AustLit

'The arts industry in Australia is at a precipice—decimated by the pandemic and systematically starved of funding. Instead of advancing an economic and nationalist argument for the value of the arts, we need to confront Australia’s cultural estrangement and reorient the sector towards social justice.' (Introduction)

'Thomas M. Wright’s Acute Misfortune, based on Erik Jensen’s biography of artist Adam Cullen, explores both the destructive masculinity upon which Cullen built his personal mythology, and the way Australian culture romanticises blokey dysfunction.' (Essay summary)

'Abandoned babies, estranged sons, stolen inheritances. Beyond the pulpy plotlines and cheesy dialogue, soap operas say so much about a country's social progress — who is present and who is excluded in mainstream TV worlds.' (Article summary)

'In its fifth and final season, Rake’s Cleaver Greene is a key player in the Australian Senate – and the ideal anti-hero for the Trump era.'  (Introduction)

'SBS miniseries can’t quite transcend its garish tabloid narrative but is a welcome break from crime TV’s blue gloom.' (Introduction)

'The Russian-born director captures dreamers, drinkers and drifters in a place where ‘nothing much happens’' 

'As streaming giants ride the global upswing in TV storytelling, homegrown drama is conspicuously scant at Australia’s cash-strapped national broadcaster.'

This paper theorises film festivals as distribution circuits, positioning film festivals in the broader cinema ecology to assess their role in delivering local films to local audiences. Recasting current research trends into film festivals through the lens of distribution enables us to see how festivals function as more than another exhibition screen - as a type of distributor. I offer a case study of Sydney Film Festival to explore the following research questions: What is the distributive function and nature of film festivals for Australian films? What happens to local titles following their festival runs? How can we explain the gap between Australian films' continued popularity at film festivals and their continued under-performance in the rest of the marketplace? In answering these questions, this article demonstrates how film festivals have become crucial to both the Australian film industry and the cinema industry at large over the last 10 years, to the point that they have almost replaced the art-house circuit and come to provide an essential, highly specialised distribution channel for small to medium budget films. For this reason, I argue that material and economic drivers are as essential to the current boon in film festivals as cultural ones, and that the film festival circuit has not been able to address the problem of distribution for auteurist, independent and art cinema in an age of digitisation. I present evidence that localises, concretises and specifies festival research, suggesting the major festivals in Australia are an increasingly discrete and self-contained distribution sector within the wider cinema ecology, which has significant implications for theorisations of festivals as feeders for theatrical circuits.

'Starring ET’s Henry Thomas, this is magical, smartly crafted B-grade 80s nostalgia, if you look past the casual racism.'

'Look about. From big cities to rural centres, tourist towns to sheep farms, film festivals are everywhere. Hardly a weekend now passes without some celebration lighting up screens somewhere around Australia. While 2015 marks yet another bumper year of film festival offerings, the proliferation of festivals is not a new phenomenon. For going on three decades, Australia has experienced an exponential increase in the range and number of celebrations on offer, with the boom in events showing no sign of slowing in the near future. Despite what is arguably a surplus of events, however, Australian audiences seem not to have tired (yet) of the opportunities film festivals present. While traditional networks of film exhibition and distribution are in a state of flux, struggling to navigate an ever-expanding array of content delivery and consumption platforms that are disrupting established patterns of viewing and the money-streams attached to them, festivals seem to have retained the public's interest. As digital distribution channels, online content providers and media on demand technologies open new avenues for film lovers to access the titles they desire, festivals seem to have maintained their allure, continuing to entice audiences away from their personal screens and into more communal viewing experiences.' (Publication abstract)

'Lauren Carroll Harris' treatise on the state of distribution in Australia for locally produced feature films is a timely and provocative analysis of the existing structures and a powerful argument for adjustment and change in this post digital world.

'Her reflections on a distribution led industry potentially replacing a production development led industry need to be seriously debated given our recent change of government and new management and key personnel at Screen Australia.' (Anthony I. Ginnane, Producer)