Digital media and film - News and events

Events | Featured projects | Announcements

See the Call for entries news page for digital media events and competitions.

Events

St. George OpenAir Cinema 2010 Sydney season - Sydney

12 January – 20 February 2010

The cinema offers comfortable grandstand seating, Dolby Digital surround sound and a film program with premieres, previews and the latest releases. Each December this event sells out. The cinema has a restaurant and bar. The 2010 season film schedule will be available from 12 December 2009. Pre-sales commence on 17 December 2009. St. George OpenAir Cinema.

Bohemia Outdoor Cinema - Fremantle, Western Australia

4–21 February 2010

Bohemian Nights welcomes summer in Fremantle with a program that includes award winning animations, family nights, the best from WA's emerging filmmakers, Tropfest and much more.

First Factual Films Festival - Adelaide

23–25 February 2010

First Factual Films Festival (F4) is a new screening program held during the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) 2010. Co-presented by AIDC and the Media Resource Centre, F4 showcases first films from Australian documentary filmmakers at the start of their careers alongside the first films of legendary documentary masters attending AIDC 2010. Welcoming general public audiences as well as AIDC delegates, F4 brings together the people of Adelaide and the documentary professionals of the world. Mercury Cinema.

Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) - Adelaide

23–26 February 2010

The 2010 AIDC conference aims to connect Australia with the world and the world with Australia; international co-production will take centre stage. The 2010 conference will focus on locative media technology through a program strand called Where?, which will look at how GPS and mapping technologies will revolutionise the media. Hilton Adelaide.

Experimenta Utopia Now International Biennial of Media Art 2010 - Melbourne

12 February – 14 March 2010

Experimenta is an organisation which commissions and promotes the most advanced media and technology based art. This presentation showcases more than 25 works from countries including Australia, Japan, Austria, India, Germany, Canada, France, Taiwan and the UK. They critique the scope for happiness on earth as we know it, poke fun at social and physical boundaries and question the human race's ability to preserve itself. The works include: an interactive dance party in a box; the chance to become a sticky shadow magnet and lead a chorus of interactive singing plants; and the chance to take sides as Australian and international artists unite and fall out over the future survival of the planet. BlackBox, The Arts Centre, Melbourne.

19th Flickerfest festival - National tour

Until March 2010

Flickerfest is Australia's only Academy® Award accredited short film festival. The program covers three competitive categories: International, Australian and Documentary. There are 1500 entries and 23 national touring venues. The competitive programs will be joined by a special programs and forums, including the Australian premiere of Stories On Human Rights, a series of 22 short films by award-winning filmmakers from across the world, and the Best of the Oscars. Various locations.

Elastic Reality: Australian Animation in the 21st Century - Canberra

December 2009 – May 2010

Celebrating Australian's successes in the field of animation, Elastic Reality is a collection of images taken from the films of Australia's most prominent creators of animation. Representing a variety of animation types the exhibition includes work from Yoram Gross, Bruce Petty, Sarah Watt, Sejong Park, Adam Elliot and George Miller. Animation has developed rapidly since the beginning of filmmaking with digital technologies' mass storage capabilities enabling startling reproduction techniques compared to the traditional, labour intensive, style of making tens of thousands of individual drawings to produce a film. National Film and Sound Archive.

d/Lux/MediaArts: Face to Face - Cairns and Bundaberg, Queensland

19 March – 16 May 2010; 14 July 2010 – 29 August 2010

Featuring works by 14 Australian artists, this exhibition includes a range of media including digital photography, video and interactive installation all of which provide a unique and engaging perspective on how digital technologies are reshaping our understanding and experience of contemporary identity. Cairns Regional Gallery; Bundaberg Art Centre.

Featured projects

Games Industry Skills website and project - national

January 2010

This site promotes the Creative Benchmarker Survey and Workers Survey, and a national project on the digital games industry workforce in Australia. The project aims to identify and evaluate skill sets and occupations required for employment in the Australia's digital games industry, and to measuring the extent, source and impact of skills deficiencies. The project invites stakeholders to express their views in relation to any aspect of it.

Announcements

Sundance Film Festival selects Bran Nue Dae

10 December 2009, opening Australia 14 January 2010

Bran Nue Dae will have its USA premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, a high profile independent film festival. Filmed in Western Australia, the musical road-movie Bran Nue Dae is a new Australian film set in Broome. The film follows the journey of a young man, in the summer of 1969, on the run from his mission. Written by Rachel Perkins, Reg Cribb and Jimmy Chi, the film was produced by Robyn Kershaw and Graeme Isaac with cinematography by Andrew Lesnie. The cast includes Jessica Mauboy, Geoffrey Rush, Ernie Dingo, Missy Higgins, Ningali Lawford-Wolf and Broome locals Rocky McKenzie and Stephen Baamba Albert. Bran Nue Dae opens in Australia from 14 January 2010.

Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards 2009 - national

12 December 2009

The annual AFI Awards recognise Australian achievements in film and television. In 2009, Samson & Delilah triumphed, taking out top honours including best film, best direction and best original screenplay in a total of seven AFI awards. The film's two stars, Marissa Gibson and Rowan McNamara were joint winners of the AFI young actor award. Meanwhile, Balibo took out the award for best adapted screenplay. Key grip Ray Brown was honoured with the Byron Kennedy Award, which is presented for outstanding creative enterprise within the film or television industry.

Inside Film (IF) Award winners

19 November 2009

The eleventh annual IF awards, which are decided by public vote, saw Warwick Thornton's indigenous drama Samson & Delilah take home six awards including best feature film. Director Baz Luhrmann was honoured with the Living Legend award after his epic Australia took the 2009 box office prize.

Alex Gerbaz lecture on Experimental Film and Television Fund (EFTF) available

16 November 2009

A paper on the Experimental Film and Television Fund (EFTF), which operated from 1970–78, drawn from the files at the National Archives of Australia and cleared for public access under the 30-year rule, shows a fascinating history of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. In the 1970s, the EFTF had a significant influence on the burgeoning feature-film industry. It funded projects 'original in approach, technique, or subject matter ... by inexperienced, but promising, filmmakers'. EFTF helped launch the careers of some of the country's best talents, including Peter Weir, Jan Chapman, Chris Noonan, Richard Franklin, Scott Hicks and Tim Burstall.

Screen Australia survey reveals strong production activity by Australian features and TV drama in 2008/09

5 November 2009

Screen Australia today released the report of its 2008/09 Drama Production Survey, revealing the highest-ever expenditure in Australia for local features and a continuing upward trend in local TV drama. The Drama Production Survey reports 38 features, 653 hours of television and nine foreign projects that had post, digital or visual effects work in Australia had a combined value of $688 million in 2008–09.

The Global Animation Industry: industry-wide report - national and international

November 2009

Screen Digest's new industry-wide report features a survey of annual animation production for TV and cinema in European markets, North America and Australia. It looks at developments in financing and exploitation of animation on DVD and sales of licenses to toy companies, publishers, etc., and at how France and Canada benefit from a system of financial support programs, tax breaks and broadcast quotas. Companies earn a living from fees or retain rights in the intellectual property they create. Many companies subcontract animation to third parties, and operate as 'financing producers'.

Key online resources

• Australian Centre for the Moving Image
• Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)
• Metro Screen
• UNESCO Young Digital Creators (YDC) Educator's Kit
• ScreenWest

Collection resources and online publications

• australianscreen
• Australian film reviews by Urban Cinefile
• Inside Film

Institutions and government organisations

• National Film and Sound Archive
• Australian Film Institute Award Winners
• Australian Film, Television and Radio School
• Open Channel
• VCA School of Film and TV
• Screen Australia

Peak bodies and associations

• Australian Cinematographers Society
• Australian Screen Editors Guild
• Australian Writers' Guild
• The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
• Screenrights: copyright collection agency for rights holders in film and television
• Game Developers' Association of Australia

People

• Popcorn Taxi
• Friends of the ABC
• Flickerfest
• Holy Smoke Articles - Oz fx: in effect, the best

Featured websites/projects

• Women in Film and Television NSW
• Flickerfest Filmmakers Resource

Other resources

• Reskin - wearable technology
• Australian Computer Society
• Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance (mega)
• National ICT Australia
• Multimedia Victoria
• Tech News Review