In 1997 in a Bondi café, David Barda and Stephen Jenner met with a group of other young film buffs to plan a magazine that would go on to become a mouthpiece for a new generation of indie filmmakers.
Now that humble publication has made it to 200 issues!
Yes, IF is getting old, and as you can see from our cover above, we’ve had a few facelifts along the way.
From our grassroots beginnings, we’ve grown into what we are today. We like to think of ourselves as much an industry network as a mag, and that’s happened only with your encouragement.
We’ve been proud to be your mouthpiece and mirror, as well as your occasional critic and sometime support group. Every so often it’s felt thankless, but at other times we’ve felt like we’ve been at the coalface.
Most of all, we’re proud – modern publishing being what it is – to still be here. We might be irreverent sometimes, but we take the responsibility that comes with reporting on this industry seriously.
And as for the industry itself, what changed we’ve witnessed. Who would have thought back in ’97 that one day you could watch almost any film or TV show in the world on a small, portable device that can fit in your hand!
We hope you enjoy the bumper issue we’ve put together, looking back at 200 of the Australian screen industry’s most iconic moments, as well as picking apart key trends and issues.
Elsewhere, we take a deep dive into various innovative solutions being considered to fill skill shortages and how the boom is building careers. We also look at how virtual production techniques are being used in early stage development, consider workflows for live and remote production, and go behind the scenes of The Unusual Suspects and My Name is Gulpilil.
We’ve loved watching you grow, and we plan on sticking around.
Thank you, as always, for your support.