Blessed is based on the award-winning Australian play, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, which is a collection of four short, loosely overlapping plays, written by award-winning writers. The short plays in Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? were Trash, written by Andrew Bovell (who also wrote the screenplay for Lantana, and the play on […]

It seems bleak is the new black for Australian cinema, as Rachel Ward unveils her first feature-length film, Beautiful Kate, in a very encouraging debut. It’s the prodigal-son story, with Ned Kendall (Ben Mendelsohn) returning to his country home, with young fiancée Toni (Maeve Dermody) after a 20-year absence to see his dying father Bruce […]

Excited about the new Harry Potter film but worried you won’t understand it? We’ve put together some things that will make it easier to watch the film without having to consistently ask ‘who is that and what do they do?’ In pictures: Find out who’s who here Your say: Have you seen the new movie? […]

A screen adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize winner, Disgrace could easily have gone horribly wrong. Fortunately, creative partners, Australians Steve Jacobs and Anna-Maria Monticelli have delivered a finely nuanced film that closely reflects the intelligence and subtlety of the novel. John Malkovich gives a suitably malevolent turn as somewhat dissolute literature professor David Lurie […]

Samson and Delilah If it’s possible to pack a wallop at the same time as being quiet and unassuming, Warwick Thornton’s first full-length feature does it. “Samson and Delilah” has been selected for this year’s Cannes International Film Festival and I expect it will wow audiences there, as it should and hopefully will here in […]

Last week I had a telephone call with two film producers who were interested in buying the rights for my new novel, What Alice Forgot. It was all very tense and thrilling. “Shhhh,” I said to my toddler, George, to indicate that this was important, and maybe he’d like to go and quietly read his […]

One of my best memories of childhood is settling down on a winter afternoon, with my mum, in front of the TV for the Sunday Afternoon Classic. Together we sobbed our way through Waterloo Bridge, failed to follow the thread of The Big Sleep, learnt American history from Scarlett O’Hara, hummed along with West Side […]