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Australia

1991-2010

Films of Note

Black Robe (Bruce Beresford) [MORE] [ADD]

Flirting (John Duigan) [MORE] [ADD]

Proof (Jocelyn Moorehouse) [MORE] [ADD]

Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom, starring Paul Mercurio as an ambitious ballroom dancer whose unconventional ways result in the loss of his dance partner and her replacement by ungainly novice Tara Morice, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

For the first time ever, Australian movies – Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom and Geoffrey Wright’s Romper Stomper – occupy the top two places in the Australian box office chart. [MORE] [ADD]

Shine, Scott Hicks’ biopic of classical pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a psychological breakdown after years of abuse from his father, is released.   Geoffrey Rush plays Helfgott, with Armin Mueller-Stahl as his father and John Gielgud as his teacher, Cecil Parkes. [MORE] [ADD]

Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence is released.   Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury and Laura Monaghan play three girls in 30s Australia who trek over 1,500 miles to be reunited with their mothers after being detained at the Moore River Native Settlement because of their mixed-race origins.   Kenneth Branagh also stars.  [MORE] [ADD]

Australian cultural groups call on the government to block ratification of a free trade agreement agreement between the United States and Australia that was signed between the heads of state on 3^rd August. [MORE] [ADD]

– Producer Anthony Buckley finds a negative of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 film, Outback, in a shipping container in Pittsburgh marked ‘For Destruction.’ The film had been believed lost for 10 years. [MORE] [ADD]

Australia 2007: Other Films of Note

Bra Boys (Sunny Abberton),   [MORE] [ADD]

Razzle Dazzle – A Journey into Dance (Darren Ashton)  [MORE] [ADD]

24/4 -

The government announces it is to return eight silent-era films to the United States as part of a new partnership to preserve American filmmaking history. [MORE]

5/5 -

The government announces that existing guidelines for investment in domestic films will continue to the end of the year despite the planned merger of the Australian Film Commission, the Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia into a single unit called Screen Australia on 1^st July. [MORE]

7/5 -

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards announces that it is to launch a film academy with Australian screen legend Jack Thompson as its patron. [MORE] 

13/5 -

The Labour government announces that funding for Screen Australia, the new federal agency replacing the Film Finance Corporation, Film Australia and the Australian Film Commission, will be A$103 million from 1^st July 2008 - $11 million less than the combined 2007 budgets of the three agencies it replaces. [MORE] [ADD]

29/10 -

A poll by the Australian Film Institute concludes that the top five Australian films in no particular order are Gallipoli, Muriel’s Wedding, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Castle and Lantana. [MORE] [ADD]

The world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia takes place at Greater Union’s George Street multiplex in Sydney.   Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Jack Thompson star in the epic romance about an English lady who settles in the country during the Pacific War.   The film is the most expensive Australian movie ever made. [MORE] [ADD]

Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australia enjoys only moderate success at the domestic box office. [MORE]

Elissa Down wins the Best Director award for The Black Balloon, which also wins Best Film, at the 2009 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. [MORE]

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia becomes the country’s second-highest grossing domestically produced film at home with receipts of A$36.786 (£16.56 million).   Crocodile Dundee achieved the country’s highest gross with A$47.7 million in 1986. [MORE] [ADD]

The Greater Union Cinema Chain reverses its earlier decision to cancel screenings of The Combination, a local film depicting the 2005 riots between white and Lebanese youths.   The screenings were originally cancelled following reports of violence at a cinema. [MORE]

British director Ken Loach withdraws his film Looking for Eric from the Melbourne Film Festival in protest at its acceptance of funding from the state of Israel.   Unlike the Edinburgh Film Festival, which capitulated to Loach’s threats to withdraw, Richard Moore, the Melbourne  festival’s director, refuses to bend to political pressure. [MORE] [ADD]

Three Chinese films are withdrawn from the Melbourne Film Festival following festival director Richard Moore’s refusal to bow to pressure from the Chinese Government to cancel a screening of Jeff Daniel’s The 10 Conditions of Love, a film about Rebiya Kadeer’s fight for the rights of 10 million Uighurs in China. [MORE]  

Hackers with a Chinese ISP replace information on the Melbourne Film Festival’s official website with an image of the Chinese flag and anti-Rebiya Kadeer slogans in an ongoing protest at the festival’s decision to premiere 10 Conditions of Love, Jeff Daniel’s documentary about the champion of Uighur's rights. [MORE]

Yong Hong Lin becomes the first person in Australia to be imprisoned for music and movie piracy by a jury. [MORE]

Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah wins the major Australian Writers Guild’s AWGIE Award, while Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas wins best adapted feature screenplay for Blessed. [MORE] [ADD]

Veteran Australian actor Ray Barrett dies of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 82.   Barrett appeared in such film as Don’s Party, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. [MORE] [ADD]

Samson and Delilah, Warwick Thornton’s examination of growing up as a black in Australia’s outback, wins seven awards, including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay, at the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards in Melbourne. [MORE]

Hollywood studios are foiled in their attempt to prevent internet users illegally downloading their movies when a judge rules that internet service provider iiNet is not responsible for illegal downloads carried out by its users. [MORE]