News

Warwick Thornton and Sam Neill on the set of ‘Sweet Country’.

Warwick Thornton took home the top gong at last night’s Australian Directors’ Guild (Adg) Awards for outback Western Sweet Country.

It joins a slew of other prizes for the film, which follows an Aboriginal stockman who a kills white station owner in self-defence, including the Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize, the Toronto International Film Festival Platform Prize, and six Aacta Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction.

Competing against Thornton for Best Direction in a Feature Film (budget $1 million or over) were Joel Edgerton for Boy Erased, Anthony Maras for Hotel Mumbai, and Garth Davis for Mary Magdelene.

The Adg Awards were held at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, with presenters including Rachel Griffiths, Claudia Karvan, Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward.

This year also saw the guild divide the feature film category for the first time, introducing...

'Deadlock' (photo credit: Louella Pleffer).

Deadlock, a teenage-focused ABC iview series from Every Cloud Productions, the producers of Miss Fisher.s Murder Mysteries and Newton.s Law, is set to shoot on the north coast of Nsw in July.

Based on an original concept from Every Cloud.s Deb Cox, the 5 x 12 web series, set in Byron Bay, will follow what happens after a .mysterious car crash exposes the dark underbelly of an idyllic paradise. and changes the lives of the teens it affects.

Cox, Fiona Eagger and Belinda Mravicic will produce. Writer-director Billie Pleffer will shoot the series under the mentorship of Tony Tilse (Miss Fisher.s Murder Mysteries, Underbelly)..

Deadlock was developed with emerging writers (including Pleffer) in a script lab hosted by Screenworks and held in collaboration with.Skins co-creator and co-writer Bryan Elsley..The workshop involved bringing in teenagers from the Northern Rivers to help inform...

Toni Collette will star in Fred Schepisi's 'Andorra' (Photo: Eva Rinaldi).

Seventeen film, TV, online and documentary projects will share in over $2.4 million in funding, thanks to the latest round of Film Victoria.s Assigned Production Investment program and the Victorian Content Initiative.

The combined projects will inject $23 million into the Victorian economy, according to a statement from Film Vic.

Film Victoria CEO Jenni Tosi said the latest projects to be supported capped off a terrific year of screen production in Victoria, with .2017 set to be bumper year with this diverse range of projects joining others already scheduled to go into production..

Projects supported through the Assigned Production Investment program include:

– Essential Media will partner with Carver Films to produce Sunshine for Sbs. The mini-series is.a crime drama that explores the world of South Sudanese refugees in Melbourne, and a young basketball star forced to fight...

(L - R) Judy Davis, Adrian Weimers, Nashen Moodley.

The Weinstein Company has shortlisted 21 Australian filmmakers for the Lexus Australian Short Film Fellowship, the largest cash fellowship for short film in Australia.

Judy Davis is presiding over the selection process as jury chair alongside jury members Nashen Moodley (Sydney Film Festival Director) Lexus Australia.s Adrian Weimers, and Australian producers Jan Chapman and Darren Dale..

The jury will select select up to four filmmakers, each of whom will receive a $50,000 Fellowship grant..

The four successful candidates will be announced at the Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19 2016).

The shortlisted filmmakers are:

Alex Murawski (Nsw)

Alex Ryan (Nsw)

Anya Beyersdorf (Nsw)

Billie Pleffer (Nsw)

Brooke Goldfinch (Nsw)

Genevieve Clay-Smith (Nsw)

Hazel Annikki Savolainen (Nsw)

Gene Jacobie Gray (Nsw)

Lucy Gaffy (Nsw)

Tim Russell (Nsw)

Venetia Taylor (Nsw)

Dave Redman (Vic)

David Hansen (Vic)

James Vinson (Vic)

Victoria Thaine (Vic)

Mikey Hill (Vic...

Skins creator and co-writer Brian Elsley has given a ringing endorsement of six young Australian writers after working with them to develop new youth drama Deadlock in a Byron Bay script lab.

The UK writer signed on for the project after he was approached by Every Cloud Productions. executive producers, Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, who were keen to use some of Elsley.s innovative techniques following the international success of controversial teen series Skins.

Elsley told If he was surprised by the depth of talent.

.Deb and Fiona approached me because I had used that technique of bringing young teenagers into the process right at the beginning,. he said.

.They instinctively wanted to do something similar..

The young writers, selected from almost 200 applications included Billie Pleffer, Michelle Law, Lucy Campbell, Seaton Kay-Smith, Shane Salvador and Tim Logan.

They were joined by multi-platform writer Mike Jones, local Indigenous writer Jon Bell...

Every Cloud Productions has selected six emerging screenwriters for a Script Lab workshop with Bryan Elsley to develop on-line drama series Deadlock.

Every Cloud Productions will deliver the workshop in partnership with Northern Rivers Screenworks as part of the ongoing development process for the drama.

The workshop will use an innovative story development approach to mentor emerging screenwriters and explore the best ways to reach the target audience.

Every Cloud received almost 200 applications for the workshop..

The six successful applications are Billie Pleffer, of Melbourne, Michelle Law, of Brisbane, Lucy Campbell, of Adelaide, Seaton Kay-Smith of Sydney, Indigenous writer Shane Salvador from Tamworth in regional Nsw and Tim Logan from Hobart.

The workshop will take place in Byron Bay from December 14—18. .

Bryan Elsley will travel to Australia from the UK to join forces with Every Cloud Productions. executive producers, Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, along with multi-platform writer Mike Jones,...

The Sessions writer-director Ben Lewin is attached to helm Blue Rose, a biopic about the self-described .sex crazed. Australian composer and pianist Percy Grainger.

La-based Jeffrey Walker will return to Oz a to direct Dance Academy: The Comeback., a spin-off of Werner Film Productions. popular TV series, which will follow a young ballerina who dreams of being a star.

Following Ruin and Hail, Amiel Courtin-Wilson is to write, produce and direct Hawkwood, a thriller set in the backwaters of Africa which tells of ageing mercenary.s journey from chaos to grace.

These are among 16 feature projects which are receiving more than $620,000 in development funding from Screen Australia.

Lewin will write Blue Rose with Wain Fimeri for producers Chryssy Tintner, Jan Eymann, Judi Levine and Arclight.s Mark Lazarus and Gary Hamilton. His next film is Us indie romantic drama Purple Hearts, which will star Jane the Virgin's Gina Rodriguez...

Political thriller The Code took the major Awgie award as well as the trophy for best original miniseries at the Australian Writers. Guild awards on Friday night.

The six-hour series, which premieres on ABC on September 21, is written by Blake Ayshford, Shelley Birse and Justin Monjo and produced by Playmaker Media. The major Awgie recognises the best of the night's winners across stage, screen, new media and radio.

The feature film award went to Adelaide writer Matthew Cormack for his first debut feature 52 Tuesdays, the gender-bending drama hailed as .bold and structurally adventurous..

Winner of the best documentary prize was Sally McKenzie for A Woman.s Journey Into Sex.

Andrew Knight was rewarded for his script for Essential Media and Entertainment.s telemovie The Broken Shore, adapted from the Peter Temple novel. Writer/director Peter Duncan won best TV series script for Essential.s Rake.

Niki Aken and Felicity Packard...

Hit musical drama The Sapphires has scored 12 nominations at the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) Awards including in the coveted best feature film category.

The Sapphires, which follows four indigenous singers during the Vietnam war, has grossed more than $14 million in Australia to become the biggest local film of the year.

Three other films will be also be vying for the best feature film award: Burning Man (10 nominations in total), Lore (eight nominations in total) and Wish You Were Here (eight nominations in total) at the main Aacta ceremony, which will be held on January 30, 2013, at The Star Event Centre. Last year's event was held at the iconic Sydney Opera House.

P.J. Hogan's Mental also scored eight nominations including Best Lead Actress (Toni Collette), Best Supporting Actor (Liev Schreiber) Best Young Actor (Lily Sullivan) and Best Supporting Actress for Rebecca Gibney and Deborah Mailman.

Not Suitable for Children...

The Sapphires has led the Academy of Australian Cinema and Television Arts Awards nominations being nominated in 12 categories.

Awards will be handed out over two events, with an awards luncheon, focused on craft categories on Monday January 28 and the main event on January 30. Both events will be held at the Star Event Centre, the first public events for the venue.

The Sapphires, distributed by Hopscotch/eOne has been nominated for Best Film, Best Direction and best adapted screenplay as well as Best Lead Actor and Actress for Chris O’Dowd and Deborah Mailman, and Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Mauboy.

Burning Man was not far behind on 10 nominations including best film and best direction as well as best lead actor for Matthre Goode and Best Supporting Actress for Essie Davis.

Three more films, Lore, Mental and Wish You Were Here received eight nominations while Not Suitable For Children received four.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts has announced the first round of nominees for the 2012 Aacta Awards.

Among the nominees is a short list of 23 local feature films which screened in theatres across Australia in the last year, or due to screen in the coming months.The feature nominees cross a wide variety of genres, with films The Sapphires, Killer Elite, Mental, Iron Sky, Bait3D, Swerve and Burning Man.

The Australian Film Institute and Aacta CEO Damian Trewhella said: “The goal for a healthy Australian feature film industry has always been to combine festival and critical acclaim with audience appeal. The exceptional collection of Feature Films in Competition demonstrates that this year we are well on the way to achieving this mix, and that despite many challenges, we can celebrate a landmark year in the industry.”

“We are thrilled to see many of our former AFI Award-winning...

A new Australian short film using crowd-funding platform Pozible has received investment from Australian actor Sam Worthington.

The project, Scratch, written and produced by Rachael Turk, is based on her own family’s life experiences with child allergies.

Directed by Danielle Boesenberg, it is co-produced by Sam Meikle, writer on All Saints, Wild Boys, Crownies and Home and Away with Claudia Karvan cast in the lead role.

The project, which sat at $8,000 earlier today received a $20,000 investment from Worthington this afteroon, taking the film’s target beyond its $25,000 goal, to $28,331.

The investment marks Worthington as an ‘Angel Investor’ and gives him and executive producer title on the film for providing over $10,000.

The film is budgeted at $60,000.

Turk, who’s day job is development executive for drama at Southern Star where Karvan is a producer, told Encore: “Claudia is not working for the rates she might normally command, but there’s...

Two Australian films will feature in competition at the Sydney Film Festival, while five local features will get their world premieres.

Dead Europe, directed by Tony Krawitz, and Lore directed by Cate Shortland will compete In Competition, which carries a $60,000 prize.

For both films the festival will be their world premiere, along with other local features Not Suitable For Children, Mabo and Being Venice.

Krawitz’s Dead Europe is written by Louise Fox, adapted from a Christos Tsiolkas novel of the same name. It is produced by Liz Watts of Porchlight Films and Oscar-winner Emile Sherman of See Saw Films. The film is about an Australian photographer who visits his ancestral homeland of Greece after his father’s death. It will be Dead Europe’s world premiere.

Also in competition is Lore, Cate Shortland’s first film since debut Somersault. Again produced by Liz Watts, the film is an adaptation...

Cate Shortland and Tony Krawitz, who are married to each other, both have films among the 12 titles in competition at next month.s Sydney Film Festival.

Lore, a drama set during World War II and based on the novel The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert, is Shortland.s feature film follow-up to Somersault, while Dead Europe, also set in Europe but a contemporary story adapted from a novel by Christos Tsiolkas, is Krawitz.s first dramatic feature film after his acclaimed short Jewboy and the recent documentary The Tall Man. Tsiolkas also wrote The Slap, on which the acclaimed television series was based.

The other debuts in the competition line-up include Korean filmmaker Yuen Sang-Ho.s The King Of Pigs, Us director Benh Zeitlin.s Beasts of the Southern Wild and Brazilian Kleber Mendonca Filho.s Neighbouring Sounds.

The veterans in the program include Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, with their...

The Australian Director’s Guild has announced its nominees for the 2012 Adg Awards

Across the various categories, the nominations include Justin Kurzel for Snowtown, Matthew Saville for The Slap, Tony Krawitz for The Tall Man, Paul Scott for documentary series Outback Fight Club and Bruce Hunt for Subaru Xv’s Carwash.

The ceremony will be held as part of the Adg’s 30th anniversary at the Australian Maritime Museum in Sydney on May 11.

Kingston Anderson, general manager of the Adg said: “This will be the largest celebration and Awards ceremony the Adg has ever hosted and will be an opportunity to highlight the many achievements of Adg members over the past 30 years and the significant role they have played in the development of the Australian screen industry, as well as to honour the best directors of 2012.”

The nominations are:

Feature film

Brendan Fletcher - Mad Bastards

Justin Kurzel – Snowtown

Julia Leigh...

Two Australian short films, both about the journey of a young boy, have won prizes at the Berlin Film Festival including the Crystal Bear, best short film Award.

The win marks the third year in a row an Australian has won the award.

Julian, written and directed by Matthew Moore was awarded the prestigious Crystal Bear Award for best short film in Generation Kplus at the festival.

The 13 minute film, about the day in a life of a nine-year-old was produced by Matthew Moore and Robert Jago, with executive producers Ian Darling, Mark Kilmurry, Phillip Verity, Joel Moss, Tara O’Sullivan, Lisa Mann and Katrina Moore.

Of Julian, the Berlin jury said: ““A sophisticated film which accompanies a misunderstood boy on his way to popularity with wit and lightness of touch. The fantastic actor displays his phenomenal talent in portraying the smart protagonist – and surprises us in the process. Really great cinema!

Two Australian short films have been presented with awards at the Berlin International Film Festival this year.

Julian, written and directed by Matthew Moore, received the prestigious Crystal Bear Award in the Best Short Film category, while Bino was awarded The Special Prize of the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk for Best Short Film. Screening in the Berlinale.s Generation Kplus section, for children and youth, the festival marked the world premiere of both shorts.

Julian, a thirteen-minute comedy, explores a day in the life of a nine-year-old schoolboy in the early 1980s. The film was complimented by the Berlinale jury, which praised the talent of child actor Ed Oxenbould for his portrayal of the outspoken Julian, and described the short as .a sophisticated film which accompanies a misunderstood boy on his way to popularity with wit and lightness of touch..

It is the third consecutive year in which an Australian film has...

Comes a Bright Day

"With another twelve world premieres and three international premieres, Generation’s feature-length film program is now complete," the Berlinale's announced today. "A total of 58 short and full-length films from 32 countries have been selected for the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions." Straight from the release, then, with descriptions from the festival:

Generation 14plus

Comes a Bright Day (Great Britain, by Simon Aboud) – Against the backdrop of an armed robbery at a London jewellers, much more is at stake than money. Where diamonds are involved, love is not far. Cast: Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots, Kevin McKidd, Timothy Spall and others. World Premiere. Site.

Lal Gece (Night of Silence, Turkey, by Reis Çelik) – When the groom lifts the bride’s veil, he is looking into the face of a 14-year-old girl. As tradition has it, a night in the bridal chamber seals the marriage. Cast: Ilyas Salman, Dilan Aksüt and others.