Plenty of new entries dominated this week, with four films placing in the top five. Animation Rio landed on top with almost $3 million ahead of nationwide school holidays, while other youth-targeted films Hop and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never made upwards of $1 million each. Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch had the best screen average ($7000 p/screen) to come in second spot. The rest of [...]

While the summer days and festivals may be over, Shorts Film Festival aims to act as a worthy rollover into the cooler months. 60 of Australia and Asia Pacific’s best short films over the past year are shown over the course of a week in unconventional surrounds, along with a selection of shorts from London’s Rushes Soho Shorts Festival in 2010. It’s a long way from their start in 2003 [...]

To use the immortal words of Feargal Sharkey: a good heart these days is hard to find. In a world of fearing and cynical people, all humans want is to find someone with a good heart that will respond to them the way they need them to. The people that enter our lives for one reason or another come from all parts of society and age, gender nor race affect [...]

Spanish drama Biutiful did extremely well with an average of $7300 over just eleven screens, but it was Red Riding Hood that came up trumps with takings of $1.74 million. Jason Statham’s remake of the Charles Bronson action film The Mechanic only took a third of that amount to land in fifth spot for its first week. Other new release Barney’s Version rounded up the top 10 with [...]

The pairing of Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu (as two powerhouse actors of modern French cinema) speaks volumes for Potiche, chosen as the opening film for the Alliance Francaise 2011 French Film Festival because of its accessible leading pair as well as the endearing story. French cinema is all about love, life and loss magnified with much dramatic flair, and you [...]

With the hype and excitement of the 2011 Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival over, film buffs are now looking forward to the stream of foreign film festivals over the course of the year. Screening 46 films over 19 days, the French offering is the first to hit our shores boasting Australia’s biggest foreign festival program. Promising an accessible mix of films, [...]

As predicted, the critically panned action film Battle: Los Angeles took out the top spot, earning just over $2.5 million over the weekend, while Bradley Cooper’s Limitless still opened well (although in third spot) with $1.9 million. Johnny Depp animation Rango has held strong in its second week, sandwiched in between the new Hollywood releases. Locally, Griff The Invisible, The Reef and A Heartbeat Away opened [...]

Rango, the first animated feature from VFX Studio ILM, had a strong opening weekend in Australia with takings of $2.7 million –  impressive during the middle of school term — while the only other new release to make the top 10 was the Anthony Hopkins horror The Rite with meager takings of $409,000. The Natalie Portman ballet thriller Black Swan re-entered the top 10 while major Oscar [...]