Film & TV

Narcos has been one of the many successful Netflix exclusives, and looks to maintain that title with the unveiling of the newest trailer for it’s third season. It’s hard to watch without going into spoilers, but it’s really no secret that the ruthless drug lord and main character of Narcos season 1 and 2, Pablo…

Donald Trump could have saved An Inconvenient Sequel. If Al Gore is the John Wayne of climate activism, as directors Bonni Cohen and John Shenk would have you believe, then Trump is Lee Marvin (AKA Bad M.F). This time it’s personal, as they say. As it turns out, we get very little Truth To Power,…

Oscar nominated actress Sally Hawkins gives a career best performance in this beautifully drawn, absorbing portrait of reclusive Canadian folk artist, Maud Lewis. Maudie, based on a true story, is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper….

A landmark figure was revealed last week at the Melbourne International Film Festival, as Screen Australia has announced that female-led titles made up 47% of projects that successfully received funding over the last two years. Although it’s excellent news that gender parity is becoming a foreseeable goal within Australian film and TV, Screen Australia COO…

Create NSW acts at the New South Wales Government’s arts and culture policy and development body. Investing in screen, culture and arts advancements, ideas and projects, Create NSW have announced they are offering a chance to join the cause, proposing a position for an Emerging Producer Placement. They are specifically on the lookout for emerging…

Dunkirk, in its third week in cinemas, has climbed back up to the no. 1 spot, after dropping last week to no. 2 when War For The Planet Of The Apes debuted.  Dunkirk has earned $2.69m this week, and has so far made a very tidy sum of $16.46m.   In 2nd place, War For The Planet Of…

“The hope is that the audience doesn’t know who to root for in that sequence,” says co-Executive Producer Bryan Cogman in a new fifteen minute behind-the-scenes special from HBO, all about yesterday’s game-changing battle sequence they’re calling “The Loot Train Attack”. Of course, there are a pile of spoilers in this video, but it’s essential…

Paramount Pictures has officially released the first full-length trailer for mother!, the latest film from visionary director Darren Aronofsky, and boy is it pleasing. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, details about the film have been scarce, we know it is a horror film about a couple whose idyllic lifestyle is overrun with the mania…

Announced recently by the ABC, crime series Harrow which will be led by Amazing Grace actor Ioan Gruffudd has commenced filming in South East Queensland. And as the production rolls out on the ten-part series, details regarding the extended cast and the production schedule have surfaced. Promising a gritty and dramatic program imbued by endless…

The Time Of Their Lives is a film about two unlikely friends getting a second chance at life. It’s one where you feel like if it had had its own second chance it could have been excellent, but instead will have to settle for being just good. This is ultimately a light, comedy caper and…

When visionary filmmaker Luc Besson first picked up a copy of the French graphic novel series Valerian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres he was inspired to bring that story to cinema screens and has been working towards that goal for most of his life. Coincidentally Mezieres was hired by Besson to assist…

When you get the chance to sit down with a concert producer who has continually worked to bring the video game industry we all love into the theatre, you don’t lose your words, you make some up! Last week, I got to speak with Jason Michael Paul before his globe-trotting adventures bring his The Legend of Zelda:…

The first ever PlayStation Experience held in Kuala Lumpur went down this weekend and we were there to take it all in! Read on as our correspondent in KL, Jasmin Giebel-Osman, takes you through the highs, lows and best games from Malaysia’s first taste of the PlayStation Experience!

There are some actors that have the good fortune of traversing the generations through the medium of pop culture. One of those actors, Elden Henson, has been lucky enough to star in some major franchises as a fan favourite character spanning decades. Recently out in Australia for Oz Comic Con Melbourne 2017, we sat down…

First we got The X-Files, and then over the course of April and May of this year, we were gifted with the return of another beloved FOX TV series: Prison Break. The series had most of the original cast returning for another round of prison breaking escapades, conspiracy filling plots, twists, turns and above all…

Optus has launched a new initiative to support local Australian filmmakers with the Connect5 short film competition! If you have a penchant for working behind the camera and bringing your creative ideas to film, vlog, or animation, $10,000 cash and a trip to Singapore is up for grabs. Anyone who wants to make a positive…

In a move to rival the sheer scale and CGI glory of “Hardhome”, Game of Thrones have just presented what is probably its most epic battle yet, even outranking the “Battle of the Bastards” in some ways by pitting Jamie, Bronn and the Lannister forces against Dany, Drogon, and the Dothraki army. Like all of…

Will Ferrell’s production company Gary Sanchez to make a US version of the hit Stan Original Series No Activity in association with CBS Television and Jungle team, the latter having made the original series. The eight part CBS series, will shoot in the final term of 2017 with Trent O’Donnell and Patrick Brammall of Jungle…

You may not be familiar with the name, Dr. Mahinder Watsa but to many people he could be “Dr Love.” This nonagenarian is a former gynaecologist turned sexologist and author of a daily column in the Mumbai Mirror. Ask The Sexpert is an intimate portrait of this charming, progressive and wise old man who will…

You get the feeling that the story of The Church has enough in it to fill up several movies. But the documentary, Something Quite Peculiar doesn’t try to be a definitive guide to the band. Instead, it lays its focus squarely on front man, Steve Kilbey and adapts his 2014 memoir of the same name….

Unrest is a documentary that was difficult to make and a challenging one to watch. The film is the debut feature by journalist, Jennifer Brea who chronicles her life with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or chronic fatigue syndrome. She also speaks to others that have this condition by conducting interviews from her bed via Skype. ME…

In the 1980’s, Romanians would gather in record numbers in front of their TV sets to watch Comrade Detective.  Fronted by Florin Piersic, Jr as hard-nosed police detective Gregor Anghel, the series promised to be an action-heavy event that would both entertain its citizens whilst promoting communist ideals.  Sadly, after the collapse of the Berlin…

As we reported earlier this week, The AFI-AACTA #socialshorts competition is back for its fourth year, which will award winners across three categories later this year – and voting is now open! To learn more about what the competition has meant to those who have successfully entered and won their category, we caught up with…

Tuesday night saw the Australian premiere of Jane Campion’s new BBC Worldwide crime thriller series Top of the Lake: China Girl at the Sydney Opera House. Amongst the cast and crew present were Nicole Kidman, creator, writer and director Jane Campion, co-writer Gerard Lee, director Ariel Kleiman as well as cast members Alice Englert, Lincoln…

Whilst not opening to as much as last week’s no. 1 film, War For The Planet Of The Apes, the third in the franchise, managed to wipe out last week’s top flick in only its 2nd week in cinemas. War For The Planet Of The Apes earned $4.07m in its opening week, which just pushed last week’s no. 1…

Proving that the no-hold barred mentality he so masterfully captured as co-director of the original John Wick was no flash in the pan, director David Leitch ventures as a soloist for the excessive Atomic Blonde and manages to collate enough action, sensuality, and humour to deem it a project worthy of one’s attention. It doesn’t…

In local news, Screen Australia has recently announced that they plan to invested up to $4.15 million in production funding across fifteen documentaries. Through the guise of the Documentary Producer and Commissioned programs, the module set in place is certain to stretch and explore a plethora of various subject matters from creative voices. With some…

Throughout the last week, the Australian Film Institute and Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AFI | AACTA) have been making waves with their online short film competition #SocialShorts. In its fourth year, the competition is aimed at given unknown filmmakers exposure within the wider Australian film industry. And with 65 film competing it…

Atypical is a new Netflix series which has a charming lead character who is on the autistic spectrum. This family ‘dramedy’ is an engrossing one, which will teach viewers about some of the day-to-day realities for a teenager who has this mental syndrome. We put together the top five things we learned from this show….

It sometimes feels like today’s romantic-comedy films have become a little of out of sync with the rest of the modern blockbuster landscapes. You just don’t see as many being made these days. There’s an easy argument to be made that the audience for these kinds of stories have largely migrated to TV shows like…