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QPIX STUDENTS ARE TROPFEST FINALISTS
Graduates of QPIX’s 2011 Diploma of Production course have won their way into the finals of TROPFEST, the world’s largest short film festival, with their student production PHOTOBOOTH. Set in the Afghanistan conflict, PHOTOBOOTH is one of a sequence of...
'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu' Out February 10
(Nationwide)
Over The Fence Comedy Film Deadline
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Rottofest 2012: Call For Entries Now Open!
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Geoffrey Rush Joins Tropfest
The acclaimed actor and newly-crowned Australian of the Year, Geoffrey Rush, will be a key player in 2012’s Tropfest activities.
Naomi Watts To Play Princess Diana
The Aussie actress is set to play the people’s princess in an upcoming film that chronicles the final two years of Diana’s life.
Sullivan Stapleton Signs On To ‘300’ Prequel
The Aussie actor has beat out the competition to land a role in the upcoming blockbuster.
James Cameron Loses Long Time Australian Collaborators
Producer Andrew Wight and cinematographer Mike deGruy lose their lives in a helicopter crash.
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What IF?
Yumi Stynes gives us the rundown on the IF and AFI awards, and the event that was Australia.
Actors are a funny bunch. I've met enough of them now to be glad I'm not one. At the 2008 IF Awards I found myself surrounded by these strange creatures who mid-conversation would change accents and gesticulate wildly, as though on permanent audition.
Musicians play a room differently. They have a posse - their band. A band is not unlike a professional football team (except less lucrative): there is camaraderie, loyalty, a certain level of alcohol abuse and, when it succeeds, many years of unique shared experiences. Actors, on the other hand, are all individuals who form short-term units for, say, a play, then disband to regroup with more strangers for a TV show or movie. They're team players with no fixed team. Maybe the actor's life is a never-ending hunt for a posse?
The IFs are one of my favourite awards because all these strangers and units and posses get together at a big hotel in the middle of nowhere and bunker in to party like it's 1999. It always gets to a point where everyone stops caring, or more succinctly; it gets LOOSE! For the past three years it's been held at the Royal Pines Resort in QLD and attracts everyone from Hugo Weaving and Bill Hunter to up-and-coming stars like Rhys Wakefield and hot director Nash Edgerton. Representing music were Tex Perkins and Kate Miller-Heidke and all manner of interesting short film and music video makers were in attendance. Because all guests stay the night, the politics level-out and the after-party is one of the most genuinely bonding industry gigs I've ever experienced.
My highlight was waking up fresh as a daisy for a 6:30am breakfast and coming down from my room to find the palatial grounds of the Royal Pines looking like a zombie movie. There were party stragglers staggering around in dishevelled tuxedos and broken high heeled shoes, slurring conversations and slumping over on sun lounges. Barry Otto - looking fresh - waved us off as we got a ride to the airport and told us the bar didn't close til 5am. Rock on, IF Awards!
Actors get stranger the further you travel up the food chain and it was interesting to go to the press conference for Australia where Nicole Kidman, David Gulpilil, Baz Lurhmann, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, child actor Brandon Walters and every other important person from the film faced off against an obedient but thick-with-scoundrels pack of press, photographers and crew. You always see the glamour end of entertainment reporting at these dos - James Tobin from Sunrise or Margaret Pomeranz from At The Movies, but next to Nicole Kidman, I think every last one of us felt scruffy, ugly and deeply, profoundly poor.
By all reports money was no object during the making of Australia but there are quite a few careers resting on the success of the film. People working in film, TV, or music who've been around for more than a week will have had at least a couple of friends employed by the juggernaut that was the production of Australia. It was with great relief, then, that commentators noted the film didn't suck and was actually rather entertaining. Whew!
Entertaining enough for a live public broadcast on Channel 9 was this year's AFI Awards, which have managed to remain relevant by celebrating great TV as well as film - this year it was the awesome Underbelly and Summer Heights High taking top honours. A hot line-up of stars arrived in Melbourne to the Princess Theatre on Spring Street - with the men, notably Vince Colosimo, Eric Bana and Guy Pearce oozing style and class.
The usual problem with the AFI Awards happened again - call it ‘Japanese Story Syndrome' - where a minor success sweeps all the categories at the expense of more deserving nominees. In this case it was The Black Balloon - a not bad film with some interesting ideas but certainly no better than The Square and a lot less fun. At least the win for Best Supporting Actor by Luke Ford for his portrayal of an autistic teenager in Balloon, felt deserved and unanimously celebrated. We'll be watching his career with great interest.