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Gracie Otto’s documentary about her father – the legendary actor Barry Otto – blooms into a melancholy portrait of artistry and its burdens

All documentaries celebrating artistic geniuses face the challenge of how to recognise their talent without coming across as pure puffery. The dynamic is different in the rare event that the film-maker is personally related to the subject, as is the case in Revealed: Otto by Otto – a portrait of the great Australian actor Barry Otto directed by his daughter Gracie. She flips a potential downside – being so close to the person documented – into a virtue by crafting an emotionally rich film that truly could not have been made by anybody else. It is filled, like Otto’s performances, with light and shade.

Otto by Otto (which premiered at this year’s Sydney film festival and arrives on Stan on 16 June) begins unassumingly, with grainy home videos and footage...

(L-r) Harriet Dyer, Matt Okine, Lily Sullivan and Claudia Karvan.

Claudia Karvan, Lily Sullivan, Barry Otto, Matt Day, Fiona Press and Elsa Cocquerel have joined the cast of the second season of the Stan Original series The Other Guy.

Feminist author Clementine Ford and media personality Yumi Stynes have also boarded the show created by and starring Matt Okine, produced by Aquarius Films in association with Jude Troy’s Wooden Horse.

In her TV series debut Gracie Otto (The Last Impresario) is directing the comedy scripted by Okine, Kacie Anning and Becky Lucas, which is now shooting in Sydney.

Okine returns as radio presenter Aj Amon with Harriet Dyer as Aj’s best friend Stevie, Valene Kane as Aj’s ex Liv, Michael-Anthony Taylor (Pine Gap) as Aj’s dad and Christiaan Van Vuuren as drug dealer Dezzy.

In the first season Amon lost everything – his house, his job and...

Timothy Hutton is set as the male lead in Fox’s drama pilot based on the Endemol Shine Australia series Sisters. The untitled project (fka Sisters), starring Brittany Snow and Megalyn Echikunwoke, hails from Annie Weisman, Jason Katims, as well as the original series’ co-creator Imogen Banks, Universal TV and Endemol Shine North America.

Written by Weisman based on the Australian series created by Jonathan Gavin and Banks, with Leslye Headland set to direct the pilot, the drama centers on Julia Bechley (Snow), an only child who finds her life turned upside down when her father (Hutton) is forced to reveal that over the course of his pioneering career as a fertility doctor, he used his own sperm to conceive dozens of children. As she dutifully begins to track down her emerging group of siblings, among a sea of brothers, Julia discovers only two sisters – both of whom quickly become...

Network 10’s ‘Sisters’.

First announced last October, the Fox network’s remake of Imogen Banks’ and Jonathan Gavin’s drama Sisters is finally getting traction.

Leslye Headland, the co-creator/director of the Netflix comedy Russian Doll, has signed on to direct the pilot scripted by executive producer Annie Weisman, whose credits include the series The Path, About a Boy and Desperate Housewives.

Casting is underway on the untitled one-hour series which centres on Julia Bechly, an only child whose life is turned upside down when her father is forced to reveal that during his career as a fertility doctor, he used his own sperm to conceive dozens of children.

As Julia begins to track down her siblings, among a sea of brothers she discovers only two sisters – both of whom quickly become a part of her now redefined family.

The project was rated as one of the hottest drama...

Barry Otto (Photo credit: Jake Terrey).

When Gracie Otto told her friend Nick Broomfield that Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and socialite David Tang had rejected her proposal to be profiled in a feature documentary, the filmmaker gave her some sage advice.

Instead of trying to make a film about Tang, who founded the Shanghai Tang fashion chain, Bloomfield suggested she look at a subject much closer to home: her father Barry Otto.

The venerable stage, film and TV actor agreed, so his daughter and producer Nicole O’Donohue, her collaborator on The Last Impresario, embarked on the doc entitled Otto on Otto.

“It’s a very personal film and a hard film to make,” says Gracie, who lived with her parents until she was 26 and later moved to the Us.

“He is so engaged in his career, he is the essence of an actor, but when he is not in...

Dire Straits in Montserrat (Photo credit: Frank Oglethorpe)

Producer Cody Greenwood is drawing on strong family connections as she and director Gracie Otto prepare to shoot a feature documentary centred on a recording studio founded by The Beatles producer Sir George Martin.

In the 1980s Greenwood’s mother Frané Lessac, an author, illustrator and painter, lived on the Caribbean island of Montserrat where Martin built the studio which played host to countless pop and rock icons including The Police, The Rolling Stones, Dire Straits, Elton John, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney.

Frané befriended Martin and many of the visiting musicians, Cody visited the island six or seven times and got to know Martin’s wife Judy and The Police’s Andy Summers.

Those connections paid off when Greenwood met with Judy and reps of Martin’s estate in London (he died in 2016) and got their permission to make the doc,...

Sisters..

Network Ten has unveiled its 2017 line-up, with two new local dramas leading the slate; Sisters,.starring Barry Otto and Catherine McClements, and the previously announced.Wake in Fright.

Other new local content includes Common Sense, a news-focused show from the creators of Gogglebox; The Biggest Loser: Transformed; and a new series of.Russell Coight.s All Aussie Adventures,.after 15 years away from screens..

Offspring and The Wrong Girl will return, alongside lifestyle and reality programming such as MasterChef Australia, I.m A Celebrity. Get Me Out Of Here!, Gogglebox, Have You Been Paying Attention?, Family Feud, The Living Room, Shark Tank, Australian Survivor, The Bachelor Australia and The Bachelorette Australia..

Network Ten chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said the 2017 slate was .diverse and deeply engaging..

.Wake In Fright and Sisters are extraordinary Australian stories. The Biggest Loser: Transformed will take a beloved brand to a whole new level,...

Kate Winslet can do anything ... except save this movie from quirky overkill. The Dressmaker, based on a 2000 novel by Rosalie Ham, gives the actress a hell of a role. She's Tilly Dunnage, a 1950's fashionista who's decided to return home to dusty Dungatar (an apt name), the small Aussie town that spawned her. Tilly got run out of Dungatar 20 years ago, when she was just a 10 year-old, for allegedly murdering her schoolmate Stewart Pettyman. Everyone believes she bashed the kid's skull in – including her snaggle-toothed old mum, Molly (Judy Davis,...

The Dressmaker director Jocelyn Moorhouse on Sophie Theallet: "I met her because we are both good friends with Rupert Everett." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Loving Billy Wilder, watching Sunset Boulevard, an Audrey Hepburn Sabrina remodeling, Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit and Jack Nicholson in Sean Penn's The Pledge, Sergio Leone, Alice B Toklas in Paris, South Pacific, David and Albert Maysles' Grey Gardens, consulting with Sophie Theallet about Madeleine Vionnet and Cristóbal Balenciaga - Jocelyn Moorhouse and producer Sue Maslin revealed the underpinnings of The Dressmaker.

Kate Winslet as Tilly Dunnage: "We're entering a fable. Although the story, of course, is very truthful and universal."

Based on the novel by Rosalie Ham, screenplay Pj Hogan and Moorhouse, starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving with Sarah Snook, Kerry Fox (Alison Maclean's The Rehearsal), Gyton Grantley, Alison Whyte, Shane Bourne, and Barry Otto (Gracie Otto and...

Miranda Otto on set of Dance Academy: The Movie at Sydney Opera House. (Photo: Simon Cardwell). Miranda Otto (The Lord of The Rings, The Daughter, The Thin Red Line, Homeland) has joined the cast of Dance Academy: The Movie, which is currently shooting in Sydney before production moves to New York.

Otto will star in the role of artistic director of the National Ballet Company, Madeline Moncur, responsible for the new direction of the Company and choreographing its new works.

She joins previously announced cast members including Xenia Goodwin, Dena Kaplan, Thomas Lacey, Jordan Rodrigues, Alicia Banit, Keiynan Lonsdale, Tara Morice and Nic Westaway.

.Miranda Otto is one of my favourite actors on the planet. I can think of no greater artistic director — she is glitteringly beautiful, formidable but also brings a wonderful humanity to this key role,. said creator and writer Samantha Strauss.

Otto already has some connections with Dance Academy and its cast.

The National Film and Sound Archive's (Nfsa) crowdfunding campaign to restore Proof, Jocelyn Moorhouse.s 1991 film, is in its final days..

Written and directed by Moorhouse,.Proof.is the story of Martin (Hugo Weaving), a blind photographer. Andy, played by Russell Crowe, is the only friend Martin trusts to describe his photos to him.

The film launched both Weaving and Crowe.s careers onto the international stage, and was also Moorhouse.s breakout as a director. Proof premiered at Cannes, where it won the Golden Camera award, and has also won a host of AFI awards, including best film, director, screenplay, lead actor and supporting actor.

Since mid-May, the Nfsa has been asking Australians to pitch in $25,000 through a Pozible campaign to help restore the fim into a pristine digital format that can be shown in modern cinemas.

Funds raised by the campaign, now in its final days, will partially...

Australian films looks like maintaining their impressive momentum at cinemas after the premieres last weekend of Oddball and Blinky Bill: The Movie.

Stuart McDonald.s comedy inspired by the true story of chicken farmer Swampy Marsh, who deploys his sheepdog.to protect an endangered Fairy Penguin population, starring Shane Jacobson, Sarah Snook, Coco Gillies.and Alan Tudyk,.rang up $1.07 million in its first four days on 289 screens, including limited previews. . Deane Taylor.s animated movie which features the voices of.Ryan Kwanten, Toni Collette, Robin McLeavy, David Wenham, Rufus Sewell, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman, Barry Otto and Barry Humphries, took $335,000 on 266 screens, with previews. . Both are positioned to cash in on the two weeks school vacation with.Oddball appealing to families and Blinky Bill drawing young folk and their parents or carers, so their figures should lift during the week. . Steve Kearney, who produced Oddball with Richard Keddie and Sheila Hanahan Taylor,...

Toronto – There have been some bad world premieres at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival, but Jocelyn Moorhouse’s “The Dressmaker” has them beat in one significant category: there are worse movies to watch on a plane. Based on Rosalie Haim’s 2000 novel, the story begins with Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage (Kate Winslet) returning to her very small hometown of Dungatar, Australia (so small it's basically one street). Tilly left the town under mysterious circumstances as a small child and returns years later as an expert fashion designer and seamstress. An unexpected return that is a complete surprise to he overly quirky mother Molly (Judy Davis). We soon learn that Dungatar is full of colorful folk including a crossdressing police sergeant (Hugh Weaving), a cruel and vindictive herbal medicine store owner (Barry Otto), a town councilor with a secret past (Shane Bourne), a studly star football player (Teddy, played by Liam Hemsworth) and...

Originally scorned by audiences, director Ray Lawrence’s shocking Kafkaesque comedy starring Barry Otto became an arthouse sleeper hit

The DVD synopsis of director Ray Lawrence’s debut film Bliss describes it as a “controversial Australian film that both shocked and thrilled audiences at the 1985 Cannes film festival”.

Shocked and thrilled is one way to put it; another would be to say that the audience walked out in droves. The first screening resulted in a legendary shuffle to the exits: some 400 people abandoned Lawrence’s strikingly atmospheric adaptation of the author Peter Carey’s novel, recipient of the Miles Franklin award in 1981.

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Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness, Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban at the Oscars Wolverine Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness at the Academy Awards Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness, along with Best Actress nominee Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban, are pictured above arriving at the 83rd Academy Awards, held on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Stage and screen actor-singer Hugh Jackman was the Oscar ceremony host a couple of years ago, while Nicole Kidman was a 2011 Best Actress nominee for her performance as a bereaved mother in John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, co-starring Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest. More on Kidman further below. Recent Hugh Jackman movies The most recent film efforts of the Sydney-born Hugh Jackman were Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), in which he has the (second half of the) title role, and Baz Luhrmann's epic romance Australia (2008). Co-starring Nicole Kidman,...

Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker..

Director Jocelyn Moorhouse has wrapped production on feature film The Dressmaker, which has been shooting at Docklands Studio Melbourne and various locations in Victoria for the past eight weeks.

Set in the 1950s, the movie follows Myrtle "Tilly" Dunnage (Kate Winslet) who returns to her hometown in the Australian countryside to take care of her sick mother (Judy Davis), after being exiled when she was ten years old because of false accusations of murder. Having since become an expert dressmaker in Paris, Tilly transforms the town members with her couture creations and in the process, exacts revenge on the people who wrongly accused her of murder all those years ago.

The film also stars Liam Hemsworth and Hugo Weaving, as well as featuring Rebecca Gibney, Kerry Fox , Caroline Goodall, Gyton Grantley, Sacha Horler, Shane Jacobson, Sarah Snook and Barry Otto.

.Working with Kate, Judy, Liam and Hugo was wonderful,...

An Australian movie featuring Ryan Kwanten, Toni Collette, Robin McLeavy, David Wenham, Rufus Sewell, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman, Barry Otto and Barry Humphries sounds like a casting director.s dream.

All are lending their voices to The Blinky Bill Movie, Flying Bark Productions. CGI feature now in production in Sydney.

The script is by Fin Edquist, whose Maya the Bee Movie opens here on November 1. The co-directors are Deane Taylor (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Maya.s Alexs Stadermann.

Kwanten voices the title character with McLeavy as the koala.s best friend Nutsy. The plot sees the duo racing across the outback to find Blinky.s missing father and save his hometown.

Collette will voice emus Beryl and Cheryl with Sewell as The Cat, Humphries as Wombo the wombat, Wenham as Jacko the frill-necked lizard, Mailman as Blinky.s mother and Otto as the mayor of Green Patch.

.The Blinky Bill...

An Australian movie featuring Ryan Kwanten, Toni Collette, Robin McLeavy, David Wenham, Rufus Sewell, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman, Barry Otto and Barry Humphries sounds like a casting director.s dream.

All are lending their voices to The Blinky Bill Movie, Flying Bark Productions. CGI feature now in production in Sydney.

The script is by Fin Edquist, whose Maya the Bee Movie opens here on November 1, The co-directors are Deane Taylor (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Maya.s Alexs Stadermann.

Kwanten voices the title character with McLeavy as the koala.s best friend Nutsy. The plot sees the duo racing across the outback to find Blinky.s missing father and save his hometown.

Collette will voice emus Beryl and Cheryl, with Sewell as The Cat, Humphries as Wombo the wombat, Wenham as Jacko the frill-necked lizard, Mailman as Blinky.s mother and Otto as the mayor of Green Patch.

.The Blinky Bill...

Michael Caton and Jacki Weaver are attached to star in Last Cab, a comedy-drama about a dying man.s final journey.

The film is based on Reg Cribb play.s Last Cab to Darwin, which in turn was inspired by the cases of Max Bell and Bob Dent.

Bell was a terminally ill cab driver who drove 3,000 km from his home in Broken Hill to Darwin in the early 1990s in hopes of taking advantage of the Northern Territory's voluntary euthanasia laws. Dent was the first Australian to die from a legal, voluntary lethal injection in the Northern Territory in 1996.

Director Jeremy Sims aims to start shooting on location next March/April, with Greg Duffy as the producer, if the project succeeds in gaining investment from Screen Australia at its October board meeting.

Caton will play a character named Rex, who is an amalgam of Bell and Dent. Ningali Lawford has been cast as Polly,...

The Great Gatsby Cannes 2013: Leonardo DiCaprio on logically soggy red carpet Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby opened the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday evening. The Gatsby red carpet looked like a cross between the Academy Awards (Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire) and Dancing with Stars (loud music, with a handful of dancers performing in ’20s-costumes). (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio on the 2013 Cannes Film Festival’s The Great Gatsby red carpet.) On the Cannes Film Festival’s video of the Great Gatsby red carpet, you can watch Carey Mulligan getting nearly decapitated by a take-no-prisoners umbrella; Leonardo DiCaprio telling an interviewer, "I can’t hear a word you’re saying," and then walking on as if said journalist was invisible; and Tobey Maguire getting called, "Eh, Tobee!" But what do we learn from those brief interviews? That being in Cannes is "exciting" (DiCaprio, Maguire) and "meaningful" (Luhrmann,...

Leonardo DiCaprio The Great Gatsby movie box office: DiCaprio’s second biggest opening ever — but trailing Titanic in ticket sales The Great Gatsby movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel earned $50.08m at the North American box office this past weekend, including $3.25 million from late Thursday night showings, according to weekend box-office actuals found at Box Office Mojo. Despite mostly poor reviews — The Great Gatsby has a 32% approval rating and 5.6/10 average among Rotten Tomatoes‘ top critics — the Baz Luhrmann-directed take on the love story between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jay Gatsby and Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan far surpassed the expectations of both distributor Warner Bros. and box-office pundits. In fact, The Great Gatsby trailed only Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 3, which collected $72.52 million at the domestic box office this past weekend. (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby.) Partly thanks to 3D surcharges and a strong female contingent of ticket-buyers,...

Leonardo DiCaprio The Great Gatsby movie weekend box office: DiCaprio’s second biggest opening ever? (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby, with Carey Mulligan) Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1920s novel. A risky move? Well, if so, it has clearly paid off. Although The Great Gatsby will not top the North American box office this weekend, it’ll land in a remarkably (and surprisingly) strong second slot. (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby movie adaptation, with Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan.) Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 3 will easily lead the domestic box-office charge with approximately $65-70m, after plummeting 71% on Friday, compared to the previous week. True, opening-day Friday also included the box-office take from Thursday late night showings, but, for comparison’s sake, The Avengers was down 64% during that same time frame.

The Great Gatsby 2013 movie box office: Way overperforming? (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby) The Great Gatsby 2013 movie adaptation directed by Baz Luhrmann, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan will not top the North American box office this weekend. That’s the not-so-good news. But then again, no one was expecting The Great Gatsby to soar past Robert Downey Jr’s special-effects-laden Iron Man 3. True, both movies are in 3D, but … maybe if Jay Gatsby’s hair gel were capable of blowing up all of New England or something, then it’d have had a chance. (Updated The Great Gatsby weekend box office estimate.) Now, the (really) good news: The Great Gatsby, with the assistance of 3D surcharges and a large percentage of female ticket-buyers, may open north of $50m at 3,525 North American locations, according to early, rough estimates found at Deadline.com. As per Deadline’s "sources,...

The Great Gatsby Movie: Leonardo DiCaprio: ‘Heir apparent to Cary Grant’ (photo: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby) [See previous post: "The Great Gatsby 2013: Leonardo DiCaprio, Baz Luhrmann Shine; Story Essence Lost."] The role of the enigmatic, larger-than-life Gatsby would seem a difficult one to cast in an age when movie stars have been replaced by whatever pre-digested superhero is easiest to market and promote. Consider us lucky that one of the only movie stars left in American film makes a terrific Gatsby. There are moments when Leonardo DiCaprio, who previously worked with Luhrmann in 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, looks the heir apparent to Cary Grant. Our first head-on shot of Gatsby shows the character as the very embodiment of America’s unbridled optimism. His reputation as a good-time Charlie is surpassed only by his opacity. To the hundreds of guests who excitedly converge upon his bedazzled mansion, he’s a glamorous riddle, a thrower of epic house parties who might have...

It doesn.t seem that long ago that 3D computer animation was more expensive than stop-motion photography. But for director Simon Rippingale, it was the high-cost of stop-motion that led him to use 3D animated characters within his handmade miniature sets for his short film A Cautionary Tail.

Thankfully for Rippingale, the two media types have married up perfectly to give A Cautionary Tail a visually-rich backdrop for its story of loss and rediscovery. Rippingale says the use of stop-motion was intended to provide the 13-minute film with an .earthy. look.

.I knew I didn.t want to do a completely CGI film,. Rippingale says. .I love building and making, and the imperfections that come as part of that, which are lovely on camera. But with the budget that we had, I knew that we would only have one take on any shot..

The compromise was to shoot the handcrafted...

The Sydney Film School will host its festival with The Sapphires director Wayne Blair as keynote speaker for the event. Previous speakers at the event include Bruce Beresford, George Miller and Phillip Noyce.

The announcement:

Sydney Film School announces that the 16th Sydney Film School Festival will take place 11 and 12 July with Wayne Blair, director of ‘The Sapphires’, featuring as the keynote speaker for the event. Blair will speak at the Awards Screening Night taking place on Thursday July 12th (7pm start) at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington.

Wayne Blair’s debut feature film ‘The Sapphires’ recently had its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival receiving a lengthy standing ovation. The Sapphires (screening nationally from August 9th) is about an all-girl Aboriginal singing group who tour Vietnam during the war as Australia’s answer to The Supremes.

Blair is also known for his work on the other side of...

Three of Australia's leading female artists have collaborated to become a 'supergroup'. Friends Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby, who are collectively named Seeker Lover Keeper, have made a debut record that is due for release next month. According to The Daily Telegraph, the trio employed Dirty Three's Jim White to play drums on the CD, together with guitarist Shahzad Ismaily, who has worked with Tom Waits and Martha Wainwright. They also asked well-known actors Barry Otto, Aden Young and John Waters to mime three of their songs in videos rather than starring in them themselves. Blasko said: "Three (more)...

For anyone expecting the indigenous cinema of Australia to still revolve around post apocalyptic resource battles between roving bands of homicidal punks or bawdy comedies concerning working class types being transported from the shimmering outback to a modern urban milieu – with hilarious consequences of course – then a visit to the Barbican’s London Australian Film festival over the weekend would have shattered this redundant orthodoxy. Now in its 17th successful incarnation, the festival screened an unintentional double bill of movies from two female directors, two talents whom have crafted a historical drama and one contemporary drama respectively, where the ancient antipodean landscape provides an atmospheric background to the human theatrics that unfurl in the foreground.

The first of this duo is the period drama South Solitary in which Miranda Otto stars as Meredith Baxter, an unmarried young woman whom is accompanying her uncle to a remote island in the late...

Universal sent us copies of Movie Extra’s show about the making of a comedy show, The Jesters.

In Season 1 Mick Molloy plays ex-comedian Dave Davies, mentor of a four upstart would-be comedians. He introduces The Jesters to show business by giving them their very own TV show. It’s all about infighting, colossal egos and potential lawsuits but ultimately brilliantly funny watching.

Guest stars include Barry Otto, Steve Vizard, Ross Noble, Chas Licciardello, Mikey Robbins and Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

To win, email [email protected] and tell us, what’s your favourite show/movie about the making of a fictional show/movie?...

Over the past ten days, filmgoers have been heading to Bondi Pavilion to catch short flicks at Australia's long running and only Academy Award - and now BAFTA - accredited short film festival. The always popular event saw 108 films screen in official competition, 11 of which were world premieres and 46 were Australian premieres.   The festivities wrapped up on Sunday at the Closing Night screening, awards ceremony and after party which saw guests including Joel and Nash Edgerton and Barry Otto amongst the VIP guests.   Determining the winners on the night was The Flickerfest Jury, which comprised of a panel of Australian and international film experts including director Hannah Hillard (Franswa Sharl), Australian actress Susie Porter (East West 101) and Academy Award Nominated filmmaker Luke Doolan (Miracle Fish).

From Icon, we have Shirley Barret’s South Solitary, starring Miranda Otto as a 1927 unmarried woman who accompanies her uncle (Barry Otto) to an isolated island where he has been appointed lighthouse keeper.

This is a beautiful period piece that has divided opinions; at Encore we found it a little slow but ultimately quite endearing, and both Ottos do a fantastic job.

To win, email [email protected] and tell us, what’s the most isolated place you’ve ever visited?...

Sydney has been awarded the prestigious title of international ‘City of Film' by the cultural arm of the United Nations, Unesco. Only the second city to be bestowed such a title, following Bradford in Northern England, Sydney will now be recognised as a member of Unesco's Creative Cities Network, which includes 26 cities from around the world including Berlin, Montreal, Dublin, and Seville. The Creative Cities Network was launched by Unesco in 2004 to promote the social and cultural development of cities in categories such as film, music, literature, arts, gastronomy, and design. The announcement was made by Nsw Minister for the Arts Virginia Judge, and Lord Mayor Clover Moore, in front of a number of famed screen identities, including Gillian Armstrong, Jan Chapman, Barry Otto, and Margaret Pomeranz.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has recognised Sydney as an international ‘City of Film’.

“This prestigious international title will build upon our reputation as a world-class centre for film production, promotion and exhibition,” said Nsw Minister for the Arts Virginia Judge.

According to a press release from the Nsw Government, the City of Film status will “encourage new creative and economic partnerships, while recognising Sydney’s rich film history”.

The announcement was made by Judge and Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, with the presence of Gillian Armstrong, Jan Chapman, Barry Otto and Margaret Pomeranz. The bid was made in January with the support of the City of Sydney, the Nsw Government and industry stakeholders.

Sydney is only the second city to receive this title. The other ‘City of Film’ is not Los Angeles, as most people would expect. It’s not London, Paris, Tokyo or Toronto either. It is Bradford,...

This week sees a ton of genre movies coming out on DVD and Blu- Ray. The biggest being Predators, followed up by the remake of the cult classic Night of the Demons, a sequel to Mirrors, and Anniversary editions for Rocky Horror Picture Show and Psycho. Add to that a slew of indie and classic horror and there is a lot to choose from.

Predators

Directed by Nimród Antal

Robert Rodriguez presents Predators, a bold new chapter in the Predator universe. Adrien Brody stars as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors mysteriously brought together on a jungle planet. But when these cold-blooded human “predators” find themselves in all-out war against a new breed of alien Predators, it’s the ultimate showdown between hunter and prey. Predators also star Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Oleg Taktarov, and Louis Ozawa Changchien.

The number of home video releases on October 19th is not as abundant as in recent weeks, and fewer re-released titles means those that are available are much more special. In this batch one Adrien Brody flick competes with another, and at least two independent horror titles are making a splash. Two beloved classic films return in Blu-ray where one is supplemented by a documentary treatment of it.

Also, don't forget to strum & drum out with some tunes from Rob Zombie on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Finally, foreign horror gives us an over-the-top Japanese gorefest, a British zombie flick where the $70 budget was spent on tea and biscuits for the zombies, and Norwegian black metal.

Predators

Directed by Nimród Antal

Robert Rodriguez presents Predators (review), a bold new chapter in the Predator universe. Adrien Brody stars as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors mysteriously brought together on a jungle planet.

Courtesy of Icon Film, we have passes for Shirley Barrett’s South Solitary, with Miranda Otto, Marton Csokas and Barry Otto.

South Solitary is the story of an unmarried 35-year old woman, Meredith (Miranda Otto), who arrives at a remote lighthouse island to assist her strict uncle (Barry Otto), the recentlly-appointed keeper planning on bringing some discipline to the operation. An error of judgement leaves Meredith with a withdrawn assistant (Marton Csokas) as her only companion.

South Solitary opens on July 29. You can read our feature here.

To win, email [email protected] and tell us, when watching a period film, is there any particular decade or century that you would have liked to live in?...

Director Shirley Barrett didn’t get to shoot South Solitary on her dream island, but she found that Plan B is sometimes better. Miguel Gonzalez writes.

Eight years ago Barrett stayed at the first cast concrete lighthouse in Australia, Green Cape, in southern Nsw – it now provides accommodation for visitors. She was there doing research for a film she had written, about whaling in the early 1900s. Eventually Barrett came to the conclusion that it was unlikely that the project would ever be made, due to its cost and the VFX it required. Barrett then started reading copies of the lighthouse log book, which described local shipwrecks and how homing pigeons were so well fed and lovingly tended to that, when they were required to fly home, they simply refused to do it. Barrett had found a new idea for a film.

“A small group of people who have to...

Shirley Barrett’s latest film South Solitary, which opened the Sydney Film Festival last night, has received mixed opinions from the Twitter users in the audience.

While Empire Magazine called it “beautifully shot and performed”, others said that the protagonist’s pet – ‘a sheep in a pink bonnet’ – was the highlight of the film.

The film is the story of a woman (Miranda Otto) who in 1927 arrives at South Solitary island, accompanying her uncle (Barry Otto), the new lighthouse manager.

These are some of the reactions from last night’s premiere:

EncoreMagazine: South Solitary = delicious. Congrats to everyone involved! POM_STAR: Sff opened last night. Speeches too long, South Solitary film was terrible. Hope things improve! empiremag_aus: South Solitary worked well as the Sff opening film. Beautifully shot and performed, the frothy humour won over the State crowd. TristanTweeting: Chatted with Shirley Barrett, director of #sydfilmfest opener, South Solitary.

Attendees at this year's Sydney Film Festival are in for a treat with the line-up of free public talks recently unveiled. This dynamic program is set to feature a vast array of talented filmmakers and actors speaking about their films, careers and wider questions about the local and international film industry.   The festival will open with David Stratton as he converses with the cast and crew of Shirley Barrett's tender and sweeping South Solitary on June 3. Barrett will be joined by the film's producer Marian Macgowan and the main actors Miranda Otto, Barry Otto (Australia) and Marton Csokas (The Tree, Alice In Wonderland).

Attendees at this year's Sydney Film Festival are in for a treat with the line-up of free public talks recently unveiled. This dynamic program is set to feature a vast array of talented filmmakers and actors speaking about their films, careers and wider questions about the local and international film industry.   The festival will open with David Stratton as he converses with the cast and crew of Shirley Barrett's tender and sweeping South Solitary on June 3. Barrett will be joined by the film's producer Marian Macgowan and the main actors Miranda Otto, Barry Otto (Australia) and Marton Csokas (The Tree, Alice In Wonderland).

The Shirley Barrett period drama South Solitary will be released by Icon Film on July 29.

According to an Icon spokesperson, the film is likely to open with 25-30 prints.

The release follows the world premiere of the film at the opening night gala of the Sydney Film Festival on June 2.

It tells the story of Meredith (Miranda Otto), a 35-year-old unmarried woman arrives at a remote lighthouse island in 1928 with her uncle (Barry Otto) and new head keeper. Bad weather and misadventure leave her marooned, with her only companion being the sullen and withdrawn assistant keeper Fleet (Marton Csokas). A tender, faltering courtship between the pair ensues.

Julie Bertucelli’s The Tree and Ben C. Lucas’ Wasted on the Young will represent Australia in the Sydney Film Festival Official Competition.

They will compete against Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Heartbeats, How I Ended this Summer, If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, The Killer Inside Me, Life During Wartime, Lola, Women Without Men, Four Lions and Moloch Tropical for the $60,000 cash prize.

The Jury president is producer Jan Chapman, joined by Sundance director John Cooper and three other jurors, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

This year’s edition of the Sff will open on June 2 with Shirley Barrett’s local film South Solitary, starring Miranda Otto and Barry Otto. The closing night selection is the American production The Kids Are Alright, directed by Lisa Cholodenko and starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo and Australian actress Mia Wasikowska.

Other local films...

Barry Otto will return to the big screen in the new Australian feature film South Solitary, which has him co-starring with his internationally successful daughter Miranda Otto, after previously working together on 1998's Dead Letter Office.   While Miranda has done the country proud dabbling in big budget features such as Lord Of The Rings and War Of The Worlds and Us TV shows such as The Starter Wife and Cashmere Mafia, in between local features such as the recent Blessed, Barry has delighted Australian audiences with his dedication to quality local theatre and cinema, with memorable turns in films such as Ray Lawrence's Bliss and Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom and Australia, a brief turn in Matthew Newton's Three Blind Mice (alongside his younger daughter Gracie, who was going out with Newton at the time), and most recently lending his voice to $9.

$9.99

Directed by: Tatia Rosenthal

Cast: (voices) Geoffrey Rush, Anthony Lapaglia, Samuel Johnson

Running Time: 1 hr 20 mins

Rating: R

Release Date: July 31, 2009

Plot: In this stop-motion animated film, denizens of an apartment building live interconnected lives. Their individual stories make up a mosaic about the choices and options life has to offer.

Who’s It For? Fans of animation, or just well-crafted films in general.

Expectations: I was hoping for a good story, what I had seen of the animation in stills looked pretty interesting.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Geoffrey Rush as The Angel: I didn’t realize whose voice I was listening to until the film was over and the credits rolled. Perhaps it was because he was speaking in his normal voice, aka with an Australian accent. Regardless Rush does a great job as “The Angel,” a mysterious winged man who may or may not have supernatural origins. There’s...

Jim Peck (Anthony Lapaglia) in the towel and Dave Peck (Samuel Johnson) in $9.99

Photo: Regent Releasing $9.99 is a curious little film that was put together under some particularly interesting circumstances. A New York-based independent filmmaker (Tatia Rosenthal) and an Israeli author (Etgar Keret) came together on a stop-motion animated feature produced as an Israeli-Australian co-production filmed in Australia, with post done in Israel, while using a worldy cast to voice the slice-of-life that is $9.99. Oh, did I mention it coincidentally makes use of nine animators? All of this ties into one peculiar animated feature as a varied group of characters search for the meaning of life amidst the pursuit of happiness. Best described as an urban fairy tale involving a group of people who all take up residence in a corner apartment building, $9.99 follows a young boy (voiced by Jamie Katsamatsas) who pines for a new toy, a man and...

Check out the new images for Regent Releasing's submission in the animated category for the Academy Awards! The film opens in Beverly Hills on December 12th and stars Geoffrey Rush, Anthony Lapaglia, Samuel Johnson, Claudia Karvan, Joel Edgerton, Barry Otto, Leanna Walsman, Ben Mendelson, Jamie Katsamatsas and Brian Meagan. See all the new images and the poster. See the official site here - www.9dollars99movie.com. Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret, $9.99 is a stop motion animated feature which offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life.

Check out the new images for Regent Releasing's submission in the animated category for the Academy Awards! The film opens in Beverly Hills on December 12th and stars Geoffrey Rush, Anthony Lapaglia, Samuel Johnson, Claudia Karvan, Joel Edgerton, Barry Otto, Leanna Walsman, Ben Mendelson, Jamie Katsamatsas and Brian Meagan. See all the new images and the poster. See the official site here - www.9dollars99movie.com. Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret, $9.99 is a stop motion animated feature which offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life.

Check out the new images for Regent Releasing's submission in the animated category for the Academy Awards! The film opens in Beverly Hills on December 12th and stars Geoffrey Rush, Anthony Lapaglia, Samuel Johnson, Claudia Karvan, Joel Edgerton, Barry Otto, Leanna Walsman, Ben Mendelson, Jamie Katsamatsas and Brian Meagan. See all the new images and the poster. See the official site here - www.9dollars99movie.com. Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret, $9.99 is a stop motion animated feature which offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life.Have you ever wondered "What is the meaning of life? Why do we exist?" The answer to this vexing question is now within your reach! You'll find it in a small yet amazing booklet, which will explain, in easy to follow, simple terms your reason for being! The booklet, printed on the finest paper, contains illuminating, exquisite colour pictures,...

Check out the new images for Regent Releasing's submission in the animated category for the Academy Awards! The film opens in Beverly Hills on December 12th and stars Geoffrey Rush, Anthony Lapaglia, Samuel Johnson, Claudia Karvan, Joel Edgerton, Barry Otto, Leanna Walsman, Ben Mendelson, Jamie Katsamatsas and Brian Meagan. See all the new images and the poster. See the official site here - www.9dollars99movie.com. Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret, $9.99 is a stop motion animated feature which offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life.