'My Brilliant Career' producer Margaret Fink, Acs Hall of Fame inductee Daryl Binning, Emmy-winning natural history filmmaker David Parer and Heather Croall, CEO of the Adelaide Fringe and former director of Sheffield Doc/Fest, have been recognised with Australia Day honours.
The post Margaret Fink, David Parer, Heather Croall, Daryl Binning receive Australia Day honours appeared first on If Magazine.
The post Margaret Fink, David Parer, Heather Croall, Daryl Binning receive Australia Day honours appeared first on If Magazine.
- 1/25/2024
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Sam Neill reflected on his difficult battle with a rare form of blood cancer, saying he’s not afraid to die.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Australian Story, the 76-year-old New Zealander says death would be “annoying” but he’s “not remotely afraid.” That said, the idea of retiring from acting “fills me with horror.”
The Jurassic Park and Event Horizon star was diagnosed last year with a non-Hodgkin blood cancer (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma). According to the Australian news outlet, his doctors tried chemotherapy, but it stopped working after three months. They then switched to a drug that requires infusions every two weeks, which has successfully put his cancer into remission but has difficult side effects. His doctors have told him that the drug will stop working at some point.
“I’m prepared for that,” Neill said. “I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Australian Story, the 76-year-old New Zealander says death would be “annoying” but he’s “not remotely afraid.” That said, the idea of retiring from acting “fills me with horror.”
The Jurassic Park and Event Horizon star was diagnosed last year with a non-Hodgkin blood cancer (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma). According to the Australian news outlet, his doctors tried chemotherapy, but it stopped working after three months. They then switched to a drug that requires infusions every two weeks, which has successfully put his cancer into remission but has difficult side effects. His doctors have told him that the drug will stop working at some point.
“I’m prepared for that,” Neill said. “I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it.
- 10/16/2023
- by James Hibberd
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The clichéd view of genius-level artists dictates that brilliance comes with the heaviest of tolls. The greats, the pioneers — these people are tortured from the crib and grow up unloved or abused. Some can feign happiness, but, deep down, they're driven by grievance and frequently undone by inner demons. Worst case, they bounce from marriage to marriage and neglect their children, who subsequently hate them and wind up writing a tell-all memoir. Best case, they're miserable jerks who can't enjoy the riches and plaudits bestowed upon them.
Except for Cate Blanchett. If everything I've read about Blanchett is to be trusted, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor is an absolute joy to work with and know. She is completely unguarded in interviews. There is no mystery to her. She is, by her own admission, a happily married mother of four whose greatest personal tragedy is that she cannot carve out the...
Except for Cate Blanchett. If everything I've read about Blanchett is to be trusted, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor is an absolute joy to work with and know. She is completely unguarded in interviews. There is no mystery to her. She is, by her own admission, a happily married mother of four whose greatest personal tragedy is that she cannot carve out the...
- 2/3/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Hilary Linstead, casting director, agent and film and stage producer died on Aug. 6 after contracting a form of leukaemia. She was 83.
Described as a “force of nature” by her friends and colleagues, Linstead nurtured and promoted some of Australia’s most famous artistic talents, including directors such as John Bell, Baz Luhrmann, Gillian Armstrong, Jim Sharman, Jane Campion and Neil Armfield, and many writers, designers, composers, cinematographers, choreographers, comedians and performers.
Born in London in 1938, and educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, Linstead went to Australia as a professional actor, as a member of an English touring company. After realizing that acting was not for her, Linstead found her metier as a casting director and worked in an advertising company and at International Casting Services representing actresses. In 1962 she married Leon Stemler.
The turning point in her career came when she joined Liz Mullinar to found M&l Casting Consultants, which became...
Described as a “force of nature” by her friends and colleagues, Linstead nurtured and promoted some of Australia’s most famous artistic talents, including directors such as John Bell, Baz Luhrmann, Gillian Armstrong, Jim Sharman, Jane Campion and Neil Armfield, and many writers, designers, composers, cinematographers, choreographers, comedians and performers.
Born in London in 1938, and educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, Linstead went to Australia as a professional actor, as a member of an English touring company. After realizing that acting was not for her, Linstead found her metier as a casting director and worked in an advertising company and at International Casting Services representing actresses. In 1962 she married Leon Stemler.
The turning point in her career came when she joined Liz Mullinar to found M&l Casting Consultants, which became...
- 8/18/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
This celebrated dysfunctional family story won four Oscars, the most deserved easily being Alvin Sargent’s superb adapted screenplay. The viewer buzz initially centered on the surprise of Mary Tyler Moore’s unexpected casting against type, but even more alarming was author Judith Guest’s scary message that ‘perfect’ families are an illusion. We found the drama absorbing and bought the performances 100 — Sutherland, Hirsch, Hutton, McGovern. It’s clearly Robert Redford’s best job of direction.
Ordinary People
Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 124 min. / Street Date March 29, 2022 / Available from Amazon and listed at Paramount / 25.99
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, Adam Baldwin, Frederic Lehne, James B. Sikking.
Cinematography: John Bailey
Art Directors: Phillip Bennett, J. Michael Riva
Film Editor: Jeff Kanew
Original Music: Marvin Hamlisch
Written by Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest
Produced by Ronald L. Schwary...
Ordinary People
Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 124 min. / Street Date March 29, 2022 / Available from Amazon and listed at Paramount / 25.99
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, Adam Baldwin, Frederic Lehne, James B. Sikking.
Cinematography: John Bailey
Art Directors: Phillip Bennett, J. Michael Riva
Film Editor: Jeff Kanew
Original Music: Marvin Hamlisch
Written by Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest
Produced by Ronald L. Schwary...
- 3/26/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Don’t let the name fool you: Turner Classic Movies is redefining the parameters for “classic” films. The Ted Turner-created network, known for bringing the world of Old Hollywood filmmaking into viewers’ homes for over 25 years, has long been the perfect place to catch a 1940s film noir or see an Oscar-winning feature from 1933. But now it’s becoming a launchpad for showcasing diverse cinema — in what’s it’s always been and what it can be.
After diving into the world of African American cinema and directors, as well as devoting time to showcasing disability in movies, TCM is casting an eye toward female directors. Their series “Women Make Film” is their most ambitious project yet: a three-month event aimed at promoting the work of women directors. Programming won’t just highlight directors from America and Europe, but worldwide filmmakers, as well.
The series will include a lengthy...
After diving into the world of African American cinema and directors, as well as devoting time to showcasing disability in movies, TCM is casting an eye toward female directors. Their series “Women Make Film” is their most ambitious project yet: a three-month event aimed at promoting the work of women directors. Programming won’t just highlight directors from America and Europe, but worldwide filmmakers, as well.
The series will include a lengthy...
- 8/31/2020
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
An American Pickle (Brandon Trost)
Seth Rogen plays dual roles in his latest comedy, American Pickle follows Seth Rogen both as Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant who falls in a vat of pickled is brined for 100 years, and his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum, who is a computer coder and lives a very different life, to say the least. While there are certainly humorous sequences (a Brooklyn hipster couple’s first impressions of Greenbaum’s pickle stand comes foremost to mind), Rogen is far more interested in the definitions of family and loyalty, themes that are not explored with a great deal of emotional impact, but do add some heart to what...
An American Pickle (Brandon Trost)
Seth Rogen plays dual roles in his latest comedy, American Pickle follows Seth Rogen both as Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant who falls in a vat of pickled is brined for 100 years, and his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum, who is a computer coder and lives a very different life, to say the least. While there are certainly humorous sequences (a Brooklyn hipster couple’s first impressions of Greenbaum’s pickle stand comes foremost to mind), Rogen is far more interested in the definitions of family and loyalty, themes that are not explored with a great deal of emotional impact, but do add some heart to what...
- 8/7/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The veteran film star has been cheering people up online during lockdown. He talks about the mini-films he has been posting, the joy of wine – and why he is returning to Jurassic Park
Unusually in this year of shuttered cinemas, Sam Neill is the star of a No 1 box-office smash. The film in question, Jurassic Park, was first released in 1993, and has played exclusively at drive-in cinemas this year, but a chart-topper is a chart-topper. “Isn’t that funny?” says the 72-year-old, stroking his impressive white beard and speaking via Zoom from Sydney, where he has been holed up throughout lockdown with his girlfriend, the political TV journalist Laura Tingle, far from his own home in New Zealand. “And here’s the other thing I discovered,” he continues. “Which Australian film of mine do you think is the most successful in terms of box office?”
Perhaps it was My Brilliant Career,...
Unusually in this year of shuttered cinemas, Sam Neill is the star of a No 1 box-office smash. The film in question, Jurassic Park, was first released in 1993, and has played exclusively at drive-in cinemas this year, but a chart-topper is a chart-topper. “Isn’t that funny?” says the 72-year-old, stroking his impressive white beard and speaking via Zoom from Sydney, where he has been holed up throughout lockdown with his girlfriend, the political TV journalist Laura Tingle, far from his own home in New Zealand. “And here’s the other thing I discovered,” he continues. “Which Australian film of mine do you think is the most successful in terms of box office?”
Perhaps it was My Brilliant Career,...
- 7/10/2020
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Fiona Press and Kelton Pell in ‘The Heights’ (Photo credit: Ashleigh Nicolau).
Something remarkable happened to Fiona Press when she played Hazel Murphy in the first and second seasons of the ABC serial The Heights.
For the first time in the actress’ 37-year career after graduating from Nida, Press felt she wasn’t just a “survivor,” despite more than 50 screen credits and dozens of plays.
“Hazel is the role of my life. Until she turned up, I don’t think I realised I had a career,” she tells If. “As a female of my type in the Australian industry, to survive is actually a career. I’m a jobbing actor.”
Matchbox Pictures’ Warren Clarke, the showrunner who co-created The Heights with Que Minh Luu, tells If: “The choice to cast Fiona really came from how grounded her audition was. We knew this character would be a foundation stone for the...
Something remarkable happened to Fiona Press when she played Hazel Murphy in the first and second seasons of the ABC serial The Heights.
For the first time in the actress’ 37-year career after graduating from Nida, Press felt she wasn’t just a “survivor,” despite more than 50 screen credits and dozens of plays.
“Hazel is the role of my life. Until she turned up, I don’t think I realised I had a career,” she tells If. “As a female of my type in the Australian industry, to survive is actually a career. I’m a jobbing actor.”
Matchbox Pictures’ Warren Clarke, the showrunner who co-created The Heights with Que Minh Luu, tells If: “The choice to cast Fiona really came from how grounded her audition was. We knew this character would be a foundation stone for the...
- 3/8/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Sam Neill. (Photo: Ross Coffey)
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) will next month bestow actor Sam Neill with its highest honour, the Longford Lyell Award.
First presented in 1968, the award honours Australian film pioneer Raymond Longford and his partner in filmmaking and life, Lottie Lyell. It recognises a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Australia’s screen environment and culture.
Neill joins previous recipients such as Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi, Jan Chapman, David Stratton, Don McAlpine, Al Clark, Jacki Weaver, Andrew Knight, Cate Blanchett, Phillip Noyce and most recently, Bryan Brown.
“I am very thrilled by this honour indeed,” said Neill. “And very surprised! Let me check just in case they’ve made a mistake…”
Neill made his feature debut in Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs in 1979, which led to a breakthrough role in Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career opposite Judy Davis.
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) will next month bestow actor Sam Neill with its highest honour, the Longford Lyell Award.
First presented in 1968, the award honours Australian film pioneer Raymond Longford and his partner in filmmaking and life, Lottie Lyell. It recognises a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Australia’s screen environment and culture.
Neill joins previous recipients such as Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi, Jan Chapman, David Stratton, Don McAlpine, Al Clark, Jacki Weaver, Andrew Knight, Cate Blanchett, Phillip Noyce and most recently, Bryan Brown.
“I am very thrilled by this honour indeed,” said Neill. “And very surprised! Let me check just in case they’ve made a mistake…”
Neill made his feature debut in Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs in 1979, which led to a breakthrough role in Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career opposite Judy Davis.
- 11/22/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
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...
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...
- 10/24/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Sam Neill in ‘Ride Like A Girl’.
Actor, writer, producer and director Sam Neill has been named the recipient of the 2019 Equity New Zealand Lifetime Achievement Award, after being nominated by the Equity board and other Kiwi performers.
“Sam’s career as an actor is remarkable, but what makes this award so special is that it recognises much more than career success,” says Equity Nz president Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
“It acknowledges those members of our industry who give back at every opportunity, who strive to use their influence for important causes and who continually inspire their peers with their good will and humility. Sam leads by example. This award pays tribute to who he is as a person, as much it does his extraordinary talent.”
Neill joined Equity in 1979, and has more than 75 films and over 45 television programs to his credit. His film debut was in Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs...
Actor, writer, producer and director Sam Neill has been named the recipient of the 2019 Equity New Zealand Lifetime Achievement Award, after being nominated by the Equity board and other Kiwi performers.
“Sam’s career as an actor is remarkable, but what makes this award so special is that it recognises much more than career success,” says Equity Nz president Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
“It acknowledges those members of our industry who give back at every opportunity, who strive to use their influence for important causes and who continually inspire their peers with their good will and humility. Sam leads by example. This award pays tribute to who he is as a person, as much it does his extraordinary talent.”
Neill joined Equity in 1979, and has more than 75 films and over 45 television programs to his credit. His film debut was in Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs...
- 10/14/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Samuel Gelfman, a New York producer known for his work on Roger Corman’s “Caged Heat,” “Cockfighter” and “Cannonball!,” died Thursday morning at UCLA Hospital in Westwood following complications from heart and respiratory disease, his son Peter Gelfman confirmed. He was 88.
Gelfman was born in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Caldwell New Jersey where he attended grade and high school, before graduating Princeton University in 1953 with a degree in architecture. Soon after, he returned to New York where he worked for the Candida Donadio talent agency and the Feuer and Martin company. It was the latter that got him his next job as an Off-Broadway producer for the improvisational theater The Premise.
From there, he became the Vice President of New York Production for United Artists, before leaving to buy film rights for the first video cassette company Cartrivision. At that time, he also began working with...
Gelfman was born in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Caldwell New Jersey where he attended grade and high school, before graduating Princeton University in 1953 with a degree in architecture. Soon after, he returned to New York where he worked for the Candida Donadio talent agency and the Feuer and Martin company. It was the latter that got him his next job as an Off-Broadway producer for the improvisational theater The Premise.
From there, he became the Vice President of New York Production for United Artists, before leaving to buy film rights for the first video cassette company Cartrivision. At that time, he also began working with...
- 8/18/2019
- by Nate Nickolai
- Variety Film + TV
Jenny Woods.
Friends and former colleagues are paying tribute to Jenny Woods, a long-time executive at Film Finances Australasia, as a consummate professional and champion of Australian films and documentaries.
Woods, who died on July 31, aged 75, retired last year after more than five decades in the screen industry, the last 25 years as the documentary representative at Film Finances.
A former general manager of the New South Wales Film Corp., she joined the completion bond company in 1993 at the invitation of then head Sue Milliken and supervised the delivery of more than 400 documentaries.
“In all my years as a distributor we had one film, a feature documentary, which went seriously astray and the investors left responsibility to me to bring in the completion guarantor,” Ronin Films MD Andrew Pike tells If.
“The guarantor was represented by Jenny and she was fabulous – she guided me through the whole difficult process with humour...
Friends and former colleagues are paying tribute to Jenny Woods, a long-time executive at Film Finances Australasia, as a consummate professional and champion of Australian films and documentaries.
Woods, who died on July 31, aged 75, retired last year after more than five decades in the screen industry, the last 25 years as the documentary representative at Film Finances.
A former general manager of the New South Wales Film Corp., she joined the completion bond company in 1993 at the invitation of then head Sue Milliken and supervised the delivery of more than 400 documentaries.
“In all my years as a distributor we had one film, a feature documentary, which went seriously astray and the investors left responsibility to me to bring in the completion guarantor,” Ronin Films MD Andrew Pike tells If.
“The guarantor was represented by Jenny and she was fabulous – she guided me through the whole difficult process with humour...
- 8/5/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Gillian Armstrong and Sam Neill.
Gillian Armstrong was 29 when she won the AFI award for best director for her debut feature My Brilliant Career, the first local film to be directed by a woman since the McDonagh sisters’ Two Minute Silence in 1933.
It was Sam Neill’s first Australian movie, produced by Margaret Fink and introducing Judy Davis.
Forty years later, how do Armstrong and Neill view the seminal film and how would each describe their journey through the screen industry?
Producer Trish Lake will pose those and other questions at a Q&A on May 18 at the Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival (Bofa) in Launceston following a 40th anniversary screening of the film.
“Apart from what she is doing currently I am interested in knowing how Gillian regards her journey as a female director since then,” says Lake. “I will talk with her about her prolific output over the years,...
Gillian Armstrong was 29 when she won the AFI award for best director for her debut feature My Brilliant Career, the first local film to be directed by a woman since the McDonagh sisters’ Two Minute Silence in 1933.
It was Sam Neill’s first Australian movie, produced by Margaret Fink and introducing Judy Davis.
Forty years later, how do Armstrong and Neill view the seminal film and how would each describe their journey through the screen industry?
Producer Trish Lake will pose those and other questions at a Q&A on May 18 at the Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival (Bofa) in Launceston following a 40th anniversary screening of the film.
“Apart from what she is doing currently I am interested in knowing how Gillian regards her journey as a female director since then,” says Lake. “I will talk with her about her prolific output over the years,...
- 5/13/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Gill(ian) Armstrong’s breakthrough feature does a leapfrog over stories like Little Women, with heroines that prevail even when adhering to the Meek Sex role of their time. Judy Davis’s Sybylla Melvin knows that she’s a freckle-faced pain in the neck: despite being proud that she’s attracted the local male catch, her every sinew is committed to her goal of artistic expression and self-fulfillment. The setting is the turn-of-the-century Australian Outback but the story is universal. Sam Neill suffers through the best ‘thankless’ romantic role ever.
My Brilliant Career
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 973
1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 30, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Aileen Britton, Patricia Kennedy.
Cinematography: Donald McAlpine
Production Designer: Luciana Arrighi
Film Editor: Nicholas Beauman
Original Music: Nathan Waks
Written by Eleanor Witcombe from the novel by Miles Franklin
Produced by Margaret Fink...
My Brilliant Career
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 973
1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 30, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Aileen Britton, Patricia Kennedy.
Cinematography: Donald McAlpine
Production Designer: Luciana Arrighi
Film Editor: Nicholas Beauman
Original Music: Nathan Waks
Written by Eleanor Witcombe from the novel by Miles Franklin
Produced by Margaret Fink...
- 4/30/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Eleanor Witcombe in 2017.
Screenwriter and playwright Eleanor Witcombe, whose most enduring works were the adaptations of My Brilliant Career and The Getting of Wisdom, has died in Sydney. She was 95.
My Brilliant Career producer Margaret Fink, who hired Witcombe to adapt Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel, a coming-of-age story about a headstrong young woman played by Judy Davis, tells If: “Her contribution to the film is incalculable.”
She began her professional career as a playwright in 1948 when the Mosman Children’s Theatre Club commissioned her to write three plays for children: Pirates at the Barn, The Bushranger and Smugglers Beware.
In 1952 she left for two years’ work and study in London. On her return she wrote one-hour adaptations of plays, books, and stories for ABC radio, the Lux Radio Theatre and the Macquarie Radio Theatre.
She also wrote the books for stage musicals A Ride on a Broomstick and Mistress Money for the Philllip Street Theatre.
Screenwriter and playwright Eleanor Witcombe, whose most enduring works were the adaptations of My Brilliant Career and The Getting of Wisdom, has died in Sydney. She was 95.
My Brilliant Career producer Margaret Fink, who hired Witcombe to adapt Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel, a coming-of-age story about a headstrong young woman played by Judy Davis, tells If: “Her contribution to the film is incalculable.”
She began her professional career as a playwright in 1948 when the Mosman Children’s Theatre Club commissioned her to write three plays for children: Pirates at the Barn, The Bushranger and Smugglers Beware.
In 1952 she left for two years’ work and study in London. On her return she wrote one-hour adaptations of plays, books, and stories for ABC radio, the Lux Radio Theatre and the Macquarie Radio Theatre.
She also wrote the books for stage musicals A Ride on a Broomstick and Mistress Money for the Philllip Street Theatre.
- 11/5/2018
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
So much time, so few movies to see. Scratch that. Reverse it.
Running a little later than usual this year, the 2018 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival gets under way this coming Thursday, screening approximately 88 films and special programs over the course of the festival’s three-and-a-half days, beginning Thursday evening, and no doubt about it, this year’s schedule, no less than any other year, will lay out a banquet for classic film buffs, casual film fans and harder-core cinephiles looking for the opportunity to see long-time favorites as well as rare and unusual treats on the big screen. I’ve attended every festival since its inaugural run back in 2010, and since then if I have not reined in my enthusiasm for the festival and being given the opportunity to attend it every year, then I have at least managed to lasso my verbiage. That first year I wrote about...
Running a little later than usual this year, the 2018 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival gets under way this coming Thursday, screening approximately 88 films and special programs over the course of the festival’s three-and-a-half days, beginning Thursday evening, and no doubt about it, this year’s schedule, no less than any other year, will lay out a banquet for classic film buffs, casual film fans and harder-core cinephiles looking for the opportunity to see long-time favorites as well as rare and unusual treats on the big screen. I’ve attended every festival since its inaugural run back in 2010, and since then if I have not reined in my enthusiasm for the festival and being given the opportunity to attend it every year, then I have at least managed to lasso my verbiage. That first year I wrote about...
- 4/23/2018
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Armstrong’s second feature after My Brilliant Career was a neon lightning bolt with all the makings of a classic – and it’s finally been given a second life
A teenage girl dangles from a tightrope, strung between two office buildings in the Sydney Cbd. She wears a soft helmet and at first glance her chest is exposed – exaggerated fake breasts poking out from under a gaudy set of Diy wings. It’s pop art, by way of the Sydney Mardi Gras parade.
The girl is Jackie Mullens, a singer with “that little something extra”, wearing a costume guaranteed to attract the attention needed to crack the big time.
Continue reading...
A teenage girl dangles from a tightrope, strung between two office buildings in the Sydney Cbd. She wears a soft helmet and at first glance her chest is exposed – exaggerated fake breasts poking out from under a gaudy set of Diy wings. It’s pop art, by way of the Sydney Mardi Gras parade.
The girl is Jackie Mullens, a singer with “that little something extra”, wearing a costume guaranteed to attract the attention needed to crack the big time.
Continue reading...
- 7/31/2017
- by Kate Jinx
- The Guardian - Film News
David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema is set to premiere on the ABC this year over three episodes. Before that broadcast (the date of which is still under wraps) a theatrical cut will be distributed by Transmission.
Produced for the ABC by Stranger than Fiction's Jo-Anne McGowan (Art+Soul) with support from Screen Australia, Screen Nsw, Adelaide Film Festival and Transmission, Stratton describes the project as "very personal".
"It.s not a history of Australian film at all. It.s called David Stratton.s Stories of Australian Cinema, and it's really just that. Without wanting to sound too pretentious about it, it.s sort of my journey coming to Australia from England, running the Sydney Film Festival for eighteen years, fighting censorship, [and] being at the Sydney Film Festival just as the Australian New Wave was happening with the Peter Weirs and the Gillian Armstrongs and the Fred Schepisis.
Produced for the ABC by Stranger than Fiction's Jo-Anne McGowan (Art+Soul) with support from Screen Australia, Screen Nsw, Adelaide Film Festival and Transmission, Stratton describes the project as "very personal".
"It.s not a history of Australian film at all. It.s called David Stratton.s Stories of Australian Cinema, and it's really just that. Without wanting to sound too pretentious about it, it.s sort of my journey coming to Australia from England, running the Sydney Film Festival for eighteen years, fighting censorship, [and] being at the Sydney Film Festival just as the Australian New Wave was happening with the Peter Weirs and the Gillian Armstrongs and the Fred Schepisis.
- 1/18/2017
- by Harry Windsor
- IF.com.au
Writer/director Jub Clerc, from Quedjinup, Wa is one of 12 women selected to participate in Screenwork's Athena Project.
Following a nation-wide callout, Screenworks has selected 12 female filmmakers from across regional Australia to participate in its upcoming career enhancement program, The Athena Project.
Among those selected are BAFTA Award winning director Hattie Dalton (Byron Bay Nsw), award-winning animated film writer/director Justine Wallace (Barkers Creek Vic), Nyul Nyul/Yawuru woman and writer/director Jub Clerc (Quedjinup Wa) and co-winner of the Northern Territory Book of the Year 2016, Clare Atkins (Darwin Nt).
The twelve selected participants will spend two and a half days in an intensive residential program in Byron Bay, where they will receive advice from some of the most notable woman in the Australian screen industry, including Gillian Armstrong (Women He.s Undressed, My Brilliant Career), Felicity Packard (Janet King), Debbie Lee (Barracuda) and Cate McQuillen (dirtgirlworld).
As part of the residential program,...
Following a nation-wide callout, Screenworks has selected 12 female filmmakers from across regional Australia to participate in its upcoming career enhancement program, The Athena Project.
Among those selected are BAFTA Award winning director Hattie Dalton (Byron Bay Nsw), award-winning animated film writer/director Justine Wallace (Barkers Creek Vic), Nyul Nyul/Yawuru woman and writer/director Jub Clerc (Quedjinup Wa) and co-winner of the Northern Territory Book of the Year 2016, Clare Atkins (Darwin Nt).
The twelve selected participants will spend two and a half days in an intensive residential program in Byron Bay, where they will receive advice from some of the most notable woman in the Australian screen industry, including Gillian Armstrong (Women He.s Undressed, My Brilliant Career), Felicity Packard (Janet King), Debbie Lee (Barracuda) and Cate McQuillen (dirtgirlworld).
As part of the residential program,...
- 10/11/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
Screenworks has unveiled The Athena Project, its initiative to support female regional filmmakers.
The project, Screenworks. largest to date, is funded by Screen Australia through the Genders Matters: Brilliant Careers program. It aims to help female writers and directors from regional areas to leverage initial success in the screen industry, build professional networks and create viable career pathways.
The initative will include two events to be held in Byron Bay: a public careers forum and a two-day career development residential workshop. Four teams/individuals from regional Nsw and one from each of the other states and territories will be selected to take part.
Some of Australia.s most outstanding female filmmakers are set to be involved, including the multi-award winning writer-director Gillian Armstrong (Women He.s Undressed, My Brilliant Career), Matchbox Pictures. director of scripted development Debbie Lee (The Family Law, Glitch), multi-award winning creator and director Cate McQuillen...
The project, Screenworks. largest to date, is funded by Screen Australia through the Genders Matters: Brilliant Careers program. It aims to help female writers and directors from regional areas to leverage initial success in the screen industry, build professional networks and create viable career pathways.
The initative will include two events to be held in Byron Bay: a public careers forum and a two-day career development residential workshop. Four teams/individuals from regional Nsw and one from each of the other states and territories will be selected to take part.
Some of Australia.s most outstanding female filmmakers are set to be involved, including the multi-award winning writer-director Gillian Armstrong (Women He.s Undressed, My Brilliant Career), Matchbox Pictures. director of scripted development Debbie Lee (The Family Law, Glitch), multi-award winning creator and director Cate McQuillen...
- 8/8/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
“Women He’s Undressed” is a lively and revealing documentary — but not in the way the salacious title might suggest. A lot more than clothing is probed, fingered and illuminated in this stylish look at the brilliant career of three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Orry George Kelly, known professionally as Orry-Kelly. Director Gillian Armstrong (“My Brilliant Career,” “Charlotte Grey”) smartly trains her focus on several key areas of intriguing Hollywood history: the restrictive Hayes Code, closeted homosexuality among Hollywood icons, and the overbearing studio system. Of course, it also spotlights the sartorial artistry of Orry-Kelly, through the knowing commentary of renowned.
- 7/28/2016
- by Claudia Puig
- The Wrap
Judy Davis on the Sff red carpet with the winners of the Lexus Short Film Fellowship.
As the Lexus Short Film Fellowship jury chair, Judy Davis last week selected four young filmmakers - Alex Ryan, Anya Beyersdorf, Alex Murawski and Brooke Goldfinch - to receive $50,000 each to make a short that will premiere at next year's Sydney Film Festival.
The gender parity of the winners was a coincidence, Davis told If.
"On this jury, there was no quota, and I chose the films I liked. But as the afternoon wore on, it became clear it was looking like two and two. And one of the other members of the jury said, 'that's really good'."
Asked for her opinion on quotas, Davis said she wonders whether they might "breed resentment and mistrust", and argued instead for a shift in mindset: "that gradual but inevitable realisation that the female voice can be a profound voice,...
As the Lexus Short Film Fellowship jury chair, Judy Davis last week selected four young filmmakers - Alex Ryan, Anya Beyersdorf, Alex Murawski and Brooke Goldfinch - to receive $50,000 each to make a short that will premiere at next year's Sydney Film Festival.
The gender parity of the winners was a coincidence, Davis told If.
"On this jury, there was no quota, and I chose the films I liked. But as the afternoon wore on, it became clear it was looking like two and two. And one of the other members of the jury said, 'that's really good'."
Asked for her opinion on quotas, Davis said she wonders whether they might "breed resentment and mistrust", and argued instead for a shift in mindset: "that gradual but inevitable realisation that the female voice can be a profound voice,...
- 6/22/2016
- by Harry Windsor
- IF.com.au
Brooke Goldfinch.
Brooke Goldfinch is one of 21 emerging filmmakers shortlisted for the Lexus Short Film Fellowship, set to be announced at next month's Sydney Film Festival.
The four winners will receive $50,000 each to make a short, which will then premiere at the 2017 festival.
Goldfinch studied filmmaking at Nyu, and her short, Red Rover, won her the award for best direction in an Australian short at Flickerfest earlier this year.
In what is shaping up as a banner twelve months, she also beat out a record number of applicants to become one of two director's attachments on the set of Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott's sequel currently shooting in Sydney.
"Last week we were doing night shoots and it was so cold", Goldfinch told If..
"My wardrobe is becoming better at dealing with the cold weather. I don't know why four and a half years in New York didn't teach me...
Brooke Goldfinch is one of 21 emerging filmmakers shortlisted for the Lexus Short Film Fellowship, set to be announced at next month's Sydney Film Festival.
The four winners will receive $50,000 each to make a short, which will then premiere at the 2017 festival.
Goldfinch studied filmmaking at Nyu, and her short, Red Rover, won her the award for best direction in an Australian short at Flickerfest earlier this year.
In what is shaping up as a banner twelve months, she also beat out a record number of applicants to become one of two director's attachments on the set of Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott's sequel currently shooting in Sydney.
"Last week we were doing night shoots and it was so cold", Goldfinch told If..
"My wardrobe is becoming better at dealing with the cold weather. I don't know why four and a half years in New York didn't teach me...
- 5/25/2016
- by Harry Windsor
- IF.com.au
Director, Gillian Armstong, named patron of the Wow Film Festival.
.
The World of Women.s Cinema (Wow) Film Festival will take place in Sydney this year with director Gillian Armstrong as patron.
An initiative of Women in Film & Television (Wift) Nsw, the festival will be held throughout various venues in Sydney from April 28 to May 1, as well as touring to a number of venues and locations throughout Australia between May 2016 and May 2017.
Gillian Armstrong, acclaimed Australian director, has been announced as Wow Film Festival Patron for 2016.
Her seminal 1979 drama, My Brilliant Career, has been selected to screen at the Wow Film Festival opening night gala..
The festival will also hold a special 25th anniversary screening of Ridley Scott.s iconic 1991 film Thelma and Louise.
Wow Film Festival is now in its 21st year, with its ultimate goal to celebrate and recognise films by and about women, by Australian and international creative teams.
.
The World of Women.s Cinema (Wow) Film Festival will take place in Sydney this year with director Gillian Armstrong as patron.
An initiative of Women in Film & Television (Wift) Nsw, the festival will be held throughout various venues in Sydney from April 28 to May 1, as well as touring to a number of venues and locations throughout Australia between May 2016 and May 2017.
Gillian Armstrong, acclaimed Australian director, has been announced as Wow Film Festival Patron for 2016.
Her seminal 1979 drama, My Brilliant Career, has been selected to screen at the Wow Film Festival opening night gala..
The festival will also hold a special 25th anniversary screening of Ridley Scott.s iconic 1991 film Thelma and Louise.
Wow Film Festival is now in its 21st year, with its ultimate goal to celebrate and recognise films by and about women, by Australian and international creative teams.
- 4/21/2016
- by Inside Film Correspondent
- IF.com.au
Sam Neill and Judy Davis in Gillian Armstrong's 1979 film My Brilliant Career.
The 21st World of Women.s Cinema (Wow) Film Festival will take place in Sydney from April 28 to May 1..
An initiative of Women in Film & Television (Wift) Nsw, the festival will be held in various venues across the city, as well as touring to locations throughout Australia from May..
Gillian Armstrong has been announced as Wow Ff's patron for 2016.
Armstrong's 1979 film My Brilliant Career will screen at the festival's opening night gala..
Also in the line-up is a special 25th anniversary screening of Ridley Scott.s 1991 film Thelma and Louise..
The program features eight curated programmes of short films as well as four international feature premieres, as well as Pow-Wow, a series of panel discussions.
Festival Director Sophie Mathisen also unveiled a new development initiative..
On the Table will offer a female screenwriter the chance to have...
The 21st World of Women.s Cinema (Wow) Film Festival will take place in Sydney from April 28 to May 1..
An initiative of Women in Film & Television (Wift) Nsw, the festival will be held in various venues across the city, as well as touring to locations throughout Australia from May..
Gillian Armstrong has been announced as Wow Ff's patron for 2016.
Armstrong's 1979 film My Brilliant Career will screen at the festival's opening night gala..
Also in the line-up is a special 25th anniversary screening of Ridley Scott.s 1991 film Thelma and Louise..
The program features eight curated programmes of short films as well as four international feature premieres, as well as Pow-Wow, a series of panel discussions.
Festival Director Sophie Mathisen also unveiled a new development initiative..
On the Table will offer a female screenwriter the chance to have...
- 4/11/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
The Sydney Film Festival has launched a new $200,000 cash fellowship to kickstart the careers of four Australian filmmakers.
The Lexus Australia Short Film Fellowship will be the largest cash fellowship for short film in Australia.
Up to four annual Fellowship winners will receive $50,000 each to produce their next short film in 2016 and 2017, to premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in 2017 and 2018.
A shortlist of the best Australian entrants to the Lexus Short Films series will be curated by the Producers at The Weinstein Company, and sent to the Lexus Australia Short Film Fellowship jury..
This jury, headed by Sydney Film Festival.s Festival Director Nashen Moodley, will then select the four winners of the Fellowships grants.
Moodley said this substantial new investment would open up vital funding to local filmmakers to enable them to tell their stories.
Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong, whose films include Oscar and Lucinda, Charlotte Gray, and Little Women,...
The Lexus Australia Short Film Fellowship will be the largest cash fellowship for short film in Australia.
Up to four annual Fellowship winners will receive $50,000 each to produce their next short film in 2016 and 2017, to premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in 2017 and 2018.
A shortlist of the best Australian entrants to the Lexus Short Films series will be curated by the Producers at The Weinstein Company, and sent to the Lexus Australia Short Film Fellowship jury..
This jury, headed by Sydney Film Festival.s Festival Director Nashen Moodley, will then select the four winners of the Fellowships grants.
Moodley said this substantial new investment would open up vital funding to local filmmakers to enable them to tell their stories.
Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong, whose films include Oscar and Lucinda, Charlotte Gray, and Little Women,...
- 10/5/2015
- by Brian Karlovsky
- IF.com.au
Gillian Armstrong gives strength and honesty to a study of the dying stages of a marriage, with a clear-eyed focus on the flow of everyday lives
A little over a decade after breaking through with My Brilliant Career, becoming the first woman to direct an Australian feature film for almost 50 years, Gillian Armstrong returned to a headstrong book-writing female protagonist in 1991’s The Last Days of Chez Nous.
One of three screenplays written by Geelong-born Helen Garner, an influential voice on the Australian literary scene, the film is a layered but unpretentious examination of the last embers of a dying marriage – and a rumination on how some decisions yield emotional consequences that entangle our day-to-day lives.
Continue reading...
A little over a decade after breaking through with My Brilliant Career, becoming the first woman to direct an Australian feature film for almost 50 years, Gillian Armstrong returned to a headstrong book-writing female protagonist in 1991’s The Last Days of Chez Nous.
One of three screenplays written by Geelong-born Helen Garner, an influential voice on the Australian literary scene, the film is a layered but unpretentious examination of the last embers of a dying marriage – and a rumination on how some decisions yield emotional consequences that entangle our day-to-day lives.
Continue reading...
- 7/26/2015
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
My Brilliant Career director’s documentary on the forgotten Oscar-winning costume designer looks back at his triumphs, heartbreaks and famous boyfriend
For Gillian Armstrong, making documentaries is like writing detective stories. “You try to find out about this person and then get him right.” Yet even for the accomplished director, following the trail of costume designer Orry-Kelly was a challenge.
He was once the most famous Australian in Hollywood. A three-time Oscar winner, he partied with Cole Porter, created costumes for Marilyn Monroe, gossiped with Bette Davis, and shared pillow talk with one of Hollywood’s leading men. Yet when Armstrong, a 30-year-film-industry veteran, first heard his name, she had no idea who he was. “I thought this is criminal,” she says, “so I [decided] Orry deserved a film.”
Continue reading...
For Gillian Armstrong, making documentaries is like writing detective stories. “You try to find out about this person and then get him right.” Yet even for the accomplished director, following the trail of costume designer Orry-Kelly was a challenge.
He was once the most famous Australian in Hollywood. A three-time Oscar winner, he partied with Cole Porter, created costumes for Marilyn Monroe, gossiped with Bette Davis, and shared pillow talk with one of Hollywood’s leading men. Yet when Armstrong, a 30-year-film-industry veteran, first heard his name, she had no idea who he was. “I thought this is criminal,” she says, “so I [decided] Orry deserved a film.”
Continue reading...
- 6/13/2015
- by Alexandra Spring
- The Guardian - Film News
Subscription video-on-demand service Stan expects to announce at least two more development deals with Australian producers in the next couple of months.
The platform co-owned by Nine Entertainment Co (NEC) and Fairfax Media sees Australian original content as a key point of differentiation with competitors Presto Movies/Presto TV and with Netflix, which is due to launch in Australia/New Zealand on March 28.
The number of Aussie projects it will commission will depend partly on its ability to raise finance from other sources including international broadcasters or co-producers.
.We have a fixed amount to spend so the key will be to find overseas partners for co-funding at an early stage,. Nick Forward, Stan.s director of content and product, tells If.
.That may mean more reliance on international cast or co-commissions with subscription VoD and premium cable players who make a lot of this sort of content..
Last month Stan...
The platform co-owned by Nine Entertainment Co (NEC) and Fairfax Media sees Australian original content as a key point of differentiation with competitors Presto Movies/Presto TV and with Netflix, which is due to launch in Australia/New Zealand on March 28.
The number of Aussie projects it will commission will depend partly on its ability to raise finance from other sources including international broadcasters or co-producers.
.We have a fixed amount to spend so the key will be to find overseas partners for co-funding at an early stage,. Nick Forward, Stan.s director of content and product, tells If.
.That may mean more reliance on international cast or co-commissions with subscription VoD and premium cable players who make a lot of this sort of content..
Last month Stan...
- 3/2/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Tertiary students in Australia would rather watch online. documentaries such as John Pilger.s Utopia and Gilliam Armstrong.s Love, Lust & Lies and Aussie features than Hollywood blockbusters. That.s apparent from a list of the most popular videos streamed in 2014 on Kanopy, an online platform for universities, colleges and their students.
Excluding instructional videos, 20 of the 30 most watched titles in Australia last year were local productions. Silver Linings Playbook is the only recent Hollywood film to figure in the top 30.
.Students have access to hundreds of Us blockbusters yet they are choosing to watch videos like Utopia, Freedom Writers or Samson & Delilah more regularly than the mainstream Us blockbusters,. Kanopy CEO Olivia Humphrey tells If.
.Crossing the Line, Samson & Delilah, Ten Canoes, Muriel.s Wedding, Looking for Alibrandi, Head On, Lantana and My Brilliant Career all outperform even The Hunger Games.
.It's surprising because student viewing behaviour on Kanopy...
Excluding instructional videos, 20 of the 30 most watched titles in Australia last year were local productions. Silver Linings Playbook is the only recent Hollywood film to figure in the top 30.
.Students have access to hundreds of Us blockbusters yet they are choosing to watch videos like Utopia, Freedom Writers or Samson & Delilah more regularly than the mainstream Us blockbusters,. Kanopy CEO Olivia Humphrey tells If.
.Crossing the Line, Samson & Delilah, Ten Canoes, Muriel.s Wedding, Looking for Alibrandi, Head On, Lantana and My Brilliant Career all outperform even The Hunger Games.
.It's surprising because student viewing behaviour on Kanopy...
- 1/8/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Kino Lorber and Scorpion Releasing Announce First Eight Titles to be Released Under New Multi-Year Distribution Deal
in August
Kino Lorber and Scorpion Releasing have announces the inaugural releases of eight films under the companies' new multi-year distribution deal. Over the next year and after, there will be additional releases by Kino Lorber from the Scorpion library, including new acquisitions that will be available for the first time.
Among the first selection of titles to be released in August are Green Ice, starring Ryan O'Neal and Omar Sharif; Grizzly, starring Christopher George (both out on DVD August 5th); A Summer Story, starring Susannah York (out g August 12th), the award-winning Australian drama Careful He Might Hear You (out on August 12th), Jack Hill's Sorceress, produced by Roger Corman (out on August 19th); The Girl in a Swing, starring Meg Tilly (out on DVD on August 19th); the acclaimed drama Friendly Fire, starring Carol Burnett, and the 1982 TV movie version of The Elephant Man (both streeting on DVD on August 26th)
"Green Ice"(1981)
Director: Ernest Day
Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer, Omar Sharif, John Larroquette
In the Andes mountains a group of archaeologists are murdered after they discover uncut emeralds. Back in New York, Joseph Wiley (Ryan O'Neal, "Love Story") is down on his luck and runs off to Mexico where he meets Lilian Holbrook (Anne Archer, "Fatal Attraction"). The two are instantly attracted to each other, but Lilian is on her way to meet Meno Argenti (Omar Sharif, "Doctor Zhivago"), the man who intends to marry her. Wiley is mistakenly drawn into perilous adventure when a mysterious caller tells him to look at the samples - stolen emeralds. Lilian's sister is killed and, suspecting Argenti, Wiley and Lilian, in a bid to avenge her murder, plan a daring raid on Argenti's vault of emeralds - green ice. Also starring John Larroquette (TV's Night Court).
"Grizzly" (1976)
Director: William Girdler
Cast: Christopher George, Andre Prine, Richard Jackel, Joan McCall
When an eighteen-foot, two-thousand-pound grizzly bear starts mauling campers and hikers at a state park, a park ranger (Christopher George, "The Exterminator") springs into action. But the job is too big to tackle alone, so he enlists the aid of a naturalist (Richard Jaeckel, "The Dirty Dozen") and a helicopter pilot (Andrew Prine, "The Evil") to take this freak of nature down. Meanwhile, the giant grizzly, not content with picnic baskets, continues to kill indiscriminately, leaving pools of blood and piles of body parts in his wake. Can the ranger and his cronies end the grizzly's reign of terror without resorting to excessively extreme measures? This post-Jaws, nature-runs-rampant thriller was directed by William Girdler ("Day of the Animals"), and was a box office hit and the top-grossing independent film of 1976.
"A Summer Story" (1988)
Director: Piers Haggard
Cast: James Wilby, Susannah York, Jerome Flynn
A country girl has a brief, life-shattering moment when she falls for a young lawyer. Adapted from John Galsworthy'sThe Apple Tree, the film tells of the relationship between a young London lawyer, Frank Ashton (James Wilby,"Handful of Dust") and Megan David (Imogen Stubbs, "True Colors"), the innocent girl who helps him during his recovery from a twisted ankle at the farm where she lives. The attraction between the two is overpowering; they make love in the farm hayloft and vow never to be parted. But Frank goes to Torquay where he meets an old schoolfriend and his lovely sister Stella (Sophie Ward). Thus, Frank's plans become muddled and Megan comes looking for him. A Summer Story of young love. Also starring Susannah York (Tom Jones) and Jerome Flynn (TV's Game of Thrones).
"Careful, He Might Hear You" (1983)
Director: Carl Schultz
Cast: Wendy Hughes, Robyn Nevin, Nicholas Gledhill
Winner of 8 Australian Film Institute Awards - Nominated for 5 more - National Board of Reviews: Winner (Top 10 Films)
Set in Australia in the 1930s, this drama stars Nicholas Gledhill as P.S., a six-year old boy who lives with his Aunt Lila (Robyn Nevin, "The Matrix Reloaded," "The Matrix Revolutions") and Uncle George (Peter Whitford, "Strictly Ballroom"). P.S.'s mother died in childbirth, so her sister Lila took him in, and while George and Lila don't have much money, they always done the best they could to the give the boy a good home. One day, Lila's older sister, Venessa (Wendy Hughes, "My Brilliant Career") arrives from a trip around the world; Vanessa is quiet wealthy, and upon her return to Australia, she expresses interest in taking custody of the child. Lila is willing to let the boy meet his aunt, but decides to fight her in court when she decides that she wants the boy full time. The case becomes more complicated by the arrival of the boy's long-absent father, Logan (John Hargreaves, "Emerald City"), an alcoholic who loves his son, but is incapable of caring for him. Careful He Might Hear You won 8 Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Hughes) and Best Supporting Actor (Hargreaves).
"Sorceress" (1982)
Director: Jack Hill
Cast: Leigh Harris, Lynette Harris, David Millbern
From legendary producer Roger Corman ("Bloody Mama") comes the box office hit of 1982, "Sorceress." When an evil Wizard Traigon makes a pact with the dark forces to sacrifice his first born to his God Caligara to gain the highest degree of power, but things get complicated when his gives birth to twin. Having knowledge of her husband's plan she runs away and her two daughters grow up to be beautiful warriors played by playboy playmates Leigh and Lynette Harris. After the death of their mother and adopted families at the hands of Traigon and his army, the twins blessed with the forces of light and strength given to them by the magical warrior Krona, join forces with Baldar the Viking and Erlik the Barbarian to take down Traigon and avenge their mother's death. Standing in their way is all sorts of Traigon's minions, from an army of ape man to undead zombies which leads us to a climax in an all out battle between good and evil! Now watch this cult classic, not only from a brand new HD master, but from a previously never-before-seen longer version!
"The Girl in a Swing" (1988)
Director: Gordon Hessler
Cast: Meg Tilly, Rupert Frazer, Nicholas Le Prevost, Elspet Gray
A London art broker (Rupert Frazer, "Empire of the Sun") goes to Copenhagen where he requires the services of a secretary fluent in Danish, English, and German. He falls deeply in love with the woman (Meg Tilly, "The Big Chill"), despite the fact that he knows virtually nothing about her. She insists on not being married in a church, and after they are married, some bad things from her past begin surfacing in subtly supernatural ways, and he must find the best way to deal with them without destroying their relationship. Based on the best selling novel by Richard Adams ("Watership Down") and directed by horror specialist Gordon Hessler ("Cry of the Banshee," "The Oblong Box").
"Friendly Fire" (1979 TV Movie)
Director: David Greene
Cast: Carol Burnett, Ned Beatty, Sam Waterston, Timothy Hutton, David Keith
The true story of Peg (Carol Burnett, "The Four Seasons") and Gene Mullen (Ned
Beatty, "Deliverance") who pursue the truth over their son's death in Vietnam. After their son is killed in Vietnam the couple's on-going inquiries eventually establish he was killed by 'artillery fire from friendly forces'. This beautifully orchestrated, harrowing story, assembled with uncommon sensitivity, is one of the most dramatic works ever made about the Vietnam War. Directed by David Greene ("Hard Country") and based on the novel by C.D.B. Bryan ("So Much Unfairness of Things") The wonderful cast includes Sam Waterston ("The Killing Fields"), Timothy Hutton ("Ordinary People") and David Keith ("An Officer and a Gentleman"). Winner of 4 Emmy Award® including Best Director and nominated for 3 more including Best Actor and Best Actress. 1980 Peabody Award Winner and DGA nominee foe Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Specials or Movies Made for TV.
"The Elephant Man " (1982 TV Movie )
Director: Jack Hofsiss
Cast: Philip Anglim, Kevin Conwak, Glenn Clsoe
The story of John Merrick (Philip Anglim), The Elephant Man, and of his triumph over his terrible affliction. It is a story of life and the affirmation of life; timeless, tragic, uplifting and heroic; an exultation of the humanity of a man trapped inside the twisted, lesion-ridden grip of a terminally disfiguring disease. We see John Merrick as a man with many admirers, beginning with the witty and beautiful actress, Mrs. Kendal (Penny Fuller), who, so taken with Merrick, brought a who's who of English society to visit him regularly. The stellar cast includes Glenn Close as Princess Alexandra and Kevin Conway. Directed by DGA nominee Jack Hofsiss (1984 TV Movie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Winner of 1 Emmy Award® for Best Supporting Actress (Fuller) and nominated for 3 more including Best Actor, Philip Anglim who also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Made for TV Motion Picture.
in August
Kino Lorber and Scorpion Releasing have announces the inaugural releases of eight films under the companies' new multi-year distribution deal. Over the next year and after, there will be additional releases by Kino Lorber from the Scorpion library, including new acquisitions that will be available for the first time.
Among the first selection of titles to be released in August are Green Ice, starring Ryan O'Neal and Omar Sharif; Grizzly, starring Christopher George (both out on DVD August 5th); A Summer Story, starring Susannah York (out g August 12th), the award-winning Australian drama Careful He Might Hear You (out on August 12th), Jack Hill's Sorceress, produced by Roger Corman (out on August 19th); The Girl in a Swing, starring Meg Tilly (out on DVD on August 19th); the acclaimed drama Friendly Fire, starring Carol Burnett, and the 1982 TV movie version of The Elephant Man (both streeting on DVD on August 26th)
"Green Ice"(1981)
Director: Ernest Day
Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer, Omar Sharif, John Larroquette
In the Andes mountains a group of archaeologists are murdered after they discover uncut emeralds. Back in New York, Joseph Wiley (Ryan O'Neal, "Love Story") is down on his luck and runs off to Mexico where he meets Lilian Holbrook (Anne Archer, "Fatal Attraction"). The two are instantly attracted to each other, but Lilian is on her way to meet Meno Argenti (Omar Sharif, "Doctor Zhivago"), the man who intends to marry her. Wiley is mistakenly drawn into perilous adventure when a mysterious caller tells him to look at the samples - stolen emeralds. Lilian's sister is killed and, suspecting Argenti, Wiley and Lilian, in a bid to avenge her murder, plan a daring raid on Argenti's vault of emeralds - green ice. Also starring John Larroquette (TV's Night Court).
"Grizzly" (1976)
Director: William Girdler
Cast: Christopher George, Andre Prine, Richard Jackel, Joan McCall
When an eighteen-foot, two-thousand-pound grizzly bear starts mauling campers and hikers at a state park, a park ranger (Christopher George, "The Exterminator") springs into action. But the job is too big to tackle alone, so he enlists the aid of a naturalist (Richard Jaeckel, "The Dirty Dozen") and a helicopter pilot (Andrew Prine, "The Evil") to take this freak of nature down. Meanwhile, the giant grizzly, not content with picnic baskets, continues to kill indiscriminately, leaving pools of blood and piles of body parts in his wake. Can the ranger and his cronies end the grizzly's reign of terror without resorting to excessively extreme measures? This post-Jaws, nature-runs-rampant thriller was directed by William Girdler ("Day of the Animals"), and was a box office hit and the top-grossing independent film of 1976.
"A Summer Story" (1988)
Director: Piers Haggard
Cast: James Wilby, Susannah York, Jerome Flynn
A country girl has a brief, life-shattering moment when she falls for a young lawyer. Adapted from John Galsworthy'sThe Apple Tree, the film tells of the relationship between a young London lawyer, Frank Ashton (James Wilby,"Handful of Dust") and Megan David (Imogen Stubbs, "True Colors"), the innocent girl who helps him during his recovery from a twisted ankle at the farm where she lives. The attraction between the two is overpowering; they make love in the farm hayloft and vow never to be parted. But Frank goes to Torquay where he meets an old schoolfriend and his lovely sister Stella (Sophie Ward). Thus, Frank's plans become muddled and Megan comes looking for him. A Summer Story of young love. Also starring Susannah York (Tom Jones) and Jerome Flynn (TV's Game of Thrones).
"Careful, He Might Hear You" (1983)
Director: Carl Schultz
Cast: Wendy Hughes, Robyn Nevin, Nicholas Gledhill
Winner of 8 Australian Film Institute Awards - Nominated for 5 more - National Board of Reviews: Winner (Top 10 Films)
Set in Australia in the 1930s, this drama stars Nicholas Gledhill as P.S., a six-year old boy who lives with his Aunt Lila (Robyn Nevin, "The Matrix Reloaded," "The Matrix Revolutions") and Uncle George (Peter Whitford, "Strictly Ballroom"). P.S.'s mother died in childbirth, so her sister Lila took him in, and while George and Lila don't have much money, they always done the best they could to the give the boy a good home. One day, Lila's older sister, Venessa (Wendy Hughes, "My Brilliant Career") arrives from a trip around the world; Vanessa is quiet wealthy, and upon her return to Australia, she expresses interest in taking custody of the child. Lila is willing to let the boy meet his aunt, but decides to fight her in court when she decides that she wants the boy full time. The case becomes more complicated by the arrival of the boy's long-absent father, Logan (John Hargreaves, "Emerald City"), an alcoholic who loves his son, but is incapable of caring for him. Careful He Might Hear You won 8 Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Hughes) and Best Supporting Actor (Hargreaves).
"Sorceress" (1982)
Director: Jack Hill
Cast: Leigh Harris, Lynette Harris, David Millbern
From legendary producer Roger Corman ("Bloody Mama") comes the box office hit of 1982, "Sorceress." When an evil Wizard Traigon makes a pact with the dark forces to sacrifice his first born to his God Caligara to gain the highest degree of power, but things get complicated when his gives birth to twin. Having knowledge of her husband's plan she runs away and her two daughters grow up to be beautiful warriors played by playboy playmates Leigh and Lynette Harris. After the death of their mother and adopted families at the hands of Traigon and his army, the twins blessed with the forces of light and strength given to them by the magical warrior Krona, join forces with Baldar the Viking and Erlik the Barbarian to take down Traigon and avenge their mother's death. Standing in their way is all sorts of Traigon's minions, from an army of ape man to undead zombies which leads us to a climax in an all out battle between good and evil! Now watch this cult classic, not only from a brand new HD master, but from a previously never-before-seen longer version!
"The Girl in a Swing" (1988)
Director: Gordon Hessler
Cast: Meg Tilly, Rupert Frazer, Nicholas Le Prevost, Elspet Gray
A London art broker (Rupert Frazer, "Empire of the Sun") goes to Copenhagen where he requires the services of a secretary fluent in Danish, English, and German. He falls deeply in love with the woman (Meg Tilly, "The Big Chill"), despite the fact that he knows virtually nothing about her. She insists on not being married in a church, and after they are married, some bad things from her past begin surfacing in subtly supernatural ways, and he must find the best way to deal with them without destroying their relationship. Based on the best selling novel by Richard Adams ("Watership Down") and directed by horror specialist Gordon Hessler ("Cry of the Banshee," "The Oblong Box").
"Friendly Fire" (1979 TV Movie)
Director: David Greene
Cast: Carol Burnett, Ned Beatty, Sam Waterston, Timothy Hutton, David Keith
The true story of Peg (Carol Burnett, "The Four Seasons") and Gene Mullen (Ned
Beatty, "Deliverance") who pursue the truth over their son's death in Vietnam. After their son is killed in Vietnam the couple's on-going inquiries eventually establish he was killed by 'artillery fire from friendly forces'. This beautifully orchestrated, harrowing story, assembled with uncommon sensitivity, is one of the most dramatic works ever made about the Vietnam War. Directed by David Greene ("Hard Country") and based on the novel by C.D.B. Bryan ("So Much Unfairness of Things") The wonderful cast includes Sam Waterston ("The Killing Fields"), Timothy Hutton ("Ordinary People") and David Keith ("An Officer and a Gentleman"). Winner of 4 Emmy Award® including Best Director and nominated for 3 more including Best Actor and Best Actress. 1980 Peabody Award Winner and DGA nominee foe Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Specials or Movies Made for TV.
"The Elephant Man " (1982 TV Movie )
Director: Jack Hofsiss
Cast: Philip Anglim, Kevin Conwak, Glenn Clsoe
The story of John Merrick (Philip Anglim), The Elephant Man, and of his triumph over his terrible affliction. It is a story of life and the affirmation of life; timeless, tragic, uplifting and heroic; an exultation of the humanity of a man trapped inside the twisted, lesion-ridden grip of a terminally disfiguring disease. We see John Merrick as a man with many admirers, beginning with the witty and beautiful actress, Mrs. Kendal (Penny Fuller), who, so taken with Merrick, brought a who's who of English society to visit him regularly. The stellar cast includes Glenn Close as Princess Alexandra and Kevin Conway. Directed by DGA nominee Jack Hofsiss (1984 TV Movie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Winner of 1 Emmy Award® for Best Supporting Actress (Fuller) and nominated for 3 more including Best Actor, Philip Anglim who also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Made for TV Motion Picture.
- 7/18/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
There wil be a celebration of the life of actress Wendy Hughes in Melbourne on Sunday June 1.
The venue is the Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank Theatre Foyer, 140 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank.
The event will begin at 3 pm..
Hughes, who passed away in Sydney in March, aged 61, won the AFI award for best actress for Careful, He Might Hear You in 1983 and was nominated on six other occasions, for Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Echoes of Paradise and Boundaries of the Heart.
The venue is the Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank Theatre Foyer, 140 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank.
The event will begin at 3 pm..
Hughes, who passed away in Sydney in March, aged 61, won the AFI award for best actress for Careful, He Might Hear You in 1983 and was nominated on six other occasions, for Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Echoes of Paradise and Boundaries of the Heart.
- 5/18/2014
- by Staff writer
- IF.com.au
"It's that rat circus out there, I'm beginning to enjoy it. Look, any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic, except that I've got this bronze badge that says that I'm one of the good guys."
And so we were introduced to the ticking time bomb of fury that is Mel Gibson, at least on screen, in "Mad Max."
Released 35 years ago this week (on April 12, 1979), George Miller's film about a near-future cop who turns vigilante when a biker gang kills his partner and his family, made an international star out of Gibson, made Miller an A-list director, and helped put the new wave of Australian cinema on the world map. It also launched a franchise that continues to this day; next year, Miller will finally release the long-gestating "Mad Max: Fury Road," with Tom Hardy taking over as Max.
While the original...
And so we were introduced to the ticking time bomb of fury that is Mel Gibson, at least on screen, in "Mad Max."
Released 35 years ago this week (on April 12, 1979), George Miller's film about a near-future cop who turns vigilante when a biker gang kills his partner and his family, made an international star out of Gibson, made Miller an A-list director, and helped put the new wave of Australian cinema on the world map. It also launched a franchise that continues to this day; next year, Miller will finally release the long-gestating "Mad Max: Fury Road," with Tom Hardy taking over as Max.
While the original...
- 4/12/2014
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Any list of must-watch films is likely to be so arbitrary and subjective that it buys plenty of arguments, and so it proves with the Taste of Cinema website.s compilation on Australian cinema.
Its selection of 20 Essential Australian Films You Need To Watch overlooks many classics and more than a few stand-outs of the past 30 years.
Writer Liam Clark, a film/literature/music student in Sydney, acknowledges the first-ever feature length film was The Story Of The Kelly Gang in 1906. He then observes, .Since then, antipodean auteurs of the screen have been weaving their imagerial visions into challenging portraits of Outback Australia, racism, crime and hauntingly beautiful stories..
The list omits everything produced before 1971 and there are some questionable choices.
His Essential 20: Strictly Ballroom (1992), Sweetie (1989), Mad Max (1979), Gallipoli (1981), Muriel.s Wedding (1994), Lantana (2001), Snowtown (2011), The Dish (2000), Candy (2006), Dogs in Space (1986), Somersault (2004), Shine (1986), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the...
Its selection of 20 Essential Australian Films You Need To Watch overlooks many classics and more than a few stand-outs of the past 30 years.
Writer Liam Clark, a film/literature/music student in Sydney, acknowledges the first-ever feature length film was The Story Of The Kelly Gang in 1906. He then observes, .Since then, antipodean auteurs of the screen have been weaving their imagerial visions into challenging portraits of Outback Australia, racism, crime and hauntingly beautiful stories..
The list omits everything produced before 1971 and there are some questionable choices.
His Essential 20: Strictly Ballroom (1992), Sweetie (1989), Mad Max (1979), Gallipoli (1981), Muriel.s Wedding (1994), Lantana (2001), Snowtown (2011), The Dish (2000), Candy (2006), Dogs in Space (1986), Somersault (2004), Shine (1986), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the...
- 4/10/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Australian actress Wendy Hughes dead at 61 (photo: Wendy Hughes in ‘Newsfront’) Australian film, television, and stage actress Wendy Hughes, best known internationally for the big-screen dramas My Brilliant Career and Careful, He Might Hear You, died of cancer early today, March 8, 2014, in Sydney. Hughes (born on July 29, 1952, in Melbourne) was 61. Wendy Hughes’ film career kicked off in the mid-’70s, with Tim Burstall’s psychological drama ‘Jock’ Petersen / Petersen (1974), in which she plays the wife of a college professor who becomes romantically involved with a married student (Jack Thompson). "I spent a lot of the time naked and doing sex scenes," Hughes would later recall about her work in ‘Jock’ Petersen, "because in the seventies you all had to do that." In 1979, Hughes landed a key supporting role in the international arthouse hit My Brilliant Career, Gillian Armstrong’s late 19th-century-set tale of an independent-minded young woman (a Katharine Hepburn...
- 3/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Wendy Hughes, who has died in Sydney aged 61, will be remembered by her peers as one of the finest actors of her generation.
Hughes won the AFI award for best actress for Careful, He Might Hear You in 1983 and was nominated on six other occasions, for Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Echoes of Paradise and Boundaries of the Heart.
.She was a brilliant actress who set the standard and was pioneering for her era,. filmmaker Philippe Mora, who was a close friend in the 1980s and early 1990s, told If.
.In my opinion without Wendy there would have been no Judy Davis, no Nicole Kidman and no Cate Blanchett. If timing had been different she would have been a major international star. As it is she leaves a legacy of perfect performances as one of Australia's greatest actresses..
Mora wanted to cast Hughes as the female...
Hughes won the AFI award for best actress for Careful, He Might Hear You in 1983 and was nominated on six other occasions, for Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Echoes of Paradise and Boundaries of the Heart.
.She was a brilliant actress who set the standard and was pioneering for her era,. filmmaker Philippe Mora, who was a close friend in the 1980s and early 1990s, told If.
.In my opinion without Wendy there would have been no Judy Davis, no Nicole Kidman and no Cate Blanchett. If timing had been different she would have been a major international star. As it is she leaves a legacy of perfect performances as one of Australia's greatest actresses..
Mora wanted to cast Hughes as the female...
- 3/8/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
I'm not sure what it is about Aussie horror, but I love almost all of it. And I certainly love the three movies that Severin Films has announced to Blu-ray later this year. Those looking to junk their DVD editions of Patrick, Thirst, and Dead Kids (aka Strange Behavior) can rejoice!
From the Press Release:
The original killer in a coma classic Patrick hits Blu-ray from Severin Films on 3/11/14
Aussie horror favorites Thirst & Dead Kids will also be issued in Blu/DVD Combos
In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s while films like My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant were putting Australia’s ‘New Wave’ on the map, a depraved generation of young Aussie filmmakers was putting a very different kind of movie on screens. Three ‘Ozploitation’ horrors, Patrick, Dead Kids & Thirst, will have their Blu-ray debut from Severin Films, while their sub-label Intervision will issue the definitive compilation Ozploitation Trailer Explosion.
From the Press Release:
The original killer in a coma classic Patrick hits Blu-ray from Severin Films on 3/11/14
Aussie horror favorites Thirst & Dead Kids will also be issued in Blu/DVD Combos
In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s while films like My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant were putting Australia’s ‘New Wave’ on the map, a depraved generation of young Aussie filmmakers was putting a very different kind of movie on screens. Three ‘Ozploitation’ horrors, Patrick, Dead Kids & Thirst, will have their Blu-ray debut from Severin Films, while their sub-label Intervision will issue the definitive compilation Ozploitation Trailer Explosion.
- 2/10/2014
- by Matt Serafini
- DreadCentral.com
Judy Davis is one of the fiercest film actors around. She talks about the flaws in her new film, feeling let down by Woody Allen, and her distaste over the release of River Phoenix's last movie
Judy Davis sounds vaguely discombobulated when she picks up the phone. The 58-year-old actor is at home in Sydney on a Friday evening. What have I interrupted? "Oh, nothing," she sighs. "I was just tidying." She asks how I am. I tell her I just got up (it's the time difference), and she sighs again and says: "Oh God."
Anyone who knows Davis's work will appreciate the disdain she can bring to a simple exhalation. Withering contempt is her on-screen stock-in-trade; her repertoire for expressing it includes an array of tics and twitches, a drop-dead stare and a temper seen to blistering effect in some of her films for Woody Allen, including Husbands and Wives and Deconstructing Harry.
Judy Davis sounds vaguely discombobulated when she picks up the phone. The 58-year-old actor is at home in Sydney on a Friday evening. What have I interrupted? "Oh, nothing," she sighs. "I was just tidying." She asks how I am. I tell her I just got up (it's the time difference), and she sighs again and says: "Oh God."
Anyone who knows Davis's work will appreciate the disdain she can bring to a simple exhalation. Withering contempt is her on-screen stock-in-trade; her repertoire for expressing it includes an array of tics and twitches, a drop-dead stare and a temper seen to blistering effect in some of her films for Woody Allen, including Husbands and Wives and Deconstructing Harry.
- 4/26/2013
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Emergency: We're less than two weeks from the Oscars, and I still have an entire Academy history to lament. Let's give props to the ten actors who've deserved an Academy Award most, yet have found themselves empty-handed. I've ranked them according to how much I've wept rethinking each slight.
10. Alec Baldwin
Yes, I'm trying to fix the gaping hole in my heart where 30 Rock once lived, but I also bring up the name of Jack Donaghy's maker for a pertinent reason -- he is a dynamite screen presence. If his chilling "Always be closing" monologue in Glengarry Glen Ross weren't scary and bad-ass enough, he's proved himself capable And cuddly in Working Girl, The Aviator, The Departed, and The Cooler, where he notched his first and only Oscar nomination. Surely the man who racked up six straight Emmy nominations for lovingly patronizing Liz Lemon should win one damn Oscar for bringing the heat onscreen.
10. Alec Baldwin
Yes, I'm trying to fix the gaping hole in my heart where 30 Rock once lived, but I also bring up the name of Jack Donaghy's maker for a pertinent reason -- he is a dynamite screen presence. If his chilling "Always be closing" monologue in Glengarry Glen Ross weren't scary and bad-ass enough, he's proved himself capable And cuddly in Working Girl, The Aviator, The Departed, and The Cooler, where he notched his first and only Oscar nomination. Surely the man who racked up six straight Emmy nominations for lovingly patronizing Liz Lemon should win one damn Oscar for bringing the heat onscreen.
- 2/12/2013
- by virtel
- The Backlot
The Emmys are approaching fast, and before you start clamoring for Bryan Cranston or Lena Dunham to win big, maybe you should take time to inspect the less publicized nominees. There are some exciting talents in minor categories this year, and if you're as geeky about award shows as I am, you'll be clapping for some of these potential winners as you scroll over their pictures. (How you'll clap and scroll simultaneously is beyond me.)
Here are seven awesome nominees you should learn to adore before the big ceremony on September 23.
1. Judy Davis in Page Eight
Hell yes. Judy Davis has kicked our asses several times in her career, starting with My Brilliant Career and through A Passage to India, Barton Fink, Husbands and Wives, the awesome and underrated Impromptu, and in her Emmy-winning turn as Judy Garland in the TV movie Me and My Shadows. A nomination for Judy Davis...
Here are seven awesome nominees you should learn to adore before the big ceremony on September 23.
1. Judy Davis in Page Eight
Hell yes. Judy Davis has kicked our asses several times in her career, starting with My Brilliant Career and through A Passage to India, Barton Fink, Husbands and Wives, the awesome and underrated Impromptu, and in her Emmy-winning turn as Judy Garland in the TV movie Me and My Shadows. A nomination for Judy Davis...
- 9/10/2012
- by virtel
- The Backlot
On June 12th, 1987, audiences around the country got their first look at that (to borrow one of the more quotable bits from the movie) ugly motherfucker that is "Predator." It heralded a number of promising new stars – most notably Arnold Schwarzenegger finally getting a bona fide blockbuster after sleeper hits like "The Terminator" and "Conan The Barbarian" – and director John McTiernan would emerge as one of the freshest, most stylish voices in action filmmaking since John Ford. The movie, which was produced by action luminary Joel Silver, and featured a platoon of hardened bad-asses on a clandestine mission in the jungles of South America, who come across something way more threatening than drug runners or Soviets, is a classic of the action sci-fi genre, a runaway train of a movie that has held up remarkably well in the 25 (!) years since its release. The film would go on to spawn two...
- 6/12/2012
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
Fox's crime drama "Alcatraz" brings a whole new level of time-traveling spookiness to primetime, and veteran actor Sam Neill seems to fit right in.
The Irish-born actor, who was raised in New Zealand, first became famous in the 1979 Australian film "My Brilliant Career," alongside a then-unknown Judy Davis. He's also graced the big screen in movies such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Jurassic Park," among many, many others.
The 64-year-old spoke to The Huffington Post from the set of "Alcatraz" about his tendency to play brainy roles, the joys of being an oenophile and those "Jurassic Park IV" rumors.
So, "Alcatraz" is pretty spooky. Tell me more about it.
It’s a J.J. Abrams show, so you can take that there will be a sci-fi element to it, but the bedrock of the show is in Alcatraz itself, that little strange haunted island. The story switches between 1963, when...
The Irish-born actor, who was raised in New Zealand, first became famous in the 1979 Australian film "My Brilliant Career," alongside a then-unknown Judy Davis. He's also graced the big screen in movies such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Jurassic Park," among many, many others.
The 64-year-old spoke to The Huffington Post from the set of "Alcatraz" about his tendency to play brainy roles, the joys of being an oenophile and those "Jurassic Park IV" rumors.
So, "Alcatraz" is pretty spooky. Tell me more about it.
It’s a J.J. Abrams show, so you can take that there will be a sci-fi element to it, but the bedrock of the show is in Alcatraz itself, that little strange haunted island. The story switches between 1963, when...
- 3/5/2012
- by Nicki Gostin
- Huffington Post
Fox's crime drama "Alcatraz" brings a whole new level of time-traveling spookiness to primetime, and veteran actor Sam Neill seems to fit right in.
The Irish-born actor, who was raised in New Zealand, first became famous in the 1979 Australian film "My Brilliant Career," alongside a then-unknown Judy Davis. He's also graced the big screen in movies such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Jurassic Park," among many, many others.
The 64-year-old spoke to The Huffington Post from the set of "Alcatraz" about his tendency to play brainy roles, the joys of being an oenophile and those "Jurassic Park IV" rumors.
So, "Alcatraz" is pretty spooky. Tell me more about it.
It’s a J.J. Abrams show, so you can take that there will be a sci-fi element to it, but the bedrock of the show is in Alcatraz itself, that little strange haunted island. The story switches between 1963, when...
The Irish-born actor, who was raised in New Zealand, first became famous in the 1979 Australian film "My Brilliant Career," alongside a then-unknown Judy Davis. He's also graced the big screen in movies such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Jurassic Park," among many, many others.
The 64-year-old spoke to The Huffington Post from the set of "Alcatraz" about his tendency to play brainy roles, the joys of being an oenophile and those "Jurassic Park IV" rumors.
So, "Alcatraz" is pretty spooky. Tell me more about it.
It’s a J.J. Abrams show, so you can take that there will be a sci-fi element to it, but the bedrock of the show is in Alcatraz itself, that little strange haunted island. The story switches between 1963, when...
- 3/5/2012
- by Nicki Gostin
- Aol TV.
The genius behind Pixar's animated blockbuster hits Finding Nemo and Wall-e on why he decided to change tack and film a live-action adaptation of a vintage sci-fi epic
Andrew Stanton doesn't look like the guy who has earned Pixar more than $1.3bn. You'd think that, as lead writer on the Toy Story trilogy and the writer and director of Finding Nemo and Wall-e, he'd surely walk with at least a mild swagger. He's utterly anonymous in jeans, blue shirt and glasses in a post-production studio in London. I almost expect him to be serving coffee and pastries.
He flew in from the west coast of America just the day before and should be hideously jetlagged, but he's friendly, urbane, focused. He's here to polish the final few scenes of John Carter, his first shift from animation into live-action. The film is an adaptation of Princess of Mars, the first in...
Andrew Stanton doesn't look like the guy who has earned Pixar more than $1.3bn. You'd think that, as lead writer on the Toy Story trilogy and the writer and director of Finding Nemo and Wall-e, he'd surely walk with at least a mild swagger. He's utterly anonymous in jeans, blue shirt and glasses in a post-production studio in London. I almost expect him to be serving coffee and pastries.
He flew in from the west coast of America just the day before and should be hideously jetlagged, but he's friendly, urbane, focused. He's here to polish the final few scenes of John Carter, his first shift from animation into live-action. The film is an adaptation of Princess of Mars, the first in...
- 3/2/2012
- by Amy Raphael
- The Guardian - Film News
Annette Bening has never been the most prolific of actresses. Whenever she's appeared in the last decade or so, she's tended to make a splash, but she's rarely made more than one film every couple of years, preferring, totally understandably, to focus instead on raising her children with Warren Beatty. But her Oscar-nominated turn in "The Kids Are All Right" seems to have revived her interest in acting: she's got as many as four films on the way, including "Imogene," "He Loves Me," "Bomb" and Beatty's gestating Howard Hughes picture. And she's just added one more to her dance card. Screen Daily reports that Bening will star in "The Great," a comedy from Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong, the director of "My Brilliant Career," "Little Women," "Oscar & Lucinda" and "Charlotte Gray," among others. The film, set up at British company Bankside Films...
- 2/9/2012
- The Playlist
Australian cinematographer Donald M. McAlpine Asc Acs is set to receive the prestigious Raymond Longford Award for his contribution to the film industry. McAlpine, whose career spans over 40 years with more than 50 feature films, now joins previous Raymond Long Award winners including Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi, Jack Thompson, Geoffrey Rush, Charles .Bud. Tingwell and the inaugural winner Ian Dunlop (in 1968). Best known for his work on such films.as Predator, Moulin Rouge!, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Romeo + Juliet, McAlpine is still working at age 77, most recently shooting Pj Hogan.s Mental. He won an If Award for Moulin Rouge!, three AFI Awards (Moulin Rouge!, Breaker Morant, My Brilliant Career), was nominated for an Oscar (Moulin Rouge!) and was...
- 11/22/2011
- by Sam Dallas
- IF.com.au
On Halloween night 1993, a real-life horror shook the streets of Hollywood when River Phoenix, one of the most gifted young actors of our time, collapsed and died outside a nightclub. Now comes the news that his final, previously unreleased film may finally see the light of day. Director George Sluizer is making plans to release Dark Blood, a drama that also stars Judy Davis.
Like many teen girls during River's heyday, I absolutely adored this gifted, gorgeous young actor — not only for the films that my friends enjoyed him in, such as the iconic Stand By Me and Running On Empty, but for the ones I usually ended up watching alone: My Own Private Idaho, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon and (my absolute favorite) Dogfight with Lili Taylor.
Not content to be a Hollywood heartthrob, he chose roles that were edgy, controversial, indie, and often sexually...
Like many teen girls during River's heyday, I absolutely adored this gifted, gorgeous young actor — not only for the films that my friends enjoyed him in, such as the iconic Stand By Me and Running On Empty, but for the ones I usually ended up watching alone: My Own Private Idaho, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon and (my absolute favorite) Dogfight with Lili Taylor.
Not content to be a Hollywood heartthrob, he chose roles that were edgy, controversial, indie, and often sexually...
- 10/30/2011
- by Megan Hussey
- Planet Fury
Snowtown and The Eye of the Storm are the latest in a new wave of Australian films that rely less on rugged exteriors and more on contained emotional drama
From a controversial horror featuring a sadistic bushranger, to a Melbourne-set gangster saga, to a raucous documentary on 70s Ozploitation flicks, you'd have to have your head buried in the outback to have not noticed the sterling work going on in Australian cinema. And in case you thought Wolf Creek, Animal Kingdom and Not Quite Hollywood were some sort of fleeting mirage, check out the impressive directorial debuts from Patrick Hughes (the suspenseful neo-western Red Hill), Leon Ford (Griff the Invisible – a remarkable romantic ode to superhero flicks) or Ben C Lucas (Wasted on the Young – a nightmarish social networking thriller). They're all evidence of fine Aussie film-making talent that proves you don't need special effects nor mega bucks to make intelligent,...
From a controversial horror featuring a sadistic bushranger, to a Melbourne-set gangster saga, to a raucous documentary on 70s Ozploitation flicks, you'd have to have your head buried in the outback to have not noticed the sterling work going on in Australian cinema. And in case you thought Wolf Creek, Animal Kingdom and Not Quite Hollywood were some sort of fleeting mirage, check out the impressive directorial debuts from Patrick Hughes (the suspenseful neo-western Red Hill), Leon Ford (Griff the Invisible – a remarkable romantic ode to superhero flicks) or Ben C Lucas (Wasted on the Young – a nightmarish social networking thriller). They're all evidence of fine Aussie film-making talent that proves you don't need special effects nor mega bucks to make intelligent,...
- 10/19/2011
- by Oliver Pfeiffer
- The Guardian - Film News
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