last month’s Melbourne International Film Festival.

The Eye Of The Storm opened in cinemas on 15 September.

Mad about movies - mental health issues on the big screen

October is mental health month in Australia. About 20% of adult Australians will experience a mental disorder at some stage in their lives.

Mental health issues are often stigmatised and brushed aside, mostly out of fear of the unknown and the unexplained. Depression is a common diagnosis that many of us can relate to.

Over the years, several movies have portrayed mental illness, some accurately, some not. These movies have served to remind us that mental disorders can affect anyone at any time, regardless of age, race or background.

In Australian film Shine, Geoffrey Rush’s portrayal of pianist David Helfgott, a genius who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions, was phenomenal and earned him an Oscar for Best Actor. 

Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind depicted John Nash’s struggle with paranoid schizophrenia, a role brilliantly played by Aussie-NZ actor Russell Crowe.

Aussie movie The Black Balloon starring Toni Collette, Luke Ford and Rhys Wakefield featured an autistic character, and the animated movie Finding Nemo, partly set in Sydney, brought attention to retrograde amnesia, a condition that sees a person forget part or all of his or her past.

There have been numerous articles written about the portrayal of mental illness in movies. As recently as yesterday, an article was published in Sydney’s mX newspaper:

Acting to stop stigma - changing mental health attitudes

Story by Cayla Dengate, mX features editor

Jack Nicholson’s depiction of madness in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest set attitudes towards mental health back decades, an advocate says.

Beyondblue deputy chief executive Nicole Highet told mX today that slang and pop culture were good indicators of our understanding of mental health issues.

“We’ve come a long way since One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,“ Highet said.

“I was watching Packed to the Rafters recently and one of the characters had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – I jumped straight on Twitter and said there was no better way to reduce the stigma of mental illness – to show what it’s like to have it.”

Films such as A Beautiful Mind and soapies dealing with depression were changing outlooks.

“Even though you do hear words used like ‘psycho’, ‘nutter’ or ‘emo’, young people tend to be much more literate when it comes to mental illness,” Highet said.

“They’ve grown up in a society where mental illness is spoken about in the same sentence as diabetes and asthma.”

Today’s Stigma Summit in Brisbane coincides with the UN World Mental Health Day.