Author Archive for: ‘Cathy Hope and Adam Dickerson’

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …