Cinema of Australia

The earliest known feature length narrative film in the world was the Australian production, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906).

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Cinema of Australia
List of Australian films
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Cinema of Australia, more commonly referred to as the Australian film industry, refers to the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of films in Australia. Film production commenced in Australia in 1906 with the production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film made. Since then, many films have been produced in Australia, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers started their careers in Australian films, a large number of whom have acquired international reputations, and a number of whom have found greater financial benefits in careers in larger film producing centers, such as Hollywood.

Commercially successful Australian films have included Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! and Chris Noonan's Babe. Other award winning productions include Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, The Tracker, Shine and Ten Canoes. Australian trained actors of renown include Errol Flynn, Peter Finch, Rod Taylor, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger.

History

The Australian film history has been characterised as one of 'boom and bust' due to the unstable and cyclical nature of its industry; there have been deep troughs when few films were made for decades and high peaks when a glut of films reached the market.^[1]

Pioneer days (1890s-1910)

In October, 1896, the first movie was shown in Australia in the Athanaeum Hall in Collins Street, Melbourne. The earliest feature length narrative film in the world was the Australian production The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), also shown at the Athenaeum.

Arguably one of the world's first film studios, the Limelight Department, was operated by The Salvation Army in Melbourne, Australia, between 1897 and 1910.^[2] The Limelight Department produced evangelical material for use by the Salvation Army, as well as private and government contracts. In its 19 years of operation, the Limelight Department produced about 300 films of various lengths, making it the largest film producer of its time. The major innovation of the Limelight Department would come in 1899 when Herbert Booth and Joseph Perry began work on Soldiers of the Cross, described by some as the first feature length film ever produced. Soldiers of the Cross fortified the Limelight Department as a major player in the early film industry. However, Soldiers of the Cross would be dwarfed when the Limelight Department was commissioned to film the Federation of Australia.

Boom and bust (1910s-1920s)

The old Pacific Cinema at Bulahdelah, NSW, a classic example of an early small country town cinema

The first "boom" in Australian film occurred in the 1910s. After beginning slowly in the years from 1900, 1910 saw 4 narrative films released, then 51 in 1911, 30 in 1912, and 17 in 1913, and back to 4 in 1914, the beginning of World War I.^[3] While these numbers may seem small, Australia was one of the most prolific film-producing countries at the time. That is, between 1910 and 1912, almost 90 narrative films were made; between 1906 and 1928, 150 narrative feature films were made.^[4]

There are various explanations for the subsequent demise of the industry; some historians have pointed to falling audience numbers, a lack of interest in Australian product and narratives, and the decision to participate in World War I. However, a major reason lay in the official banning of bushranger films in 1912.^[5] Looking for alternative products, Australian cinema chains realised that Australian films were much more expensive than imported films from the United States, which could be purchased cheaply as production expenses had already been recouped. To redress this decline, the federal government imposed a tax on imported film in 1914, but this was removed by 1918. By 1923, U.S. films dominated the Australian exhibition sector, with 94% of all films coming from that country.^[6]

Another explanation is concerned with anti-competitive behavior between film distributors and cinemas. Between 1906 and 1912 Australia's burgeoning film industry produced more feature-length films than Britain or the USA, but in 1912 Australasian Films and Union Theaters established a monopoly over production, distribution and exhibition and shut out smaller producers. That opened the way for US distributors in the 1920s to sign exclusive deals with Australian cinemas to exhibit only their products, thereby crippling the local film industry.^[7]

1930s-1960s

Errol Flynn had his debut in In the Wake of the Bounty, 1933.

Peter Finch, who also debuted in Australia in the 1930s. He went on to star in classics such as The Rats of Tobruk and became the first Australian to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, posthumously in 1976.

In 1933, In the Wake of the Bounty was directed by Charles Chauvel, who cast Tasmanian born Erroll Flynn as the leading actor.^[8] Flynn went on to a celebrated career in Hollywood, and starred in 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood. Chauvel directed a number of successful Australian films, including 1944's World War Two classic The Rats of Tobruk which starred Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty and 1955's Jedda, which was notable for being the first Australian film to be shot in colour, and the first to feature Aboriginal actors in lead roles and to be entered at the Cannes Film Festival.^[9]

The first Australian Oscar was won by 1942's Kokoda Front Line!, directed by Ken G. Hall.^[10] Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Hall was in charge of Australia's leading domestic studio, Cinesound Productions, and was particularly successful with a series of comedies based on the popular writings of author Steele Rudd, which featured the adventures of a fictional Australian farming family, the Rudds, and the perennial father-and-son duo, 'Dad and Dave'.

Chips Rafferty and Peter Finch were prominent international stars of the period. Rafferty's onscreen image as a lanky, laconic bushman struck a chord with film goers and he appeared in such iconic early Australian films as Forty Thousand Horsemen, The Rats of Tobruk, The Overlanders and Eureka Stockade (Overlanders and Eureka were part of a series of Australian themed films produced by Britain's iconic Ealing Studios). In Hollywood, Rafferty also appeared in Australian themed films, including The Desert Rats, The Sundowners and Mutiny on the Bounty. Similarly, Peter Finch starred in quintessentially Australian roles (such as Digger or stockman) through a series of popular films and had a successful and diverse screen career in Britain and the United States.

Rod Taylor began his acting career in Australia, appearing in such Australian films as 1954's Long John Silver before transferring to the United States to become a Hollywood leading man of the 1960s and 70s, with starring roles in The Time Machine (1960) and The Birds (1963).

Several notable films based on stories from Australian literature (generally with strong rural themes) were made in Australia in the 1950s - but by British and American production companies, including: 1956's A Town Like Alice which starred Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch; 1957's The Shiralee also starring Peter Finch with Australian actors Charles Tingwell, Bill Kerr and Ed Devereaux in supporting roles; Roberry Under Arms, again starring Finch in 1957; and 1959's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, starring Ernest Borgnine, John Mills and Angela Lansbury; and in 1960, The Sundowners was shot in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales with foreign leads Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov but a supporting cast including Australians Chips Rafferty, John Meillon and Leonard Teale.

The inaugural Australian Film Institute Awards were held in 1958, yet Australian cinema was reaching a low ebb with few notable productions produced during the 1960s.^[11] 1966's comedy They're a Weird Mob, starring Walter Chiari, Chips Rafferty and Clare Dunne was a rare hit of the period which also documented something of the changing face of Australian society: telling the story of a newly arrived Italian immigrant who, working as a labourer in Sydney, becomes mates with his co-workers, despite some difficulties with Australian slang and culture. The film foreshadowed the successful approaching "New Wave" of Australian cinema of the 1970s that would often showcase colloquial Australian culture.

Signs of life for the appeal of Australian actors in Hollywood as "action-men" continued with the casting of Australian George Lazenby to replace Sean Connery portraying the superspy James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Film renaissance - 1970s and 1980s

Prime Minister John Gorton initiated several avenues of government support for Australian cinema.

Crocodile Dundee, 1986, remains Australia's most successful film at the international box office.

The Australian New Wave was an era of resurgence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema, particularly in the United States. It began in the early 1970s and lasted until the mid-late 1980s. The era also marked the emergence of the "Ozploitation" style - characterised by the exploitation of colloquial Australian culture.

John Gorton was Prime Minister of Australia from 1968–1971 and initiated several avenues of Government support for film and the arts, establishing the Australian Council for the Arts, the Australian Film Development Corporation and the National Film and Television Training School.^[12] Prime Minister Gough Whitlam continued to support Australian film. The South Australian Film Corporation was established in 1972 to promote and produce films, while the Australian Film Commission was created in 1975 to fund and produce internationally competitive films.^[13] A generation of directors and actors emerged who told distinctively Australian stories. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) and Sunday Too Far Away (Ken Hannam, 1975) made an impact on the international arena. The 1970s and 80s are regarded by many as a 'golden age' of Australian cinema, with many successful films, from the dark science fiction of Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) to the romantic comedy of Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986) and the emergence of such film directing auteurs as Gillian Armstrong, Phillip Noyce and Bruce Beresford.

A major theme of Australian cinema which matured in the 1970s was one of survival in the harsh Australian landscape. A number of thrillers and horror films dubbed "outback gothic" have been created, including Wake in Fright, Walkabout, The Cars That Ate Paris and Picnic at Hanging Rock in the 1970s, Razorback and Shame in the 1980s, and Japanese Story, The Proposition and the world-renowned Wolf Creek in the 21st century. These films depict the Australian bush and its creatures as deadly, and its people as outcasts and psychopaths. These are combined with futuristic post-apocalyptic themes in the Mad Max series.

1971's Walkabout was a British film set in Australia which was a forerunner to many Australian films related to indigenous themes and introduced David Gulpilil to cinematic audiences. 1976's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith directed by Fred Schepisi was an award winning historical drama from a book by Thomas Keneally about the tragic story of an Aboriginal Bushranger. Classic stories from Australian literature and Australian history continued to be popular subjects for cinematic adaptation during the 1970s and 1980s. Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career (1979) featured Judy Davis and Sam Neill in early lead roles. 1982's We of the Never Never followed up on the theme of the female experience of life in the Australian bush. 1982's The Man from Snowy River starring Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton dramatised the classic Banjo Paterson poem of that name and became one of the all time box-office successes of Australian cinema.

In addition to the serious historical dramas popular in the 1970s, a number of films celebrating and satirizing Australian colloquial culture were produced over the decade, including: The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972), Alvin Purple (1973), and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974). The Barry McKenzie films saw performing-artist and writer Barry Humphries collaborating with director Bruce Beresford.

In 1976, Peter Finch was awarded a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the American satire Network, becoming the first Australian to win an Oscar for best actor.^[14]

1980's Breaker Morant starring Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown dramatised the controversial trial of an Australian soldier during the Boer War and was followed by 1981's World War I drama Gallipoli directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson. These films, now considered classics of Australian cinema explored contemporary Australian identity through dramatic episodes in Australian history.

Gibson went on to further success in 1982's The Year of Living Dangerously before transferring to pursue his Hollywood career as an actor and director. Many other Australian stars would follow his path to international stardom in the coming decades. The Year of Living Dangerously was directed by Peter Weir, who also made a successful transition to Hollywood. Weir contributed to the screenplay along with its original author Christopher Koch, and playwright David Williamson. Williamson rose to prominence in the early 1970s, and has gone on to write several other original scripts and screenplays made into successful Australian films including: Don's Party (1976); Gallipoli (1981), Emerald City (1988), and Balibo (2009).^[15]

Actor/comedian Paul Hogan wrote the screenplay and starred in the title role in his first film, Crocodile Dundee (1986), about a down-to-earth hunter who travelled from the Australian Outback to New York City. The movie became the most successful Australian film ever, and launched Hogan's international film career. Following the success of Crocodile Dundee Hogan starred in the sequel, Crocodile Dundee II in 1988.

1988 also saw the release of the drama Evil Angels about the Lindy Chamberlain saga, in which a baby was taken by a dingo at Ayers Rock and her mother was accused of having murdered the child.

Nicole Kidman began appearing in Australian children's TV and Film in the early 1980s - including starring roles in BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s, she appeared in several Australian productions, including Emerald City (1988), and Bangkok Hilton (1989), and in 1989, Kidman starred in Dead Calm alongside Sam Neill and Billy Zane. The thriller garnered strong reviews and Hollywood roles followed.^[16]

1990-2010

Nicole Kidman, star of Dead Calm.

Hugh Jackman, star of Australia.

Cate Blanchett, winner of AFIs, Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes.

Heath Ledger, star of Two Hands.

The 1990s proved a successful decade for Australian film and introduced several new stars to a global audience. Low budget films such as the comedy/drama Muriel's Wedding, starring Toni Collette,^[17] the gently satirical suburban comedy The Castle directed by Rob Sitch (which cast Eric Bana in his first prominent film role), and Baz Lurhmann's flamboyant Strictly Ballroom^[18] each attained commercial and critical success, and explored quirky characters inhabiting contemporary Australian suburbia - marking something of a departure from the Outback and historical sagas which obtained success in the 1970s and 1980s. Stephan Elliott's 1994 film Priscilla Queen of the Desert mixed traditional outback cinematography and landscape with contemporary urban sub-culture: following three drag queens on a road trip to Central Australia.

While a number of major international stars gained early prominence in Australia over the period, an important stable of established and emerging local stars with prodigious film credits remained prominent, including screen veterans Charles Tingwell, Bill Hunter, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown and Chris Haywood.

The World War II drama Blood Oath (1990) debuted both Russell Crowe and Jason Donovan, in minor cinematic roles. Crowe demonstrated his versatility as an actor in this early period of his career by starring soon after as a street gang Melbourne skinhead in 1992's Romper Stomper and then as an inner-Sydney working class gay man in 1994's The Sum of Us before transferring to the USA to commence his Hollywood career.

George Miller's Babe (1995) employed new digital effects to make a barnyard come alive and went on to become one of Australia's highest grossing films. The 1996 drama Shine achieved an Academy Award for Best Actor award for Geoffrey Rush and Gregor Jordan's 1999 film Two Hands gave Heath Ledger his first leading role. After Ledger's successful transition to Hollywood, Jordan and Ledger collaborated again in 2003 with Ledger playing the iconic bushranger title role in the film Ned Kelly, which co-starred Australian actress Naomi Watts.

The canon of films related to Indigenous Australians also increased over the period of the 1990s and early 21st Century, with Nick Parson's 1996 film Dead Heart featuring Ernie Dingo and Bryan Brown;^[19] Rolf de Heer's The Tracker, starring Gary Sweet and David Gulpilil;^[20] and Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence^[21] in 2002. In 2006, Rolf de Heer's Ten Canoes became the first major feature film to be shot in an indigenous language and the film was recognised at Cannes and elsewhere.

The shifting demographics of Australia following post-war multicultural immigration was reflected in Australian cinema through the period and in successful films like 1993's The Heartbreak Kid; 2000's Looking for Alibrandi; 2003's Fat Pizza; the Wog Boy comedies and 2007's Romulus, My Father which all dealt with aspects of the migrant experience or Australian subcultures.^[22]

Rob Sitch and Working Dog Productions followed the success of The Castle with period comedy The Dish, which was the highest grossing Australian film of the Year 2000 and entered the top ten list of highest grossing Australian films. Big budget Australian-international co-productions Moulin Rouge! (Baz Lurhmann, 2001) and Happy Feet (which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for filmmaker George Miller in 2006) also entered the top ten list during the first decade of the new century. Baz Lurhmann directed a series of international hits and returned to Australia for the production of 2008's Australia, which showcased a host of Australian stars including Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and David Wenham and went on to become the second highest grossing film in Australian cinematic history.

Lantana, directed by Ray Lawrence attained critical and commercial success in 2001 for its examination of a complex series of relationships in suburban Sydney, and events surrounding a mysterious crime. It won seven AFI Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Anthony LaPaglia and Best Actress for Kerry Armstrong.

Emerging star Sam Worthington had early lead roles in the 2002 mobster black comedy Dirty Deeds and 2003's crime caper Gettin' Square. Gettin Square also featured rising star David Wenham who demonstrated versatility with a string of critically acclaimed roles including the title role in Paul Cox's 1999 biopic Molokai: The Story of Father Damien and the 2001 thriller The Bank, directed by the politically conscious film director Robert Connolly.

In 2005, Little Fish marked a return to Australian film for actress Cate Blanchett and won five Australian Film Institute Awards including Best Actor for Hugo Weaving, Best Actress for Blanchett and Best Supporting Actress for screen veteran Noni Hazlehurst.

In 2008, the documentary film celebrating the romps of the Australian New Wave of 1970s and 1980s low-budget cinema: Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! The film was directed by Mark Hartley and interviews filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Dennis Hopper, George Miller and Barry Humphries.

The early 2000s were generally not successful years for Australian cinema, with several confronting dramas proving unpopular at the box office. In 2008, no Australian movies made $3 million at the box office, but a conscious decision by film-makers to broaden the types of films being made as well as the range of budgets produced a series of box-office hits at the close of the decade. Strong box office performances were recorded in 2009-10 by Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer; the Aboriginal musical Bran Nue Dae the dramatization of John Marsden's novel Tomorrow, When the War Began; and the crime drama Animal Kingdom which featured major Australian screen stars Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver. Animal Kingdom achieved success at the 2010 Australian Film Institute Awards and was acclaimed at film festivals around the world.^[23] Tomorrow, When the War Began became the highest-grossing domestic film of 2010 and it was nominated for nine Australian Film Institute Awards.^[24][25]

Other notable films of the period included Balibo (2009) starring Anthony LaPaglia; the animated feature Mary and Max; and the 2010 World War I drama Beneath Hill 60, directed by Jeremy Sims and starring Brendan Cowell.

Government support

See also: Film and television financing in Australia

John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia from 1968–1971, initiated several forms of Government support for Australian film and the arts, establishing the Australian Council for the Arts, the Australian Film Development Corporation and the National Film and Television Training School.^[26] Prime Minister Gough Whitlam continued to support Australian film. The South Australian Film Corporation was established in 1972 to promote and produce films, while the Australian Film Commission was created in 1975 to fund and produce internationally competitive films.

The Federal Australian government had supported the Australian film industry through the funding and development agencies of Film Finance Corporation Australia, the Australian Film Commission and Film Australia. In 2008 the three agencies were consolidated into Screen Australia.

Present

Open-Air-Cinema in Sydney

The Australian film industry continues to produce a reasonable number of films each year, but in common with other English-speaking countries, Australia has often found it difficult to compete with the American film industry^{[citation needed]}, the latter helped by having a much larger home market. The most successful Australian actors and film-makers are easily lured by Hollywood and rarely return to the domestic film industry.

After Rupert Murdoch, the head of Fox Studios and an Australian, saw the new Fox studios were moved to Sydney, some US producers have chosen to film at Fox's state of the art facilities as production costs in Sydney are well below US costs. Studios established in Australia, like Fox Studios Australia and Warner Roadshow Studios, host large international productions like The Matrix and Star Wars II and III.

Debate over government support

There is an ongoing debate of the need and role of government support for the Australian film industry. Some argue in favour of government support as being the only way that the local film industry can compete against the hegemony of Hollywood. The argument against government support is that the industry is viable without support and will become stronger if increasingly globalised market forces are allowed full and untrammeled play. Others argue that a film industry in itself has little value. The history of the industry in Australia is to some extent a result of the ascendancy of one position over the other.

List of highest-grossing Australian movies

Rank	Title	Year of release	Budget (A$)	Australian gross (A$)	Worldwide gross (US$)
1	Crocodile Dundee	1986	$11,500,000	$47,707,045[27]	$328,203,506
2	Australia	2008	$78,000,000	$36,780,000	$211,342,221
3	Babe	1995	-	$36,770,000	$254,134,910
4	Happy Feet	2006	$132,740,000	$31,800,000	$384,300,000
5	Moulin Rouge!	2001	$100,453,600	$27,700,000	$179,213,434
6	Crocodile Dundee 2	1988	$15,800,000	$24,900,000	$239,606,210
7	Strictly Ballroom	1992	$3,000,000	$21,800,000	$37,763,592
8	The Dish	2000	-	$18,000,000	-
9	The Man From Snowy River	1982	-	$17,200,000	-
10	Red Dog	2011	$8,500,000	$16,551,589 (as of 23/09/2011)	-

Personalities

Chips Rafferty, star of The Sundowners.

Bryan Brown star of Breaker Morant.

Mel Gibson star of Mad Max.

Naomi Watts, star of Ned Kelly.

Geoffrey Rush, star of Shine.

Toni Collette, star of Muriel's Wedding.

Eric Bana, star of Chopper.

Sam Worthington, star of Dirty Deeds.

The Australian film industry has produced a number of successful actors, writers, directors and filmmakers many of whom have been known internationally.

Directors

• Gillian Armstrong
• Bruce Beresford
• Jane Campion
• Charles Chauvel
• Paul Cox
• Andrew Dominik
• Peter Duncan
• Rolf de Heer
• Stephan Elliott
• Scott Hicks
• P.J. Hogan
• Gregor Jordan
• Ray Lawrence
• Raymond Longford
• Baz Luhrmann
• James McTeigue
• George Miller
• George T. Miller
• Russell Mulcahy
• Chris Noonan
• Phillip Noyce
• Alex Proyas
• Fred Schepisi
• Rob Sitch
• Brian Trenchard-Smith
• Rachel Ward
• Peter Weir

Actors

Actors

• David Argue
• Simon Baker
• Eric Bana
• Bryan Brown
• Russell Crowe
• Max Cullen
• Ed Devereaux
• Ernie Dingo
• Peter Finch
• Errol Flynn
• Mel Gibson
• David Gulpilil
• Chris Hemsworth
• Liam Hemsworth
• Luke Hemsworth
• Paul Hogan
• Barry Humphries
• Bill Hunter
• Hugh Jackman
• John Jarratt
• Ryan Kwanten
• Anthony LaPaglia
• Heath Ledger
• Callan McAuliffe
• Harry McKeon
• Leo McKern
• Julian McMahon
• John Meillon
• John Noble
• Guy Pearce
• Peter Phelps
• Chips Rafferty
• Richard Roxburgh
• Geoffrey Rush
• Yahoo Serious
• Kodi Smit-McPhee
• Jesse Spencer
• Nick Tate
• Noah Taylor
• Rod Taylor
• Jack Thompson
• Charles Tingwell
• Hugo Weaving
• David Wenham
• Sam Worthington

Actresses

• Lorraine Bayly
• Cate Blanchett
• Emily Browning
• Rose Byrne
• Toni Collette
• Abbie Cornish
• Ruth Cracknell
• Judy Davis
• Elizabeth Debicki
• Belinda Emmett
• Indiana Evans
• Isla Fisher
• Melissa George
• Rachel Griffiths
• Noni Hazlehurst
• Bella Heathcote
• Cariba Heine
• Natalie Imbruglia
• Nicole Kidman
• Lottie Lyell
• Elle Macpherson
• Deborah Mailman
• Jessica Marais
• Dannii Minogue
• Kylie Minogue
• Olivia Newton-John
• Miranda Otto
• Teresa Palmer
• Emilie de Ravin
• Portia de Rossi
• Greta Scacchi
• Yvonne Strahovski
• Magda Szubanski
• Rachael Taylor
• Sigrid Thornton
• Holly Valance
• Mia Wasikowska
• Naomi Watts
• Jacki Weaver
• Peta Wilson

Literature

Encyclopedia and reference

• Murray, Scott, ed. Australian Film: 1978–1994. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-19-553777-2
• Pike, Andrew and Ross Cooper. Australian Film: 1900–1977. revised ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-19-550784-3
• McFarland, Brian, Geoff Mayer and Ina Bertrand, eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian Film. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-19-553797-0
• Moran, Albert and Errol Vieth. Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8108-5459-8
• Reade, Eric. Australian Silent Films: A Pictorial History of Silent Films from 1896 to 1926. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1970.
• Verhoeven, Deb, ed. Twin Peeks: Australian and New Zealand Feature Films. Melbourne: Damned Publishing, 1999. ISBN 978-1-876310-00-4

Critique and commentary

• Collins, Felicity, and Theresa Davis. Australian Cinema After Mabo. Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Dawson, Jonathan, and Bruce Molloy, eds. Queensland Images in Film and Television. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1990.
• Dermody, Susan and Elizabeth Jacka, eds. The Screening of Australia, Volume 1: Anatomy of a Film Industry. Sydney: Currency Press, 1987.
• ——— . The Screening of Australia, Volume 2: Anatomy of a National Cinema. Sydney: Currency Press, 1988.
• Moran, Albert and Tom O’Regan, eds. An Australian Film Reader (Australian Screen Series). Sydney: Currency Press, 1985.
• Moran, Albert and Errol Vieth. Film in Australia: An Introduction Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• O'Regan, Tom. Australian National Cinema. London: Routledge, 1996.
• Ryan, Mark, David (2009),'Whither Culture? Australian Horror Films and the Limitations of Cultural Policy', Media International Australia: Incorporating Culture and Policy, no. 133, pp. 43–55.
• Stratton, David. The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry. Sydney : Pan Macmillan, 1990. 465p. ISBN 978-0-7329-0250-6
• Verhoeven, Deb. Sheep and the Australian Cinema. Melbourne : MUP, 2006. ISBN 978-0-522-85239-4

See also

• Cinema of the world
• Screen Australia
• Australian Film Commission
• Film Australia
• South Australian Film Corporation
• List of Australian films
• List of films set in Australia
• List of films shot in Western Australia
• List of films shot in Darwin
• List of films shot in Tasmania
• List of films shot in Adelaide
• List of films shot in Melbourne
• List of films shot in Queensland
• List of films shot in Sydney
• World cinema

References

1. ^ David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 1990
2. ^ Information at ABS website
3. ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 1 – 49
4. ^ Albert Moran & Errol Vieth, Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005, 32
5. ^ Reade, Eric (1970) Australian Silent Films: A Pictorial History of Silent Films from 1896 to 1926. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 59. See also Routt, William D. More Australian than Aristotelian:The Australian Bushranger Film,1904-1914. Senses of Cinema 18 (January-February), 2002. The banning of bushranger films in NSW is fictionalised in Kathryn Heyman's 2006 novel, Captain Starlight's Apprentice.
6. ^ Albert Moran & Errol Vieth, Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005, 30
7. ^ Australian screen, http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/picture-show-man/clip1/
8. ^ In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
9. ^ Festival de Cannes - From 11 to 22 may 2011
10. ^ Kokoda Front Line! (1942) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
11. ^ The Australian Film Institute | Past Winners
12. ^ In office - John Gorton - Australia's PMs - Australia's Prime Ministers
13. ^ http://www.afc.gov.au/profile/about_us/default.aspx
14. ^ http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/australian_productions/F_A_Success/Academy_42_89.asp^{[dead link]}
15. ^ David Williamson - IMDb
16. ^ Dead Calm. Variety.com. 1 January 2007. Retrieved 10 March 2007.
17. ^ Muriel’s Wedding (1994) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
18. ^ Strictly Ballroom (1992) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
19. ^ Dead Heart (1996) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
20. ^ The Tracker (2002) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
21. ^ Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online
22. ^ http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf
23. ^ Maddox, Garry (11 December 2010). "Good year for Australian films as they switch bleak for broad". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/good-year-for-australian-films-as-they-switch-bleak-for-broad-20101210-18sss.html. 
24. ^ Lynch, Sean (17 September 2010). "Tomorrow When The War Began Biggest Film Of 2010". watchoutfor.com.au. http://watchoutfor.com.au/tomorrow-when-the-war-began-biggest-film-of-2010-movie-news. Retrieved 31 October 2010. 
25. ^ "The Australian Film Institute | AFI Award Winners and Nominees Ceremony". Afi.org.au. http://www.afi.org.au/AM/ContentManagerNet/HTMLDisplay.aspx?ContentID=11828&Section=AFI_Award_Winners_and_Nominees. Retrieved 19 December 2010. 
26. ^ In office - John Gorton - Australia's PMs - Australia's Prime Ministers
27. ^ AUSTRALIA – A Baz Luhrmann Film » Second Highest Grossing Australian Film of All Time

External links

Commonwealth and State Government Sites

• australianscreen - Australia's audiovisual heritage online
• Screen Australia
• National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
• Australian Government site on Film in Australia
• Pacific Film and Television Corporation (Queensland)
• New South Wales Film and Television Office
• Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Victoria)
• South Australia Film Corporation
• Filmwest (Western Australia)
• Australian Film, Television and Radio School
• Film Making studies in Australia

Non-government sites

• film.org.au: the best of Australian Films
• Internet Movie Database, Australia
• TV Cream on Australian films