With 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One' opening to a franchise best in Australia, and 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' pre-sales reportedly going gangbusters, the mood among most exhibitors is buoyant.
To have his short film 'Jia' selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival, in addition to being accepted into the festival's Accelerator Lab, which boasts alumni such as Taika Waititi, David Michod, Justin Kurzel and Sophie Hyde, is a "dream come true" for writer/director Vee Shi.
The full line-up for this year's Melbourne International Film Festival was revealed Tuesday evening, with a significant number of Australian additions, such as the world premieres of Jason Raftopoulos' sophomore feature 'Voices in Deep' and Matthew Adekponya's behind-the-scenes look at how the Boomers took bronze in Tokyo, 'Rose Gold'.
While the weekend was all about the launch 'Mission: Impossible -Dead Reckoning Part One' for most cinemas, Paramount is not publicly releasing figures for the film until after its "official" premiere date on Thursday. Yet most exhibitors report a strong response.
The records smashed by doco 'John Farnham: Finding the Voice' have proven that Australians will still come out in numbers to see local stories on the big screen, and there is significant optimism among exhibitors about the commercial potential of 'Force of Nature: The Dry 2'. However, broadly the year so far has been a very slow one for Australian films at the box office.
After helming TV series such as 'Mystery Road' and 'Firebite', Warwick Thornton returns to where he says his heart is – cinema – with 'The New Boy'. The writer, director and DOP talks to IF about the making of the film and his approach to directing - "there are no f***ing rules".
Screenwest’s West Coast Visions funding, which backs debut feature directors from WA, has proven to be one of the country’s most effective talent escalators. From this year onward, Screen Australia will commit an extra $500,000 to the initiative annually. IF talks to recent recipients, the teams behind 'He Ain't Heavy', now in post, and 'Birthright', now fully financed and set to enter production later this year.
Scarlett Pictures' Kath Shelper may have made a decision a few years ago to retire from producing, yet she's helped to bring to screen two of the most anticipated Australian films of late: Warwick Thornton's 'The New Boy', which lands in cinemas on Thursday after a Cannes berth, and Kitty Green's upcoming 'The Royal Hotel'.