The Gold Coast Film Festival presented by Pacific Fair shopping centre is rolling out the red carpet for the return of Gold Coast-born filmmaker David Gould for the Australian premiere of The Cure which Gould wrote, directed and produced.
Screening on Friday 4 April at 7.00pm at Birch, Carroll and Coyle cinemas at Pacific Fair there will also be a special screening of Gould’s short film The Seed pre-feature.
“We are thrilled to be screening the Australian premiere of David’s first feature film. A well respected and admired filmmaker both internationally and here in Australia, particularly in his state of origin Queensland, we are certain there will be a full house and that tickets will sell fast for The Cure,” said GCFF Festival Director, Kylie Pascoe.
Gould’s career has spanned a wide variety of companies and continents, technology and art. Gould has worked at such companies as Walt Disney Feature Animation (Los Angeles), NVIDIA (Santa Clara), and WETA Digital (New Zealand). While at WETA Digital Gould worked on The Hobbit, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of The Unicorn, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and King Kong.
Despite his background in visual effects, Gould’s main focus as a writer and director is the portrayal of realistic, dramatic characters. Winning a Best Director Award at the Australian Screen Industry Awards 2011 for his short film, Awaken, Gould’s philosophy is that new technologies are there to support a strong story not overshadow it.
“I’m extremely pleased to be returning to the Gold Coast, where it all began for me. It will be very exciting to show my film to all those people that supported me when I decided to step away from visual effects and embark on a new career in writing and directing,” said David Gould.
“The Cure is a true labour of love, as I self-funded the film after receiving no external backers. My belief in the film was well founded as the film has since been sold to nine international countries. It’s truly the story of believing in a project and seeing it through till the end.”
Born in Southport, Queensland and studying software engineering with a specialisation in computer graphics at Bond University, Gould has played a key role in the development of award-winning technology including a technical illustration renderer program used by organisations such as NASA, British Aerospace; Walt Disney Imagineering and Sony Pictures.
His work as a senior visual effects artist has won many awards including the prestigious Autodesk Maya Master award. He has also written two respected textbooks on advanced computer graphics.
The action-thriller The Cure is set in San Diego and shot in Wellington, New Zealand. The film stars Antonia Prebble (Outrageous Fortune, The Tribe) as Beth, a young and determined biochemist whose life is endangered when she discovers the pharmaceutical company she works for developed a cure for cancer many years earlier, but failed to release it due to its impact on their chemotherapy drug sales. Australian actor Daniel Lissing (Packed to the Rafters, Crownies) plays her partner, Ryan with New Zealand actors Stephen Lovatt (Spartacus), John Bach (This is Not My Life) and John Landreth (Rage) completing the key cast.