AFFIF FILMS CONTINUE TO amaze!
Well, The Inside Film Award nominations are in, and we couldn’t be happier for the strong creative teams behind all of the fine films nominated and in particular to the ones that are associated with our Investment Fund- the brilliant class of 2007. The Home Song Stories, Lucky Miles and Boxing Day have all been reaping accolades here and overseas and across a wide section of categories.
The Home Song Stories and Lucky Miles shared Best Film nominations with Matthew Saville’s Noise and Richard Roxburgh’s Romulus, My Father for the AFI Awards . Tony Ayres is also in the running for the Best Direction award for The Home Song Stories, and for Best Screenplay, along with Helen Barnes and Michael James Rowland for Lucky Miles.
The 2007 Inside Film Awards- usually regarded as the People’s Choice awards have 3 finalists in each category and Best Feature nominations went to The Home Song Stories, Boxing Day and Lucky Miles. Best Director went to Tony Ayres, Kriv Stenders and Matt Saville, with Richard Green (Boxing Day) and Joel Lok (HSS) and Joan Chen (HSS) getting the best acting nominations.
In what must have been an unforgettable week for director Michael James Rowland, his debut feature Lucky Miles won the Black Pearl Jury Prize for Best New Director at the inaugural Middle East Film Festival in Abu Dhabi along with a $90,000 prize. The jury president praised the films “expressive use of landscape and the ensemble performance from a multicultural cast”.
Michael had recently returned from Vladivostok in Russia for the fifth International Film Festival of the Asia-Pacific region countries "Pacific Meridian", where Lucky Miles screened alongside 166 films from 36 countries winning the Scripts Magazine Editorial Award for Best Script. It will be translated into Russian and published by Scripts Magazine. Around the same time the script was nominated for the Best Screenplay Award at the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards and won Best Film at the 9th edition of the Saint-Tropez Antipodes Film Festival in France.
The Home Song Stories team, writer/director Tony Ayres, and producers Michael McMahon and Liz Watts have had plenty to celebrate too. Joan Chen, the film’s star was awarded the Achievement in Acting award from the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival before the final night’s announcement that it had won the Best Feature Film award. It has a huge chance of doing well at Taiwan's 44th Golden Horse Film Awards where it has secured 7 nominations, second highest among the 73 films submitted.
In another coup the film was selected as Australia’s entry for the Best Foreign Film award for the Academy Awards, and has been nominated in a dozen categories at the AFI Awards. Joan Chen is up for the Best Performance by an Actress at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the film will screen in Competition in the third International Eurasia Film Festival in Turkey later this month, competing for a prize of USD 75,000.
Boxing Day has been landing a number of hits following its North American premiere. Richard Green, who gave a particularly intense performance as the lead in Kriv Stender’s digi feature won recognition as Best Actor at the edgy 36th Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Canada’s oldest film festival. This was backed up by the film receiving the Special Jury Mention- the equivalent of second place in the feature awards. It was the only Australian film programmed into the festival.
This news comes hard on the heels of Stenders winning the Finders Screen Award for Boxing Day at the inaugural 2007 Australian Directors Guild (ADG) Awards held in Sydney on 14 October. The ADG in collaboration with the Directors Guild of America offered the Finders Screen Award to an Australian feature without US distribution. This Award will allow Boxing Day to be screened as part of a special program in the US called the Directors Finders Series. Its producer Kristian Moliere will be taking the film to the 2007 Digi SPAA Feature Film Competition following its selection earlier this week.
In the wonderful world of documentaries word from foreign shores has been just as thrilling. Forbidden Lie$ (dir: Anna Broinowski) seduced the judges at the Rome Film Festival taking out the CULT Prize for Best Documentary Film.
Congratulations also to Paul Cox and his producer Mark Patterson as Kauluapapa Heaven was recognized with a Special Mention by the documentary jury this week at the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival.
Our newest AFF board member Sam White, producer with the People’s Republic of Animation was pleased to hear that the AFFIF animation Sweet & Sour is up for Best Short Animation at the If Awards. Crocodile Dreaming, which stars David Gulpilil and Tommy Lewis, and directed by Darlene Johnson is up against Warwick Thornton’s Nana and Soul Mates by Naomi Rossdeutscher in the Best Short Film category for the If Awards.
Anthony Maras, writer/director of the short Spike Up is quietly confident about the international festival release of his film following its nominations for Best Short Film in AFI, ATOM and Australian Director's Guild Awards. Anthony said recently “We've chosen to again go with the Austin Film Festival for our North American premiere - the festival director loved the film and is giving it a great screening - and organising for us to meet with this year's festival lifetime achievement award recipients Oliver Stone and John Milius.”
documentary conference returns
must attend event for anyone working in the factual film industry
The only place to be in February 2008 is at the AIDC!
Join over 50 factual media buyers in Fremantle, Western Australia, for the biggest international documentary marketplace in the southern hemisphere.
You know you’re coming, so be smart, get organized and save yourself some money by registering as an early bird before 30 November 2007 to save $100 off your AIDC Registration. REGISTER ONLINE NOW!
FOLLOW THE STORY...
Don’t you love a good story? Telling stories is the core of filmmaking, AIDC 2008 will have a special focus on storytelling. Western Australia, home of some of the oldest living storytelling traditions in the world, is the perfect location to look into the parameters of a good story. Master classes, craft sessions and invigorating discussion panels will focus on the different elements of storytelling in the media production process, and investigate how different members of the creative team all contribute to the final story.
Head to the AIDC website to find out everything you need to know about the 2008 conference.
SUBSCRIBER OFFER: WIN FILM TICKETS NOW!
YOU DESERVE A FREE FILM AFTER READING ALL OF THAT!!!
On offer to our lucky subscribers this month are double pass galore to see sneak preview screenings of Werner Herzog's latest film, Rescue Dawn on either Friday 16th, Saturday 17th or Sunday 18th of November , and Angel, Francois Ozon's latest on Monday 12th November at 6.30pm at Nova East End Cinema.
The exclusive sneak preview screening is on this Wednesday, October 17, 6.30pm sharp at Nova East End Cinema, Adelaide. Enter now so we can post out your tickets today!
To win your tickets, CLICK HERE and fill in ALL of your details, and the name of the film you want to see. Tickets are limited, and will fly out the door, so be quick!
If you have trouble filling out the form, please CLICK HERE and email your contact details and film name.
RESCUE DAWN
Thanks to our mates at Hopscotch, we've got 100 doubles to give away!
Directed by Werner Herzog and starring Christian Bale and Steve Zahn, Rescue Dawn is based on the true story of German born US pilot Deiter Dengler who was shot down over Laos and taken prisoner. He is the only POW to escape from a prison camp and make it out alive and the film is an extraordinary tale of the triumph of the human spirit. Herzog is a great film maker and will be known to your audience.
Rescue Dawn releases nationally Nov 22nd and screens at Palace Nova Eastend, Wallis Mitcham and Greater Union Marion Cinemas.
ANGEL
Thanks to our mates at Dendy Films, we've got 50 doubles to give away!
England, 1905. Angel Deverell is a gifted young writer who dreams of success, fame and love. But what will happen if all her dreams come true?
Francois Ozon’s lavish story of a young woman with incredible imagination who refuses to accept the world around her and instead creates her own realities, pays homage to the Technicolor studio films and Douglas Sirk ’s constructed melodramas.
Angel releases nationally Nov 22nd
To win your tickets, CLICK HERE and fill in ALL of your details, and the name of the film you want to see. Tickets are limited, and will fly out the door, so be quick!
If you have trouble filling out the form, please CLICK HERE and email your contact details and film name.
ANOTHER FABULOUS SUBSCRIBER OFFER
YOUR CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE SOME UNFORGETTABLE THEATRE
The Adelaide Festival Centre will shortly be hosting the upcoming production of Sizwe Banzi is Dead from the 6 - 17 Nov in the Space Theatre. Directed by the legendary Peter Brook, one of the great figures of contemporary theatre, Sizwe Banzi is Dead is a humorous production of beautiful simplicity.
Just for our lucky subscribers, The Adelaide Festival Centre would like to exclusively offer you a chance to win one of 2 x double passes to Sizwe Banzi is Dead.
To win be one of the first to CLICK HERE and fill in ALL of your details, and SIZWE in the 'which film?' field.
Peter Brook's Sizwe Banzi is Dead, focuses on themes of identity, humanity, truth and survival. Peter Brook's moving, funny and deeply engaging production stars Habib Dembélé, writer and political activist who stood as a presidential candidate for the Republic of Mali and Pitcho Womba Konga, a celebrated rapper and hip-hop artist from the Congo.
Sizwe Banzi Is Dead is the first of the 'Township Plays' created by Johan Kani, Winston Ntshona and Athol Fugard. These plays are based on the everyday life of the urban black community in South Africa during Apartheid. Sizwe Banzi Is Dead began its life in the townships before touring the world to massive critical and popular acclaim.
Peter Brook's reputation and influence on modern theatre is all pervasive. He directed his first play in 1943 and has gone on to direct over 70 productions in London, Paris and New York. He was Artistic Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, director of films including Lord of the Flies and Marat / Sade, and in 1971 founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris.
Brook is perhaps most revered for his eight and a half hour epic The Mahabharata, which was later made into a successful film. It's nearly twenty years since Brook's The Mahabharata was performed in Perth and Adelaide and now Sizwe Banzi is Dead provides a rare opportunity for Adelaide and Australian audiences to see the work of this visionary artist.
off to the uk she goes...
Former Australian International Documentary Conference Director Heather Croall will be welcoming 1,000 delegates to her second Sheffield Documentary Film Festival program which runs 7-11 November. One of the guests speaking on a panel will be AFF director Katrina Sedgwick who will be heading to the UK in a day or two. Sheffield is producing a Crossover UK lab and has a packed program capped by fab networking parties- a Punk Rock Karaoke, the Inspiral Sheffield Pub Tour, a Newcomers Day and pub quizzes.
MERCURY CINEMA
YOUR CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE SOME UNFORGETTABLE THEATRE
The first 3 people to ring the Media Resource Centre on 8410 0979 will win double pass to the Kino Im Wandel program. This is the 16th Curator in Residence program to showcase themed films with the support of the MRC. Kino Im Wandel: What Was Once Divided is Now Whole is a collection of some of the finest recent film s from Germany, illustrating the transformation of their national identity. If you were one of the many people who loved The Lives of Others (Henckel von Donnersmarck) at AFF or afterwards, this is one of the great films screening. www.mercurycinema.org.au
COMMUNITY TV OPPORTUNITY
Get your stuff seen nation-wide on Australian television, complete and uncut. We want your short films, music clips, animations and festival rejects for the next series of Anthology of Interest on free-to-air channel 31 and the next series of Dark Carnival on Aurora Community Channel 183. Compiled by Graham Garfield Barnard and Tim Newsom www.myspace.com/barnards_star or email garfield@viper.net.au
