Hollywood invasion: How Australia relaxed casting rules for foreign actors

Hollywood stars dominate today’s Australian screen productions – whether it’s Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan in 2013 hit The Great Gatsby or Dave Franco and Alison Brie in the upcoming horror film Together.

But it wasn’t always so.

In 1992, the government’s film funding agency, the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) was lobbying the government to relax casting restrictions on overseas actors to create more export-driven, commercial productions. At that tim...