• A stellar line-up of local Indigenous and international film identities attended the launch of the AFC's new Indigenous initiative, Long Black, in Sydney on 25 August. The latest in a series of targeted drama development programs from the AFC's Indigenous Branch, 'Long Black' will provide Indigenous filmmakers with the support needed to develop and produce a first feature. The 'Long Black' Writers' Lab took place in Byron Bay, 28 August to 3 September.



• The AFC and ABC will undertake a new partnership to jointly provide $1.2 million in funding over two years for the Broadband Cross-media Production Initiative (BCPI). This new funding initiative follows on the heels of the AFC/ABC Broadband Production Initiative, and will be directed to producing documentary and factual content for multi-platform delivery. It will be hosted and broadcast on the ABC broadband and ABC2 digital television services.



• The AFC has released the results of its annual survey of feature film and TV drama production, which show that the production of Australian television drama has continued to trend down. Contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy.



• The AFC-supported the Vital Signs Conference 2005 in Melbourne 7-9 September. Vital Signs is part of a series of annual conferences presented by RMIT University, School of Creative Media. It aims to bring together the key players of new media art to discover - collectively - new ways forward.



• It has been a hectic month for Big Screen festival directors Peter Castaldi and Richard Sowada. During August the festival travelled through Bathurst and Orange (NSW), Darwin and Katherine (NT), Broome (WA) and Barcaldine, Hervey Bay and Roma (Qld). Highlights included: producer David Hannay screening his feature Hildegarde for the first time to an Australian audience in Bathurst with 800 primary school children; touring with Tom E Lewis and Yellow Fella to Darwin; taking Sam Worthington and Nathaniel Dean to Barcaldine with its stunning Radio Theatre; having Craig Monahan in Hervey Bay to present his second feature Peaches to a very captivated opening night audience; and seeing Roma through a rose-coloured hue.
  
  Coming up in September, Big Screen will launch a Multicultural Festival in Bendigo on 23 September with Cate Blanchett's new film Little Fish, and doing a one-off screening of The Sentimental Bloke in Launceston with Jen Anderson's live accompaniment on 1 October.

Top

• The AFC Travel Grant program has been expanded to include Travel Grants to a range of international animation, documentary and feature film markets. Producers can now apply for a market Travel Grant to attend MIFA, Sunny Side of the Doc, American Film Market, World Congress of History Producers and World Congress of Science Producers. Check the Travel Grant section on the AFC website from 9 September for updated funding guidelines and application form. The deadline for new Type B and Type C Travel Grant markets - American Film Market (AFM), World Congress of History Producers, World Congress of Science Producers - is Friday 23rd September.



• The AFC has launched a new email newsletter, IndiVision News, which aims to keep Australian filmmakers in touch with the latest issues and developments in low-budget filmmaking. You can subscribe to receive IndiVision News twice a year.



• Headlands Artistic Director, Nick Torrens, has announced five successful teams out of the competitive national call for entries. Spearheaded by the Documentary Department of AFTRS, Headlands is Australia's first intensive development program for documentary. It will provide selected experienced filmmakers with the opportunity to develop original documentary ideas in a three-month hothouse - from concept to pitch. Starting 12 September, successful applicants will attend workshops and one-on-one sessions with local and two international advisors in Sydney at AFTRS. Director Annamaria Talos and producer Simon Nasht are the successful applicants from New South Wales with Connected: The Real Matrix. The other successful applicants are: Rosie Jones with her project The History of Walking (Vic); Citt Williams and Mitch Torres' Indigenous Biopiracy and Gil Scrine's Deputy Sheriff (Qld); and Gabrielle Kelly's How Do I Look? New Eyes On The Global Society (SA).



• AFC funding deadlines - September/October:
  
  FILM DEVELOPMENT
  16 Sept: Strand L - Shooting Time-Critical Material; Strand N - Documentary Production
  23 Sept: Strand B - Seed Feature Funding; Strand H - Short Shorts Production; Strand X - Experimental Digital Production
  14 Oct: Strand J - Documentary Early Development; Strand K - Documentary Development
  21 Oct: Strand L - Shooting Time-Critical Material
  28 Oct: Strand D - Draft Funding; Strand V - Interactive Digital Media - Early Development
  
  INDUSTRY AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
  4 Oct: National Touring Exhibiton Fund; Events and Activities Fund
  
  INDIGENOUS
  7 Oct: Drama Development
  28 Oct : Documentary Development
  
  MARKETING TRAVEL GRANTS
  Type B and Type C Market Travel Grant Deadlines
  22 Sept: American Film Market, AFM; World Congress of History Producers; World Congress of Science Producers



• AFC funding approvals.

Top

• After 10 years of transcribing interviews for the Archive's Oral History Program, hard-working volunteer Pat Donnelly has decided to move on. A formal presentation was made to Pat at a recent meeting of the Film & Broadcast Industries Oral History Group at the AFC's Sydney offices, to acknowledge her outstanding contribution to this program.



• A collection of Australian film posters, daybills and lobby cards from the 1930s-50s was recently purchased at a Christie's auction. This valuable collection features American-released posters and publicity lobby cards for a range of Australian films. While the NFSA holds the Australian publicity material for these titles, this acquisition has filled a significant gap in its international release holdings. Many display alternative titles presumably thought to be more suitable for American audiences and show a more lurid choice of text, colour and design than what is evident in publicity material for the Australian releases.
  
  
• A special arrangement with Radio Triple J means many boxes of newly released CDs are arriving at the Archive. NFSA Radio specialist Nick Weare says that the arrangement is similar to one that currently exists with the sound library at ABC Radio: 'Both the ABC and Triple J receive many newly released CDs from record companies, artists and bands around the world. We have worked out an agreement where excess copies are sent to us to be accessioned into the national collection of sound.'



• Molly Meldrum launched the theme Rock n Roll in Bloom for the annual Floriade at the Archive headquarters in August. Floriade is one of Canberra's largest annual tourism events. Molly also enjoyed a tour of the Archive.

Top

• Experience the visionary cinema of Powell and Pressburger at the National Cinematheque. Their work together was deemed to be one of the greatest collaborations in the history of cinema, championed by devotees Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese for its 'real film magic'. Powell and Pressburger's films combine music, dance, painting, literature and photography, working across a number of familiar genres such as noir, melodrama, the war film, the ballet film, and the murder-thriller. Hobart State Theatre: 5-19 September; Perth FTI Cinema: 7-28 September; Adelaide Mercury Cinema: 3-17 October; Melbourne ACMI Cinemas: 28 September - 12 October.



• Embassy Roadshow was hosted in Kathmandu for the fourth consecutive year, at the Russian Culture Centre in Kamalpokhari, 13-16 August. The event presented six screenings with 1,125 people in attendance. Audience response was overwhelmingly positive; many had not been previously exposed to Australian films. China is embarking on a series of festivals, commencing with a Melbourne-Tiajin Sister City 25th Anniversary Australian Film Week in early September, followed by a film week in Chengdu. Later in the year a series of Australian film festivals will be hosted in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with special guests Robert Connolly and David Wenham. The Roadshow is a travelling film festival that showcases contemporary Australian films to international audiences, facilitated through Australian embassies and posts abroad. It is an initiative of the Australia International Cultural Council through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and is coordinated by DFAT and the AFC.



• AFC Festival Selection Alerts: The San Sebastian International Film Festival has announced that the Australian feature film Look Both Ways, written and directed by Sarah Watt, will screen in the Zabaltegi - New Directors program and will compete for the coveted Altadis - New Directors Award.



• September/October submission deadlines are coming up for the following international festivals: Transmediale - International Media Art Festival Berlin, Torino, Sundance, Stuttgart Filmwinter, Hof, Gijon, Mumbai and Clermont-Ferrand. See Festival Profiles for more information.



• Two of Australia's most anticipated new feature films, Little Fish (starring Cate Blanchett) and The Proposition (starring David Wenham and Guy Pearce, written by Nick Cave), will launch the AFI Awards judging season. Seventeen feature films have been entered this year and all will be included in the judging screenings. See the full list of films nominated. Other AFC-supported films nominated include the documentary Jabe Babe: A Heightened Life, the short dramas Azadi and Jewboy and the short animations Pinata and The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. The AFI Awards will be held in Melbourne on 19 November.



• Australian features and documentaries hit a home run with Melbourne International Film Festival audiences, who voted six local features plus six local documentaries into the top 20 of their respective sections. This allowed homegrown talent to dominate, with 30 percent of the top audience votes, including Look Both Ways at number 2 and horror film Wolf Creek, in its Australian premiere, at number 7. Street art doc Rash by Nicholas Hansen continued the trend as second most popular documentary and Kathy Drayton's moving portrait of Carol Jerrems, Girl in a Mirror, was number 5. [Inside Film]

Top

• This year's Women Working in Television cocktail party in Sydney, 15 September, features Jenny Brockie (Presenter Insight , SBS TV) and Gretel Killeen ( Host Big Brother, Network Ten), with introductions by Maureen Barron (Chair, Australian Film Commission). The cocktail party will give you the opportunity to hear two very different women talk about their experiences in television from a creative, personal and business point of view. It is also an ideal opportunity to meet and network with women from across the industry. Email l.heron@afc.gov.au for further information or to book tickets. Deadline 15 September.



• Five Moments of Infidelity, produced by Don Linke and written and directed by Kate Gorman, was judged the winner of the inaugural digiSPAA '05 Award. An industry panel comprising Antony I. Ginnane, producer-director Kate Woods, producer-director Daniel Scharf and the managing director of Magna Pacific, Leon Coningham, were on hand to award the prize (return airfares and accommodation to Rotterdam Cinemart 2006) to the producer. Shot on location in Melbourne, Five Moments of Infidelity is a sensual, true to life drama showing moments of infidelity across five different worlds in the same city.



• Indigenous Branch Manager Sally Riley attended the Sundance Independent Producers Conference, 4-7 August, in the United States. The focus was on the independent sector of the US film industry and the conference offered panels on marketing, distribution, financing, documentary, music, a pitching session and screenings.

Top

• The AFC made a submission to the Attorney General's Department regarding its issues paper Fair use and other copyright exceptions: an examination of fair use, fair dealing and other exceptions in the digital age.



• The AFC welcomes the recent establishment of a peak film industry body, which brings together the membership of SPAA, MEAA, ASDA and the AWG. Announcing its formation at the SPAA conference, CEO Hal McElroy stated that the Australian Screen Council's mission is 'to unite the Australian screen production industry, speak with one voice to Government, increase its nett returns and enhance its cultural contribution to the Australian and international communities'. We look forward to working with the ASC and its membership in the future.

Top

• Sarah Lambert received development investment from the AFC for her screenplay Red Dress and in 2004 was awarded an AFC Fellowship. She was selected as one of eight directors from around the world to attend the Director's Program at the Binger Institute to workshop her film. Based in Amsterdam, the program ran from 1 September 2004 to 28 January 2005. Attendees then had the opportunity to attend the Rotterdam Film Festival, as part of a sidebar to Cinemart, from 30 January to 4 February. Here is Sarah's report on her experience.
  
  Vincent Monton also received an AFC Fellowship to investigate the latest developments in digital technologies and their impact on cinematographers and filmmaking in general.



• Read about the success of AFC-supported projects. This month we feature Azadi, Divide, I Told You I Was Ill: the Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan, Look Both Ways, Solo and Stranded



• 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 updated on the AFC website each month.



• Upcoming Production Report.



• Latest updates to Get the Picture Online.

Top

• Mike Cowap, former producer with digital media production company Moneystack and development executive for Picture Palace North, will join the AFC's Film Development Division this month as a Project Manager, based in the Melbourne office.



• Welcome to MAVIS Support Analyst Deborah Baldwin, Film Development Project Manager Mike Cowap and Administrative Officer Sarah Royds, Senior Executive Manager - Workforce Planning Strategy Pam Saunders, and Archive Library Manager Jan Thurling. Farewell to David Waddell.



• Positions vacant: Film Co-production Officer - deadline 9 Sept; Curatorial Assistant - deadline 9 Sept.

Top

• The Australian films Little Fish, The Magician, The Proposition and Wolf Creek are screening September-November so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.



• Experimenta has many events coming up in September around the 'Vanishing Point' theme: the Exhibition, 1-30 September, at a number of Melbourne venues, will have you second-guessing your way through a forest of new media artworks; the Cinema Program at ACMI, 14-18 September, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), invites you on a journey of surreal possibilities. With narratives that defy logic, characters that shrink, and landscapes that travel backwards, the program promises to challenge viewers' expectations with films, videos and animations from around the world. In addition the Outdoor Screenings, throughout September at Federation Square Outdoor Screen, feature Daniel Crooks (Australia), Julie C. Fortier (France), June Bum Park (Korea), Hiraki Sawa (Japan) and William Wegman (USA); the Performance, 8-9 September at ACMI, invites us into the mechanical world of French artist Julien Maire, who enchants audiences with his intriguing projected theatre. Using a 'reversed camera' technique, Demi-pas is a short film that constructs an everyday scene, highlighting both the simplicity and complexity of one man's daily reality. A Seminar, was held on 7 September, by Julien Maire at the VCA. See Vanishing Point for further details.



• The Tasmanian doco series Real Life Water Rats screens on ABC TV, Tuesdays at 8pm, until 20 September. Produced by Roar Film in association with ABC Television and Screen Tasmania, and supported by the Australian Film Commission and the Film Finance Corporation, Real Life Water Rats is a revealing documentary series showcasing the labour of marine police working within a highly dangerous environment.



• There may have been only one winner, but Project Greenlight Australia has announced an exciting opportunity for the remaining Top Ten scripts selected from its recent exhaustive script search. You can hear the scripts performed live at the script-reading program ScreenPlay, based at ACMI, on the first Monday of each month until December.



• Adelaide's Mercury Cinema and Media Resource Centre are screening Flamin' Films, a new showcase of the latest features, short features, and documentaries from indie Australian filmmakers. Blacktown, the winner of a best film award at this year's Sydney Film Festival, opens the season on 2 September and the festival, which also includes Jewboy and The 13th House, screens until 16 September.



• Highly esteemed creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson will deliver the keynote address at Backing Our Creativity, in Melbourne from 12 to 14 September, one of several events taking place around the world in the lead up to the UNESCO World Conference on Arts Education in Lisbon 2006. The symposium will explore the positive impacts of an education rich in creativity and the arts, and examine the links between practice, policy and research in this area of growing interest for governments and communities around the world.



• The Centre for Public Culture and Ideas (Griffith University) and the Native Title Studies Centre (James Cook University) will present Saltwater Indigenous Film Festival, a travelling film festival screening some of the latest achievements by Indigenous filmmakers, 13 September - 1 October, in Northern Queensland. Rima Timou, Wayne Blair, Marcus Waters and Ian Lang will speak about their experiences of working in the industry.




• The ASDA Conference, Sydney College of the Arts, 16-18 September, focuses on 'dreaming, planning and realising the low-budget film'. A high-level, practical, workshop-based conference aimed at working and emerging directors, it features a cast of leading Australian and international directors, and other industry professionals presenting a focused, intensive and entertaining program. It includes demonstrations and screenings, and goes to the heart of the director's craft. ASDA has confirmed acclaimed director Joel Schumacher as a keynote speaker.



• QPIX is calling for applications for its sixth annual product development Laboratory. The LAB allows writers and producers to develop projects with the guidance and support of experienced supervising writers and producers. Deadline 19 September 2005.




• The Auburn International Film and Video Festival for Children and Young Adults, in Sydney from 19 to 23 September, will showcase a series of works that have been selected from the best and winners of Roshd International Film Festival 2004 by Iranian youth.



• Electrofringe is a hands-on, all-in new media arts festival dedicated to unearthing emergent forms and encouraging young and developing artists to explore technology and its creative possibilities. Electrofringe will take place in Newcastle, 29 September - 3 October, as part of the This Is Not Art Festival.



• This year's IF Awards will again take place at Luna Park in Sydney on 23 November and will be screened live.



• Metro Screen's Members Production Group (MPG) meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm at Metro Screen. Meetings are open to all Metro Screen members and give you the opportunity to pitch new ideas, discuss your current projects, share skills and resources and collaborate with others to produce your own films, TV content and media projects.



• ScreenWest and PAC Screen Workshops have announced the initiative PAC Script Lab, monthly rehearsed readings of West Australian feature film scripts on the last Sunday of each month. The ultimate aim is for a honing of West Australian scripts and an increase in the profile, quality and awareness of West Australian film projects.



• Popcorn Taxi has weekly screenings and Q&A sessions in Sydney and Melbourne. See their website or join their mailing list for details of upcoming events.



• IF Magazine's What's On in Film July to December 2005 guide to screen events is sponsored by the AFC. Contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy.



• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

Top

Top