''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' is a 2007 Australian

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Louise Alston Louise Alston is an Australian film director and producer best known for the movies ''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' and '' Jucy''. Biography Alston was born in Wagga Wagga, and studied at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School ...

and written by Stephen Vagg. It follows Anthea, a 25-year-old girl who hates her job and has to sit back and watch as all her friends move away from her hometown,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, to make a better life. In 2013, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' referred to it as a "cult film" inspired by "a typically Brisbane lament... the departure of people in their late 20s to Sydney, Melbourne, London or New York."

Plot

Anthea (Charlotte Gregg) is undergoing a crisis of confidence: overworked, no boyfriend, and now all her friends are leaving Brisbane. She is tempted to leave herself, but is opposed by her longtime best platonic male friend Michael (Matt Zeremes). Michael thinks people who leave Brisbane are copycats who follow the crowd; he is quite happy to stay in Brisbane, he is in a stable job and a stable very low-maintenance "sex-with-the-ex" relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie (Sarah Kennedy). In short, he is in a rut. Anthea's temptation to leave Brisbane increases with the impending departure of her flatmate Kath (Cindy Nelson). However, she then hears that her ex-boyfriend Jake (Gyton Grantley) is coming back to Brisbane to live. To Michael's annoyance, she dreams of a great future with him. Michael is then thrown out of his comfort zone by starting a new relationship with a girl he meets at work; Simone (Romany Lee). Slightly "alternative" and good natured, Simone is totally different from the sorts of girls he normally deals with, and he finds himself in a relationship over which he does not have total control. On her last day in Australia, Anthea and Michael finally resolve their feelings for each other.

Cast

Charlotte Gregg Charlotte Gregg (born December 1978/January 1979), also known as Charlotte Carr, is an Australian actress and blogger. She played the part of Charity Fernbrook in ''Home and Away'', who was a member of The Believers cult and prior to that was a ...

as Anthea *

Matt Zeremes Matt Zeremes (aka ''Matthew Zeremes'') is an Australian creator, actor, writer, director known for his television, theatre and film work. He was the co-creator and co-writer of the International Emmy Award-winning kids comedy TV Series Hardball fo ...

as Michael * Ryan Johnson as Tyson *

Cindy Nelson Cynthia Lee Nelson (born August 19, 1955) is former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. Racing career Born and raised in Lutsen in northeastern Minnesota, Nelson's family ran the local ski area and she was on skis before the ...

as Kath * Romany Lee as Simone * Sarah Kennedy as Stephanie *

Francesca Gasteen Francesca Gasteen is a Brisbane-based actress best known for playing the lead role in the 2010 film ''Jucy (film), Jucy'', which was partly based on the real-life friendship between herself and co-star Cindy Nelson (actor), Cindy Nelson. The film ...

as Natalie * Micheal Priest as Aram

Production

Originally, ''All My Friends are Leaving Brisbane'' was a stage performance at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

's Cement Box Theatre, where director Louise Alston first saw it. She could see that the story would make an ideal feature film and worked with writer Stephen Vagg on developing a script. Producer Jade van der Lei then became interested in the film and was able to raise a budget of . The film was shot in the middle of a Queensland summer, January 2006, over a three-week period. Afterward, The filmmakers successfully applied for

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

funding from the

Australian Film Commission The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a producti ...

, which enabled additional shooting. The film completed post-production in early 2007 and made its world debut at the 2007

Brisbane International Film Festival The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) is an annual film festival held in Brisbane, Australia. Organised by the Screen Culture unit at Screen Queensland, the festival has taken place since 1992, with the program including features, doc ...

. The film was shot on location in such Brisbane suburbs as

New Farm New Farm is an inner northern riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , New Farm had a population of 12,542 people. Geography The suburb is located 2 kilometres east of the Brisbane CBD on a large bend of the ...

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, Kangaroo Point, Brookfield, and

Toowong Toowong is a riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Toowong had a population of 10,830 people. Geography Toowong is situated between Mount Coot-tha and the Brisbane River and is made up of rolling hills w ...

. It features such iconic Brisbane landmarks as the

Story Bridge The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River that carries vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the long ...

and the Royal Exchange Hotel, and refers to Brisbane artists such as

Powderfinger Powderfinger were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins and drummer ...

Nick Earls Nicholas Francis Ward Earls (born 8 October 1963) is a novelist from Brisbane, Australia, who writes humorous popular fiction about everyday life. The majority of his novels are set in his home town of Brisbane. He fronted a major Brisbane tour ...

, and

John Birmingham John Birmingham (born 7 August 1964) is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'', and his ''Axis of Time'' trilogy. Early life and education Birmingham was born in Liverpool, United ...

. The soundtrack includes a cover version of "

Streets of Your Town "Streets Of Your Town" is a song by Australian indie group The Go-Betweens that was released as the lead single from their 1988 album ''16 Lovers Lane''. Featuring polished production, a prominent backing vocal by Amanda Brown (musician), Amanda Br ...

" from Brisbane band

The Go-Betweens The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout it ...

by Brisbane singer

Dave McCormack David Liam McCormack (born 25 October 1968) is an Australian musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as frontman of Brisbane-based rock group Custard,McFarlan'Custard'entry. Retrieved 23 February 2010.Spencer et al, (2007McCormack, ...

Release

''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' was released on 27 May 2008 in Australia through Accent Film.

Box office

''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' took $42,524 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to $48,135 in 2009 dollars.

Adaptation

Stephen Vagg wrote an adaptation of the original play which relocated the action to Adelaide. Retitled ''All My Friends Are Leaving Adelaide'', it premiered at the 2012

Adelaide Fringe The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, i ...

Awards

''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' was part of the Official Selection at the

in 2007. The film received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2008 AFI Awards.2008 AFI Award Nominees

Connection to ''Jucy''

Many of the cast and crew were used by Louise Alston on her next feature film, '' Jucy'' (2011), including actors

, Ryan Johnson, and

References

External links

IMDb

Official Site

''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane''
at Urban Cinefile {{Louise Alston 2007 films Australian romantic comedy films 2007 romantic comedy films 2000s English-language films Films set in Brisbane Films shot in Brisbane Australian films based on plays 2007 directorial debut films