• The AFC welcomed the results of the Federal Government's Review of Australian Government Film Funding Support, announced on Budget night, 8 May. In particular, the new producer rebate and the increased location rebate will stimulate higher levels of investment in the industry. The Government also announced the creation of the new Australian Screen Authority (ASA), a merger of the AFC, the Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia, as of 1 July 2008. "Overall, the Australian film, television and digital content industries will benefit from the establishment of a central and focused agency working towards promoting and encouraging Australian screen culture," said AFC Chair Maureen Barron. Media release.
  
  The combined funding for the ASA will see a continuation of the Government's commitment to low-budget films, access and screen culture - funds that have given rise over the last two years to the AFC initiatives IndiVision, the Regional Digital Screen Network and australianscreen online.
  
  The Budget papers also announced that the research and statistics function currently undertaken by the AFC will be transferred from 2008/09 to the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) along with appropriate resourcing.
  
  The 2007-08 Budget Film Package page on the AFC website contains links that provide more information about the Budget outcomes. We will be progressively updating this page as more information becomes available.


• Opening night of the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival at the Sydney Opera House (4 May) saw the launch of the AFC's new book Dreaming in Motion. The book celebrates the work of the AFC's Indigenous Branch, the filmmakers it has supported and the network of organisations that have made Indigenous filmmaking such a distinct success. It features essays, profiles of Indigenous filmmakers, and a bonus DVD. Copies are available from the AFC for $10 - order form.
  
  On the same night the AFC awarded Aaron Pedersen with the 2007 Bob Maza Fellowship valued at $10,000. Unable to attend the ceremony due to work commitments, Aaron told the AFC: "Uncle Bob was an inspiration for my career as an actor and it is an honour and a privilege to receive this fellowship in his name. I plan to undertake training at an international drama school with the fellowship. I see this as a valuable step in increasing my familiarity with the international scene and furthermore, reinforcing the fact that Indigenous actors can play mainstream roles." Media release.

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• Film Development Funding Guidelines and application forms for the 2007/08 financial year will be available on the AFC website from Monday 2 July. Funding programs likely to close in July are as follows:
  
  * Feature Drama Development (formerly Strands A & D)
  * Time-critical Documentary Production (formerly Strand L)
  * Animation Development (formerly Strand S)
  * Interactive Digital Media Development (formerly Strand V)
  * Internship/Fellowships
  
  The AFC is currently redeveloping a number of existing programs such as the GDI Producer Support program. Please check our website for all new guidelines, closing dates and application forms from Monday 2 July 2007.


• AFC funding deadlines - June 2007:
  
  INDIGENOUS
  11 June
  Long Black Production funding


• AFC funding approvals.

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• Now available on the NFSA website is a selection of material relating to the landmark referendum of 27 May 1967, which achieved an overwhelming 'yes' vote to remove two discriminatory references regarding Aboriginal people from the Australian Constitution. The material ranges from 1966 to 2006 and contains some video clips that can be viewed on the site (such as Kath Walker and Faith Bandler on This is Your Life). The list reflects on the enduring importance of the referendum and also demonstrates the increasing desire by Indigenous Australians to harness audiovisual technologies to tell their own story.


• The 10-minute film recently restored by the NFSA capturing the 1932 opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (as reported in April AFC News) will screen at the Sydney Film Festival on 9 June at 12:15pm, GU George Street Cinemas, before the Australian premiere of Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn, which also features footage contributed by the NFSA. Curator of Moving Image, Graham Shirley, will introduce the film. More about the film.


• The personal collection of Franklyn Barrett, considered by many to be one of Australia's great pioneer filmmakers, has come to the NFSA by way of his daughter's estate. Barrett toured Australia with theatre orchestras from 1900 and began experimenting with moving pictures. Many items in this extremely valuable collection are in a fragile state and they will soon undergo conservation treatment by the NFSA. The collection will then be fully catalogued and accessible via the Search the Collection database on the NFSA website.


• A series of audio recordings from the recent Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival has been acquired through the NFSA's Oral History Program. The recordings include opening night speeches, the Bob Maza Fellowship and Tudawali Award presentations, and all Q&A sessions. These recordings are an important addition to the NFSA's collection. Thank you to Festival curators Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale, and producer Greg Clarke at the Sydney Opera House.


• A new Fellow has begun studying at the NFSA's Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research (CSAR). Keiko Tamura is a research fellow in the School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the ANU. She has also been Senior Researcher on the Australia-Japan Research Project at the Australian War Memorial. Her doctoral thesis Border Crossings: Japanese War Brides and their Selfhood was in anthropology. Keiko's project at the NFSA is titled Australian perceptions of Japanese Arrivals: an analysis of moving images 1920-1970.


• The Thursday evening program of screenings and sound events at the NFSA's headquarters in Canberra continues throughout June. On 7 June, The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti (2002, M) will be introduced by its Emmy Award-winning director Adam Low. On 14 June the NFSA's Nick Weare will be in conversation with radio historian Wayne Mac and ABC radio personality David Kilby for Don't Touch That Dial: Radio in the Top 40 Era. The final screenings in June focus on crime TV. Full program.

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• Warm congratulations to Tony Ayres for winning the NSW Premier's Literary Awards' $15,000 Script Award for his feature film The Home Song Stories. The script was developed through the AFC's Sp*rk Script Development program. It's also screening at the Sydney Film Festival.


• Several AFC-funded/supported films have been nominated for Dendy Awards at this year's Sydney Film Festival (SFF). They are: Revolving Door (d/p: Alexandra Beesley, David Beesley); Katoomba (d: Leon Ford, p: Melissa Johnston, Nicole O'Donohue); Love's Labour (d/p: Natasha Pincus, p: Chelsea Cassio); 2 Mums and a Dad (d: Miranda Wills, p: Sally Ingleton); The Passion of Gina Sinozich (d: Olivia Rousset, p: Sylvie le Clezio); and Sweet & Sour (d: Eddie White, p: Sam White, Barry Plews, Hugh Nguyen, Ren Zhong Lun). Not screening but highly commended is the Podlove doco Virtual Freedom (d: Gef Senz, p: Beth Frey). Congratulations to all the filmmakers.


• AFC-funded/supported films screening at Sydney Film Festival are: 4 (d/p: Tim Slade, p: Joanna Buggy); The Fibros and the Silvertails (d/p: Paul Oliver, p: Philippa Campey); Cross Life (d/p: Claire McCarthy, p: Anne Robinson, Andre Smith, Louise Smith, Stephen Carnell); Yolk (d: Stephen Lance); Play (w/d: Ben West, p: Nicole O'Donohue); Jtv doc Searching 4 Sandeep: A Love Story (d: Poppy Stockell, p: Cecilia Ritchie); Lucky Miles (d: Michael James Rowland, p: Jo Dyer, Lesley Dyer); Global Haywire (d: Bruce Petty, p: Claude Gonzalez); What the Future Sounded Like (d: Matthew Bate, p: Clare Harris); The Girl Who Swallowed Bees (d: Paul McDermott, p: Justine Kerrigan); Rachel: A Perfect Life (p/d: Fiona Cochrane); West (p. Anne Robinson, Matthew Reeder, d. Daniel Krige); Bomb Harvest (feature length version, p. Sylvia Wilczynski, d. Kim Mordaunt); Words from the City (p. Philippa Campey, d. Rhys Graham & Natasha Gadd); In Our Name (p. Catherine Cresswell, d. Chris Tuckwell); and Playground (w/d: Eve Spence, p: Liam Branagan), which is also screening at the Krakow Film Festival in June.


• AFC-funded/supported films screening at the St Kilda Film Festival are: Three Months At Sea (w/d: Kylie Eddy, p: Vanessa Burt); Kaliedoscope (d: Lucy Gouldthorpe, p: Andy Wilson); Soul Mates (w/d/p: Naomi Rossdeutscher, p:Rachel Clements); Love's Labour (d/p: Natasha Pincus, p: Chelsea Cassio); Revolving Door (d/p: Alexandra Beesley, David Beesley); Death's Requiem (p.Tim Maddocks, d.Marc Furmie); William (p.Peter George, d.Eron Sheean); and What They Don't Know (Sam Bennett).


• Five-minute claymation Extreme Makeover (w/d: Jonathon Daw, p: Vicki Sugars) has sold to Sky Italia and to Russia's MINI movie channel, is screening on the opening night of St Kilda Film Festival, and at the 7th Tel Aviv Animation Festival.


• Animation Revolving Door (d/p: Alexandra Beesley, David Beesley) is doing extremely well on the international festival circuit, being invited to screen at: 13th CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, Toronto; 4th CON-CAN Movie Festival (internet), Japan; XV Mostra de Internacionales de Films de Dones de Barcelona; and the 17th Internationale Videofestival Bochum, Germany.


• One of the Podlove documentaries the 3g of us (w/d: Akhim Dev) has been highly acclaimed by the pre-selection committee of the 13th Shanghai TV Festival and been nominated for the Magnolia Award for Best Foreign Animation.


• Big Dreamers (p/d: Camille Hardman, p/w: John Fink) has been selected to screen at two film festivals in the US in June - doco festival SILVERDOCS and the deadCENTER Film Festival.


• Short film Cheap Seats (w/d: Phillip Donnellon, p: Justine Spicer), starring Barry Otto, recently screened at Cannes Antipodes.


• Belated congratulations to actor Emma Lung for her Logie win - the Graham Kennedy Award For Most Outstanding New Talent for her role in the AFC-funded short feature Stranded.


• Big Screen patron and AFI Award-winning actor Denise Roberts will be heading to Briagolong (Vic) with Big Screen, 9-11 June. Denise will be presenting the local premiere of the comedy hit Razzle Dazzle on opening night and running a filmmaking workshop. The second Wellington Shire Short Film Festival Awards featuring short films made by budding local filmmakers will be held, and local emergency services workers will be saluted at a special screening of Strange Bedfellows. Shorts from the St Kilda Film Festival will accompany screenings of features including Ten Canoes, Last Train to Freo, Proof, Look Both Ways and Jindabyne. There's also a special screening of the NFSA's restored version of The Story of the Kelly Gang. More info: 1300 366 244 or the Big Screen website.


• Coming up on 20 June on the Regional Digital Screen Network is the highly acclaimed new Australian film Noise directed by Matthew Saville and starring Brendan Cowell. Since its limited release in early May, the film has garnered both excellent reviews and box office. In July, Cherie Nowlan's much anticipated feature Clubland starring Brenda Blethyn and Khan Chittenden will screen across the network. Cherie is presenting a special preview of Clubland in her hometown of Singleton at the Rose Point Cinemas on 9 June, before flying off to the US for the 4 July release.


• From June to November, Black Screen will present the National Tour of the 2007 Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival. The program features 13 short films by emerging Indigenous Australian directors funded through the AFC's Indigenous Branch initiative A Bit of Black Business, and documentaries from the National Indigenous Documentary Fund. The tour will kick off at the Dreaming Festival in Woodford, Qld, 8-11 June. Black Screen has short film compilations available for community festivals, educational screening programs and cultural awareness events for Reconciliation Week (from 30 May) and NAIDOC celebrations in July. Check the Black Screen Film Access page for details.


• The London Australian Film Festival kicks off its UK tour after breaking its box office record at the Barbican Centre in March. Cities include Cambridge, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. The tour is presented by the Australian Government through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in partnership with the AFC.


• Sichuan Television in China invites Australian institutions, independent filmmakers, associations and educational establishments to submit their animations or documentaries to the Gold Panda Awards, which are part of the 2007 Sichuan TV Festival, 28-30 October. Deadline: 31 July. Check their website for details.


• The Australian film Romulus, My Father opened on 31 May. Noise, Bra Boys and Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance are still screening so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.

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• The following AFC publications are new or have recently been updated and are available online. For a hard copy email publishing@afc.gov.au:
  Getting Started in Film, TV and Interactive Digital Media
  Long Black Production Guidelines & Application Form
  Australian Market Screenings - Cannes 2007
  Australian Feature Films 2007/08
  Australian Feature Films in production and recently completed May 2007


• 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.


• Latest updates to industry statistics in Get the Picture Online.

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• Welcome to Antony Spence, Despatch Officer, NFSA; Annette Raile, Vaults Officer, NFSA; Tenille Hands, Collection Access Officer, NFSA; Rohana Stratford, Finance Accounts Officer, Corporate Services.


• Farewell to Wu Zhang, Corporate Services; Penny Tucker, Office of the Chief Executive; Adam Griffiths, Access & Outreach, NFSA; Elizabeth Platts and Hugh Short, Corporate Services.


• Positions vacant: for current vacant positions at the AFC.

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• The Sydney Film Festival MobileMovies competition is open. Make a 1-minute movie with your mobile inspired by the theme 'transport yourself'. The WotNext MobileMovie Award has a prize package worth $10,000. MMS your entries to 044SYDFILM or upload via the web. More info www.wotnext.com.au/sff


• The 2007 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards are now open for entry to students, production companies, independent filmmakers, educational bodies and educational producers. Deadline: 20 June. There's a new category, Best Multi-modal Production, and also a new subcategory, the Images of Age Documentary. Entry forms on their website.


• If you have made an Australian film screened at an IF-accredited film festival since 16 September 2006 then your film should be on the Inside Film Awards website. If you would like a still with your film listing to jolt the audiences' memories, email ifawards@if.com.au with 'Update Listing: [film name]' in the subject line. Check out the website for a list of accredited festivals.


• The AFC's Industry and Cultural Development Division proudly supports the following upcoming festivals and events:
  
  15/15 Film Festival
  26 May - 19 July
  
  St Kilda Film Festival
  5-10 June
  
  Little Big Shots International Film Festival for Kids
  6-8 June
  
  Sydney Film Festival
  8-24 June
  
  Melbourne International Animation Festival
  19-24 June
  
  In the Bin Short Film Festival
  Entry deadline: 29 June
  
  Revelation Perth International Film Festival
  12-22 July


• OPEN CHANNEL events (check their website for details): Framed #05: Screens For Change. Three hybrid-media artists, fusing filmmaking and the digital arts in their work with remote and Indigenous communities, estranged youth and international cross-cultural projects. 28 June, 12.30-2.00pm, free. Docklands, Melbourne.


• Check Metro Screen's website for details of all their programs. Their Open Day is on Saturday 16 June, 10am-4pm, free, open to all. Workshops in camera operation and editing, seminars, screenings, equipment demonstrations and industry markets are on offer. The next Filmmakers' Studio will be featuring filmmaker Samantha Lang, 7 June, 7-9pm. $15/$20.


• Check out Popcorn Taxi's brand new website, which includes video podcasts of recent events. Popcorn Taxi, a regular film event where filmmakers and film lovers can meet, watch films of all types, and discuss the filmmaking process all year round runs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin.


• mo:life monthly is an informal gathering on the second Monday of every month, that offers the opportunity to discuss the latest advances and opportunities in mobile media technology and culture. Find out about the various players and networks and what they offer, explore the capabilities of the latest handsets, and see what others around the globe are doing with this new format. Contact d.opitz@metroscreen.org.au


• ScreenWest and PAC Screen Workshops have announced the PAC Script Lab initiative, rehearsed readings of West Australian feature film scripts on the last Sunday of each month. The aim is to hone West Australian scripts and increase the profile, quality and awareness of West Australian film projects.


• IF Magazine's What's On in Film guide to screen events is sponsored by the AFC. The Jan to June 2007 calendar is now available as a PDF on the AFC website.


• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

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Australian filmmaker PETER CORNWELL started out shooting his AFC-funded stop-motion animated short Ward 13 in the corner of his bedroom. The film went on to be hugely successful both here and internationally - screening at over 70 film festivals around the world and winning many awards. Three years later he is now directing the thriller feature film A Haunting in Connecticut, starring Virginia Madsen, for Gold Circle Films in LA. The AFC's Gabrielle Bonney recently spoke to Peter in LA where he is in pre-production for the film.

Tell us about your journey from independent filmmaker with your own production company in Australia to directing A Haunting in Connecticut in LA?

I obsessed in my spare time about making this crazy little film [Ward 13] while working as a sound recordist at ABC TV. I didn't really give that much thought to what would happen afterwards - I just wanted to make this film that, as a fan of cinema, I wanted to see. I'd never seen a totally action-packed film like Ward 13 in stop motion before. When I did work experience at Zap Productions many years ago I read some Cinefex magazines about Ray Harryhausen [a cult figure in stop-motion filmmaking]. I realised that, with enough time, I could make a really awesome blockbuster film basically by myself - just as Harryhausen did, except without compositing the characters into real environments.

I did the post-production sound over in San Francisco with my friend Luke Dunn Gielmuda, who is a genius sound designer. His boss Ren Klyce (who was Academy Award nominated for Sound Design on Fight Club) volunteered to mix it. From there various people got to see it. It was invited to screen at Pixar and many other places. On the morning I was to fly back to Australia I met Peter McHugh, who is now my manager.

By the time I came back to the US, somehow I had 50 meetings lined up with producers, most of whom I was meeting about doing live action. So to cut a long story short I also got a great agent and lawyer and things almost started to happen. After I met [director/producer/writer/actor] Sam Raimi and it got around that he really loved my film then things kicked up to another level. He is a really generous, great guy!

Can you talk a little about how receiving AFC funding to produce Ward 13 assisted in the early stages of your career and contributed to where you are now?

I showed the AFC my rough cut and received money to get an orchestra, so the film ended up with a score that is better than I dreamed it would be. It was composed and conducted by Christopher Gordon, one of Australia's finest composers. The temp score was full of Bernard Herrmann music that is impossible to get the feel of without a real orchestra. And because there is no dialogue in the film, the music is like a main character. Thanks to the support of Lawrence Johnston, Anna Broinowski and Adam Elliot somehow we made a strong enough case. I will be forever grateful to the AFC for that!

How did the screenings of Ward 13 on the international festival circuit and the subsequent awards increase your profile internationally and lead to other opportunities?

The awards and screenings were great, but ultimately the people I've been talking to about making movies in the US didn't hear about me through film festivals. All the producer contacts came from having a manager, then later an agent too. I found my manager through word-of-mouth. If your film gets on an agent's desk, awards probably help it go up the pile.

The film has also been sold five times to French TV. My French distributor thinks it might be the only film to have ever done that.

For a short animation, Ward 13 is incredibly high action - with its tense chase sequences, sword (cane) fights and dramatic score it's really akin to a live-action thriller. Did grounding the film in this action genre act as a kind of bridge for you from short animation to a live-action feature?

Yes. I shot it like a live-action film, and most of my influences were live action. Because I animated it very smoothly, many people almost forget it's an animated film. Those extra years making the animation really smooth were often agony, but it paid off!

Was animation your first love? Is a feature length animation on your agenda?

I love the freedom you have in animation, and I love confounding people's expectations because there can be such a limited view of the medium. But the main reason I did it in animation is so I could do big-budget production values essentially by myself, often shooting with the animation set up in the corner of my bedroom! I do have animated feature ideas though. Telling a good story is the main thing to me.

What attracted you to A Haunting in Connecticut? Having written your own projects previously, has the process of collaborating with screenwriters Tim Metcalfe and Adam Simon on this feature been a very different experience for you?

I was attracted to it because it's a really good script, and there are plenty of ways I can see to use the language of film to tell the story. I love working with other writers! I love being able to talk story and characters and bounce ideas off people who are really smart and into it. I don't know if I could go back to filming frame-by-frame - creating for long periods in a room by myself again.

You're now represented by Barbara Dreyfus at United Talent Agency in the US, who also represents NZ director Andrew Adamson (Shrek 1 & 2, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), and also by The Gotham Group. What opportunities has representation in the US opened up for you that might not have been available otherwise?

Thanks to these people, my life [lately] has consisted of reading scripts and meeting producers, which has led to directing a movie here. I'd love to come back and shoot films in Australia down the track, but right now there are so many opportunities over here. I've got lots of great projects I want to do. Ward 13 was just the tip of the iceberg!

Visit the Ward 13 website.

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