Author: Peter Gray

As All Creatures Great & Small returns for its sixth season, the Yorkshire Dales feel more alive – and more in flux – than ever. It’s 1945, the war in Europe has ended, and the world of Darrowby is shifting with new veterinary techniques, expanding families, and the hopeful hum of a community rebuilding itself….

Given how prolific James L. Brooks has been as a filmmaker across his career, one would feel safe in entering a production of his with a relative sense of ease. Across the 80s and 90s, whether it was as a writer and director (Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets) or producer (Big, Jerry…

Whilst Lady Gaga – in her first Australian bout of concerts in over a decade – claimed that the evening’s rules were to either “Dance or Die,” Brisbane really had only one choice when being enveloped by The Mayhem Ball; “Put your hands up” and dance! Gaga perhaps overdid it on how many times she…

Australian alternative pop/rock outfit Winters End makes a powerful return with “Deadtree,” a deeply affecting new single written in honour of the band’s late member – and frontwoman Marissa (Riss)’s brother – Christopher. After stepping way from music in 2020 following his sudden passing – where Riss admits that she went from “Writing songs daily…

One Battle After Another proved it was winning one of its own hardships as it was announced today that the Paul Thomas Anderson black comedy-thriller was this year’s most lauded title at the Golden Globe Awards. With nods for its director, lead actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), actress (Chase Infiniti) and supporting players (Benicio Del Toro and…

Thanks to StudioCanal Australia and Sixth Dimension, we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to giveaway to the new Christmas horror Silent Night, Deadly Night, in Australian theatres from December 11th, 2025. After witnessing his parents’ brutal murder on Christmas Eve, Billy transforms into a Killer Santa, delivering a yearly spree of calculated, chilling…

Director Mike P. Nelson is no stranger to reimagining cult horror properties. After completely re-envisioning the 2003 cannibalistic thriller Wrong Turn into something far more psychological for its 2021 outing, there’s a sense of comfort in him handling Silent Night, Deadly Night – originally a 1985 slasher that proved particularly controversial for its content around…

This Christmas, Santa’s gonna slay! A reimagining of the controversial cult 1984 classic slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night, director Mike P. Nelson is preparing to scare a new generation this festive season. After witnessing his parents’ brutal murder on Christmas Eve, Billy transforms into a Killer Santa, delivering a yearly spree of calculated, chilling…

Westpac OpenAir, the world’s most beautiful cinema, has today announced a stellar program for its 30th Sydney season, featuring a dozen premiere and preview screenings. Launching with the Australian premiere of Marty Supreme, the 2026 line-up includes a roll call of the new year’s most anticipated films, from Toronto Audience Award Winner Hamnet, to Neil Diamond tribute Song Sung Blue, Emerald…

Filmmakers, artists, and creatives of all skill levels and backgrounds are invited to celebrate Public Domain Day, by creating and uploading a 2-3 minute short film to the Internet Archive. This contest offers a chance to explore and reimagine the creative treasures entering the public domain, especially works from 1930 that will enter the public domain…

When Netflix announced it would acquire Warner Bros. for more than $80 billion, the news landed with considerable weight. It wasn’t just another merger in an era already drowning in media consolidation. It was the moment Hollywood officially surrendered one of its last legacy studios to the gravity of a global tech giant. And let’s…

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) today announced the nominees for the 2026 AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel Group, recognising outstanding achievements across film, television, documentary, short form and digital production. The Awards will be presented during AACTA Festival, held 4th – 8th February, 2026 at HOTA, Home of the Arts on…

Despite the fact that 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s was quite critically mauled, its $297 million global haul spoke to the contrary.  Fans seemed to eat up what director Emma Tammi and co-writer Scott Cawthon (the creator of the video game series it’s based upon) put forth, even if they too readily admitted that the…

It’s a shame that the romantic comedy doesn’t feel as cinematically necessary as it once did, with the genre relegated to streaming services or an On Demand shelf life (for the most part), even if they are blessed with genuine star talent.  And whilst Michelle Danner‘s Under the Stars isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s a…

When a mysterious young woman washes up on the bank of a local river, both the feisty twelve-year-old-girl who discovers her and her overprotective father are forever changed by both the arrival of this stranger into their home, and the ruthless drug lord who will stop at nothing to kill her once and for all….

With a more sizeable budget, one could imagine a film like Hunting Season being the perfect vehicle for an action figure like Jason Statham. It utilises a simple premise, indulges in a certain neo-Western mentality, remains remarkably asexual, and ultimately culminates in a violent shoot-out where murky good triumphs over pure evil. Except Statham isn’t…

Though a richly textured performance from George Clooney (even if he is essentially playing himself) and some warm support from Adam Sandler (though his overuse of the word “Papi” starts to grate) help bolster Jay Kelly, it’s difficult to entirely find a way into the universality writer/director Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, White Noise) hopes to…

Judgement is coming. The Allies, led by the unyielding chief prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), have the task of ensuring the Nazi regime answers for the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust, while a US Army psychiatrist (Rami Malek) is locked in a dramatic psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (Russell Crowe). Based on…

Whilst he has proved his weight in popcorn comic book efforts (The Amazing Spider-Man), indulgent actioners (Ambulance), and self-aware slashers (2022’s requel Scream and both its sequels, Scream VI and next year’s Scream 7) over his career, writer/director James Vanderbilt has also expressed a certain fascination with the morally grey areas of history (see David…

Samara Weaving is back, and just as blood-soaked as ever, in the first-look trailer for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the long-awaited sequel to 2019’s sleeper smash horror-comedy Ready or Not. Once again helmed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, the filmmaking duo who go by Radio Silence and are also known for…

From the opening of Oh. What. Fun., director/writer Michael Showalter and his co-writer Chandler Baker very much express both the importance of mothers during the festive season and how, in the realms of cinematic ventures, they’re an under valued character.  As the film’s loving focal point, Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer, always a treat to see…

Come for the presents. Stay for the baggage. It wouldn’t be a Christmas comedy without some familial dysfunction, and, in 2025, the Clauster clan are delivering such in Oh. What. Fun., a new seasonal laugher from director Michael Showalter (Spoiler Alert, The Idea of You). Flipping the script on classic holiday movies to remind us…

There’s something rather amusing about what constitutes an “A24” movie.  There’s an expectation placed upon the studio as of late regarding the type of film it releases into theatres, and within its own genre, the A24 comedy has rarely been as wholesome as what Eternity projects.  Between the the darker fare of Sorry, Baby and…

Eternity is an imaginative and bittersweet romantic comedy about the afterlife, where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity. For Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) it’s a facing of an impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), who died young and has waited decades…

AACTA, Sanctuary Pictures, Umbrella Entertainment and the Wake in Fright Trust today announced The Harvest, written and directed by emerging filmmaker Darcy Conlan, as the 2025 recipient of the Wake in Fright Development Initiative. Conlan will receive $30,000 in funding and dedicated development support to take the project toward production; the Wake in Fright Development Initiative honours the…

When Blackout arrived in October 2007, it felt less like an album release and more like a cultural reset. Britney Spears – the most photographed woman in the world, trapped in an aggressive media cycle – walked into one of the most turbulent years of her life and somehow delivered a record so forward-thinking that…

Tropfest – the world’s largest short film festival – is set to make its spectacular return to Centennial Park, Sydney, on Sunday 22 February 2026, with internationally acclaimed and Academy Award nominated actor and producer Margot Robbie leading the charge as Jury President; she joins a prestigious list of fellow Australian and international celebrities, such as…

Director Brian Kirk manages to set quite the tone within the first minutes of his icy thriller Dead of Winter, with Emma Thompson‘s Barb navigating the snowy environment in the isolated Minnesotan wilderness she has ventured into to spread the ashes of her recently deceased husband. The emotionality conjured through Barb’s motivation offsets the terrifying…

Gurinder Chadha is one of Britain’s most distinctive filmmakers, known for telling stories that reflect the rich diversity of modern life.  She broke through internationally with Bend It Like Beckham, and has since directed a string of much-loved films, including Bride and Prejudice, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, and Blinded by the Light.  Her work is marked by warmth,…

One of the most poignant lines of Eleanor the Great is “Talk about the things that make you sad,” and it’s with such a notion that Scarlett Johansson‘s affecting dramedy takes it on as a throughline.  A film that so easily could have been about deception becomes something far greater and more profound, transforming itself…