In many respects, the screen sector today is virtually unrecognisable from three and a half years ago, and not just because the coronavirus pandemic has devastated sections of the industry.
In this unprecedented, fractured year for Australian cinemas, finally enough Aussie films have been released to compile the top 10 titles.
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.
Cinemas should have scored a significant boost last weekend, with two major releases in the way of Disney's 'Raya and the Last Dragon' and Roadshow's 'Chaos Walking'. Yet exhibitors report softer starts for both titles than they hoped for.
With continued paucity of product from the US and other international territories, Australian films remain the main event at the box office.
Roadshow's 'The Dry' has now rung up almost $10 million in three weeks, proving strong word-of-mouth.
After spending five months in Morocco and London directing Fox Networks’ espionage thriller 'Deep State', Robert Connolly plans to shoot a movie in another exotic location.
When Federal Agent Aaron Falk returns to his home town after an absence of over twenty years to attend the funeral of his childhood friend, Luke, who allegedly killed his wife and child before taking his own life – a victim of the madness that has ravaged this community after more than a decade of drought. When Falk reluctantly agrees to stay and investigate the crime, he opens up an old wound – the death of 17- year-old Ellie Deacon. Falk begins to suspect these two crimes, separated by decades, are connected. As he struggles to prove not only Luke’s innocence but also his own, Falk finds himself pitted against the prejudice towards him and and pent-up rage of a terrified community.