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Exclusive: Vikings, Raised By Wolves and Warcraft star Travis Fimmel has been set to lead new mystery-drama series Black Snow, which is underway in Australia for streamer Stan.

The six-part series follows the mystery of a small-town murder that rocked North Queensland’s Australian South Sea Islander community. The show is financed and produced in association with All3Media International, which is handling international sales. Sundance Now is releasing in U.S.

Also starring are newcomers Talijah Blackman-Corowa and Jemmason Power with Brooke Satchwell, Alexander England, Rob Carlton, Erik Thomson, Kym Gyngell, and Australian singer Ziggy Ramo making his screen debut.

The Stan Original is part coming-of-age drama and part whodunit. In 1995, seventeen-year-old Isabel Baker was murdered. The crime shocked the small town of Ashford and devastated Isabel’s Australian South Sea Islander community. The case was never solved, the killer never found. In 2020, the opening of a time capsule unearths...

Twenty-seven of Australia’s top cinematographers last night launched a social media campaign aimed at boosting the number of women employed in camera teams and, more broadly, encouraging greater diversity across the screen industry.

Using the hashtag #whoisinyourcrew, the six-week campaign is designed to reach all heads of department as well as directors and producers.

The initiative was conceived by Dop Bonnie Elliott on behalf of the Australian Cinematographers Society’s Diversity Committee, the reconfigured Acs Women’s Advisory Panel.

Appointed to Screen Australia’s Gender Matters task force this year, Elliott has led the way by maintaining gender equity across her own camera teams for the last four years.

“I am keen to empower my fellow cinematographers to help make change in the industry through their hiring practices,” says Elliott, whose recent credits include Stateless, The Furnace, Palm Beach, The Hunting, H is for Happiness and Daina Reid’s upcoming Run Rabbit Run.

The “top end” in “Top End Wedding” refers to the remote Northern Territory of Down Under, where things are done a little differently from what its young townies from bottom-end Adelaide are used to. For all its vibrant indigenous details, however, almost everything else about Wayne Blair’s amiable second feature adheres to universal wedding-comedy formula. The story of an interracial couple encountering the bride-to-be’s estranged Aboriginal roots as they plan a shambolic last-minute wedding, “Top End Wedding” strains for broad farce in its tonally yo-yoing first half, before relaxing into a gentler, more poignant tale of familial bonding as the forestalled but inevitable nuptials approach.

Less snappy and less consistent than Blair’s similarly cheery, culture-crossing domestic smash “The Sapphires,” his latest is unlikely to match that film’s success locally or internationally. Still, it’s easy, attractive comfort viewing that the Northern Territory tourist bureau may as...

‘Top End Wedding’

Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding has been hailed by reviewers at the Sundance Film Festival as a charming and funny cross-cultural romantic comedy which deals with love and family and second chances.

Produced by Goalpost Pictures’ Rosemary Blight and Kylie du Fresne and Kojo’s Kate Croser, the film co-written by Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler was also praised for its depiction of Indigenous Australians and culture.

Tapsell plays Sydney lawyer Lauren, who is engaged to fellow lawyer Lee (Gwilym Lee). Their wedding plans are disrupted when Lauren’s mother Daffy (Ursula Yovich) walks out on her husband Trevor (Huw Higginson), leaving a cryptic note and her mobile phone. They have 10 days to find her and to pull off their wedding amid the chaos.

Universal will launch the film in Australia on May 2 after taking over eOne’s theatrical marketing and distribution in April. Films Boutique is handling international sales.

Aftrs Black Shot participants..

Aftrs has invited nine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cinematographers to participate in Black Shot, an intensive lab for emerging Indigenous cinematographers underway this week.

Two of the participants hail from Alice Springs, one from Broome, one from Perth, one from Townsville, one from Brisbane, one from Sydney and two from Yirrkala in the Northern Territory. Three of those selected are women.

.The workshop aims to develop the cinematography skills of emerging Indigenous cinematographers who have demonstrated the ability and willingness to pursue opportunities to develop their craft,. said Head of the Aftrs Indigenous Unit Kyas Sherriff.

As well as the five-day intensive run by Indigenous cinematographer and Aftrs alum Allan Collins Acs, Aftrs is spearheading industry placements for the nine participants.

.The Aftrs Indigenous Unit wants to create a pathway for cinematographers to get deeper into their craft and art with strategic mentoring and skills training", Sheriff said.