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Michael Shanks.

Michael Leonard and Jamie Helmer’s The Diver was awarded Best Australian Short Film at the closing of Flickerfest in Sydney yesterday evening, while Michael Shanks’ Rebooted took home the Best Australian Short Animation prize.

Other winners included Alana Hicks, who took home Best Direction in an Australian Short Film for Chicken and Lydia Rui, who was named Outstanding Female Director for This Perfect Day.

The Diver, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year, follows Callan, played by Nicholas Denton, whose rage, chaos and confusion that can only be tamed by the soothing solitude of the world underwater. It was produced with Justin Pechberty and Damien Megherbi.

Jane Cho’s The Egg, produced by Ilana Lazar, also earned a special mention in the Best Australian Short category.

Shanks’ Aacta-nominated Rebooted, produced by Nicholas Colla and Chris Hocking, follows an ageing movie star – a stop motion...

Gillian Armstrong and Murray Forrest. (Photo credit: Peter Jackson)

Gillian Armstrong has won one of the Australian cinema industry’s highest honours, the Murray Forrest Award for Excellence in Filmcraft.

The trailblazing director whose My Brilliant Career was the first Australian feature directed by a woman in 46 years received the award at the Australian International Movie Convention.

Accepting the award, Armstrong was self-deprecating, observing: “I could not type or cook or drive so it was good to find something I wasn’t too bad at.”

She paid tribute to her numerous collaborators including first Ad, the late Mark Turnbull, film editor Nicholas Beauman and DOPs Don McAlpine, Russell Boyd, Dion Beebe and Geoffrey Simpson.

Also she thanked distributors and exhibitors, acknowledging “nothing beats the terror of audiences and the first weekend in cinemas.”

There was nothing glamorous about working in the film industry, especially getting up at 4.30 am and toiling...

(L-) Marisa Martin, Bronwyn Kidd and Geraldine Martin.

Nathan Mewett and Curtis Taylor’s Yulubidyi – Until the End was named best Australian short and Marisa Martin’s Della Mortika: Carousel of Shame best Australian animated short at the 28th annual Flickerfest International Short Film Festival.

Among the other honorees announced on Sunday night at the Bondi Pavilion, Renée Marie Petropoulos took the prize for best direction in an Australian short for Tangles and Knots and Calling writer-director Miley Tunnecliffe was feted as outstanding emerging female director in honour of Samantha Rebillet.

Produced by Glen Stasiuk, Yulubidyi – Until The End follows Jarman, a young Aboriginal who is tasked with protecting his younger disabled brother in a harsh remote community. His father Thunder wants him to become the leader of the tribe and mocks any weakness in him.

Martin’s short, which was written by her mother Geraldine Martin, delves into the fantastical world of Della Mortika,...

Leah Purcell accepting the Sydney Unesco City of Film Award..

Sydney Film Festival closed last night, with Ildikó Enyedi.s On Body and Soul awarded the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize..

The film from the Hungarian director has previously also won the Berlinale Golden Bear, and follows an unconventional romance between two co-workers who discover that each night they have exactly the same dreams.

Accepting the award Enyedi said: .It was such an amazingly strong competition. It.s marvellous that.such a film can move so many people, it gives me so much hope in cinema and in human communication.

Sydney filmmakers Sascha Ettinger Epstein and Claire Haywood were awarded the $10,000 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary for The Pink House, about the last brothel in Kalgoorlie.

In a joint statement, the jury, which was made up of Ramona S. Diaz, CEO Documentary Australia Foundation Dr Mitzi Goldman and Amin Palangi said:.

"Amongst ten noteworthy films,...

Lucy Gaffy with her.Canon Award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film for 'Dream Baby'.

The 26th annual Flickerfest closed last night with an awards ceremony at Bondi Pavilion, celebrating both international and Australian films..

The award for Best Australian Short Film went to Christopher Sferrazza.s Beast, which had its world premiere at the festival.

Lucy Gaffy took out the award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film for Dream Baby, following on from the short.s recent Aacta Award.

The award for Best International Short Film went to the Icelandic film.Ungar (Cubs), from writer-director Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir..

Flickerfest.s Academy-accredited awards include the Flickerfest Award for Best International Short Film, the Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation, the Virgin Australia Award for Best Australian Short Film and the Flickerfest Award for Best Documentary Short Film..

.We are thrilled that the 2017 festival...

Brazilian film debuted in Competiton at Cannes.

Director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian social justice drama Aquarius has won the $47,000 (Au$63,000) Sydney Film Prize, the major award of the Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19).

Mendonca Filho’s story of a strong-willed homeowner’s battle against unscrupulous real estate developers was awarded the top prize at the closing night of the 63rd Sff on Sunday.

Jury president and UK producer Simon Field said Aquarius, which premiered in Competition at Cannes last month, is “a compelling and relevant statement about contemporary Brazil, and the power of an individual standing up for what she believes.”

“Mendonça Filho has created a film that is both political and personal – witty, sexy and playful. A film of effortless verve and intelligence,” he said.

“At the heart of the film is Sonia Braga’s astonishing and brave performance of a fearless character, resisting pressures from her family, and the corporate...

Dan Jackson (right) was the winner of the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary

The 63rd Sydney Film Festival closed last night at the State Theatre, with the festival.s award winners announced before a screening of Whit Stillman.s Love and Friendship. . Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho was the recipient of the $63,000 Sydney Film Prize for Aquarius. Jury president Simon Field said the film, starring Sonia Braga, had .effortless verve and intelligence.. .Aquarius is a compelling and relevant statement about contemporary Brazil, and the power of the individual standing up for what she believes,. he said. Sydney filmmaker Dan Jackson picked up the $15,000 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary for his debut feature In the Shadow of the Hill, also set in Brazil. . Jackson lived in Rio De Janeiro slum Rocinha, which has been under police occupation since 2011, for over a year, documenting the story of a...

Animator Yoram Gross, the closest Australian cinema has come to a Walt Disney, pilfers from classic children’s tales in a film constantly hopscotching between divergent plot lines

The concept of an unreliable narrator has twisted films in all sorts of interesting directions since the early years of cinema. Germany blew audience’s minds with the expressionist head trip The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the entire 1920 film revealed to be a nightmare cooked up by a straitjacket-clad madman.

The Japanese master Akira Kurosawa famously relayed conflicting accounts of the same event from three different people in Rashomon. Hollywood’s form in this field probably peaked during its noir years, when men on the wrong side of the law – typically dying or about to be caught, such as in Double Indemnity and Detour – reflected in highly subjective detail about everything that went wrong.

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Flickerfest has revealed the 53 films selected to screen as part of the festival's competitive program in its 25th anniversary year.

The films were chosen from more than 2300 entries.

This year.s official Australian Competition features 18 world premieres, six Australian premieres and 10 Nsw premieres..

Twenty-one female directors are represented across the official Australian competition.

The best of the australian films will be shown over seven sessions.

They will be competing for prizes across all areas of the filmmaking craft including the Academy Accredited Virgin Australia Award for Best Australian Film, the Canon Award for Best Direction and the Yoram Gross Award for Best Australian Animation.

Flickerfest is Australia.s only Academy accredited and BAFTA recognised festvial and runs from Friday January 8-17. .

Festival director Bronwyn Kidd, steering her 19th festival, said she was thrilled that Flickerfest was once again a platform for the Australia's most exciting, creative and talented short filmmakers.

Entries are now open for the 63rd Sydney Film Festival which will run from June 8-19 2016. Entries are open for all categories including features, documentaries and short films (under 40 minutes). Submissions are being accepted through FilmFestivalLife and will close on February 26.. Among the categories:

– The Documentary Australia Foundation (Daf) Award for Australian Documentary (cash prize $15,000), supported by Documentary Australia Foundation with a $10,000 cash partnership and an additional donation of $5,000 from a Sff Director.s Cut patron. – The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films Live Action Award and Best Director (the Rouben Mamoulian Award) — both winners receive cash prizes of $5000 sponsored by Dendy Cinemas. The winner of the Live Action Award is eligible for Academy Award consideration. – The Yoram Gross Animation Award, named in memory of the Australian animation producer and director Yoram Gross, provides a $5000 cash prize to the best Australian animated short film. Winners are Academy Award-eligible. – The Event...

The Polish-born animator migrated to Australia in 1968 and was also responsible for the groundbreaking animated feature Dot and the Kangaroo

Australian film-maker Yoram Gross, responsible for some of the country’s biggest animated hits Blinky Bill and Dot and the Kangaroo, has died at the age of 88.

Guy Gross told Inside Film his father died quietly on Monday by his family’s side. Guy described him as “a wonderfully inappropriate jokester” and said he was “creating until the end”. A fall he took while painting eventually sped his decline.

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Australian film and TV animation pioneer Yoram Gross died on Monday night, aged 88, of natural causes.

The co-founder of Yoram Gross Film Studios with his wife Sandra, his legacy lives on in Flying Bark Productions, the rebranded company formerly known as Yoram Gross-Em.TV Pty Ltd.

It is fitting that a new cinema version of Blinky Bill, his most famous and enduring character, Flying Bark.s Blinky Bill: The Movie, opened in Australian cinemas last week.

Born in Kraków Poland in 1926, he studied music and musicology at Krakow University. He first entered the film industry in 1947 when, aged 20, he was one of the first film students of Jerzy Toeplitz, who founded the Polish Film Institute.

He endured World War II under the Nazi regime. His family was on Oskar Schindler.s infamous list but chose to make their own risky escape, moving hiding places 72 times.

He was a...

The world’s favourite koala stars in a film with plenty of hijinx and tacky Australiana, while carefully shying away from political or social allegory

Australia’s happy-go-lucky anthropomorphic koala, Blinky Bill, has long been a proponent of environmental conscientiousness, but went on something of an activist phase in the decade before the turn of the century. His smiley face and red dungarees were front and centre of legendary animator Yoram Gross’s 1992 movie, which put forward a pointy anti-logging message echoed in the subsequent three-season TV spin-off.

In Gross’s box office hit (the film grossed around $2m locally) Blinky faced down maniacal lumberjacks who chopped up his forest home. In a scene that must have scared the bejesus out of young children, the furry little fella and his girlfriend came inches away from being turned to mulch. Later in the decade Blinky was recruited as the official mascot...

Portuguese director Miguel Gomes. Arabian Nights has won the top award, the Sydney Film prize, at the 62nd Sydney Film Festival.

The 3-part opus, which draws on the folk tales One Thousand and One Nights to create a portrait of modern-day life in Portugal, took the $62,000 cash prize at the closing night awards at the State Theatre.

Jury president Liz Watts hailed a film of "ambition and political vision which confronts, frustrates, and spellbinds - and ultimately reminds us that cinema continues to be a powerful vehicle to examine the human condition..

Journalist Michael Ware and two-time Oscar winner Bill Guttentag received the $10,000 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian documentary for Only the Dead; with a special mention to The Lost Aviator directed by Andrew Lancaster. .A Single Body directed and written by Sotiris Dounoukos won the best live action short award; Grace Under Water directed and produced by Anthony Lawrence...

Miguel Gomes’ three-volume epic wins eight on the closing night of the Sydney Film Festival.

Director Miguel Gomes and his three-volume 383-minute film Arabian Nights has won the $48,000 (A$62,000) Sydney Film Prize, it was announced on Sunday, the closing night of the 62nd Sydney Film Festival.

Journalist Michael Ware was awarded the $7,730 (A$10,000) Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary for Only the Dead, about his experiences in Afghanistan. The film was co-directed with Bill Guttentag.

Director Andrew Lancaster’s The Lost Aviator received a special mention for a family story of murder, love and aviation.

Jury president and Australian producer Liz Watts said Arabian Nights, which had its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, was a film of ambition and political vision which confronts, frustrates, and spellbinds – and ultimately reminds us that cinema continues to be a powerful vehicle to examine the human condition.

“A subject that is so timely – oppression and exploitation are at...

Eddy Bell.s Grey Bull was named best Australian short film at the 24th annual Flickerfest awards on Sunday night.

The filmt follows a South Sudanese refugee who decides to rescue a bull at the abattoir where he works, believing it.s a spiritual totem. Once home, the animal begins to jeopardise the family's chance at fitting into their new life.

A special jury prize was awarded to Carl Firth.s The Witching Hour, the saga of several people who get swept up in the mayhem of a mysterious world at midnight.

Saluted as the best Australian animation short was Bush Mechanics, which follows the adventures of bush mechanics driving over red dirt roads as the mischievous spirit .munga munga. pursues them, co-directed by Jason Japaljarri Woods and Jonathan Daw.

Atsuko Hirayanagi.s Oh Lucy! took the gong for best international short. It's the tale of a 55-year-old single 'office...

An Australian movie featuring Ryan Kwanten, Toni Collette, Robin McLeavy, David Wenham, Rufus Sewell, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman, Barry Otto and Barry Humphries sounds like a casting director.s dream.

All are lending their voices to The Blinky Bill Movie, Flying Bark Productions. CGI feature now in production in Sydney.

The script is by Fin Edquist, whose Maya the Bee Movie opens here on November 1. The co-directors are Deane Taylor (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Maya.s Alexs Stadermann.

Kwanten voices the title character with McLeavy as the koala.s best friend Nutsy. The plot sees the duo racing across the outback to find Blinky.s missing father and save his hometown.

Collette will voice emus Beryl and Cheryl with Sewell as The Cat, Humphries as Wombo the wombat, Wenham as Jacko the frill-necked lizard, Mailman as Blinky.s mother and Otto as the mayor of Green Patch.

.The Blinky Bill...

An Australian movie featuring Ryan Kwanten, Toni Collette, Robin McLeavy, David Wenham, Rufus Sewell, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman, Barry Otto and Barry Humphries sounds like a casting director.s dream.

All are lending their voices to The Blinky Bill Movie, Flying Bark Productions. CGI feature now in production in Sydney.

The script is by Fin Edquist, whose Maya the Bee Movie opens here on November 1, The co-directors are Deane Taylor (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Maya.s Alexs Stadermann.

Kwanten voices the title character with McLeavy as the koala.s best friend Nutsy. The plot sees the duo racing across the outback to find Blinky.s missing father and save his hometown.

Collette will voice emus Beryl and Cheryl, with Sewell as The Cat, Humphries as Wombo the wombat, Wenham as Jacko the frill-necked lizard, Mailman as Blinky.s mother and Otto as the mayor of Green Patch.

.The Blinky Bill...

French language film Two Days, One Night has taken out the Sydney Film Prize at the closing night gala held yesterday evening at the State Theatre in Sydney.

The film, directed by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, stars Marion Cotillard as a woman who, with the help of her husband (Fabrizio Rongione) tries to convince her co-workers to forgo their yearly bonus so she may keep her job.

The film is a Belgian production with French and Italian co-producers.

It .has very well received critically and currently has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 92 per cent.

Other prize winners included Janine Hosking.s 35 Letters, which took out the Inaugural Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary, with a special mention going to Tender directed by Lynette Wallworth.

The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films were also announced, with the Dendy Live Action Short Award going to I Want to Dance Better at Parties,...

French film Two Days, One Night has taken out the Sydney Film Prize at the closing night gala held yesterday evening at the State Theatre in Sydney.

The film, directed by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, stars Marion Cotillard as a woman who, with the help of her husband (Fabrizio Rongione) tries to convince her co-workers to forgo their yearly bonus so she may keep her job.

The film has very well received critically and currently has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 92 per cent.

Other prize winners included Janine Hosking.s 35 Letters, which took out the Inaugural Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary, with a special mention going to Tender directed by Lynette Wallworth.

The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films were also announced, with the Dendy Live Action Short Award going to I Want to Dance Better at Parties, directed and written by Matthew Bate and Gideon Obarzanek.

Tim Brooke Hunt has been named president of Flying Bark Productions, re-joining the Australian animation studio where he spent nearly 10 years in the 1990s.

Formerly ABC Television.s controller of children.s content, he will work closely with Jim Ballantine, general manager and executive producer of Flying Bark.s TV and feature film projects.

He.s also been appointed as advisor to the board of directors of Flying Bark.s parent, Belgium's Studio 100 Group. Hans Bourlon, CEO of Studio 100 Group, said: .His wealth of experience will help take Studio 100 to new international markets and help us continue to build a sustainable business..

Flying Bark is producing three TV series- Tashi, Heidi and Vic the Viking- and the feature films Blinky Bill and Maya the Bee. In development are two TV series, Skippy and Lulu.

Directed by Alexs Stadermann, Maya the Bee Movie features a voice cast headed by Jacki Weaver,...

It's the world's largest short film festival and today Flickerfest announced its 2014 awards, with Israeli film Summer Vacation winning the International Award. Denmark's Minyamba won the Yoram Gross Award for Best Animation, Us film Slomo took Best Dcumentary and Best Digital Production went to the UK's Orbit Ever After, a tale of romance complicated by family entanglements and living in space.

Kingdom Of Doug won top prize in the Australian category, with David Lyons taking Best Director for Record, Bonnie Elliot winning Best Cinematography for Perception and Best EDiting going to Ariel Martin for iMom.

Australians can now look forward to the festival going on tour....

After stepping down as ABC Television.s controller of children.s content, Tim Brooke-Hunt will launch his own banner, Pacific Vision, providing consulting and executive producer services.

Using his expertise in children.s entertainment, he will focus on international co-productions and co-financing, particularly with Asia.

Brooke-Hunt will continue as a member of the board of the Asian Animation Summit and. in the next few months will act as a mentor to producers from Malaysia, Korea, Australia and Thailand whose projects will be presented at the summit in Phuket, Thailand, in December.

He played a key role in the launch of the annual event which is an initiative of ABC TV, Screen Australia, Korea's Kocca and Malaysia's MDeC.

He leaves the ABC at the end of next week and will launch Pacific Vision on October 1. Deirdre Brennan, currently director of content, Australia and New Zealand, for BBC Worldwide, will replace Brooke-Hunt in the New Year.

Tim Brooke-Hunt, ABC TV.s controller of children.s content, said he will step down in September to pursue new opportunities in children's entertainment. In the past six years he oversaw the launch of ABC3 and ABC4Kids, which reach almost 60% of Australian children aged up to 12 years. Children's programs are the most popular content on ABC TV's iview catch-up service, accounting for more than 2 million program plays monthly. "I leave ABC TV with renewed respect for public broadcasting, with gratitude to the talented producers of our programs,. he said.

Richard Finlayson, the newly appointed Director of ABC Television, said: "There is no doubt that the dominance of ABC TV in the children.s area has been one of the great success stories for the ABC and this has been achieved under Tim.s leadership..

Brooke-Hunt worked for Beyond International and the Yoram Gross Studios before starting his own company,...

Buckskin, a documentary which profiles Adelaide language teacher Jack Buckskin.s mission to teach the once-endangered Kaurna language to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, won the Foxtel Australian Documentary prize.

Director Dylan McDonald was awarded the $10,000 prize at the Sydney Film Festival. Buckskin is part of Sff.s Screen: Black program of films from Indigenous filmmakers.

The Foxtel jury gave a special mention to Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls, Juliet Lamont.s film which chronicles the careers of emerging young female pop stars in Myanmar. Highly commended was Big Name No Blanket, Steven McGregor.s tribute to the Warumpi Band, its late front man George Rrurrambu, and his creative relationship with songwriter Neil Murray.

The jury comprised director/ producer Ned Lander, documentary filmmaker Sascha Ettinger Epstein and Mariska Dean, Head of Programming . Factual Channels for Foxtel Networks Australia.

The $5,000 Dendy Live Action Short Award went to Perception, director Miranda Nation...

Nicolas Winding Refn’s violent thriller, starring Ryan Gosling, wins top prize at the Sydney Film Festival.

Only God Forgives, which stars Ryan Gosling as a volatile drugs trafficker in Thailand, has won the $57,500 (A$60,000) Sydney Film Prize, after the jury took more than six hours to reach a decision.

It is the second time that Danish writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn has won the award. His prison drama, Bronson, won in 2009, the year after the Sydney Film Festival introduced the award.

The prize was announced on the closing night of the film festival (June 5-16), when a message from the director was read out: “I am very honoured and extremely excited to have received this honourable award from a country that in my opinion has one of the great film histories of the world.”

Icon releases Only God Forgives in Australia on July 18.

“In the true spirit of the competition criteria, we award a...

Short film Yardbird was named Best Australian Short Film at Flickerfest. The film was directed by Good Oil’s Michael Spiccia, written by Julius Avery and produced by Jessica Mitchell.

The film had previously been accepted into the Cannes International Film Festival.

The award is Academy accredited which means the film may be entered for consideration to the Oscars.

Avery has written and will soon direct his first feature film Son of a Gun, starring Ewan McGregor.

Meanwhile, Mirrah Foulkes won Best Direction of an Australian Short for her film Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke. It was produced by David Michod and Michael Cody.

The full line-up of winners.

International Award Winners:

Renault Award for Best International Short Film (Academy® Accredited):

Tiger Boy (Italy)

Director/Producer: Gabriele Mainetti

Wri: Nicola Guaglianone

Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation (Academy® Accredited):

Edmond Was A Donkey (France/Canada)

Wri...

Michael Spiccia's short film Yardbird has won the 2013 Flickerfest Award for Best Australian Short Film while Italian short Tiger Boy has been crowned Best International Short Film.

Yardbird follows a young girl who lives in a remote wrecking yard who takes on the local bullies when they travel out to torment her father. The 13-minute short had its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival (see Cannes interview below). It was produced by Jessica Mitchell and written by Julius Avery, who.is currently set to direct his.debut feature film, Son of a Gun, starring Ewan McGregor, in Western Australia.

Tiger Boy is set in a suburb of Rome where Matteo, a nine year-old boy, is abused by his school headmaster. Only through his relation to his hero,.Italian wrestler The Tiger, can he find the courage to rise against his enemy.

Festival director Bronwyn Kidd said: "We...

Title: Blinky & Me Director: Tomasz Magierski An intensely earnest and subjective documentary look at the career and life story of Australian animator Yoram Gross, “Blinky & Me” casts a look back at the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust through the eyes of a then-child. The Polish-born Gross, who sort of resembles Philip Baker Hall if you catch him at the right angle, is the creator of “Blinky Bill,” an animated film series (and TV show?) that has achieved significant success in Australia, where he’s for the past several decades lived with his family. In fact, director Tomasz Magierski sort of frames his film as an extended home [ Read More ]...

Alps, an offbeat film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, has won the fifth $60,000 Sydney Film Prize, which is billed as being for films that are courageous, audacious and cutting-edge.

Lanthimos.s follow-up to Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Dogtooth, is about a group of people who operate a business replacing the recently deceased for the sake of those left behind.

.Alps melds pathos, black humour and taut menace in a film that is at once challenging and highly rewarding,. said jury chair, the Sydney-based director and actor Rachel Ward. .A finely calibrated, absurdist study of power and identity, Alps is intelligent, uniquely emotive filmmaking from an important new voice in Greek cinema."

The decision was announced to the media and festival guests yesterday afternoon at the Cruise Bar at the Overseas Passenger Terminal overlooking the harbour. To the Sydney Film Festival closing night crowd at the State Theatre a few hours later,...

A Greek drama has won Sydney Film Festival’s top prize, beating out eleven other films including two Australian productions, as a film about a director’s method for dealing with a relationship break-up won him best Australian documentary.

Alps, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, and co-written by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou, has won the Sff Official Competition prize, worth $60,000.

Two Australian films were in the running; Dead Europe directed by Tony Krawitz, and Lore directed by Cate Shortland.

Rachel Ward, the festival’s jury chair said: “Following a secret club whose members are paid to act as replacements for the recently deceased, Alps melds pathos, black humour and taut menace in a film that is at once challenging and highly rewarding. A finely calibrated, absurdist study of power and identity, Alps is intelligent, uniquely emotive filmmaking from an important new voice in Greek cinema.”

Lanthimos said from Greece: “”I never...

Alex Weight, lead animator of Happy Feet and animation supervisor of Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, will direct a Blinky Bill 3D animated feature film.

Weight has 13 years experience working for companies such as Disney, Rising Sun Pictures and Animal Logic.

Signing on as line producer is Marie-Cecile Dahan, who has worked as Department Manager on Avatar, Series line producer on Animalia and VFX production Manager on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows and District 9.

The film produced by Flying Bark Productions formerly Yoram Gross Film Studios will begin production this year. Flying Bark Productions’ Managing Director, Jim Ballantine said, “Blinky Bill is a timeless Australian classic character so it is an absolute honour for our team at Flying Bark Productions to be bringing the stories of Blinky Bill and his Australian bush friends to life in 3D for a new generation of children – and...

The Australian International Movie Convention has awarded filmmakers Emile Sherman and Yoram Gross, as well as actors Lincoln Lewis, Sophie Lowe and Maeve Dermody, at its closing night gala ceremony. The closing ceremony was hosted by Todd McKenney at Jupiter.s Hotel & Casino, bringing the week-long event to a close. This year's event for exhibitors and distributors attracted 960 registered delegates, with more than 650 attending for the entire week. Check out photos from the event here. The full list of award winners are: News Limited Australian Star of the Year Award Maeve Dermody (Griff the Invisible). Previous Star of the Year Award recipients include Russell Crowe (1993), Bill Hunter (1994), Geoffrey Rush (1997), Hugh Jackman (1999), Eric Bana (2000), Abbie...

The Australian International Movie Convention last night held their awards during a colourful gala at Jupiters Casino.

The News Limited Australian Star of the Year Award went to Maeve Dermody, most recently seen on our TVs in Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo and in our cinemas in Griff the Invisible.

The award has in the past gone to Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana, with Jacki Weaver receiving the award last year.

Oscar-winning The Kings Speech producer Emile Sherman was awarded the Outstanding Industry Achievement Award.

In a gala ceremony with the dress theme ‘colourful’, veteran animator Yoram Gross won the Murray Forrest Award.

Sophie Lowe, who is about to appear in ABC series The Slap, and most recently in our cinemas for Blame, won Female Star of Tomorrow Award.

Lincoln Lewis, star of Tomorrow When the War Began I & II, Home and Away and 33 Postcards won Male Star of Tomorrow Award.

Bondi-based short film festival, Flickerfest is now accepting film submissions for its 21st edition, from 6-15 January 2012.

Films must fit into the below categories:

International

Australian

Documentary

GreenFlicks (films with an environmental focus)

Flickerup – films from Primary High School age students from across Australia

All films must be under 35 minutes and have been completed within 2 years of entry closing dates.

A total of $50,000 prize money will recognise excellence with awards and prizes including Best Short Film and Yoram Gross Best Animation Short Film – Last year’s winner The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan went on to win the Academy Award.

Flickerfest is Australia’s only Academy Award accredited and BAFTA recognised short film festival. Held at Bondi Beach Pavilion, the festival then goes on the 30 venue national tour.

For more information, visit Flickerfest.

Image by Shane Rennie.

Millions of Australians grew up watching Dot and the Kangaroo and Blinky Bill, but the story of Yoram Gross, the man behind such beloved characters, is far more interesting than any piece of fiction.

Jerzy gross was born in October in 1926 in Krakow, Poland, where his family owned a couple of fine home mart stores. His father disappeared, presumably killed, when Gross was almost 13 and preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. But that coming-of-age ceremony would never take place; the German forces invaded the country in 1939.

The following years, documented in his new autobiography My Animated Life, saw the Gross family divided, constantly on the move and eventually managing to survive the war – a true story that would make a fascinating film.

Gross have filmmaking dreams when the war ended in 1945. Poland’s prolific film industry had disappeared during the Nazi occupation, but after the war it started to come back to life.

May 2011

Australia’s brain drain – can we stop it before it’s too late? Film critics, redefining their role in the digital age. Significant Australian Content test – beyond kangaroos and koalas. Singapore – small country, big plans. On location: Cloudstreet. Snowtown. Mad Bastards. Esben Storm. Yoram Gross Sci Fi Channel Win East West 101, Rake, Laid and True Blood on DVD.

Subscribe to Encore magazine today and receive an additional

3 issues at no charge.

Edouard Deluc’s short ¿Dónde Está Kim Basinger? has won the Flickerfest Award for Best Short Film.

The Best Australian Film went to Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Taun’s The Lost Thing, while the Jury Prize was awarded to the British short Baby, by Daniel Mulloy.

The 20th edition of Flickerfest Short Film Festival came to an end last night at Bondi Pavilion, Sydney. The best films from the festival will now embark on a 30-stop national tour, starting in Byron Bay on January 21 and traveling through to March.

The winners – selected by a Jury consisting of Kryzystof Geirat (Director Krakow Film Festival), Eileen Arandiga (Festival Director of the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto,) Renee Brack (face of Movie Extra), Hannah Hillard (director), Susie Porter (actress), Luke Doolan (director), Peta Watermayer (National Geographic Channel’s Program and Acquisitions Manager) and Tom Zubrycki (director) – are:

National Geographic Award – Best Documentary...

Over the summer, I unabashedly opened up my humble soul for Screw You, Childhood! 5 Scar-Inducing Moments in Horror , scenes from horror movies that my young eyes were perhaps not ready for, yet they fell witness to certain cinematic terrors anyway for one reason or another. Since then, I felt I'd turn it around. Focus on non-horror movie moments that absolutely rattled me as a kid. No surprise, the following five sprung to mind rather easily. They're a peculiar and diverse crop, but hey, this is the type of stuff I was watching as a very young lad. 5.) Dot and the Kangaroo: The Bunyip Tune HBO used to play this Yoram Gross' 1977 animated film from Australia regularly. It was a break from the normal cartoon fare my sister and I would watch because the flick relied on...

SYDNEY -- Australian animation house Flying Bark Prods., formerly Yoram Gross EMTV, announced Tuesday that managing director Geoff Watson is stepping aside after 10 years with the company.

Watson will be replaced by a provisional managing director, Canadian producer Michael Hefferon.

The company rebranded and restructured last year following the acquisition of founder Yoram Gross' 50% stake in the company by Germany's EM.Entertainment GmbH, taking the German company to full ownership.

That restructuring will continue under Hefferon, a statement from EM.Entertainment said.

Flying Bark comprises animation production unit Greenpatch Prods., multimedia business unit Forest Interactive, and 51% of film and TV audio production division Trackdown Digital.

Hefferon, most recently senior vp production at Berlin production company BFC Berliner Film Companie Prods. and head of animation, co-productions and animation packaging at Toronto-based Gullane Entertainment, will "oversee all current productions and the restructuring of the production group in respect of EM.Entertainment's strategic positioning," the statement said.

Hefferon has also been charged with finding a permanent managing director.

COLOGNE, Germany -- German kidvidder and sports rights group EM.TV has acquired the remaining 50% of its joint venture Yoram Gross-EM.TV from Australian partners Yoram and Sandra Gross for a mid-seven-figure sum, EM.TV announced Wednesday. The deal gives Munich-based EM.TV full control of Yoram Gross-EM.TV, Australia's largest children's entertainment company. In addition, EM.TV gets a 45% stake in production division Yoram Gross Prods., with the company founders retaining majority control. Yoram Gross is most famous for such animated series as Dot And The Kangaroo and the mischievous koala bear Blinky Bill. Yoram Gross-EM.TV also handles international sales and licensing for several territories for top EM.TV titles including Tabaluga and Flipper & Lopaka.

SYDNEY -- Australian kids' animation studio Yoram Gross-EM.TV and independent Brisbane-based DVD distributor Magna Pacific have signed a five-year licensing deal, the parties announced Tuesday. The partnership encompasses 38 titles, including 18 feature films and 20 TV series from Yoram Gross' catalog. Initially, Magna Pacific will release three triple-disc box sets showcasing Yoram Gross flagship series Blinky Bill, together with Dot and Bambaloo. DVDs containing single half-hour episodes from the Bambaloo and Blinky Bill series will launch later this month.

• The Sydney Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday, capping it all off with the Australian premiere of the eagerly anticipated Howl's Moving Castle. Not only that but Saturday night marked the first time the festival awarded films based on audience votes in the Sydney Film Festival Urban Cinefile Awards. This is the first time such prizes have been awarded, and will hopefully boost the Sydney Film Festival's international standing. The winners were:In World CinemaBest Feature: Brothers (Directed by Susanne Bier) Best Short: Ryan (Directed by Chris Landreth) Best Documentary: Mad Hot Ballroom (Directed by Marilyn Agrelo) Side Bar Program: Best Feature: Blacktown (Directed by Kriv Stenders) (Australian) Best Short: Journey To Mars (Directed by Juan Palbo Zaramella) Best Documentary: Mad Hot Ballroom While the Sydney Film Festival is the place to find world cinema that quite often doesn't get distribution down here, it also provides itself as

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CANNES -- German production and rights group EM.TV unveiled a major corporate restructuring Monday that will see the company fold its diverse business interests into the two core divisions of sports and entertainment. Grouped under the new entertainment division will be Junior.TV, EM.TV's branded block of kids TV programming, and EM.Entertainment, a new division incorporating all of the company's production and sales businesses, including its production subsidiaries Junior Produktions in Germany, EM.TV & Wavery in the Netherlands as well as the company's 33.3% stake in Spain's Planeta Junior and its 50% share of Australia's Yoram Gross. EM.TV said Monday at MIPCOM that it is establishing a new Paris-based production entity, Junior Prods., which will tap local talent to produce animated kids series for the world market.

SYDNEY -- Yoram Gross, sometimes referred to as Australia's Walt Disney, closed a licensing partnership deal Wednesday with Gaffney International Licensing that will cover ancillary rights on a number of Gross-EM.TV's children's television properties, including Blinky Bill, Bambaloo and K-Zone TV. In a joint statement, the companies said the new arrangement "will go beyond the traditional agent/licensor union. ... This relationship, combined with the strength of Yoram Gross' business partner EM.TV in Europe and the newly formed YG USA in the Americas heralds a new era for (both companies) in the domestic and international arena."...