y separately published work icon Australian Film in the 1980s single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 Australian Film in the 1980s
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In this essay Tom O'Regan explores the Australian film industry in relation to filmmaking, audiences and government influence. 'It would be difficult to find a more interesting period in Australian film history than the 1980s,' he writes. 'There was the experiment of a government inspired tax shelter: the so-called tax incentives which provided levels of production funding and activity that had been hitherto unheard of in Australian film production. The average number of feature films made per year doubled from 15 in the 1970s to 27 in the 1980s when some 65 mini-series were also made. Additionally the budgets for all these rose sharply. The incentives exempted film production from the full pressures of the market. They permitted the industry to withstand the pressures for internationalisation by providing cheap finance and insisting on Australian creative control to secure the tax benefits.'

The 1980s saw a boom in the production television mini-series, including Vietnam (1987), and the release of several blockbusters, the most significant being Mad Max 2 (1981), Gallipoli (1981), The Man from Snowy River (1982), and the international box-office hit, Crocodile Dundee (1986). It was also an era when Australia's art cinema flourished, principally through the works of Paul Cox.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 25 Jan 2012 13:52:35
Subjects:
  • 1980s
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X