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"I don't subscribe to the modern day transient attitude towards relationships." How dating has changed. Panoramic Pictures has debuted an official trailer for an indie romantic comedy from Australia titled Me & My Left Brain, the second feature film made by filmmaker Alex Lykos (creator of Alex & Eve previously). Described as a "Woody Allen style rom-com", the film imagines the "inner critic" (the "left brain" hence the title) of a middle aged man as another man who constantly confronts him in his daily life. Alex Lykos stars as Arthur, and Malcolm Kennard plays his left brain, with a cast including Chantelle Barry, Natalia Ladyko, Rachael Beck, Simon McLachlan, and Laura Dundovic. This looks somewhat amusing, with a few funny lines, worth a look if you're interested. With an all-jazz score by Cezary Skubiszewski. Have fun. Here's the official Australian trailer (+ poster) for Alex Lykos' Me & My Left Brain, from...

Genna Chanelle Hayes..

Genna Chanelle Hayes. debut feature Akoni will begin shooting in Sydney January 2, before heading to Nigeria.

Hayes will also star in the film, which follows the story of a Nigerian refugee who survives an attack by terrorist group Boko Haram before making his way to Australia.

The cast will be led by West End star Kit Esuruoso, alongside John Brumpton (Pawno, Catching Milat), Mal Kennard (The Defector, The Menkoff Method), Pippa Grandison, Rashidi Edward and Simon Elrahi.

Hayes is known for her recent short Wurinyan, which screened at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.and stars Christine Anu and Mark Coles Smith.

The writer-director said she hopes Akoni will serve as a tool for positive growth within Australian society.

.The displacement of people around the world is causing boundaries to blur and cultures to converge, and it.s important for us all to have an understanding of...

Malcolm Kennard and Mark Coles Smith in Pawno.

Actors turned filmmakers Paul Ireland and Damian Hill met doing a play with storied character actor John Brumpton (Romper Stomper, The Hunter).

In Pawno, the pair's first feature as director and screenwriter respectively, Brumpton plays the owner of a Footscray pawn shop and Hill his employee.

Hill started writing the script during the course of the play's run, and afterwards sent it to Ireland, who agreed to direct it.

"Over a three year period we kept developing the script, cutting it down, making it tight, and raising the finance to make it independently", said Ireland.

The film was financed entirely by private donations, a process which "took a long time, but we got the right people in the end", Hill told If.

The screenwriter-star describes the gradual evolution of the script as a process of winnowing.

"We went back and forth with the characters for ages.

Watch the stars of Pawno celebrate the opening night at The Sun Theatre.

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Australian feature Pawno has opened to postive reviews and a healthy box office.

The film, directed/produced by Paul Ireland and written/produced by Damian Hill, opened nationally on April 21 and achieved $3,120 per showing on 19 screens over the Anzac Day long weekend.

The character driven ensemble, set in the diverse and mulicultural Melbourne suburbe of Footscray, recorded particularly strong results at The Sun in Yarraville, Melbourne, where the film opened to a gala premiere.

Ireland, Hill, and key cast members including Kerry Armstrong (Lantana), Tony Rickards (Holding The Man) and Mark Coles Smith (Last Cab to Darwin), walked the red carpet before guests packed out four sold-out sessions..

Australian actors Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under), Damian Walshe Howling, film industry figure Steve Vizard, and Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley were among the audience attending.

Hill...

Rising stars Mark Coles Smith and Genna Hayes will screen their short film, Wurinyan, as part of Cannes' Festival Corner..

Shot entirely in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, the short, which runs at 34 minutes, also stars Christine Anu, Rarriwuy Hick and Peter Mochrie.

Wurinyan was directed by Hayes, executive produced by John McGrath and Paul Ralph and shot by Dop Rupert Brown.

Hayes, who has just returned from South America after starring in Venezuelan thriller Infection, said she was excited to share this Australian story with an international audience..

.This was a passion project for many of us involved, and to access a global audience at the most prestigious film festival in the world and spread awareness about these issues is incredible,. she said..

Last Cab to Darwin's Coles Smith said he was drawn to the project "as it not only raises awareness about important social issues, but also offers hope...

Stars: Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, Robin McLeavy, Bruce Spence, Jenni Baird, Anna Lise Phillips, Chloe Bayliss, Olga Miller, Michael Whalley, Malcolm Kennard, Matthew Sunderland, Suzie Steen | Written and Directed by Michael Petroni

Don’t look now, but a man begins to experience strange visions following the death of his child. After realising that the majority of his patients are ghosts (like a reverse Sixth Sense) psychologist Peter Bower (Adrien Brody) heads to his spooky old hometown in the hope that he can uncover the mystery behind it all.

Moody, intense Brody is the main draw for this low-key supernatural thriller, its effective Gothic vibe making it stand out from the chaff like Nicolas Cage’s Pay the Ghost (I say that with love) or the litany of 101 Films releases just like it (said with less love, but there’s still some). The level of class extends to the presence of one Sam Neill,...

Adrian Brody in Backtrack..

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Five Aussie films will vie for the $100,000 CinéfestOZ Film Prize, with two of the entries to have their Australian premiere at the Festival in August.

Backtrack, Now Add Honey, Pawno, Putuparri and the Rainmakers and The Daughter have each been selected out of over 30 submissions to make up the shortlist for the prize, now in its second year.

The winner will be announced at the Festival on Saturday 29th August, 2015.

The Film Prize is awarded to the producer of an Australian feature film (including feature documentaries) and last year was taken out by Robert Connolly for his family feature Paper Planes.

The film, which Connolly also directed, went on to enjoy huge success at the Australian box office and will be released by distribution companies Lionsgate in the UK and in North America by Eone.

The finalists for this year.s prize were determined by five...

The Belanglo State Forest, scene of Ivan Milat.s grisly serial murders, is such a forbidding place the producers of the Seven Network.s Catching Milat chose to avoid the area.

Only director Peter Andrikidis and DoP Joe Pickering visited the area south of Berrima but they used a drone camera to film the location.

.It.s such an eerie place I didn.t want to go there when they did the tech survey,. Kerrie Mainwaring, who produced the two-part Shine Australia miniseries with Rory Callaghan, tells If.

Instead, the cast and crew shot the crime drama in Terrey Hills, St Ives, Balmain, Glebe, Wattle Grove and Parramatta.

As the title suggests, the focus is not on Ivan Milat but on the marathon investigation into the 1990s backpacker murders that led to his arrest and conviction.

Callaghan came up with the idea and Shine optioned the book Sins of the...

Backtrack (2015) Film Review from the 14th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written & directed by Michael Petroni, starring Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, Robin McLeavy, Chloe Bayliss, George Shevtsov, Anna Lise Phillips, Olga Miller, Jenni Baird, Bruce Spence, Matthew Sunderland, Malcolm Kennard, Jesse Hyde, Alexander McGuire, and Emma O’Farrell. When it became clear that haunting memories of his deceased daughter, Evie (Emma O’Farrell), […]...

Actor Paul Ireland is set to make his feature directing debut on Pawno, a dramedy set in a seedy pawn shop in Melbourne's western suburbs.

Scripted by actor-turned-writer Damian Hill, the film will follow one day in the lives of 14 characters as they attempt to survive, thrive or maintain their way of life in an often cruel world.

.It is a unique and unapologetic journey into the underbelly of our society,. said Hill, who is producing with Ireland through their company Toothless Pictures.

Due to start shooting in Footscray on November 23, the film.s ensemble cast includes John Brumpton, Hill, Maeve Dermody, Malcolm Kennard, Mark Coles Smith and Tony Rickards.

Hill and Ireland, who formed Toothless Pictures last year, raised $12,500 via crowd-funding site Pozible and the balance of the budget from philanthropic investors after two years of toil.

.Our focus is to tell a compelling, poignant and layered story that will move and entertain,...

Lachlan Woods, Noah Taylor, Jessica Clarke, Robert Taylor, Malcolm Kennard and Catherine McClements head the cast of quirky comedy The Menkoff Method, which starts shooting in Melbourne on September 10.

The director is David Parker, who makes a return to directing after a long absence: he shot Diana & Me, a 1997 comedy that starred Toni Collette as Aussie Diana Spencer, who wins a trip for two to London where she is determined to meet her idol and namesake Princess Diana.

In the interim Parker has shot plenty of TVCs and written and worked as Dop on his wife Nadia Tass. films and as Dop on films such as Kel Dolen.s upcoming vengeance thriller John Doe and Kath & Kimderella.

Parker sparked to The Menkoff Method screenplay by first-timer Zac Gillam, describing it as .very different and laugh-out loud funny,. and spent nearly a year developing it with the writer.

Woods (Better Man,...

Channel Seven has picked up Fremantle Media’s drama Killing Time. The 10-part series starring David Wenham previously ran on Foxtel’s TV1.The announcement:

Channel Seven will soon air the award-winning crime drama Killing Time, starring David Wenham.

Killing Time is the true story of the rise and fall of notorious Melbourne criminal defence lawyer Andrew Fraser. His clients ranged from accused cop killers to the rich and famous including international businessman Alan Bond.

At the top of his game, Fraser commanded a huge salary and lived the dream. But when his cocaine addiction spiralled into a thousand dollar-a-day habit, his judgment became unsound and he crossed the line into the criminal milieu. He was disbarred, discredited, broken financially and his marriage was destroyed.

Caged amongst serial killers and psychopaths, Fraser is forced to reflect on where it all went so wrong, and try to salvage his shattered reputation.