AustLit

ScreenLit provides information-rich records about Australian cinema productions (including short and feature films, documentaries, and animated films) and television programs (including made-for-television movies, series, mini-series, serials and documentaries).

The project was established by Professor Tom O'Regan, Associate Professors Frances Bonner and Jason Jacobs, and AustLit director Kerry Kilner.

Originally funded by a research infrastructure grant from The University of Queensland, ScreenLit was further supported by the Australian Research Council in 2010 through its Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Scheme and by ARC-funded Discovery Project, DP130101455 'Media Transformation in its Australian and International Contexts: Analysis and Theory-building' by Prof. Tom O'Regan.

Professor Tom O’Regan remained a champion and key participant in ScreenLit from the founding days until his unexpected death in 2020. Read more about Tom’s contributions to ScreenLit and to film and television theory.

ScreenLit represents a comprehensive scholarly approach to concentrating the detail about screenwriters, screenplays, published and unpublished manuscripts, original works, and adaptations of literary works in one resource. Biographical information on the writers, editors, directors, producers, and production companies is also provided, where known. It provides evidence to suggest that it is an economic necessity for Australian writers to be proficient in a diverse range of writing forms.

Each film and television entry in the dataset may comprise information about the screenplay, including an abstract or synopsis, publication details, and historical notes, and, where relevant, links to other websites, such as the National Film and Sound Archive and Australian Screen (with online access to clips from selected works).

Chronologically, the resource begins with the emergence of Australian film production in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Details regarding the finished film or television program also accompany most entries, with information typically including directors, producers, production companies, finance organisations, composers, directors of photography, film editors, production designers, film locations, any awards won, and release dates.