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Audiences For Aussie Cinema
Now in its third year, the Australian Film Festival is once again hoping to provide a boost for a host of deserved local content.
Last year, Australia's share of the local box office reported a ten year low despite the huge success of family favourite Red Dog. But director of the Australian Film Festival, Barry Watterson, is confident things will turn around in 2012 with the release of such films as Stephan Elliott's A Few Best Men, a wedding disaster film riding on the back of box office mega stars The Hangover and Bridesmaids; the 1970s set musical The Sapphires, based on a true story about a local all girl singing group branded as Australia's answer to The Supremes; and also the likes of George Miller and Baz Luhrmann recently working in the country.
Kicking off what Watterson hopes to be a bumper year for Australian cinema is the Australian Film Festival in March. "The goals of the festival are to expose more Australians to Australian film, to build an audience for our local product," Watterson says.
While it's often claimed local audiences are wary of local product due to our penchant for tackling darker material, more often than not these days, it's hard for an audience to see what they don't know is there. "They don't see any marketing for them," Watterson laments. "Most Australian films screen at independent cinemas, and a lot of those are dying off. Films would be on and off the screen before they knew they were there." Unfortunately this kind of conditioning means that films well worth audience attention end up slipping through the cracks.
The festival, now in its third year, boasts around 20,000 visitors annually and growing, so things are looking up. Of course the festival isn't just about movies - there's also a food festival, a screenwriting competition, beach screenings, filmmaker Q&As, seminars, workshops and the induction of screen legends to the Australian Walk of Fame.
With a nice mixture of independent and mainstream films, nothing is off limits. If it's Australian and considered "film", whether it be long, short, television, high budget, low budget and even online content, then it can be considered for inclusion. However, this year's program will be featuring more indies than previous years including the pop-art feature LBF (pictured) starring Toby Schmitz (Griff The Invisible) and Gracie Otto (Three Blind Mice). Also on the bill is the documentary More4Me, which travels the globe asking people, ‘What's the one thing we can't live without?', a question sparked by the current GFC and stars Australian stage siren Marina Prior. "Australian filmmakers cut their teeth on independent projects and film festivals in Australia have an obligation to support them," Watterson says. "There are great independent films to screen and we're more than happy to screen them."
With the world witnessing a dramatic increase in devices and avenues people are viewing screen content on, has the festival noticed a growth in online content? "We have," Watterson says, "but those working online feel they are part of a global community, not focused on Australian audiences... Australian filmmakers are still focused on traditional forms of filmmaking. We'd love to have access to more online content to promote."
So the film festival is an avid supporter of Australian content but what about our emerging talent? Film festivals aren't just about local audiences, but an opportunity to showcase talent and sell their product to local and overseas markets. "All film festivals in Australia should support and be a launch pad for emerging talent. We work with the filmmakers to promote their films, and we are already seeing interest in a couple of the films from distributors."
In only its third year, the festival is still growing and changing with each pass. So what's different about this year's festival? There will be a handful of new events including the FutureFilm Screenplay Competition, which the festival is holding in conjunction with the Australian Writers' Guild. The competition offers local emerging writers the chance to have their script selected and performed by actors of their choice in front of a live audience and judged by filmmakers including Alice Bell (Suburban Mayhem) and Blake Ayshford (Love My Way, McLeod's Daughters, All Saints).
What else is new? "For the first time, once the festival is finished in Sydney we will take it on the road to give regional audiences access to great Australian films," Watterson says.
The 2012 Australian Film Festival will run in Sydney (largely taking place at Randwick's Ritz Cinema) over March 7-17. For more information, visit the festival website here.
