"The best way to get people to go to the cinema is to embrace the point of difference from television, enhance the cinematic scale of the work and create narrative experiences that are immersive." - Robert Connolly
The Dry, Mortal Kombat, Penguin Bloom, Peter Rabbit 2 and A Sunburnt Christmas will battle it out for the AACTA Audience Choice Favourite Film Award on Wednesday, with the five nominees across each of the seven categories revealed ahead of this week’s ceremony.
Stefan Duscio was presented with the top prize at Saturday's Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) National Awards, named cinematographer of the year.
Australian feature films are currently dominating the box office, with exhibitors reporting a "revitalised" audience appetite for local stories. However, both producers and distributors have concerns about being able to actually get Aussie features off the ground in the future, with the Producer Offset slated to fall from 40 to 30 per cent from July.
Robert Connolly believes he's found the sweet spot at Arenamedia: a slate that balances large-scale, commercial feature films like 'The Dry' and 'Blueback' with features from exciting emerging voices.
In a remarkable result, four Australian films - 'The Dry', 'Penguin Bloom', 'High Ground' and 'Occupation: Rainfall' - took home almost 50 per cent of the national box office last weekend.
We're not even halfway through the year, but 2021 is shaping up to be a record-breaker for Australian films at the box office.
In this unprecedented, fractured year for Australian cinemas, finally enough Aussie films have been released to compile the top 10 titles.