• Paolo Cherchi Usai has been appointed to the position of Director of the National Screen and Sound Archive. As Senior Curator of the Motion Picture Collection at George Eastman House, one of the major moving image collections in the United States, Mr Cherchi Usai's appointment is a coup for Australia's national audiovisual archive. Read full media release and our feature interview


• At the Sydney Film Festival, Paolo led a panel discussion about the issues confronting restoration and reconstruction, which centred on The Sentimental Bloke as a test case. The film premiered at the festival and was voted best film ahead of its national tour. Find out more about the film's history


• Crocodile Dundee is one of Australia's most internationally successful feature films and it's hard to believe that until now no 35mm cinema prints existed in the country for a film that is not yet 20 years old. The Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection gives Australian films new life


• A new study Development of feature films in Australia: A survey of producers, directors and writers investigates aspects of the development of Australian feature films based on a survey of 106 filmmakers from 68 films made between July 1999 and June 2002. The study was undertaken by the AFC, in collaboration with consultants Urbis JHD. It builds on some of the findings of the AFC's report Development: A study of Australian and international funding and practice in the feature film industry, November 2000. The new study can be downloaded online or contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy

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• The AFC is seeking applications from upcoming feature film producers to participate in Inside Track, a two-day Marketing initiative that will run alongside SPAAmart, the feature finance market attached to the SPAA Conference. Deadline Monday 5 July


• AFC Travel Grants for the MIPCOM market give producers with a project to pitch, direct experience of a major international market within a supportive environment. Deadline Monday 2 August


• The new Film Development Funding Guidelines and application forms will be available on the AFC website in early July. A series of launches will take place around the country from Friday 9 July with screenings from AFC-funded filmmakers. Please visit the website for the full schedule or email fd@afc.gov.au to see what's happening in your state. The key changes to the guidelines are: introduction of a low-budget feature development program including a workshop; introduction of a low-budget digital shorts round including a workshop; payment of third-time (and more) GDI applicants with up to one and half times what they have repaid the AFC; and the opening of the New Screenwriters Program to features as well as short features


• The industry standard A-Z Budgets are intended as a guide to preparing budgets in the format that is usually required by funding bodies. The A-Z Budgets for Features and Short Films have recently been updated. The Animation Budget will be added in early July


• Marketing Your Short Film seminars toured to Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and, for the first time, Canberra, from 24 May to 4 June. The seminars were booked out early in all cities and were designed to cover creative marketing techniques to increase a film's lifespan for festivals and distribution. Guest speakers included Jenny Allen (Manager Programming SBS), Ruth Saunders (Sales and Distribution Manager AFTRS), Bronwyn Kidd (FLiCKERFEST Short Film Bureau), Serena Paull (Project Director Sony Tropfest) and three solicitors from the Arts Law Centre of Australia. Recent AFC Travel Grant recipients were also invited to speak about their experience of attending an international film festival with their short films including Tristan Banks, James Brown, Flordeliz Bonifacio and James Grandison. Thanks to the Arts Law Centre solicitors for letting us add their very handy legal FAQs to the AFC website


• New deadlines have been announced for a number of Film Development funding strands in July


• Filming wrapped in May on the first of five films selected for Dramatically Black. Shot in Rockhampton, Queensland, The Djarn Djarns is a moving story of friendship between four boys, the responsibility they feel for their culture and the love a young boy has for his family


• AFC Film Development funding approvals


• AFC funding deadlines

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• The Sydney Film Festival featured many Australian films this year including the AFC-supported Anthem, Dhakiyarr vs The King, Somersault and We Have Decided Not to Die. The AFC hosted a networking night for filmmakers at the festival on Tuesday 22 June which was well attended and presented a free public forum on Monday 21 June where the report Development of feature films in Australia: A survey of producers, directors and writers was launched. You can access this report online or contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy


• The Melbourne International Film Festival, 21 July - 8 August, is screening a showcase of Australian films including a focus on the award-winning short films that Cate Shortland made before Somersault


• Two multi-award winning Australian films, Birthday Boy (by Sejong Park) and Hello (by Jonathan Nix), received major awards at the world's largest animation festival in Annecy, France, 7-12 June



• Embassy Roadshow has now completed its schedule of bookings up until May 2005. It includes several return visits to New Delhi, Beirut and Washington as well as new locations in Vientiane (Cambodia), Rangoon (Myanmar) and Zurich (Switzerland). The AFC has announced the addition of seven new features - Australian Rules, Black and White, Crackerjack, Garage Days, The Hard Word, Hildegarde, The Tracker and Walking on Water - and four new shorts Cracker Bag, Harvie Krumpet, Mimi and The Projectionist


• Bird Runningwater, programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, gave recent talks in Melbourne and Sydney about the festival and divulged what sort of films Sundance is looking for. Contact marketing@afc.gov.au for more information



• AFC sponsored an award, Best Achievement in Drama Directing, at the recent AFTRS Graduation on Friday 30 April. Congratulations to Ema Mulholland who received the $5000 award from AFC Chair Maureen Barron


• Rachel Ward took out Best Achievement in Directing at the St Kilda Film Festival Awards for the short feature Martha's New Coat. Find out more about the winners


• 2004 ATOM Awards finalists have been announced


• There are 11 key international festival deadlines approaching in June/July including Cork, London, Ottawa, Pusan, San Sebastian, Telluride, Tokyo, Monreal World, Uppsala, Valladolid and Venice. See International Festival Profiles for more details


• Seven international awards have been received since May 2004 by Australian films at international festivals including Annecy, Oberhausen and Tribeca. See Recent International Awards for more details

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• A record number of over 190 Australian industry professionals travelled to Cannes this year and nearly a dozen features screened in the marketplace. Somersault, selected for Un Certain Regard, was a critical and commercial success, which helped generate international market interest in the Australian film industry as a whole. Footnote, a VCA animated short screening in the Cinéfondation section, also reflected well on the standard of student films being produced in Australia
  
  This year, AFC Marketing partnered with the Cannes Market for the inaugural Producers' Network initiative - a series of industry breakfasts during the market. This initiative was designed to enable experienced feature film producers to meet each other and to find out about production subsidies and co-production options in various territories. On the first Friday of the market the AFC and a representative cross-section of key Australian industry professionals hosted five tables to answer any questions by international producers on Partnering with Australia
  
  The Australian Film Office, the meeting point for Australians at Cannes run by the AFC, offered expanded and improved office facilities with wireless internet access and enhanced meeting facilities. A range of events was organised including a Canadian co-production breakfast, Irish/Australian/New Zealand co-production drinks and a reception for Australian filmmakers to meet with international sales agents and distributors and a prestigious lunch for international festival directors hosted by the Australian ambassador to Paris, his Excellency Mr Bill Fisher


• The American Film Market (AFM) will be held in November this year, moving from its usual February slot. The new schedule brings an alliance with AFI Fest, the American Film Institute's Los Angeles International Film Festival. Many films at the AFM will now have the opportunity for festival and media visibility in Hollywood

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• A Guide to Australian Feature Films 2004 was launched recently at the Cannes Film Festival and is now online. It includes producer and director biographies, synopses and short features. Contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy


• Australian short films have a tradition of strong international appeal and the recent success of Cracker Bag by Glendyn Ivin and Harvie Krumpet by Adam Elliot has once again affirmed our reputation in the global marketplace. The revised Marketing Shorts can help you publicise your short film


• Are you looking for details of a particular Australian film title - feature, short, TV drama or documentary? The Searchable Film Database includes Australian and co-produced features, TV drama and documentaries from 1990 and shorts from 1998. It is now updated on the AFC website each month


• Read about the latest AFC-funded success stories including Everything Goes, Grange, Helen's War, Homemade History, Lennie Cahill Shoots Through, The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face, Memory Tree, The Men Who Would Conquer China, Recycle and Sweetheart


• Upcoming Production Report


• Latest updates to Get the Picture Online industry statistics

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• ScreenSound Projects Manager, Collections Branch Mary Miliano was recently honoured by the Australasian Sound Recordings Association at its annual conference. Mary was awarded the 2004 ASRA Award for Excellence, which is presented to people who have made a significant contribution to the sound recording industry


• New Legal Officers Stephen Boyle and Erin Driscoll join the AFC team


• Welcome to Manager Technology Services Newton Braga, Corporate Liaison Assistant Chelsea Butler, Receptionist and Administrative Support Siobhan Dee, Publishing Manager Cathy Gray, Records Coordinator Julie Mirinic and Film Development Administrative Officer Shauna Wine


• Positions vacant: Collection Development Officer - Collections Branch. Closing date Friday 9 July 2004
  

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• Convinced that the War on Terror is escalating the global nuclear arms race, firebrand anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott embarks on an explosive, funny, fearless crusade through post-911 USA, tracked by her niece Anna Broinowski, in the documentary Helen's War, which screens on SBS on Thursday 1 July and at the Valhalla Cinema in Glebe until the end of June


• The AFI Awards has announced its 2004 call for entries. Deadlines June/July depending on genre


• Find out what's happening at the National Screen and Sound Archive in Canberra in July. You can download a PDF of current events


• The National Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) Conference and Awards will be held in Melbourne, 2-4 July. The theme for 2004 is Story-Image-Technology-Education: Exploring state-of-the-art technology and its application in the classroom. AFC Industry and Cultural Development has organised to bring out from the UK Mr Richard Paterson, Head of Knowledge at the British Film Institute and Project Director of screenonline.org.uk, to attend the conference and deliver one of its keynote addresses on Friday 2 July


• The St Kilda Film Festival Tour heads off around the country until mid-July. Visit their website for screening details


• Experimenta is calling for proposals from ACT digital and new media artists, filmmakers, video makers, animators, visual designers and architects for the development of new media artworks for inclusion in their next major exhibition in 2005. Deadline Monday 12 July


• The 13th WOW International Film Festival is now calling for entries for drama and documentary films of less than 50 minutes duration. Deadline Friday 30 July


• The Big Screen 2004 regional tour of Australian films heads to Bathurst (NSW), Yeppoon and Malanda (QLD), Darwin (NT) and Broome (WA) in July/August


• The Australian features A Man's Gotta Do, Tom White and Under the Radar are being released July/August so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema


• The 15/15 Film Festival provides filmmakers from a diverse section of the Australian and wider-world community with an opportunity to produce their own short films and engage with the film industry. It is touring until August


• Australia's leading annual conference for emerging and low-budget film and television producers, SPAA Fringe, is heading to Brisbane, 5-7 August. The Fringe is an intensive and interactive three-day course of informative and practical sessions


• The SPAA Conference recently confirmed the participation of the first of its international guests, including keynote speakers Ted Hope and Jon Plowman, for the 2004 event, 8-10 August, at the Sheraton Mirage Resort on the Gold Coast


• The ReelDance International Dance on Screen Festival is touring in August/September


• Digital Salon invites all digital media artists working or experimenting with interactive media, VJing, non-linear filmmaking, DVD, electronic music and projection arts to take part in their regular meetings, held the last Tuesday of each month in Sydney


• IF magazine's What's On in Film January to June 2004 guide to screen events is sponsored by the AFC


• Other AFC-supported activities and events

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• Hailing from Italy, where his career began as a film critic and writer on film and arts, Paolo Cherchi Usai rapidly took a curatorial path that has included Preservation Officer for the Royal Film Archive in Belgium, a founder and director of the Silent Film Festival of Pordenone in Italy, and Adjunct Professor of Film at the University of Rochester. He has been Senior Curator of the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, since 1994.
  
  Paolo is currently Vice President of the International Federation of Film Archives among his many honorary roles, as well as director of the L Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. He was knighted by the French Government earlier this year as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to film culture.
  
  He has conducted extensive academic research and has been published widely in books and papers on subjects ranging from the history of silent cinema, to film preservation and, most recently, issues associated with audiovisual archiving in the digital age. Among his most acclaimed books are Burning Passions: An Introduction to the Study of Silent Cinema (1994) and The Death of Cinema: History, Cultural Memory, and the Digital Dark Age (2001).
  
  Paolo was attracted to the Directorship of Australia's National Screen and Sound Archive because of the significance of the collection and the Archive's international standing and reputation.
  
  Read the full feature interview with Paolo Cherchi Usai.

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