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SAG 2007 WINNERS
Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland and Helen Mirren for The Queen
have won the Screen Actors Guild Awards – to no-one’s surprise.
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SAG AWARDS 2002 – WINNERS & NOMINEES
With Russell Crowe voted best by his peers, America’s Screen Actors Guild
confers its honours just two weeks before the Oscars, and in what some may see
as an unusual display, a few of this year’s winners showed they can talk –
even without a script.
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SAG AWARDS 2010 - NOMINATIONS
There are not too many surprises in the announcement of the SAG Award nominations with some duplications from the Golden Globe nominations earlier this week. Winners will be announced on January 23, 2010
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SAG AWARDS 2010 - WINNERS
Hollywood actors have responded to the rousing, bravura delivery of Inglourious Basterds, voting it the Best Ensemble Cast in the year’s SAG Awards, and Christoph Waltz waltzed off with the individual Best Supporting Actor award, replicating his Golden Globe win – as did Mo’Nique (Precious).
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SAG NOMINATIONS 2007 - LEO RISING
Leonardo DiCaprio has the honour of two nominations in the SAG Awards, one in a
lead (Blood Diamond) and the other in a support role (The Departed), while Cate
Blanchett is nominated for her support role in Notes on a Scandal, opposite Judi
Dench, who is nominated for Best Actress.
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SAHARA – CLASSIC DESERTEERS
Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Penelope Cruz star in Sahara, the desert action-adventure paying modern homage to the classics of its kind. Max Levant reports.
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SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2001
This year’s San Sebastian Film Festival is notable for able Australians and absent
Americans, reports Australian journalist Helen Barlow from the gorgeous seaside town in
Northern Spain. (Pic, Lantana)
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SARAJEVO 2000
For most Australians the name Sarajevo is still synonymous with war and suffering, but
last week, the town’s annual film festival ended, and it was a cause for much
cheering as David Jones reports from Sarajevo.
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SAVAGE HONEYMOON
Meet the Savages, the family who put the word ‘fun’ in dysfunctional as they set
of for a savagely funny second honeymoon.
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SCHECKEL, JOAN
Filmmakers need to think more daringly, more creatively, urges leading American film coach Joan Scheckel, who avoids formula but teaches brilliant improvised solutions, as Andrew L. Urban discovers in a conversation with her on the eve of Scheckel’s Australian tour.
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SCORCHED – A CASE STUDY
Starring Cameron Daddo, Vince Colosimo, Rachel Carpani and Georgie Parker,
Scorched is a telemovie – and part of an evolutionary project that represents
the most sophisticated and comprehensive cross-platform presentation yet created
for a movie in this country. The interactive online component, directed by
Marcus Gillezeau, launches online this week (beginning Aug. 11), leading up to
the 90 minute telemovie, directed by Tony Tilse, broadcast on the Nine Network
about eight weeks later. And then for sale on DVD. Read the story, watch the
interview, start interacting...
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SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS 2009 - NOMINATIONS
The year’s Best Actor and Best Actress award from their peers could end up in
the same house, with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both nominated, he for
Benjamin Button, she for The Changeling, while the late Heath Ledger is in the
running for a best supporting actor award for his Joker in The Dark Knight.
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SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS 2009 - WINNERS
Screen Actors Guild members – whose votes determine the Oscar nominations – have
voted Sean Penn their best man for Milk, in this year’s SAG Awards, with Meryl
Streep for Doubt Best Actress and of course Heath Ledger for Best Supporting
Actor in The Dark Knight.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2001
Camaraderie and the celebration of music for the screen were the hallmarks of the
annual Screen Music Awards, held this year at the Royal Motor Yacht Club on Sydney’s
harbour foreshore, as hundreds of composers gathered to pay tribute to their peers, in
categories ranging from feature films to advertisements, reports Andrew L. Urban.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2002 - WINNERS
A celebration of music for the screen, this year’s combined APRA and AGSC awards featured a 22 piece orchestra and a candle lit dinner following the presentations, in which music from the feature films The Bank, The Tracker, One Night The Moon and composer David Hirschfelder were honoured by significant awards. Andrew L. Urban reports. (Photos by Bob King; courtesy APRA)
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2002 – NOMINATIONS
Merging two major, national screen music award systems has created a new and meaningful award system for Australian composers working in film and television, and shows a maturity and sophistication that will help focus recognition on the art and craft of scoring for screen.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2003
The biggest and best presentation of Australia’s film-related awards season, the 2003 Screen Music Awards held this week, honoured Nigel Westlake’s score for The Nugget and Lisa Gerrard’s song for Whale Rider in a seamless production featuring a 46 piece orchestra, with special tributes to Bruce Smeaton and Elmer Bernstein, in front of 450 guests at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2004 - WINNERS
Music from Japanese Story, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World and Somersault won major awards at this year’s APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards, and Lisa Gerrard (pictured with Nerida Tyson-Chew) won the international award.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2004 NOMINEES
Decoder Ring and Amanda Brown, the artists who composed the evocative musical score for Somersault, have snared major nominations in the 3rd joint 2004 APRA – AGSC Screen Music Awards: Best Soundtrack Album and Best Original Song Composed for a Feature Film, Telemovie, TV Series or Mini Series.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2005 – WINNERS
Decoder Ring has won the peer-award for Best Film Score at the Screen Music
Awards, for their composition for Somersault, and veteran composer Bruce Rowland
was honoured with the APRA-AGSC International Achievement Award at the weekend
during the stylish presentation ceremony held in Melbourne for the first time.
Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2006 - WINNERS
With only his second feature film score, for Wolf Creek, Francois Tetaz has won
the coveted Feature Film Score of the Year award from his peers at this year’s
Screen Music Awards, joining veteran composers Paul Grabowski (Documentary,
Unfolding Florence) and Iva Davies (Telemovie, Mary Bryant).
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2006 – NOMINATIONS
Australian composers will be seen and heard in all their musical diversity at
the annual APRA – AGSC Screen Music Awards on November 6, 2006. The nominees
range from Francois Tetaz for Wolf Creek to Guy Gross & John Palmer for Blinky
Bill.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2007 - WINNERS
At the 2007 APRA AGSC Screen Music Awards presented on Tuesday, November 27 at
Sydney’s Recital Hall, Nigel Westlake collected three Awards this year including
his fifth Award for Feature Film Score of the Year, adding to his stockpile of
nine Screen Music Awards won across various categories.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2008 - NOMINEES
The nominations for 2008 feature an eclectic group of musicians from
well-established screen composers which include David Hirschfelder, Burkhard
Dallwitz, Clive Harrison, Art Phillips, Roger Mason, Guy Gross, Christopher
Elves and Cezary Skubiszewski, to up and coming artists Chris Lilley, Bryony
Marks, Caitlin Yeo and Greg Walker.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2008 – WINNERS
David Hirschfelder’s 7th screen music award and 5th for a feature film score,
for Children of the Silk Road, concluded a night of exhilarating screen music
celebrations at Sydney’s City Recital Hall on Monday November 3, 2008, which
also recognised veteran composing duo, Garry McDonald and Laurie Stone, and
provided a platform for the night’s musical director Cezary Skubiszewski to have
the 10 piece ensemble perform his spectacular composition, November Overture.
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SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2009 - WINNERS
The inspired score for Balibo by Lisa Gerrard and the vibrant soundtrack album
from Death Defying Acts by Cezary Skubiszewski were the feature film winners at
the year’s Screen Music Awards, a vibrant and inspiring event that upstages most
other film awards with a 15 piece orchestra and a stylish sit down dinner after
the presentations, which this year featured guest artists Lisa Gerrard and Ego
Lemos, reports Andrew L. Urban.
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SCREENWORKS 2001 – THE WINNERS
Over 1,000 people gathered on the hilltop grounds of St Patrick’s College,
overlooking Sydney’s famous Manly foreshore, to watch the 13 finalist films in this
year’s ScreenWorks short film festival, with Melbourne film student Andrew
O’Keefe’s Wednesday winning both Best Film and Best Script awards.
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SCREENWRITER'S WEEK IN L.A
Michael Herrmann, recipient of ScreenWest's 2005 Bill Warnock Award for
Screenwriting, is let loose in Los Angeles to sell his scripts. It’s an eventful
week ranging from a ‘puerile’ Aussie film to a splendid Q&A with Charlize Theron
at the Hollywood Film Festival, plus a near miss with the Playboy limo. This is
his revealing diary from those nine days in October.
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SCRIPT ALIVE!
Imagine going to the cinema and seeing a movie performed LIVE on the stage. It’s
cinema in the flesh … or script alive! as it’s really called, and it’s unique to
Melbourne’s Nova Cinema, on Carlton’s famous Lygon Street. The first edition of
script alive for 2008 (April 22) is set to be a night to remember, with the
Cairnes’ brothers’ (Colin and Cameron), 100 Bloody Acres horror-comedy movie
being performed by a high profile cast, and directed by Colin Cairnes
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SEA INSIDE, THE - LIFE IS NOT AN OBLIGATION
Opening in Australian just a couple weeks after the world famous death of American coma patient Terri Schiavo, The Sea Inside is based the true story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) who fought for 30 years to be able to end his life after being paralysed in an accident. ‘Life is a right but not an obligation,’ he would say. Andrew L. Urban explores how films can contribute to the debate about one of the most divisive subjects in Western civilisation.
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SECRETS OF THE ROM COM: SERIOUSLY
Romantic comedies that really work are not fluffy meaningless movies, argue
Michael Hauge and Steve Kaplan, on the eve of their Australian seminar tour. A
working idea of the building blocks and comedy essentials can help Australian
writers compete with the best in the world – and make big hits. Andrew L. Urban
reports
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SEEING PRIVATE RYAN
Is Saving Private Ryan all it’s cracked up to be? Relevant or morally
under-developed? Should you shell out a few dollars to see it? ANDREW L. URBAN draws up
the debating lectern and finds that despite some (well argued) criticism, the film is
regarded as a must see by all.
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SEEN A TEEN FLICK LATELY?
Our Teen Critic, Luke Buckmaster, essays the world of teen flicks; there is more to the
teens market than some might imagine. (Pic: Star Wars)
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SERENADES
Afghan Cameleers in the Australian desert and a love
story – Serenades is a glimpse into a little known aspect of
Australia’s history, reports Andrew L. Urban, photographed
by the renowned Russell Boyd.
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SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE
Murnau’s silent vampire movie, Nosferatu, is an experience Nick Roddick has never
forgotten. So he is happy to get his teeth into Shadow of the Vampire, a funny, scary new
film with some startling ideas about how Nosferatu came to be made. . . in a genre where
the sexual charge is never far from the surface.
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SHAFT
NICK RODDICK discovers why Samuel L Jackson and director John Singleton just had to make
their new version of Shaft. And how the original Shaft in 1971 marked a real change in the
kind of roles being offered to African-American actors
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SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
Tom Stoppard met Joseph Fiennes in a bookshop, and didn’t recognise him. Until
Fiennes introduced himself – as William Shakespeare.
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SHATTERED GLASS – BEHIND THE BYLINE
What is at stake in the true story of fallen journalist Stephen Glass is the whole edifice of journalism, our trust in newspapers and in their editors, which is why Billy Ray wanted to make the film of one journalist’s fatal tampering with the truth.
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SHEKHAR KAPUR'S BLOG – ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
Shekhar Kapur kept a blog during the making of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and
this entry, posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006, gives a profound insight into how
the filmmaker approached his subject, the Queen, and his film. He is fascinated
by the duality within the monarch … between her divinity and the mortal flesh
and blood. It’s one of the keys to understanding his film.
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SHIPPING NEWS: WINNERS
We asked: If you were given a newspaper column to write, what would you write about
and why? Sex was a popular subject, as were a range of political issues or indeed,
politicians. The judges played the role of editor and chose the entries that would send
circulations through the roof.
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SHOCK! HORROR! PLEASE!
If you love to scream at the movies, you're possibly one of the 728,217 people in Australia who've already seen Wes Craven's new horror flick, Scream. Patrick Giorgi looks at some of the most influential horror films of all time.
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SHOOTOUT GALLERY - 2002
Home & Away’s Ben Steel accepted the celebrity challenge to make a short film for this year’s Newcastle Shootout (July 12 – 13), in which filmmakers have just 24 hours to produce a short film: only one take of each shot. Ben set an example to the entrants. The Silentest Film Ever Made took the honours.
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SHREK 2
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SICK AND TWISTED FESTIVAL - THE VILE FILES
Are you SICK of all the happy, jolly, nice and glowing
films that are out for Christmas? Take heart and grab your barf
bag (free on admission) and catch Spike and Mike's 1st
Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. ANDREW L. URBAN treads where angels fear to...
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SIGNALS AMONGST THE NOISE
In his latest column, Hunter Cordaiy calls for a critical edge in our film making, to ensure that all of the many voices in Australian society are heard - or as George Miller’s film, 40,000 Years of Dreaming concludes, our films develop a new perspective on our identity as "new signals amongst the noise" - perhaps like The Well (pictured).
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SILK SCREEN 2001/02
Over 500,000 patrons attended the inaugural Silk
Screen program of five Asian films from Columbia TriStar last
year; this year, Silk Screen continues with three films,
beginning September 27 with Vietnamese director Tran An Hun’s
Vertical Ray of the Sun (Pic). And there’s more in the pipeline,
reports Andrew L. Urban.
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SILK SCREEN: PREMIERE SEASON
Continuity and accessibility have informed Columbia TriStar's latest initiative in
the area of arthouse distribution, with the launch of Silk Screen, a dedicated season of
Asian films around Australia, starting July 6, 2000 and running through to December. But
will the impressive and praisworthy marketing plan stumble on the Americanised trailers,
asks ANDREW L. URBAN.
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SILLY FILES 1
While our contributor, BRAD GREEN, was ill recently, he used his time productively
–coming up with these lists for your amusement.(Pic, Mae West)
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SILLY FILES 2
For absolutely no reason whatsoever, except your (and our) amusement, Urban
Cinefile’s contributor, BRAD GREEN, has again devised some mildly amusing, mind
bending lists, a sort of Sillyfile (Pic, Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca)
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SILLY FILES 3
If you haven’t caught our Silly Lists/Urban Sillyfile yet, here’s your
chance. Don’t ask why we do this, just go with the flow. For one thing, it gives BRAD
GREEN something to do during Sunday mass. This week, the anagrams are followed by taglines
for movies written by copywriting cowboys who haven’t seen the film. Look for
the Star Wars tag…. (Pic, Bonnie & Clyde)
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SILLY FILES 4
BRAD GREEN is back. Take a load off and sip a coffee/tea over his latest Urban
Sillyfile.(Pic, Austin Powers - dumbest things to say on a date)
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SIN CITY – CINEMATIC COMIC
Frank Miller’s graphic stories about the hard boiled characters of Sin City jump to the screen with the help of bravado filmmaker Robert Rodriguez – not in any predictable adaptation, but in faithful recreation of the look, feel and style of the original, complete with Miller’s words and his pen as the lighting designer. This is how the filmmakers like to present their film.
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SIXTH SENSE, THE: EXTRAS ON VIDEO
Taking a leaf out of the DVD manual, Buena Vista International's video release of The Sixth Sense contains a 15 minute featurette containing five deleted scenes, with commentary by writer/director M. Night Shayamalan, reports ANDREW L. URBAN.
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SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW - BACK TO THE FUTURE
Although it has gone from just one man’s obsession to a major studio movie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow has always stayed true to Kerry Conran’s vision of a future that combines the universe of Flash Gordon with the technology of the 21st century - and has Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Angelina Jolie thrown in for good measure. Sam Connolly reports on a film that really does push the envelope.
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SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE WINS AT 11TH BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS
Slumdog Millionaire was awarded Best British Independent Film at the eleventh
annual British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) on November 30, 2008 at London’s
Old Billingsgate Market
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SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: RICH OR KAPOOR
It was his children’s urging that propelled Anil Kapoor, one of India’s biggest
movie stars, to take on the role of tv show host Prem Kumar in Danny Boyle’s
latest movie, Slumdog Millionaire.
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SMART ST FILMS - 30 AND STILL BLAZING
Smart St. Films, a guerilla production company founded and run by Haydn Keenan,
celebrated it's 30th birthday in 2000, an award winning filmmaker outside the
establishment who was a trailblazer then – and remains one now, as Andrew L. Urban
reports.
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SNOW WHITE – DWARFS R'US
To coincide with the release of the Diamond Edition DVD and Blu-ray of Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs (Oct 2009), we present: Everything you’ve always
wanted to know about the Seven Dwarfs – and perhaps a bit more.
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SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS – 2009 DIAMOND EDITION
The first full length animated feature instantly established Walt Disney as a
cinematic legend – and 70 years later the film is still regarded as the greatest
animated film of all time on the American Film Institute’s list. Now it’s
available to another generation in a new Diamond Edition, offering superb audio
visual quality – and its ageless charm.
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SO WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?
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SOLARIS
Adapting the classic science-fiction novel Solaris for the screen, Steven Soderbergh, found in it something very different from Hollywood’s usual sci-fi epics, with producer Steven Spielberg’s encouragement. Eleanor Singer finds out what intrigued the director, and how his production partner, George Clooney, wrote him a letter to ask for the lead role.
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SOLD ON THE RINGS
Not since Crocodile Dundee chucked a $hrimp on the Aussie barbie has a film kick-started a tourism/merchandising boom on the scale of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. As the final instalment opened around the world, Urban Cinefile’s editors Andrew L. Urban and Louise Keller flew into Middle-earth to see first hand how much is being sold on a link with the Rings.
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SON OF A LION
A Sydney-based ambulance paramedic, Benjamin Gilmour became interested in
filmmaking while working as a unit nurse on UK film sets. A seasoned traveller
and writer, Gilmour fell in love with Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP)
when he first went there in early 2001. In 2006, he returned to make a feature
film, Son Of A Lion; here he explains how he had to make it undercover and at
great risk to all involved – and why the risk was worth it.
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SOUNDTRACK REVIEWS: DEC 97
We launch our CD Soundtrack Reviews, by Lynden Barber, pictured.
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SOUTH PARK
Bigger, Longer and Uncut is the South Park movie, out July 15, 1999 in Australia, but
if you want to check out the South park ethos in the privacy of your own home, the
collectors set of Volumes 7, 8 and 9 are now out on video. ANDREW L. URBAN takes a walk in
the Park . . .
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SOUTH SOLITARY - DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Homing pigeons that wouldn’t home, ships wrecked on the rocks, wild weather and
soul-draining isolation are some of the elements that attracted (yes, attracted)
Shirley Barrett to make a film about soul-draining isolation, wild weather, etc,
etc. as she explains in this statement accompanying her latest film, South
Solitary.
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SPAA 2004: IS A SPAA GOOD FOR YOU?
What do film producers talk about when they get in a room with writers, directors, distributors, lawyers, sales agents and film agency bureaucrats – and how does it make for better Australian movies, asks Andrew L. Urban, a veteran of more than a dozen annual film industry conferences, on the eve of the 19th SPAA Conference (August 8-10, Sheraton Mirage, Gold Coast) and the first to coincide with the Australian Movie Convention (August 10 – 14).
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SPAA 2007 – THE WRAP
There is little doubt that this year’s meeting of the many movie minds from
Australia and around the world was a genuine coinference. It was the watershed
gathering that ushers in the new world order of Australian screen production
assistance from the Government, the Producer Offset scheme, the world’s most
generous, uncapped device to stimulate production of film, tv - and indirectly -
new media. Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SPAA 2008 - HECTOR CRAWFORD MEMORIAL LECTURE
Brian Walsh, Executive Director of Television and Marketing at Foxtel, delivered
this year’s lecture at the screen producers annual conference on the Gold Coast
(November 12 – 14); he cited Crawford as a man who succeeded by not being
constrained by the form of delivery. Today, the consumer has choice; the market
has multi-faceted new players and the Australian screen production community
has, with it, a vast new opportunity with which it is only beginning to engage.
Get on with it, he says
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SPAA 2008 – CHRIS ADAMS
Chris Adams is a major player – and he’s coming to Australia to make movies. And
they’ll be better written than our recent rash, he tells Andrew L. Urban during
a break in the 2008 screen industry conference on the Gold Coast.
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SPAA 2008 – LET'S LIFT OUR GAME: GINNANE
We’ve been making, in the main, dark, depressing, bleak pieces that are the
cultural equivalent of ethnic cleansing. Nobody goes to see them. If they
premiered most of the Australian films of the last 24 months on an airplane,
people would be walking out in the first 20 minutes, quipped veteran producer
Antony I. Ginnane to 700 of his filmmaking peers at the annual screen production
conference on the Gold Coast (Nov. 12 – 14, 2008). Here is his inaugural speech
as President of the Screen Producers Association of Australia in full.
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SPAA 2009 - REACHING YOUR AUDIENCE – THE WRAP
A guy on a Virgin train recently Twittered a complaint: “It’s bastard
hot on this Virgin train”. Virgin, which monitors social websites in benign Big
Brother fashion, picked up on it, responded to him to ascertain which train he
was on, alerted the driver, who adjusted the aircon. What’s this got to do with
Australian screen content creators? Heaps. Andrew L. Urban rubbed shoulders,
asked questions, made notes and broke bread with over 700 screen industry
delegates (not all at once thanks) from around Australia and the world at the
2009 SPAA Conference (Nov 17 – 20).
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SPAA CONFERENCE 2006
The local and international film & tv industry gathered on the Gold Coast last
week when Australian producers were left in no doubt that their (and our) future
lies in the opportunities opening up through new technologies, with digital
distribution adding a new degree of control for them, and access for consumers,
reports Andrew L. Urban, surveying the new digital world order for screen
entertainment/
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SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2004 – A PREVIEW
In keeping with its policy of bringing world movies to Australia (French, Italian, Greek, etc), Palace Cinemas is programming its 2004 Spanish Film Festival with a mix of high art and high fun Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2005 – PREVIEW
With 16 films in its eclectic program, the 8th Spanish Film Festival in Australia is boldly opening with Torremolinos 73, the fact based story of newly weds making what they think is an educational video in their bedroom, as the festival adds Brisbane to its capital cities tour, reports Andrew L. Urban.
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SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2007
The ABC of Spanish cinema will be showcased in the 10th Spanish Film Festival
throughout May: Award winning films, the first feature from Basque in 18 years,
and a short from the Canary islands.
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SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2008 – PREVIEW
Opening Night at this year’s Spanish Film Festival, with the warmly humorous
drama, Seven Billiards Tables, will not prepare audiences for the horrors to
come in the fest’s Cine Fantastico section, which includes [REC], the film that
scared the pants off Spain’s cinema audiences last year.
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SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2009 - PREVIEW
Popular Spanish actor Javier Cámara, a special guest of the Festival, will be
the subject of a sidebar at this year’s event, which also reminds us of the
Spanish Civil war that ended 70 years ago – but left eternal scars
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SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2010 - PREVIEW
Two English language features from two of Spain’s leading directors will have
their Australian Premieres in the Spanish Film Festival: Julio Medem’s seductive
Room in Rome, screening only days after its World Premiere at Malaga Film
Festival and Oscar winner Alejandro Amenábar’s smash hit, Agora, starring Oscar
winner Rachel Weisz.
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SPIDER-MAN
Fate has spun a poisoned web for Spider-Man. After years of lobbing the movie rights between various producers, production companies and studios, the Spider-Man movie finally got made between January and May 2001. It couldn’t have been worse timing. As the editing process came to a close, its principal location – New York – was devastated by the infamous terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The film’s major set-piece of Spider-Man spinning a web between the twin towers suddenly became unusable. Andrew L. Urban reports on the collision of fantasy and reality.
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SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON
Writing it was hard enough, telling the story of the old American West from a horse’s point of view (and the horses don’t talk), but the toughest challenge in animation history was animating these much loved animals convincingly and faithfully. The filmmakers explain how they galloped into animation history.
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SPIRITED AWAY: HAYAO MIYAZAKI IN HIS OWN WORDS
The Japanese master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, reveals his motivations and intentions behind his latest, award winning anime, Spirited Away, and reminds us of the power of words – while powerless words are proliferating unnecessarily, he adds.
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SPORT IN FILM: From Rocky to Air Bud
With a basketball-playing dog in Air Bud and a dope smoking
tenpin baller in The Big Lebowski (pic) on our screens, sport in films
is as popular as ever. In this two part feature, MATT DILLON
explores the history of sport in film; next week, he
discusses the Top 10 sport films of all time (according to him,
anyway).
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SPORT IN FILM: The Top 10
In this second part of Matt Dillon’s feature on sport
films, he selects his Top 10 and some worthy contenders. The films that make the list, though, share a few
notable criteria. They all stand up not merely for their accurate
depictions of sports but because they are all fine films in &
of themselves.
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SPY GAME
Spy Game is a thinking man’s action film, says Robert Redford, in which he
plays a veteran CIA officer whose protégé, played by Brad Pitt, ignites an international
incident over a woman in danger. The film looks at patriotism as a personal thing, and at
how the CIA has changed.
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STANLEY KUBRICK – THE THINKING FILMMAKER
Much has been and will be said in praise of Stanley Kubrick, a secretive filmmaker (his
sets were closed) and a pedantic one – even in death: he died just days after
completing his last film, Eyes Wide Shut. Most of Kubrick’s films are now released in
a video collection as a mark of respect for a director who let his audiences see whatever
they wanted to in his works. ANDREW L. URBAN adds a few words of his own to the hubbub.
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STAR WARS EP 1 -THE VISION, THE STORY, THE CHARACTERS
Huge anticipation has preceeded the release of George Lucas' modern-day fairy tale, Star Wars:
Episode One, The Phantom Menace, which opened in Los Angeles a week before Australia, with a gross of
USD$28,542,349, the largest single day gross in the history of movies. Should you heed the US critics who say the film doesn't live up to the hype, or judge it for
yourself?
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STAR WARS EP 2: ATTACK OF THE CLONES – A PREVIEW
Episode 2 in the Star Wars series is the first major movie created by using the high-definition, twenty-four frames per second, digital video camera and videotape. But it’s still Escapism with a capital E, says George Lucas, which also stands for Entertainment.
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STAR WARS TRILOGY SPECIAL EDITION - GEORGE GETS IT RIGHT
May the technically improved Force be with you
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STAR WARS: READERS RESPONSE
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STAR WARS: READERS RESPONSE 2 (cont)
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STEALTH – THE SFX WORKSHOP
Sydney based digital production company Animal Logic produced major visual effects for two
key sequences in Stealth, the action film directed by Rob Cohen which opened last week (8/9/2005)
around Australia. Animal Logic takes us behind the scenes in this fascinating SFX
Workshop, to expose the making of two key sequences.
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STEPFORD WIVES, THE
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STONE FOREVER
We are proud to publish this fascinating personal account by RICHARD KUIPERS of how he got
‘Stoned’ and why he undertook to bring The Undertaker (Sandy Harbutt) back to
the screen for the making of a unique documentary, Stone Forever, about the equally unique
film - a rare example of an Australian film that was an ‘embarrassment’ but a
box office success.
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STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
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STUART LITTLE - A BIG DEAL IN THE MAKING
A walking, talking mouse created with a computer mouse, Stuart Little, strides (with tiny feet) into the pantheon of cinema history as the first central character in a movie otherwise populated by human actors. ANDREW L. URBAN reports.
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STUCK ON YOU … BROTHER
Casting was the secret to the Farrelly brothers’ long-cherished comedy script about conjoined twins, Stuck On You, and it was sister Cindy who cracked the secret, suggesting Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear; it worked so well they even started to look like brothers, as the brothers (Farrelly) now say.
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SUBSCRIBE & WIN TERMINATOR 2 ULTIMATE EDITION DVD
Subscribe/renew/extend before July 23 for a chance to win the ultimate DVD and the ultimate science fiction action film: Terminator 2 Judgement Day (2-disc set, rrp $39.95). “In this technically superior transfer to DVD, you can just about feel the grumble in the film’s soundtrack – give yourself over to digital pleasure,” says Andrew L. Urban in his review. The extra featurettes include literally dozens of video clips, a 30 minute Making Of…, the entire shooting script (you can learn your favourite role), exceptional audio commentary by 26 key cast & crew, and much more, all with the heart thumping digital power of
DVD.
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SUBURBAN MAYHEM – CREATING MAYHEM
In their first Australian public discussion about the making of Suburban
Mayhem, the writer Alice Bell, director Paul Goldman, star Emily Barclay and
producer Leah Churchill-Brown, faced their audience in Sydney’s Dendy at Opera
Quays prior to the film’s release at Movies Now, a course in Continuing
Education (Sydney University), presented by Andrew L. Urban.
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SUCK IT AND SEE
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SUMMER 2006 MOVIE GUIDE
This summer’s movie season is full of odd couples: movies that are somehow
linked, by concept or subject, yet are so different. Oddly enough, the selection
offers great diversity and a chance to mix and match a lively program of movies.
Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SUMMER MOVIES PREVIEW
Harry and Frodo and James (and Martha) arrived at or before Christmas, but the holiday season continues in January with 20 new releases. Andrew L. Urban previews a selection, ranging from the controversial (The Quiet American) to the sinister (One Hour Photo) to the musical (Chicago) - and surprising stars like Eminem (8 Mile), Lil Bow Wow (Like Mike) and Mick Jagger (The Man From Elysian Fields). [Pic, Chicago]
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SUNDANCE 1998
Regular reports from our man on the spot, PAUL FISCHER.
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SUNDANCE 1998 (1)
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SUNDANCE 2000
It takes two to tango, and most films at Sundance just won't get a partner to ask them
onto the commercial release floor, reports JEFF SIPE from Park City, as Sundance 2000
waltzes into history. (Pic, Robert Redford)
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SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS 2009 - WINNERS
Push, based on the novel by performance poet Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels,
an unflinching look at the parental abuse and self-redemption of a teenage girl
in 1980s Harlem, was the big winner at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, taking
both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. dramatic
competition, as well as a Special Jury Prize for Acting to Mo’Nique as Mary, a
welfare-cheating mum.
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SUNRISE 2000
Here is your chance to pitch your terrific movie idea to the Australian film industry, through Sunrise -
Submissions Close at 5pm on Friday, July 14, 2000.
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SUNRISE AT SUNSET
As the sun set on Sydney on Friday September 25, 1998, film industry executives were
heading for the Balmain Town Hall – where the 10 best movie ideas were pitched in the
first "Sunrise – the dawn of new ideas" event, organised by Shani Dowling
and sponsored by film industry companies such as Beyond Films, Fox Studios, Australian
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SUNRISE ENTRY FORM
Here is your chance to pitch your movie idea to the Australian Film Industry.
Submissions Close at 5pm on Friday 9th July 1999.
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SYDNEY - STORY OF A CITY: BURTON & BERESFORD
Bruce Beresford and Geoff Burton talk to ANDREW L. URBAN about working
together, directing a 45 minute giant screen film that cost twice as much as an average
Australian drama - and the star is Sydney itself.
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SYDNEY ASIA PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL 2002
Juanita Kwok* whets our appetite for tasty films from our neighbours – about everything from gunslinging Thai cowboys to a porcine Hong Kong – at this year’s Asia Pacific Film Festival in Sydney.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1997 / CRITICAL VOICES
Sydney Film Festival audiences are extremely patriotic and it
is often difficult for critics to swim against this tide without
being accused of some form of national betrayal, says Hunter Cordaiy, a sentiment that might well apply to the opening night
film, Doing Time For Patsy Cline (pictured).
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1998 - PREVIEW
The 45th Sydney Film Festival is here, and for his last Festival, director Paul Byrnes has a
bumper crop to offer Sydney's cinephiles. PAUL FISCHER offers a
sneak preview of Sydney's premiere movie event.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1999 – AUSTRALIAN PREMIERES
The closing night film (June 19,1998), Radiance, is a fine and
funny film about three Aboriginal sisters. The opening night
film, In the Winter Dark, is about fear and loathing in lost
regions. Both broaden our film culture and both need to be well
understood, writes ANDREW L. URBAN.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1999: A PREVIEW
It has a new director (Gayle Lake), a new look and it's shorter. One of Sydney's premiere
cultural events is back: welcome to the 46th Sydney Film Festival, June 11 - 23, 1999.
PAUL FISCHER presents a preview of this year's edition, defined by its diversity.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1999: ARE WE ALL UP TO IT?
Hunter Cordaiy suggests that the Sydney Film Festival poses
some big questions – and wonders if they are all fully
answered….
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1999: MOST POPULAR FILM AWARDS
SOFT FRUIT, written and directed by Christina Andreef and produced by Helen Bowden, was
announced today as The 1999 Perpetual Trustees Most Popular Australian Film at the 46th
Sydney Film Festival. Other awards over:
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1999: REBELS, QUEERS AND TRUE GRIT
Opening with Doing Time With Patsy Cline (see picture) The Sydney Film Festival returns with Howard Hawks, Queer Screen and more: PAUL FISCHER takes a sneak peek:
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1999: SO HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?
Paul Byrnes, outgoing director of the Sydney Film Festival after a decade, feels –
rightly – that this was perhaps his best ever festival. ANDREW L. Urban reports.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2000 - PREVIEW
For the first time, Sydney Film Festival patrons can buy a single ticket to a single film
- the ultimate in choice and affordability, if not in movie-going excess. But the program
is far too tempting to leave it at that, reports ANDREW L. URBAN.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2001 - PREVIEW
The films, the events, the guests; festival director Gayle Lake
talks to Andrew L. Urban and tells him why she’s excited
about the Australian film, Lantana, opening the fest; it’s a
rare achievement.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2002
This watershed year for the Sydney Film Festival – the last before its historic half century and the introduction of competition – is earmarked to be memorable by the opening film, Black and White. It’s a colour thing, reports Andrew L. Urban, and reflects newly discovered Australian filmmaking interests in what used to be called the ‘colour bar’.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2003 - 50TH
Looking simultaneously backwards and forwards, the 50th Sydney Film Festival (June 6 – 20) program opens with a new true blue Aussie comedy and closes with a French crime thriller (in English), includes two special retrospectives, a symposium at its birthplace (the University of Sydney) and a New Indian Cinema showcase – among other things. Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2003 - AUDIENCE AWARDS
Cedric Klapisch’s cross-culture, flat-sharing comedy, The Spanish Apartment (L’auberge Espagnole), produced by Bruno Levy, won the 15, 0000 Euros PRIX UIP award for Best European Film as well as taking home the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 50th Sydney Film Festival, powered by a top cast of Audrey Tatou, Romain Duris, Judith Godreche and Cecile de France.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2004 - PREVIEW
More than 230 films will be screened at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (June 11 – 26, 2004), playing in a larger number of venues, including the Opera House Studio and the nearby Dendy Opera Quays cinema – venues that foreshadow the Festival’s eventual new base around historic Circular Quay. Andrew L. Urban reports
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2005 – MID-FEST REPORT
Remarkable docos and edgy thrillers, combined with unique events like an Evening with Lisa Gerrard and topical, edgy forum sessions, are giving patrons a positive time at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, which wraps on Saturday (June 25) with the inaugural Urban Cinefile Audience Awards presentation and the sold out screening of the eye popping Closing Night Film, Howl’s Moving Castle. Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2005 – PREVIEW
With its new six-pack of Urban Cinefile Audience Awards, the Sydney Film Festival in 2005 will expand in prestige, venues and numbers, as new Director Lynden Barber unveils an eclectic program hot with jaw dropping documentaries, the latest European and Asian art films, innovative digital films and a sensational French thriller with two of France’s great male stars, Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil. Andrew L. Urban previews the 52nd edition.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2005 – WRAP
Discoveries at this year’s Sydney Film Festival included the Urban Cinefile Audience Award winning low budget Australian drama, Blacktown and as a window on world cinema, the program boasted the likes of the award winning drama Brothers (Denmark) and the animated short Journey to Mars (Argentina), plus Kontroll (Hungary), Moolaade (Senegal), Life Is A Miracle (Serbia) and Howl’s Moving Castle (Japan, Closing Night Film). But there was still more to the festival, including a slew of strong American docos - and the winners of the Dendy Awards for Australian Shorts, as Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2006 - PREVIEW
The vibrancy of a film festival can be measured by a willingness to juxtapose
films that confound thematic linkage, offering surprises and revelations in an
ocean of film from around the world: this year’s program, Lynden Barber’s second
as Artistic Director, suggests he is more interested in challenging us than
placating us. He wants us to ‘go deeper’. Andrew L. Urban previews the 53rd
Sydney Film Festival (June 9 – 25, 2006).
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2006 - URBAN CINEFILE AUDIENCE AWARDS
Toni Collette collected the Best Feature Award – World Cinema, on behalf of the
filmmaking team behind Little Miss Sunshine, in which she stars, at the Sydney
Film Festival Urban Cinefile Audience Awards at the State Theatre, adding an
Australian flavour to the major award of the night.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2006 - WRAP
With this his second (and last) Festival, Artistic Director Lynden Barber has
again shown an astute ability to mix the provocative with the seductive, the
challenging with the entertaining, giving patrons a snapshot of the concerns and
amusements of filmmakers from around the world. Andrew L. Urban samples the
menu.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2007 – PREVIEW
A large Australian selection combines with 60 new films from around the world – including opening night’s La Vie En Rose - in Clare Stewart’s debut program for the Sydney Film Festival (June 8 – 24) of 290 films, including 113 features, 86 documentaries and 91 shorts.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2008 – WHAT'S ASIA GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Some are outrageous and confronting, some are exciting, some are riveting -
and some are made illegally: East Asian Cinema is making huge strides on the
international film circuit and festivals are keen to get on board. The 2008
Sydney Film Festival (June 4 – 22) has programmed a broad and representative
selection. Former Melbourne Film Festival director and film distributor, Geoff
Gardner, offers 10 Thoughts on Asian movies as a teaser.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2009 – PREVIEW
Ken Loach doesn’t usually do ‘funny’ so his new film, Looking for Eric, is
newsworthy and no wonder Clare Stewart has chosen it to open this year’s Sydney
Film Festival; we need a good laugh that’s not at the expense of our bumbling
politicians. And there are three Australian films out of the 12 in the
Competition, albeit not comedies, vying for the $60,000 Hunter Hall cash prize,
reports Andrew L. Urban. But it also ends on an upper, with Lone Scherfig’s An
Education. In between, a new Foxtel-sponsored doco competition kicks off, in
what is a year of change all round.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2009 – WINNERS
Nicholas Winding Refn’s high-octane cabaret, Bronson, with Tom Hardy in a
career-defining performance as Britain’s most notorious criminal Charles
Bronson, has won the $60,000 cash and the Sydney Film Prize trophy at this
year’s Sydney Film Festival. And Foxtel doubles its cash commitment to $20,000
for the joint winners of the inaugural documentary prize, Contact and A Good
Man
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2010 – PREVIEW
Taking up six separate venues ranging from the grandeur of the State Theatre to
the drama of the Sydney Opera House, this year’s Sydney Film Festival (June 2 –
14) opens with an upbeat mood, after getting a dollop of cash from the NSW
Government to help its balance sheet over the next three years. But now the
focus is on the program: Shirley Barrett makes a welcome return with her playful
new film, South Solitary, to kick things off in a massive program of 157 films
from 47 countries, which includes seven world premieres and 47 Australian
premieres. Andrew L. Urban reports.
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SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL LAUNCHES COMPETITION
With a cash prize of $60,000 from its principal sponsor Hunter Hall, plus the
kudos of an international jury judging entries, the Sydney Film Festival is
elevating its status on the world festival stage from June 2008 (its 55th), with
the help of $1.8 million in NSW Government support, reports Andrew L. Urban.
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SYDNEY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL 2009 – PREVIEW
It’s goal is to promote a culture of resistance; from Kamahl to Ron Jeremy and
everything in-between, the Sydney Underground Film Festival is back for it’s 3rd
year. “With over twenty sessions and more than 120 films, the festival will have
something for everyone,” says Festival Director Katherine Berger. But not quite
everyone, surely …..
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