Porchlight Films

True History of the Kelly Gang has been invited to Premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. 



https://youtu.be/hvcWe0-25BA

https://tiff.net/events/true-history-of-the-kelly-gang

The King has been invited to Premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. It will be presented in the Official Selection: Out of Competition. 

https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2019/out-competition/king

Mary Magdalene, directed by Garth Davis was nominated for 3 AACTA Awards:

• Best Original Score – Hildur Guðnadóttir and Jóhann Jóhannsson
• Best Costume Design – Jacqueline Durran
• Best Lead Actress – Rooney Mara

Kiki & Kitty, created and written by Nakkiah Lui, was nominated for Best Online Series. Mary Magdalene is available now on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes. Kiki & Kitty is available to watch now on ABC iView.

View full list of nominees here

Timothée Chalamet will play King Henry V in David Michôd’s upcoming film The King, from a script by Joel Edgerton and David Michôd.

The King is an historical epic set against the varied textures of Medieval Britain in the early 1400s and based loosely on the life of Henry V, culminating in the famous English victory over French forces at the Battle of Agincourt. 

Liz Watts, who produced the Michôd-directed Animal Kingdom and The Rover, will produce with Plan B’s Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. Edgerton and Michôd are also producing.  The King will be distributed by Netflix.

Mary Magdalene is an authentic and humanistic portrait of one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood spiritual figures in history. The biblical biopic tells the story of Mary (Rooney Mara), a young woman in search of a new way of living. Constricted by the hierarchies of the day, Mary defies her traditional family to join a new social movement led by the charismatic Jesus of Nazareth (Joaquin Phoenix). She soon finds a place for herself within the movement and at the heart of a journey that will lead to Jerusalem. Written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, Mary Magdalene also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim.

Garth Davis’ Mary Magdalene will be open in the UK on 16 March 2018, following a special screening on 26 February at the National Gallery in London.

In Australia and New Zealand, Mary Magdalene opens 22 March 2018. 

George MacKay (Captain Fantastic, Pride), Academy Award Winner^® Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, The Water Diviner), Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men, Tolkien) and Essie Davis (The Babadook, “Game of Thrones,” Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams) have been announced to star in True History of the Kelly Gang, a film by the creative team behind the unflinching and award-winning Snowtown.

Due to film in Victoria, Australia next year from March, director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Macbeth, Assassin’s Creed) and writer Shaun Grant (Snowtown, Jasper Jones, Berlin Syndrome) will shatter the mythology of notorious bushranger Ned Kelly (MacKay) with a gothic western for our times. Based on Peter Carey’s Booker Prize-winning novel, this is a bold, uncompromising film about one of the world’s greatest outlaws and the colonial badlands from which he rose. 

Read the full press release here.

The Rover and Animal Kingdom have been included on the list of the 10 best financially performing films in Screen Australia’s commercial analysis of 94 recent independent Australian films, written by Sandy George and recoupment manager Bernadette Rheinberger.
The entire 4-part series, which also features an interview with producer Liz Watts, is available to read on Screen Australia’s Screen Blog.

ABC, Screen Australia and Porchlight Films are delighted to announce the start of shooting on Kiki & Kitty  – an absurdist comedy series from Gamillaroi/Torres Strait Islander and seriously clever writer/creator/actor, Nakkiah Lui.

Working with producers Liz Watts and Sylvia Warmer, Lui has written the series and will play the pivotal role of Kiki.

Directed by Catriona McKenzie (Shadow Hunters, Satellite Boy, Redfern Now),  the six-part series for ABC iview portrays the trials and tribulations of Kiki, the good black girl in a bad white world, who stumbles across her vagina in the personification of Kitty (played by Elaine Crombie) and realises there is a lot more to life than she thought.

Commissioned by ABC Indigenous and financed with the support of Screen Australia’s Multiplatform Fund, the series is expected to air across multiple platforms.

Read the full press release.

The official trailer for the upcoming feature film Jasper Jones has been released.

Adapted from the award-winning iconic Australian novel by Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones is directed by Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae, Radiance, One Night the Moon) and produced by Vincent Sheehan (Animal Kingdom, The Hunter) and David Jowsey (Mystery Road, Goldstone). 

Jasper Jones opens in Australian cinemas March 2nd, 2017.
Read the full press release.

The Kettering Incident won three awards at the 2016 Australian Academy of Cinematic and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards:

– Best Telefeature or Mini Series
– Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama: Elizabeth Debicki as Anna Macy
– Best Original Music Score in Television: Composers Max Lyandvert and Matteo Zingales

 Congratulations to all the cast and crew!

The Kettering Incident was also nominated in the following categories:
– Best Screenplay in Television: Episode 1 by Victoria Madden
– Best Cinematography in Television: Cinematographer Ari Wegner
– Best Direction in a Television Drama or Comedy: Episode 1 by Rowan Woods
– Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama: Sianoa Smit Mc-Phee as Chloe Holloway
– Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama: Sacha Horler as Barbara Holloway

Celebrated producer Liz Watts is joining See-Saw Films’ Iain Canning and Emile Sherman to produce the highly anticipated biopic Mary Magdalene. Set to begin shooting on location in Europe later this year, Watts will produce the film through her Sydney based production company Porchlight Films.

US network TNT has picked up the 10-episode series of Animal Kingdom, based on David Michôd’s film of the same name.
The series, starring Ellen Barkin, Scott Speedman and Finn Cole, will debut in 2016 with a script written by Jonathan Lisco and the pilot episode directed by John Wells.

David Michôd and Liz Watts are Executive Producers on the series. 

The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Animal Kingdom,’ ‘Good Behavior’ Nab TNT Series Orders

Hugo Weaving (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Little Fish, The Matrix, V for Vendetta) along with Dan Wylie (Chopper, Romper Stomper, The Water Diviner) and Matt Nable (Underbelly, Riddick, Killer Elite) have been cast in Jasper Jones, set to commence principal photography on 26th October in the south west of Western Australia.

Susan Prior (Animal Kingdom, Muriel’s Wedding, The Rover) and Myles Pollard (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, McLeods Daughters) also join the already announced cast of Academy Award® nominee Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine, Muriel’s Wedding, Miss You Already), Levi Miller (Terra Nova, Pan, upcoming Blue Dog), Angourie Rice (These Final Hours, upcoming The Nice Guys) and Aaron McGrath (Glitch).

Academy Award® nominee TONI COLLETTE (The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine, Muriel’s Wedding, upcoming Miss You Already) has joined the cast of JASPER JONES, the film adaptation of the multi-award winning coming of age mystery novel by Craig Silvey.

Read the full press release here

Porchlight Films and Bunya Productions are thrilled to announce that Levi Miller (Terra Nova, upcoming Pan, Blue Dog), Angourie Rice (These Final Hours, upcoming The Nice Guys) and Aaron McGrath (GLITCH) will star in the film adaption of the multi-award winning coming of age mystery novel Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey. 

Read the full press release.

Variety have reported that Ellen Barkin and Scott Speedman have been cast in TNT’s upcoming drama pilot Animal Kingdom, based on the 2010 feature film directed by David Michôd.

Barkin will play Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody, originally played by Jacki Weaver.
Speedman is to play Barry ‘Baz’ Brown, originally played by Joel Edgerton.

The pilot, written by Jonathan Lisco, will begin shooting next month in Los Angeles. 

Read the full article on Variety.

Documentary feature The Lost Aviator, directed by Andrew Lancaster, will have its North American Premiere at the Miami International Film Festival.
The film festival screenings will feature a Q&A session with director Andrew Lancaster, who will also be hosting a master class in screen composition moderated by composer Carlos Rafael Rivera.

US Premiere Screenings:
– 7:00pm Saturday 7th March, Coral Gables Art Cinema
– 6:45pm Sunday 8th March, Tower Theatre

Screen Composition Masterclass with Andrew Lancaster:
– 4:00pm Monday 9th March, Tower Theatre

The Rover, directed by David Michôd, has been nominated for 5 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards: 

Best Actor – Guy Pearce
Best Actor in a supporting role – Robert Pattinson
Best Actress in a supporting role – Susan Prior
Best Music Score – Antony Partos
Best Production Design – Jo Ford

The winners of the FCCA Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Tuesday March 10th at the Paddington Woollahra RSL in Paddington NSW. 

The Rover is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes.

The Rover has won two awards at the 2015 Australian Academy of Cinematic and Television Arts Awards (AACTA):

– Best Supporting Actress: Susan Prior
– Best Sound: Sam Petty, Des Kenneally, Justine Angus, Brooke Trezise, Francis Ward Lindsay and Robert Mackenzie

Congratulations Susan and our fabulous sound team!

The Rover is available now on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital.

The Rover, directed by David Michôd, has been nominated for the Australian Film Critics Association Awards in 6 different categories:
Best Director – David Michôd
Best Actor – Guy Pearce
Best Actor in a supporting role – Robert Pattinson
Best Actress in a supporting role – Susan Prior
Best Actress in a supporting role – Gillian Jones
Best Cinematography – Natasha Braier
The AFCA Awards will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne’s Federation Square on the evening of Saturday, February 7th 2015.  

The Rover is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes.

Journalist and film critic Peter Bradshaw has named David Michôd’s debut feature Animal Kingdom as one of the top 50 films from the past 5 years. 
Animal Kingdom, released in 2010, was listed alongside other iconic films such as Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine and Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.

Animal Kingdom is available now on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes.

Read Peter Bradshaw’s full list here.

The Rover has been named one of the best films of 2014 by IndieWire’s The Playlist and IMDB’s managing director Keith Simanton.

The Playlist commended the performances by Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson as well as the starkingly beautiful landscapes.

Keith Simanton on IMDB called The Rover a “violent, unsparing, blood-spattered and brilliant piece of filmmaking” and stated that it was one of his favourite films from the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. See Keith’s interviews with Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson and David Michôd here.

The Rover has won alongside Rolf de Heer’s Charlie’s Country for ‘Best Film Sound Recording’ at the Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards. Thank you to Des Kenneally and Marco Arlotta for their brilliant work on the film. 

The Rover, directed by David Michôd, has been nominated for 7 AACTA Awards:
Best Direction – David Michôd
Best Sound – Sam Petty, Des Kenneally, Justine Angus, Brooke Trezise, Francis Ward Lindsay and Robert Mackenzie–
Best Original Music Score – Antony Partos and Sam Petty
Best Production Design – Jo Ford
Best Lead Actor – Guy Pearce
Best Supporting Actor – Robert Pattinson
Best Supporting Actress – Susan Prior 

The AACTA Awards will take place on Thursday 29th of January at The Star and will be broadcast on Network 10. The Rover is available now on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes. See the full list of nominees.

The film adaptation of Craig Silvey’s best-selling Australian novel will go into production in 2015 with Rachel Perkins directing. Vincent Sheehan of Porchlight Films and David Jowsey of Bunya Productions will produce.
Read the press release from Screen Australia

The Lost Aviator, a documentary by Andrew Lancaster, has been officially selected for the 2015 Miami International Film Festival. Porchlight’s Liz Watts and Vincent Sheehan are executive producers.

George MacKay (Captain Fantastic, Pride), Academy Award Winner^® Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, The Water Diviner), Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men, Tolkien) and Essie Davis (The Babadook, “Game of Thrones,” Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams) have been announced to star in True History of the Kelly Gang, a film by the creative team behind the unflinching and award-winning Snowtown.

Read the full press release here.

The soundtrack, featuring music by Antony Partos, Sam Petty, Tortoise and more, will be released digitally on 7 October and on CD 11 November 2014. Read this Indiewire article about the long-awaited release here.

The Rover has been longlisted for the 4th AACTA awards nominations and is returning to cinemas for two screenings exclusively for AFI and AACTA members*
MELBOURNE:
6:30pm, Friday 10th October
The Backlot Studios
65 Haig St, Southbank
SYDNEY:
6:30pm, Thursday 16th October
Event Cinemas
Westfield, Bondi Junction
*Just present your AFI/AACTA membership card at the box office to receive your complimentary ticket

The Rover will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD on October 15th, through Roadshow Films. 

Foxtel announces cast for television series The Kettering Incident. Read the press release here.

The Rover has been invited to premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. It will be presented in the Official Selection: Out of Competition. Read the press release here.

View the official full trailer here. 

US distributor A24 has released the first teaser this morning online for THE ROVER – check it out here.

Dead Europe has been nominated for 5 awards at the upcoming Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in the following categories:
– Best Feature Film
– Best Adapted Screenplay
– Best Original Music Score
– Ewen Leslie for Best Lead Actor
– Marton Csokas for Best Supporting Actor ‬
The 3rd AACTA Awards will be held at The Star Event Centre, Sydney, on January 30th 2014 and will be broadcast on Channel 10 at 8:30pm.

Lore has won the Best Feature Film Award at this years Screen Producers Australia Awards. The award was accepted by producer Liz Watts at the ceremony, which was held in Melbourne on Wednesday 20th November.

David Michôd’s thriller The Rover has been acquired by A24 for distribution in the US. Read the Press Release

Porchlight Films is pleased to announce the appointment of Tanya Phegan in the newly created role of Head of Television.

Read the Press Release

Cate Shortland has been recognised with the prestigious award for Best Direction in a Feature Film at the 2013 Australian Director’s Guild Awards. Australian Directors Guild Announcement

The Rover, the new feature film from director David Michôd, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson began filming this week on location in South Australia. Read The Rover media release here.

The Rover started pre production in South Australia today. David Michôd’s exciting follow up to Animal Kingdom stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson. Filming commences in early 2013. 

Lore has won a swag of awards across the globe including Best New Director at Valladolid Film Festival, Spain, the Critics Prize at the Hamburg International Film Festival, Germany, Best Feature Film at the Hessian Film Awards, Germany, and Best Film at the Stockholm International Film Festival. To keep up with all things Lore, check out the Official Facebook Page

Cate Shortland’s German language film Lore has been selected to represent Australia for consideraton for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Academy Awards. For more information, see this article in the Sydney Morning Herald

Writer/director Cate Shortland’s Lore, produced by Liz Watts in conjunction with Rohfilm and Edge City Films, has won the Audience Award at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. For more information see the Press Release.

Tony Krawitz’s debut feature Dead Europe has been selected to play at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section. See Screen Australia Press Release for more information.

Screen Australia announced investment in Writer/Director David Michôd’s sophomore film The Rover to be produced by Liz Watts. 

See Screen Australia press release for more information.

Writer/Director Cate Shortland’s Lore has been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival and will screen in the Special Presentations section. 

FilmNation Entertainment has acquired the majority of worldwide rights to The Rover by writer-director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom).

Read details in the press release:
FN-The Rover.pdf

The Hunter will screen in the Headliners section of the 2012 South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

Robert Humphreys received the AACTA Award for Best Cinematography for The Hunter and the team of Matteo Zingales, Michael Lira, Andrew Lancaster were awarded the AACTA for Best Original Music Score for The Hunter.

For full details see the AACTA website

Laid was awarded the AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy Series at the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards luncheon.

More details on the AACTA website

The Hunter has been selected as the closing night film for 2012 Rotterdam Film Festival.

Read more in Screen Daily 

The nominations for the inaugural Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) Samsung Awards (formerly the AFI Awards) were announced on Wednesday 30 November securing Porchlight 18 nods for the company’s projects, THE HUNTER and LAID. 

Read details in press release

Filming commenced on the adaptation of the Christos Tsiolkas novel Dead Europe.  Starring Ewen Leslie, Dead Europe is being directed by Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man, Jewboy) and produced by Liz Watts, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning.  Dead Europe is a See Saw Films production in association with Porchlight Films.

International Sales agent eOne and UTA Independent Film Group have negotiated the sale to Magnolia following The Hunter‘s screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read full details at Indiewire.

The Hunter had its world premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011.  Read the review from The Hollywood Reporter

Alice Addison’s screenplay for The Hunter was given the Screen Queensland Award for best film script.

Alice Addison’s screenplay for The Hunter is on the shortlist for the awards to be announced on 6 September.  

The Australian Writers Guild has nominated Alice Addisons’s adaptation of Julia Leigh’s novel The Hunter for the Feature Film Adaptation category at this year’s awards to be held on 23 September.

Series two of the black romantic comedy started filming in Melbourne today. Read the ABC press release here.

Laid 2 – Opposites Subtract

Visit The Hunter facebook page.

Daniel Nettheim feature The Hunter, starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor and produced by Vincent Sheehan has been selected for special presentation at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

Madman Press Release 27 July 2011

Lore, the new feature film from director Cate Shortland with producer Liz Watts began filming this week.

Lore media release

Jacki Weaver has been nominated for the Oscar for Actress in a Supporting Role for her Animal Kingdom performance.

The National Board of Review presented Jacki Weaver with the Best Supporting Actress Award at a star-studded ceremony in New York.  Visit the NBR Website

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated Jacki Weaver for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Animal Kingdom.
Read about Jacki’s reaction in Variety.
Visit the Golden Globes official website

Following its spectacular results at the AFI awards, Animal Kingdom will return to the following cinemas from 16 December:
Nova (Vic)
Dendy Newtown (NSW)
Dendy Portside (QLD)
Dendy Canberra (ACT)

Check newspapers for session times and watch out for Animal Kingdom at your local outdoor cinema over summer. 

If you haven’t seen Jacki’s acceptance speech you can watch it here at youtube.com
And you can see Ben Mendelsohn and Joel Edgerton receive their awards as well.

Animal Kingdom received 10 awards from 18 nominations at the Australian Film Industry Awards including Best Film, Best Director (David Michod) and Best Original Screenplay (David Michôd).  
Read full details:

Principal photography for The Hunter with Willem Dafoe wound up today with the final day spent filming at Tasmania’s spectacular Mount King William Saddle.

• The National Board of Review has announced Jacki Weaver will received its award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Animal Kingdom.  The award will be presented at their Gala Awards Night to be held 11 January 2011.  Animal Kingdom was also included in the Board of Review list of the Top 10 Independent Films for 2010.
  
  www.nbrmp.org 

David Michod received the AFTRS IF Award for Best Direction for Animal Kingdom and Ben Mendelsohn received the Events NSW IF Award for Best Actor at the 2010 Kodak inside Film Awards.

The nominations include Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
For a full list of all nominees see aacta.org 

New feature film The Hunter, starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor began filming this week on location in Tasmania. 

The Hunter Press Release 26 Oct

Animal Kingdom has received seven nominations for this year’s IF Awards which will be announced on 14 November 2010.

The SHOWTIME MOVIE CHANNELS IF Award for Best Feature Film
The Events NSW IF Award for Best Actor – Ben Mendelsohn
The IF Award for Best Actress – Jacki Weaver
The Jameson IF Award for Best Script – David Michôd
The AFTRS IF Award for Best Direction – David Michôd
The SA FILM IF Award for Best Sound -– Sam Petty, Rob Mackenzie, Phillippe Decrausaz
The AVID IF Award for Best Editing – Luke DoolanAnimal Kingdom nominated for 7 IF Awards

Animal Kingdom opened in the US on 13 August with a brilliant box office performance amongst rave reviews.  
Full details in the press release below.
Madman Press Release

Filming will commence on location in Tasmania later this year.  The Hunter will star Academy Award nominated actor Willem Dafoe and is based on the highly-acclaimed novel by Julia Leigh.  The screen adaptation is by Alice Addison and will be directed by Daniel Nettheim and produced by Vincent Sheehan.  

The six part black comedy series produced by Liz Watts is currently shooting and will be seen on ABC TV early next year.  The series has been written by Marieke Hardy and Kirsty Fisher and is being directed by Trent O’Donnell.

Read the ABC press release PDF

Animal Kingdom will be released on August 13 in New York and Los Angeles, with around 120 cities following a rollout over 8 weeks. Writer/ Director David Michôd, and stars Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton and James Frecheville have done extensive pre publicity for the rollout, with more to come when Ben Mendelsohn and David travel to other cities in the last weeks of July.

Visit Sony Classics website for more details 
www.sonyclassics.com/animalkingdom

Following on from the US release, Animal Kingdom will be released in the UK on October 15, with Italy and France following and other territories’ releases to be announced.

Filming on this German/ Australian co-production commences in Germany in early 2011 with Cate Shortland directing and Liz Watts as one of the producers.  Post production will take place in Sydney.

Read about the Screen Australia funding approval here

The original music from the film Animal Kingdom is now available exclusively by download from iTunes.

Animal Kingdom began its cinema season in Australia posting a box office of $610k for its first weekend, bringing the total with sneaks to $720k.Read more at Inside Film here.

Animal Kingdom, the debut feature film of writer / director David Michôd and produced by Liz Watts, has won the World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance 2010.


Read full press release

Animal Kingdom, the debut feature film of writer / director David Michôd and produced by Liz Watts, has won the World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance 2010.


Read full press release

Read the full article here

The comedy series Like A Virgin, from producer Liz Watts, will go into production in 2010 after receiving investment approval from Screen Australia today.

Read Screen Australia press release.

Visit the Animal Kingdom website www.animalkingdommovie.com and view a short preview of the film.  

David Michod’s debut feature film Animal Kingdom, produced by Liz Watts, has been selected to screen in the World Cinema Section at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2010.

Visit the Sundance official announcement here

Press release from Madman Entertainment

Dubbo NSW was the host for the Australian launch of the Prime Mover cinema release on Friday 23 October.  

See the photos on Prime Mover’s facebook

Prime Mover is on facebook.  Follow all the news and become a fan.

Click here!

David Caesar’s screenplay for Prime Mover has been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards announced today by Premier Nathan Rees. This is Prime Mover’s second nomination for literary award.  David won the Queensland premier’s literary award in September 2008. 

Read more at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards website


 
Read the NSW Premier’s press release

Visit the new Prime Mover website at www.primemovermovie.com for the latest updates.

On February 16, 2009, cameras will start rolling on Animal Kingdom, one of the most compelling and ambitious features to be produced in Australia.

Read press release

Luke Ford, winner of the 2008 AFI award for Best Supporting Actor (Black Balloon), is to join the cast of Animal Kingdom in the role of Darren.

Animal Kingdom director David Michod’s short film Netherland Dwarf has been selected for The Generation Kplus section of the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival. This follows its selection earlier this year at Sundance 2009. 

Read  Screen Australia press release

Animal Kingdom has commenced pre-production on location in Melbourne, Australia. 

Principal photography will commence on 16 February.

Animal Kingdom director David Michod’s short film Netherland Dwarf has been selected for the Short Film Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. This is the second short film of David Michod to feature at Sundance in two years. 

The Screen Australia Board approved funding for Animal Kingdom, the first feature film by internationally acclaimed short film writer/director David Michod. Michod will team with one of Australia’s leading producers, Liz Watts, to make Animal Kingdom, the story of 17-year-old Joshua ‘J’ Cody who navigates his survival between an explosive criminal family and a cop who thinks he can save him. 

Guy Pearce has committed to playing Leckie, the troubled cop. Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton and Jackie Weaver are also attached. 

Read  Screen Australia press release

David Caesar has been awarded the Pacific Film and Televsion Award for best film script at the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards announced today.  

David Caesar’s Prime Mover completed Principal Photography with the final days and major action sequences being completed in Bourke. The film will be released by Transmission in mid 2009 and stars Michael Dorman, Emily Barclay, Ben Mendelsohn, William McInnes and Gyton Grantly.