Screen News Film

Mark Grentell didn't go to film school, but teaching drama to kids and directing musical theatre in country NSW gave him good experience in the art of building creative communities.

All restraint gone as The Meg treats audiences like a cloud of burley in an underwater multiplex. Also, for the very last time, a season of Rake launches.

The bigger budget contestants at the AFI/AACTAs for 2018 are a varied bunch. The old cliche of sad films is dead, dead, dead.

AACTA observers quickly pointed out some cuckoos in the Australian film nest. But the problem is not what it seems.

This poetic Australian documentary takes its own astonishing, heartbreaking path through the global refugee crisis.

Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy play yearning lovers in a film about everything.

Australian audiences have turned away from winsome NZ bubble of cynicism The Breaker Upperers. How dare we!

Two festivals, from India and Turkey, compete with MIFF while Australian mega-doc about interstellar travel, The Living Universe, has a limited run.

Spinning gold from a piece of fluff, The Breaker Upperers harness social media to give their film another boost of publicity two weeks after its Oz release.

One hundred years ago, Lottie Lyell made a feminist film in South Australia. Now there's a $20,000 award in her honour female filmmakers working in the state. Also open for applications, the Natalie Miller Fellowship.

Why has Skyscraper done so well in China? We reckon The Breaker Upperers will quietly rake in money for some time - but are we right?

Naff French film by director Lorraine Levy avoids the caustic humour of earlier versions of Dr Knock.

The MIFF opening night film is the closest us hoi polloi get to an A list party. At times this one felt a bit like a nocturnal version of the Melbourne Cup.

In its sixth film in 22 years, the Mission: Impossible franchise cements its place as Hollywood's most reliable action franchise.

MIFF, French comedy Dr Knock and Wrong Kind of Black head a lineup which also covers the Palace doc fest and the arrival of the Koreans.

Fifty-one Australian film critics voted for their favourite Australian films since the year 2000. Some surprises appear among the usual suspects. We talk to Luke Buckmaster, the man who pulled the poll together.

Here's a batch of films to think about. The landscape of Australian cinema is surely changing, but we still don't know how.

It's no justice time in Australian cinemas as Mamma Mia attracts hordes and some good indies drown in their own muddy footprints.

First tool to advance the frustrated Australian feature sector is clear thinking, backed by co-operation. Here's a good start.

Elizabeth W. Scott has been named Executive Director, Create NSW, heading up the State’s peak arts and screen organisation.