Cirrus@Austlit

'Ten animators bring Alison Lester’s beloved children’s book to the screen, crafting a magical mixture of live action and animation that is destined to become a family favourite.

'As children hear the enchanting words of Lester’s illustrated classic Magic Beach, they slip into spellbinding worlds of dream and whimsy. Now translated into animated form – covering traditional 2D, claymation, stop-motion and more – it can captivate a whole new generation of youngsters while evoking wonder in the already-familiar. From a host of undersea adventures, tall tales of salty smugglers and escalating sandcastle wars, to sibling-stealing seaweed monsters, psychedelic coral forests and a dog’s dream of shoals of ‘sausage fish’, everyone will find their own fantastical adventure within.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When a man returns to his beach side hometown in Australia, he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood.'

Source: Production blurb.

'Her life may be a mess, but Grace Pudel (Snook, Succession; Predestination, MIFF 2014) does derive pleasure from three things: her snail collection, romance novels and her guinea pigs. As children, she and twin brother Gilbert (Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog; Slow West) eked out a modest existence with their paraplegic father, a has-been performer gripped by alcoholism and grief after their mother’s death. When he, too, passes away, the siblings are split up by child services: Grace is sent to Canberra, and Gilbert, to Perth. Isolated and depressed, Grace retreats behind a carapace – much like her snails – and fills her emotional void through compulsive hoarding. That is, until she finds a fourth source of joy: a friendship with outrageous octogenarian Pinky (Weaver, Animal Kingdom; Silver Linings Playbook).'

Source: Melbourne International Film Festival.

'This boldly atmospheric, psychologically incisive portrait of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë sweeps us away to 19th-century England for a tale of irrepressible creativity and secret desire. The directorial debut of veteran actor Frances O’Connor, Emily makes haunting drama of a young woman’s arduous journey toward realizing her vocation.

'People in the village call her “the strange one.” The second-youngest of the Brontë siblings, Emily (Sex Education’s Emma Mackey) was three years old when she lost her mother, and thereafter haplessly seeks the love of her Anglican-priest father, who, like most everyone around her, looks askance at her overactive imagination and disregard for social niceties. Emily has an ally in her brother, Branwell (Fionn Whitehead), the family’s black sheep whose wild behaviour, penchant for intoxicants, and literary ambitions embolden Emily to pursue her passions — some of which lead to artistic discovery, while others lead to romantic catastrophe.

'Part history, part speculation, writer-director O’Connor’s depiction of Brontë’s triumphs and tragedies is rapturous, whether finding its heroine joining Branwell on a euphoric opium trip, dancing, rolling, stumbling through the verdant West Yorkshire moors, or slipping perilously into a clandestine love affair with her French tutor (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).

'Just as in Wuthering Heights, which gave us one of literature’s most piercing stories of female subjection under an oppressive patriarchy, many of the obstacles that stood between Brontë and self-actualization were the result of a deeply rooted sexism. This magnificent film tells her story so that we celebrate Brontë’s too-brief life — and remember that her struggle is not yet over.'

Source: Toronto International Film Festival.

'The debut feature from writer/director Jub Clerc, inspired by her own experience, Sweet As is a coming of age road movie seen through the eyes of Murra, a 15-year-old Indigenous girl from Port Hedland in Western Australia.'

Source: Arenamedia.

'An idealistic film student is drawn into a shadowy and intoxicating world when she befriends an enigmatic performance artist.' (Production summary)

'While marine biologist Abby (Mia Wasikowska) is out on a boat examining the slow destruction of coral reefs, she’s called back home with the news that her mother has had a debilitating stroke, which has left her unable to speak. Abby begins reflecting on her childhood and the immense influence her mother, Dora (Radha Mitchell), had on her worldview. Through flashbacks, we meet the teenage Abby, played by newcomer Ilsa Fogg, who captures confidence and curiosity, taking a deep interest in protecting the bay where they live. In between amusing encounters with a local fisherman (Eric Bana), she maintains a bond with a groper fish affectionately named Blueback, who becomes a reminder of all the wonders the ocean has to offer and a path to healing a rift between Abby and her mother.'

Source: Toronto International Film Festival.

'Stolen is a mystery that unravels in reverse chronological order, solving the interpersonal battle between two characters that resonates with a whole nation.'

Source: Screen Australia funding approvals.

'A vulnerable man is kept under close personal surveillance over the course of one day.'

Source: Screen Australia funding approval.

'When 19-year-old wunderkind journalist Erik Jensen (now editor of The Saturday Paper) was invited by bad-boy Australian painter Adam Cullen to write his biography, Jensen (Toby Wallace, Romper Stomper) jumped at the chance. Despite a turbulent relationship, the two formed a unique bond that lasted until Cullen’s death in 2012 aged just 46.'

Source: Melbourne International Film Festival, 2018.

'The groundbreaking true story of a young South Sudanese refugee who used basketball to bring peace and purpose to his restless community in Western Sydney.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'THE WARRIORS is set in the world of Australian Rules Football. It explores the elite world of professional sport through the eyes of two new recruits - plucked from obscurity to fame and fortune - and two established players as they are thrown together in a share house in Melbourne.'

Source: ABC media release (https://tv.press.abc.net.au/footy-season-may-be-over-but-new-abc-tv-series-is-just-warming-up#). (Sighted: 11/10/2016)

'“McCrae’s Ghost” is the story about a man who - by virtue of his family’s wealth, his education, social position and as the heir to his family’s vast estate in Scotland - should have soared. A mistake – one foolish error and one act of desperation, changed his life forever. His choice - once made, re-formed his destiny. Once the die was cast, there was no turning back – everything changed. Dreams become nightmares, hopes become fears, love turned to suspicion and every fabricated story required another lie to give it credibility. This should have been punishment enough but McCrae was to endure worse. He lived in extraordinary times and he did extraordinary things but when he was being hunted down, to save himself he did whatever was needed to stay alive. When he left the woods on that awful night he thought that would have been the end of it but it was just the beginning of a hell most could not endure. Two spirits lived side-by-side inside McCrae’s body. They pulled and tugged against each other and as his body suffered, each spirit fought to save the other. As his body decayed, neither spirit would let go. Any normal man would have passed on from this world and into whatever oblivion awaits but McCrae’s weary body was dragged on until it finally rotted. When it finally gave up the ghost, it gave up two, both soaring in death as they should have in life. This story - McCrae’s story - will take you from his beginnings in Scotland, across half the world and into the remote jungles of Nagerland where he encountered the cannibal tribes that still live there today. It will take you from the industrial revolution and a life of great privilege on a downward spiral through the great depression and its crushing hardships. On the way you will find yourself in the unforgiving trenches of the Somme and into the workhouses that grew through the depression that followed. Only death could free McCrae but he would have to wait till his body rotted off his bones for that.' (Publication summary)

'Two Aboriginal clans from urban and remote communities live in an apocalyptic world and must decide who will be the new leader for the next 100 year cycle. Spear explores what this means to Indigenous men through dance, physical movement, spoken word, hip hop, traditional song and story.' (Adelaide Film Festival)

'Seventeen extraordinary Australian directors respond to the hauntingly beautiful collection of short stories by Tim Winton. Spanning almost 30 years, these stories provide windows into the lives of men and women in the small coastal town of Angelus. Linking and overlapping, the stories create a stunning and disturbing portrait of a small coastal community in Western Australia. As befits the title of the film, the stories are preoccupied with the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people's lives. Relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.'

Source: Screen Australia