Author Archive for: ‘Cathy Hope and Adam Dickerson’
The Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, and the Liberalisation of Film Censorship in Australia
The Federal Minister for Customs and Excise, Don Chipp, introduced the ‘R’ certificate for films in Australia in 1971. As is well known, Chipp’s decision was a key landmark in Australia’s shift from the paternalism and secrecy that had characterised censorship in the post-war period, to a more open and liberal regime.[1] This paper is an examination, based on archival …
Read More‘Films for the intelligent layman’: The origins of the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals (1952-1958)
This is the first of a sequence of three papers, which deal with the formative years (until 1972) of Australia’s two major international film festivals, Sydney and Melbourne. These papers will trace the Festivals’ development and growth over this period – from their early years as small-scale, amateur-driven events, to being the premier ‘film culture’ events in Australia.[1] If the …
Read More‘Is Happiness Festival-Shaped Any Longer?’: The Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals and the Growth of Australian Film Culture 1973-1977.
This is the fourth in a series of papers discussing the history of the Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals. Three of our previous papers examined the period from the Festivals’ emergence in 1952 and 1954 respectively, through their development and growth to 1972. [1] This paper continues the broader historical narrative and deals with the period from 1973 to 1977. It …
Read More‘Ill-will with the trade’: The Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals (1959-1964)
This paper deals with the history of the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals from 1959 to 1964. One of the key developments over this period is the Festivals’ emergence into a network of Australian (and international) trade relations. In particular, as the two Festivals grew in size and prestige, they come into conflict with the film trade for the first …
Read More‘Separating the Sheep from the Goats’: The Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals (1965-1972)
This paper is the third and final instalment of an organisational history of the formative years of the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals. Over the period from 1965-1972 the two Festivals negotiated with a new form of challenge – the proliferation of a variety of other film festivals around Australia. Despite their commitment to the spread of ‘film culture’, Sydney …
Read More‘Give It a Go You Apes’: Relations Between the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, and the Early Australian Film Industry (1954–1970)
This paper extends our previous analyses of the early history of the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, by examining the relations between the festivals and the Australian film industry, from 1954 to 1970. [1] Like those previous papers, it is built on the premise that the history of the two Festivals is best understood as an ongoing negotiation between the …
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