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| My accommodation at the Sydney Hilton. Nice! |
| Picking up my media accreditation from the Press Centre. |
| Sunset on the Friday night in Sydney. |
| The Festival box-office at Event Cinemas George Street. |
| A look inside the 800+ seat cinema at Event George Street. |
| Catch up with Perth's Simon Miraudo at the Grasshopper. |
| Meeting Sydney's Andrew Buckle and Sam McCosh. |
| Critics drinking at the Criterion Hotel. |
| Meeting Melbourne critic Julian Buckeridge at the Criterion Hotel. |
| The view from my hotel on Saturday morning. |
| An awesome Spanish sandwich from the Encasa Deli. |
| A healthy dinner at the Westfield Centre Point on Saturday night. |
| My first look inside Sydney's State Theatre on the Sunday morning. |
| Shopping in the Pitt Street Mall. |
| It only took 9 months but I finally found new black casual shoes! |
| The "old style" candy bar inside the State Theatre. |
| People lining up inside the State Theatre for On The Road. |
| Down comes the rain on the Sunday afternoon. |
| At the airport and ready to return to Brisbane with all the right things. |
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| Margaret | David |
| 5 stars | 1 | 2 |
| 4.5 stars | 4 | 7 |
| 4 stars | 34 | 13 |
| 3.5 stars | 30 | 36 |
| 3 stars | 17 | 18 |
| 2.5 stars | 3 | 9 |
| 2 stars | 3 | 7 |
| 1.5 stars | 0 | 3 |
| 1 star | 0 | 0 |
Of the 187 reviews for Australian films, the statistics show:
- 13% of reviews had a score of 2.5 stars or worse.
- The average grade was 3.43 stars.
This is in comparison to the non-Australian films (between 2007 and 2011) where the statistics show:
- 22% of reviews had a score of 2.5 stars or worse.
- The average grade was 3.26 stars.
Some could make an argument that Australia makes better films than the rest of the world. I personally don’t think that’s the case. We’re not special. We make great movies (Samson & Delilah, Animal Kingdom) but we also make some shockers (A Heartbeat Away, Big Mamma’s Boy).
The best explanations as to why critics are softer on local product always seem to revolve around the future of the industry in this country. We are a small fish in a very big pond. Even in a good year, you’d be lucky to see 20 Aussie films make their way into our cinemas. Most of these only get a limited release in small theatres and they struggle to find an audience when up against the huge marketing budgets of Hollywood blockbusters.
Those with influence will therefore do whatever they can to protect the filmmaking industry in this country. We need people to hand over their hard earned dollars and help boost the box-office for Australian films. If we don’t, fewer films will get made and it’ll make it even harder for our budding actors, directors, writers, editors and cinematographers to forge a career.
But are forgiving film reviews helping or hurting? If critics “talk up” an Aussie film and the public are subsequently disappointed, are we doing everyone a disservice? It’s kind of like the boy who cried wolf. Sooner or later, people will stop believing and they’ll look at every review of an Australian movie with a degree of scepticism. I have friends who feel this way already.
It’s a fine line and I’m not purporting to have an easy answer. I try to be independent and objective when writing a review but every now and again, I do show a slight bias towards an Australian movie. That was the case a couple of weeks ago with the Brisbane-based documentary The Curse Of The Gothic Symphony. It’s rough around the edges but I wanted it to succeed and so gave it a “slightly better than average” review.
To cut to the chase… how do you react to reviews of Australian movies and theatrical shows? Do you treat them the same as all others? Or do you read them with an element of doubt? I’m curious to know.
Brace yourself Sydney. I’ll be paying you a visit in June.
I haven’t attended the Sydney Film Festival before but I’m making the effort to do so in 2012. I’d love to be able to return to the Toronto Film Festival again this year but I won’t be able to given it’s a huge investment of my time and money. Plus, I have another holiday planned for November. Perhaps I’ll get back to Toronto in 2013 but for now, Sydney is at the front of my mind.
I'll be doing a special Sunday afternoon show on ABC Digital (which can be heard around Australia) covering my time at the Festival and hopefully there'll be some good stories and good films to talk about.
I’ll be at the Festival for 3 days – flying down on the morning of Friday, June 8 and returning in the evening on Sunday, June 10. I’m squeezing 9 films into the calendar and for those interested, here’s what I’ll be seeing. The plot overviews come from the IMDB.
Where Do We Go Now?
Friday, June 8 – 6pm
A group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village. Winner of the audience award at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
Jeff, Who Lives At Home
Friday, June 8 – 8:30pm
Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.
First Position
Saturday, June 9 – 10am
A documentary that follows six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Saturday, June 9 – 12pm
Faced with her father's fading health and environmental changes that release an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy leaves her Delta-community home in search of her mother.
Not Suitable For Children
Saturday, June 9 – 4pm
A young playboy who learns he has one month until he becomes infertile sets out to procreate as much as possible. An Australian film that stars Ryan Kwanten
Moonrise Kingdom
Saturday, June 9 – 9pm
A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. The latest from director Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and the cast includes Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand.
Bully
Sunday, June 10 – 9:30am
A documentary on peer-to-peer bullying in schools across America.
On The Road
Sunday, June 10 – 2pm
Dean and Sal are the portrait of the Beat Generation. Their search for "It" results in a fast paced, energetic roller coaster ride with highs and lows throughout the United States. Stars Viggo Mortensen.
Undefeated
Sunday, June 10 – 4:30pm
A documentary on an underdog football team who look to reverse their fortunes with coach Bill Courtney. Winner of the 2012 Academy Award for best documentary feature.
If you’re going to be in Sydney yourself for the Festival, do let me know (through email, Facebook, Twitter) and I’ll try to say hi.
Hopefully it’ll be a great few days.
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Back From Adelaide
I have returned from a fun week in Adelaide with the Queensland men’s golf team. They were competing in the 2012 Australian Men’s Interstate Series at Royal Adelaide and my role was to act as manager. I drove them around, kept them well fed (sometimes a challenge given their healthy appetites) and made sure they got to the 1st tee each day on time.
I was in awe at the standard of golf being played. There are talented players in every state and seeing them face off in head-to-head match play was exciting.
I used the opportunity to strengthen my photography skills and you can check out the players in action by clicking here. I took a lot of video footage as well and am currently editing together a highlights package to upload to Youtube. A few shots are already up and you can see them in my Youtube feed right here.
It was great to come back to a long weekend in Brisbane as it’s given me time to catch up on a plethora of emails and see a few movies. I’m now back on track and ready to resume normal transmission.
The Avengers Conquers The United States
We already saw the amazing box-office in Australia and now The Avengers has taken the U.S. by storm with a ridiculous $200.3m take on its opening weekend. That smashes the previous record of $169.2m held by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. It benefits from 3D ticket prices and a large number of screens but it’s still an amazing total. To put it into perspective, only 7 films made more than $200m in total last year in the U.S. The Avengers has made that in just 3 days!
It’ll be interesting to see where its box-office finishes up. What we know for sure is that The Avengers is now a franchise to be reckoned with for many years to come. There’ll be sequels… and lots of them!
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