Archive

The remit of the Aussie Film Calendar Archive is twofold. Initially, it will consist of a list of past releases, screenings and events as they appeared on the Aussie Film Calendar, but will eventually feature a historical list of Australian cinema on the British market. A year-by-year summary appears below, click on the relevant year to get a more detailed list of releases, screenings and events in date order.

2012

The year of Queen Elizabeth II’s golden jubilee and the London Olympics (‘the greatest ever’?) was also a bumper year for Australian cinema in the UK, including theatrical releases for Jon Hewitt’s Kings Cross hellride X: Night of Vengeance, Kriv Stenders’ homegrown blockbuster Red Dog, Daniel Nettheim’s Tassie tiger seeking The Hunter, Matt Norman’s solidarity doco Salute, knockabout Anglo-Australian wedding comedy A Few Best Men, feelgood Aboriginal musical comedy The Sapphires, Tony Krawitz’s adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’ Dead Europe and PJ Hogan’s return to suburbia Mental. There was also a season of recent Aussie cinema at Cinema City in Norwich, the resurrection of the London Australian Film Society, the emergence of FilmFest Australia (a new festival from the team behind the Barbican’s London Australian Film Festival), and features showing at a range of film festivals including Raindance, Scala Beyond, Film4 Frightfest and the BFI London Film Festival. See the full Aussie Film Calendar – 2012.

2013

Depending on your perspective, Britain was either mourning or celebrating the death of former PM Margaret Thatcher (the latter ensuring that Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! made it into the charts), but everyone was horrified by the gruesome murder of Lee Rigby. On a happier note, both houses of parliament voted in favour a same sex marriage bill, Andy Murray won Britain’s first Wimbledon men’s singles title since 1936, and, of course, the Royal Academy’s staged a major retrospective of Australian art, Australia. Meanwhile, Aussie cinema in the UK continued much in the vein of 2012, with theatrical releases for Oz-produced  blockbusters The Great Gatsby and The Wolverine, alongside shorter runs for Cate Shortland’s German-language drama Lore, Fred Schepisi’s Patrick White adaptation The Eye of the Storm and John Pilger’s polemic Aboriginal affair documentary Utopia, and even a limited theatrical stint for shark thriller Bait 3D. Australian films also appeared at all the usual festival haunts, including Film4 FrightFest, London Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest and the East End Film Festival, but the biggest highlight of the Aussie Film Calendar in 2013 was undoubtedly the staging of Australia: Shifting Sands, a major retrospective of indigenous-themed cinema at BFI Southbank in London. See the full Aussie Film Calendar – 2013.

 

2014

Current and upcoming releases, screenings and events for 2014 can be seen on the Aussie Film Calendar. For past events, see the Aussie Film Calendar archive – 2014.

 

Last updated: 25 August 2014.