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Opinion
A night at the unintentionally amusing AACTAs
Encore managing editor Brooke Hemphill attends the inaugural AACTA awards and comes away cringing.
Last night the inaugural Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards were held at Sydney’s Opera House as the Australian film and television community gathered to celebrate the achievements of the past 12 months and those who went along for the ride left vaguely amused, with little thanks to the event’s producers. Read more »
Knocking the summer television model of old
This year’s non-ratings period could signal the dawning of a new era. Steve Molk considers the It’s a Knockout model.
Normally the minute the ratings period ends, viewers switch off the television in droves. There’s usually naught on they’ve not already seen, or some extremely poor sitcom from the US. But this year, Ten have been trying a different approach as they revive a retro favourite. Welcome back It’s A Knockout.
Niche versus mass market: big just isn’t better at the cinema
Chris Murray laments the demise of independent cinemas and the rise of generic shopping centre multiplexes with their get ‘em in, bang ‘em out culture.
Punters visit the cinema for an exciting communal experience, not the ease of parking.
As the multiplex struggles to keep the candy bar traffic flowing, automated cogs pump out digital images and the passionate few who strive to make their independent exhibition houses a cultural beacon (The Ritz, The Astor, Chauvel and so on) face impending doom. It’s an education problem, to be honest. Read more »Confessions of a two screening tragic
For today’s TV viewer, one screen isn’t enough. Steve Molk tells us why networks need to take notice of two screening.
My name is Steve Molk and I like to live tweet television shows. A lot. I get a kick from connecting with people who watch the same programs I do and together we discuss, joke, and in the blood sport that is ABC1’s Q&A, compete to see our tweets on screen. Read more »
A sexy funding solution for an age-old problem
Chris Murray proposes an ingenious plan to help fund local screen productions with the naughty dollar.
It has recently come to light that the Hungarian government has some innovative ideas for supporting their local film industry. By introducing three different taxes, our European friends plan to channel funds into local productions and ailing art house cinemas.
The first tax would apply to local porn websites; another, a three per cent tax on multiplex tickets, to funnel into art house exhibition; and finally a general 20 per cent tax break on foreign productions.
According to Variety, the latter has so far generated a US$98 million injection into the local economy via the miniseries World Without End, The Borgias and feature film 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves. This is on top of income from Brad Pitt’s US$125m budgeted zombie flick World War Z which is currently shooting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Read more »
No dramas, sadly
If there’s a time that Foxtel’s marketing machine outdoes itself, it’s when it comes to reveal its future year’s programming.
Last night Foxtel made the most of having its hands on the Sydney Opera House for the Australia’s Next Top Model final and announced its plans for 2012 too.
It was a glitzy upfront, attended by media agencies and trade journalists, plus plenty of Foxtel personalities.
But comparing it to last year’s affair, the emphasis appears to have shifted away from local drama. Read more »
Want more Swamp People? Then drop the local content quota
The short-sighted idea of dropping TV networks’ local content quota obligations was put back on the agenda today with ad agency CEO Mat Baxter claiming the safety net can now be removed, because we’re all loving local content.
But Australian programs rating well, and the Australian TV industry thriving are completely different.
Despite the high ratings of Packed to the Rafters and The X Factor, what is the likelihood commercial programmers would keep investing in Australian shows? Slim, Read more »
Fox Studios comes out of hibernation as the bustling screen hub we want to see
A few months back I visited Fox Studios in Sydney to view the filming of a commercial for Earth Hour.
The main thing that struck me (apart from the massively rude security guy on the gate) was how depressingly empty most of the place was.
It was desolate. It had the atmosphere of a business district on a Sunday afternoon rather than the film hub of one of the world’s great cities.
Today though, the feeling is very different. Read more »
If scripts could talk
This week the Screen Producers Association of Australia presented its list of seven projects that it will be putting in the shop window at its conference. But the SPAAmart list omitted the names of the script writers. A member of the Australian Writers Guild offers this alternative version of events.
Trouble is brewing over this year’s SPAA conference, with the scripts selected for the feature film shop window staging a sit-in at SPAA head office.
Wake Up Dead, a particularly fat script, blocked the door of the SPAA lunchroom just before lunch yesterday while other scripts phoned media outlets with a list of demands.
Sci-fi thriller The Room was clearly angry, “I mean, we all wrote ourselves, didn’t we? Read more »
The screen industry should run on ingenuity, not politics
Popcorn Taxi’s Chris Murray suggests a taxi service and pie van could keep the industry moving – an industry that should be founded on ingenuity and creativity rather than politics.
It would seem, based on serial offenders to the numerous blogs in and around the Australian Film Industry, that as a generalisation, filmmakers have a lot of time on their hands.
Precious
Courtesy of Icon Film, we have passes for the Oscar-nominated Precious.
A powerful film, Precious feels almost like a contemporary take on The Colour Purple, with its story of abuse and survival. It is so good that even Mariah Carey can act in it.
In Harlem, an overweight, illiterate teen pregnant with her second child is invited to enrol in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. It will not be easy for Precious to break away from the chains that have made her unhappy and incapable of loving herself.
Precious has been nominated for six Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actres, Adapted Screenplay and Editing. It’s already won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2009, as well as a Golden Globe for Monique’s performance as Precious’ abusive mother.
Precious is in cinemas now.
To win, email us and tell us, what is the most confronting film you’ve ever seen, and why?
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February 4th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
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Features
- A romantic comedy with serious balls
- For & Against: Can a gig on community television lead to bigger and better things?
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Video
- Tropfest launches 2012 trailer
Short film festival Tropfest has launched its 2012 trailer.
Production was by company Captiv8 and features this year’s Tropfest Signature Item (TSI) a lightbulb.
- Tropfest launches 2012 trailer
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- richard moss on The screen industry should run on ingenuity, not politics
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News
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- John Polson and Robert Connolly among Screen Australia funding recipients - 7 comments
- A Few Best Men takes $1.8m on opening weekend - 4 comments
- A night at the unintentionally amusing AACTAs - 4 comments
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- Knocking the summer television model of old - 2 comments
Comments
9 Feb 10
3:01 PM
Antichrist, its not every day you see a woman rapidly turning into a lunatic remove her genitalia with a rusty pair of scissors!
9 Feb 10
3:02 PM
The most confronting film I have seen is CRASH.
What a journey of different lives all culminating together. Sexism and racism. A journey of the heart. It opened my eyes to issues in this world and what people have to go through in their lives. What a fantastically directed film.
9 Feb 10
3:13 PM
HARD CANDY — being a male it took a week to uncross my legs.
9 Feb 10
5:12 PM
Boys Don’t Cry. A true story, and therefore so much more devastating – that someone could be treated that way because of their sexuality. And an absolute knock out performance from Hillary Swank.
10 Feb 10
1:07 AM
I saw One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest when it was first released. I was an impressionable 17 year-old. The moment when Jack Nicholson was wheeled out having undergone a lobotomy, was so confronting to my sense of justice and morality that I have never been able to face seeing the movie again, and probably never will. It was one of those brilliant life-changing films.
10 Feb 10
1:53 PM
La Sconosciuta…a beautiful but very disturbing film all at once..it shows how memories can traumatise us in small everyday events as well as a study of the sad realities of sex slave trade workers.
15 Feb 10
9:11 AM
I found Monster pretty disturbing particulalry as the woman sitting next to me had a seizure during the rape scene.
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