World Film Report Australia: Cannes Winners: Rowe Claims Camera D’or and Ariel Kleitman wins Kodak Discovery Award

Australian Film Scene: Local

Business:
Screen Australia has announced funding of 4 short films as part of its Springboard program aimed at assisting filmmakers who intend on making a short film which will be used to market an expanded feature version of the same project. The films selected include:

– Cryo (feature film Cargo) a sci-fi thriller directed by Luke Doolan
– Transmission (feature film These Final Hours) an apocalyptic drama written & directed by Zak Hilditch
– Mercury (feature film Hound) a conspiracy thriller written & directed by Paul Oliver
– Rarer Monsters (feature film Tremula) a sci-fi thriller written & directed by Shane Krause

The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) will provide loans against the Producer Offset to filmamkers to assist with small film and TV productions. The eligibility criteria will be to have an international distribution agreement and a provisional certificate from Screen Australia. Amounts will be loaned up to 85% of the estimated Producer Offset with a minimum loan value of $100,000 and maximum of $500,000.

In Production
Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm is currently in production starring Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis, and based on Australia’s only ever Nobel Prize winner for literature, Patrick White’s novel. The film has been in development for over seven years and tells the story of a son and daughter who tend to their mother’s deathbed and the impact she has on those around her.

Peter Weir has finished filming his latest feature The Way Back, and the project is in post-production and scheduled for a late 2010 release. The film stars Colin Farrell and follows a set of soldiers who escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940.

Simon Wincer from Free Willy, and The Lighthorsemen fame has begun shooting The Cup with Brendon Gleeson portraying horse trainer Dermot Weld who successfully trained two horses to Melbourne Cup triumph.

The Killer Elite is currently being shot in Victoria, with Robert De Niro joining an impressive cast of Jason Statham and Clive Owen. Directed by Gary McKendry the film is reported to have a budget of $66 million.

The 3D shark thriller Bait will begin shooting in July in Queensland which is about a tsunami that hits a seaside town trapping shoppers in a shopping centre and car park filled with a pack of sharks.

Australian Film Scene: Abroad

In news from the Cannes International Film Festival the short film Deeper Than Yesterday, a story of men who have been submerged in a submarine for 3 months and its impact upon them, won the Kodak Discovery Award for a Short Film and the Petit Rail d’Or at the prestigious Cannes Critics’ Week. The Kodak Discovery Award, which includes €3,000 worth of 35mm film, was decided by a jury of film industry professionals made up of Pablo Fendrik (director), Nelly Kafsky (producer), Sabine Lancelin (DOP), Lolita Chammah (actress) and Trevor Groth (festival programmer). The Petit Rail d’Or was decided by members of Ceux du Rail (an association of French railway workers) and includes real pieces of railway track coated in gold.

In further news from Cannes Australian director Michael Rowe has won the Camera d’Or awarded to the best debut film for his feature Leap Year. The film which was shot and produced in Mexico contains only 3 speaking parts, and is set in one room.

Screen Australia has announced that it is partnering with Emerging Pictures in New York to present the USA-Australia Film Showcase, which will be a quarterly cycle of Australian films previously not released in the US. The films will be screened across 21 US states in up to 60 cities with a minimum of 12 venues. The first three films selected for the event which will commence in June 2010 are Accidents Happen , The Waiting City and Charlie and Boots .

Animal Kingdom has had its US release date confirmed which will be the 13th of August.

Beneath Hill 60 has gained distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland through Ascot Elite and through Vision Films for distribution in Poland.

Richard Keep is our Australian film correspondent.