Cinema Of Australia
The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers with international reputations started their careers in Australian films, and many of these have established lucrative careers in larger film-producing centres such as the US and the UK. Commercially successful Australian films include '' Crocodile Dundee'', George Miller's '' Mad Max'' trilogy, Baz Luhrmann's '' Moulin Rouge!'', and Chris Noonan's ''Babe''. Award-winning productions include ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'', ''Gallipoli'', ''The Tracker'', ''Shine'' and '' Ten Canoes''. History The Australian film critic David Stratton characterized the history of the country's film as one of "boom and bust": there have been deep troughs, during which few films were made for decades, and high peaks, d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Babe (film)
''Babe'' is a 1995 comedy-drama film directed by Chris Noonan, and written by Noonan and George Miller. It is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith's 1983 novel '' The Sheep-Pig'', which tells the story of a farm pig who wants to do the work of a sheepdog. The film is narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne and the main animal characters are played by both real animals and animatronic puppets. ''Babe'' was filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, Australia, in 1994 and released theatrically in the United States and Canada on 4 August 1995, going on to become a critical and commercial success with seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. A sequel, '' Babe: Pig in the City'', was released in 1998, with the starring actors reprising their roles. However, it did not perform as well commercially or critically as the original. Plot After being used in a "guess the weight" contest at a county fair, orphaned pig Babe is brought home to the farm of the conte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest two-mile handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation". The Melbourne Cup has cemented itself as a part of Melbourne and Australian culture, having been run every year since 1861 (except for an intermission during World War I and World War II). The day of the race has been a public holiday for much of Victoria since 1876. It was originally run over but was shortened to in 1972 when Australia adopted the metric system. This reduced the distance by , and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3:19.1 was accordingly adjusted to 3:17.9. The present record holder is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Victoria Derby
The Victoria Derby, also known as the Penfolds Victoria Derby, is a Victoria Racing Club Group races, Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held under Set Weights conditions over a distance of 2,500 metres at Flemington Racecourse, in Melbourne, Australia scheduled annually on the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Total prize money for the race is A$2,000,000. History Originally run at a distance of miles, in 1972 it was changed to 2,400 metres to conform to the metric system. It was changed again in 1973 to its present distance of 2,500 metres. First run in 1855, the first three editions were won by fillies but the last time a filly won was in 1923 when Frances Tressady claimed victory. In its history, only one horse has ever won the Victoria Derby more than once. Fireworks accomplished the feat, winning back-to-back runnings in November 1867 and again in 1868 after a change of the race date to New Year's Day. Between 1931 and 1956 geldings were not pe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national collection of film, television, sound, radio, video games, new media, and related documents and artefacts. The collection ranges from works created in the late nineteenth century when the recorded sound and film industries were in their infancy, to those made in the present day. The NFSA collection first started as the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library (within the then Commonwealth National Library) in 1935, becoming an independent cultural organisation in 1984. On 3 October, Prime Minister Bob Hawke officially opened the NFSA's headquarters in Canberra. History of the organisation The work of the archive can be officially dated to the establishment of the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library (part of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Passengers Alighting From Ferry Brighton At Manly
''Passengers Alighting from Ferry Brighton at Manly'' is an 1896 film by Marius Sestier of passengers alighting from the paddle steamer ferry ''Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...'' at Manly Wharf in Sydney. It is the first film ever shot and screened in Australia. Sestier and Henry Walter Barnett made approximately 19 films in Sydney and Melbourne between October and November 1896, of which this was the earliest. The film premiered on 27 October 1896 at the Salon Lumière on Sydney's Pitt Street, Australia's first cinema, founded by Sestier and Barnett. No copy is known to have survived. References External links * 1896 films 1896 short films 1890s Australian films 1890s lost films Australian black-and-white films Australian silent short fi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne
The Tivoli Theatre was an important venue in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, located at 249 Bourke Street near Swanston Street. The first theatre on the site opened in 1866, rebuilt in 1872 as the Prince of Wales Opera House, rebuilt again in 1901 as the New Opera House, and renamed the Tivoli in 1914 when it joined the Tivoli circuit. The theatre closed in 1966. Early years Following the Victorian gold rush, Melbourne became a sizable thriving city, and the area of Bourke Street near Swanston developed as the theatre and entertainment precinct. One such venue was the Australia Hall, a small variety show, variety theatre built above livery stables. It opened on 2 November 1866, described as "of the exceedingly unpicturesque order of architecture." It was eventually redecorated and rechristened several times, before burning down in 1869. Three years later, in 1872, a new theatre was erected on the site by Henry Hoyt (omnibus and Trams in Melbourne, tramway pioneer), designed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Auguste And Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers (, ; ), Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948), were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their ' motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905, which places them among the earliest filmmakers. Their screening of a single film on 22 March 1895, for around 200 members of the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale (Society for the Development of the National Industry) in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. Their first commercial public screening on 28 December 1895, for around 40 paying visitors and invited relations has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema. Either the techniques or the business models of earlier filmmakers proved to be less viable than the breakthrough presentations of the Lumières. History The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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David Stratton
David James Stratton (born 1939) is an English-Australian film critic and historian. He has also worked as a journalist, interviewer, educator, television personality, and producer. His career as a film critic, writer, and educator in Australia spanned 57 years, until his retirement in December 2023. Stratton's media career included presenting film review shows on television with Margaret Pomeranz for 28 years, writing film reviews for '' The Weekend Australian'' for 33 years, and lecturing in film history for 35 years. Early life and education Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, in 1939, David James Stratton was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother. An avid filmgoer, his grandmother regularly took Stratton to the local cinemas. When he was around six years old, his father returned from the war and the family moved back to Wiltshire. He attended Chafyn Grove School from 1948 to 1953 as a boarder, but never finished secondary school. He saw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ten Canoes
''Ten Canoes'' is a 2006 Australian historical drama/docudrama film directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starring Crusoe Kurddal. The film is set in Arnhem Land in northern Australia, before Western influence, and tells the story of a group of ten men doing traditional hunting in canoes. A narrator tells the story, and the overall format is that of a moral tale. It was Australia's submission to the 79th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. Synopsis The film is set in Arnhem Land, in a time separate of Western influence, and tells the story of a group of ten men in a traditional hunting context. The leader of the group, Minygululu, tells the young Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil) a story about another young man even further back in time who, like Dayindi, coveted his elder brother's youngest wife. The sequences featuring Dayindi and the hunt are in black and white, while shots set in distant past are in colou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shine (film)
''Shine'' is a 1996 Australian Biographical film, biographical Psychological drama (subgenre), psychological drama film directed by Scott Hicks (director), Scott Hicks from a screenplay by Jan Sardi, based on the life of David Helfgott, a piano, pianist who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions. The film stars Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Googie Withers, Sonia Todd and John Gielgud. ''Shine'' had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 1996, followed by a theatrical release in Australia on August 15. At the 69th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for seven awards including Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture, with Rush winning Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor. Plot A man wanders through a heavy rainstorm, finding his way into a nearby restaurant. The restaurant's employees try to determine if he needs help. Despite his Mania, manic mode of speech being difficult to understand ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |