Australian film succe at Sundance Film Festival

Australians have had great success over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. Australian director Sophie Hyde has won the prize for best director in world cinema drama at the festival for her debut Australian feature 52 Tuesdays. Writer/director Jennifer Kent's The Babadook, starring Essie Davis, had its international premiere at Sundance and has received wide critical acclaim and distribution deals to major territories including the USA. Australian writer Ashlee Page has also picked up the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award for her feature script, Archive.

Screen Australia's Head of Marketing, Kathleen Drumm, said, It's great to see emerging Australian talents Sophie Hyde, Jennifer Kent and Ashlee Page achieving international acclaim on the world stage at Sundance Film Festival as we celebrate our industry's achievements at the AACTA Awards this week.

For our industry's size, the international success of Australian creatives, both in front and behind the camera, is phenomenal. We are truly engaged more than ever in the global marketplace for both film and television, achieving international commercial success and critical acclaim as well as establishing successful multinational partnerships.

It's a given now that the talent and creativity of our actors, producers, directors, writers, digital effects specialists and crew working both at home and abroad are world-class.

52 Tuesdays, written by Sophie Hyde and Matthew Cormack, was shot every Tuesday for 52 consecutive weeks and follows the story of a relationship between a mother who is undergoing a gender transition, and her daughter, whose time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons. Emerging actors Del Herbert-Jane and Tilda Cobham-Hervey play mother and daughter respectively. The film received support from the South Australian Film Corporation's (SAFC) innovative FilmLab program, which is supported by Screen Australia.

The Babadook is a psychological thriller in the tradition of Polanski's classic domestic horrors (Rosemary's Baby, The Tenant, Repulsion). Using her award-winning short, Monster, as a springboard, writer/director Jennifer Kent developed the feature script through Screen Australia. The film stars Essie Davis (The Matrix Reloaded, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, The Slap).

The film received support from the South Australian Film Corporation's (SAFC) innovative FilmLab program and the Adelaide Film Festival, which are both supported by Screen Australia, and had its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival.

Screen Australia supported the filmmakers of both 52 Tuesdays and The Babadook to attend the Sundance Film Festival to enable them to launch their films on the world stage.

Media enquiries

Teri Calder T: 02 8113 5833; M: 0408 440 995

teri.calder@screenaustralia.gov.au

LINK:	http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2014/mr_140128_sunda...
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