THE Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is calling ‘action’ for the debut AACTA Festival from February 8-11 across the Gold Coast.

The festival is a ‘blockbuster’ in its own right – four days of celebrating Australia’s vibrant screen industry that promises an immersive experience for all, from industry professionals to film enthusiasts, school-leavers, families, and aspiring creatives.

The AACTA Festival includes its paramount event, the AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel Group, being hosted at the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts (HOTA) at Surfers Paradise.

With more than 70 events on the program, the AACTA Festival presents a dynamic array of panels, meet-and-greet, screenings and activities which are predominantly free to attend, according to AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella. 

The AACTA Festival is billed as an opportunity “to go behind the scenes of your favourite films, immerse yourself in the industry’s latest trends, meet your favourite stars, network with screen practitioners, and learn more about the exciting world of Australian film, TV, gaming, music and more”. 

“AACTA Festival is a must-attend event for anyone who loves Australian film, television, music, gaming, art, and pop culture,” Mr Trewhella said. “We are excited to present more than 70 events over four days celebrating the excellence of our industry. From red carpet glamour to workshops and a special kids’ line-up, it’s an invitation for everyone to step into the magic of storytelling and creativity.”

The AACTA Industry Awards Ceremony will kick things off on Thursday, February 8, followed by a day of industry events, masterclasses, and creator discussions on Friday.

Saturday February 10 is the AACTA Awards Ceremony which will welcome all the stars on the red carpet. The festival concludes on Sunday February 11 with an array of screenings, live music, kids events, acting workshops, meet-and-greets, and more.

Sunday will also feature the Screen Careers Expo presented by Essential Screen Skills, running all day and offering pathways for anyone wanting to break into the industry. It promises to be a great day out for the entire family. 

Cinematic highlights include a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Matrix; an animation deconstruction of international blockbuster Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a deep dive into the stunt work from Mad Max: Fury Road and a showcase of the upcoming BINGE Original series High Country, with Leah Purcell. 

Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), and producer Paul Currie will give audiences an exclusive look of their upcoming Australian film Better Man starring singer Robbie Williams.

Iconic Australian musician Russell Morris (The Real Thing) will take part in an exclusive in-conversation with composer David Hirschfelder, and audiences can hear from Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid on the progress of the film franchise currently being shot in Queensland.

Many of Queensland’s top writers will attend and be showcased throughout the festival, including Trent Dalton, author of Boy Swallows Universe, and Holly Ringland author of Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. In addition to this, audiences can hear from writers Nick Earls, Lystra Rose, Mathew Condon, Richard Jameson, Tristan Michael Savage, and Ben Hobson to name just a few.

The festival will also host a series of Meet the Creators events – panel discussions with internationally renowned talent including directors Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me), Warwick Thornton (The New Boy), and the team behind the hit TV show The Newsreader. 

AACTA’s Meet the Nominee panels offer a chance hear from some of Australia’s biggest stars, producers, and directors, nominated for a prestigious AACTA Award.

The festival also features a wide range of topical industry panels covering various aspects of the screen industry, from the future of AI and streaming to First Nations truth-telling and storytelling panels. Also included are a range of online gaming ‘Let’s Play’ events, and an immersive art experience led by acclaimed painter, actor, and musician Stan Yarramunua.

There will be fun for the whole family, with a series of kids events, including a Play School Live event, kid’s acting workshops, face painting, live music, and a very special appearance from Queensland’s beloved Bluey.

For those looking to join the industry, the AACTA Screen Careers Expo presented by Essential Screen Skills will be operating all-day on Sunday and provide a comprehensive and insightful immersion into the diverse facets of the screen industry.

Amanda Laing, Foxtel Group chief content and commercial officer, and Binge managing director said, “The AACTAs festival will provide more ways to showcase and celebrate the best of Australian storytelling and the incredible talent powering it. The Foxtel Group is proud to support this exciting new initiative.”

“The Gold Coast is one of the most prolific screen production centres in the Southern Hemisphere, with the screen sector contributing an estimated $590 million in direct and flow-on benefits for our city,” Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said.

The AACTA Festival program is designed to provide opportunities for seasoned industry professionals, budding creators and the community alike to explore Australia’s screen sector and celebrate the Gold Coast’s leading role in it.

Screen Queensland CEO  Jacqui Feeney said, “The AACTA Festival will bring leading local and national screen practitioners together on the Gold Coast—a renowned production and screen talent hub, and the ideal home for this event. Screen Queensland is proud to support the inaugural AACTA Festival and welcome aspiring filmmakers and audiences alike to also connect, learn and revel in this celebration of screen culture.”

The latest AACTA Festival information and ticketing for events is available through the website, aactafestival.com .

AACTA Festival official hashtag: #AACTAFestival #AACTAs | Instagram: @aacta | YouTube: /AFIAACTA | Twitter: @aacta | Facebook: /AACTAAwards | Web: aacta.org | TikTok: //www.tiktok.com/@aacta">@aacta

AACTA Festival headline events

2024 AACTA Industry Awards presented by Foxtel Group and After Party Presented by Screen Queensland: Thursday, February 8.

2024 AACTA Awards Ceremony presented by Foxtel Group and Official After Party: Saturday, February 10.

AACTA Festival: Thursday, February 8-11.

About AACTA

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is a not-for-profit organisation, aimed at promoting, encouraging, and celebrating screen excellence in Australia. The Australian Academy is Australia’s only independent, member-based, national screen organisation that represents all differing screen crafts, from directors to producers, actors, writers, musicians, and a vast number of members in below-the-line roles.

For over 60 years, the AACTA Awards (formerly the AFI Awards) have recognised and celebrated Australia’s highest achievements in film, television, documentary, short form, and digital content. The AACTA Awards are Australia’s most prestigious screen ceremony, embracing a diverse range of screen productions and recognising some of the biggest and brightest names in the industry. 

The AACTA Awards are presented by Foxtel Group and supported by the Queensland Government, through Tourism and Events Queensland and Screen Queensland, and Experience Gold Coast. The event also features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar.

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By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

THE COVID pandemic has changed the film industry.

Michael Budd, an Australian film maker who heads up the company Amazing People Pictures said the big lesson from COVID was that “no-one now knows when the next pandemic will come”.

“I don’t think our world will be the same, not within the film business, not within most businesses,” Mr Budd told Talking Business. “I think we’re going to have to live with the slight chance of some sort of pandemic looming on us.

“For that reason, we would need to consider that when shooting.” 

Mr Budd said the pandemic had created a number of logistical and financial costs for his company when it was shooting films. Amazing People Pictures had worked through the pandemic, managing all the logistical issues and production cuts.

Movies made ‘more difficult’

Mr Budd said the pandemic had made film work more difficult and had created a lot of uncertainty in the movie business.

“It’s also become challenging from the financial sense that you have to incorporate all these additional safety measures,” Mr Budd said.

“You’ve got to have deep cleaning if you’re actually shooting in a venue. You’ve got to have that additional cost. You’ve got to have COVID marshals on hand at all times.

“You’ve got to also sanitise face masks. You can only get on the set one way, you can only come off the set one way … which slows you down.

“You’re actually tracking and tracing every member of your crew and cast daily. You can’t have a situation where someone from your crew and cast go outside the filming bubble and interact with another set of people – because if there is a slight chance that they may be under a protocol, that could filter all the way down to your production and costing you hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. So it is a tricky thing to navigate,” he said.

“You’ve also got to keep this distance between each other. People who know the film business know that a director, a producer, an actor, cinematographer need to work quite closely to achieve the day-to-day work. So it does make it very challenging.”

There were also a number of other costs with film production during COVID, particularly when companies had to bring out actors from overseas and they had to be located in premises away from the production studio and isolate from the crew, director and other actors. 

Aussie crews resilient

However, Mr Budd said Australian film crews were resilient and had wanted to keep working during the pandemic.

At the same time, Australia had become the safest place to shoot a film during the pandemic because of the stringent controls. Australia also offered top-line production studios.

Mr Budd said dealing with the pandemic had affected the film industry worldwide – and into the future.

The industry in the US had shut down during the pandemic and film-makers were shooting productions in Canada. There had been “nothing happening” in the UK during the pandemic.

“You were talking about countries that had thousands upon thousands of cases on a daily basis so you just couldn’t put your crew and cast through those sorts of risks,” Mr Budd said.

Now the industry was getting back to normal. But, as Mr Budd said, the pandemic had nevertheless created a continuing uncertainty across the industry.

www.amazingpeoplepictures.com

www.leongettler.com

About Michael Budd

Well-known actor Michael Budd is the first Australian born of African-American descent to direct and produce a feature film in Australia. His latest film, Ruby’s Choice, stars two-time Golden Globe winner Jane Seymour OBE as Ruby, and award-winning Australian stage and screen actress Jacqueline McKenzie. Mr Budd had to overcome enormous logistical problems in Australia – including a change of State – to complete Ruby’s Choice and see it debut internationally, in March 2022, at the 37th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it was a nominee for Best International Feature Film. Mr Budd passionately supports the Dementia Foundation Spark of Life, the official charity associated with the film and which assisted as its authenticity advisor.

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.

https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business20-interview-with-michael-budd-from-amazing-

THE Asia Pacific Screen Academy (APSA) has unveiled all 2023 Jury members leading up to the 16^th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Ceremony, set to take place on Friday, November 3 at Home of the Arts (HOTA) on the Gold Coast.

Clara Law, a pioneer of Asian-Australian cinema and an internationally acclaimed auteur filmmaker, will preside over the APSA International Jury in 2023. A writer, director and producer, Ms Law (Australia) has been making features across two continents for almost 40 years. 

Her filmography includes Autumn Moon (1992), The Goddess of 1967 (2000), Floating Life (1996) and the documentary Letters to Ali (2004). Her most recent feature, Drifting Petals (2021) was made across three of the places she has called home – Australia, Hong Kong and Macau – and won a prestigious Golden Horse Award for Best Director.

The APSA red carpet and gala ceremony event will be attended by nominees, jurors and special guests from across the 78 countries and areas of the Asia Pacific and will honour cinematic excellence from the vast and culturally diverse region.

Running concurrently, the 5th Asia Pacific Screen Forum will take place from November 1-4, also at HOTA. The four-day event will enable local filmmakers, nominees and international delegates to engage through a series of panels and presentations, roundtable discussions, networking events, workshops and screenings.

Joining jury president Clara Law on the 16^th APSA International Jury are:

Malaysian performer Yeo Yann Yann, a multiple award-winner best known for her big-screen roles in Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019), which saw her become a two-time Golden Horse Award and Asian Film Award winner. Her work in television has seen her nominated for an International Emmy (Invisible Stories, 2020) and she is currently nominated for a Hollywood Critics Association TV Award for American Born Chinese.

Anna Katchko (Germany) is a highly successful producer working across multiple countries. Since the beginning of last year alone she has had three films receive major international acclaim: Ukrainian film Stepne won two awards at the Locarno Film Festival; Happiness, from Kazakhstan, won the Audience Award at the 2023 Berlinale and, also from Kazakhstan, Bauryna Salu is selected to premiere this week at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.

Hideho Urata (Japan, Singapore) is an acclaimed cinematographer on films including the multi-award winner A Land Imagined (2018) and most recently Plan 75, which received a Special Mention at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and saw him nominated for an Asian Film Award for cinematography in 2023.

Saudi Arabian film industry pioneer, producer Faisal Baltyuor is currently the CEO of Muvi Studios, the production arm of biggest cinema chains in Saudi Arabia. He was formerly the CEO of the Saudi Film Council, which was the first Saudi governmental entity founded to support the film industry in Saudi Arabia. He most recently co-produced the Sudanese feature Goodbye Julia, which was selected for Cannes Un Certain Regard – the bold and innovative section of the festival – in 2023.

The APSA Youth, Animation and Documentary International Jury for 2023 will be chaired by Taiwanese filmmaker Midi Z, a writer, director and producer of both fiction and documentary features selected for Cannes (Nina Wu, 2019), Berlin (14 Apples, 2018) and beyond.

He will be joined by Indian writer, director and producer Rima Das, whose acclaimed 2017 film Village Rockstars, about a rebellious young girl who wants to form a rock band, was the first Assamese-language film to be India’s Oscars submission. Also judging the section is  acclaimed documentary maker Hikaru Toda (Japan), whose APSA nominated 2017 feature Of Love & Law told the story of the first and only law firm in Japan run by an openly gay couple.

 “APSA is honoured to welcome such accomplished filmmakers to the Jury for the 16th Asia Pacific Screen Awards,” chair of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, Tracey Vieira said.

“The Jury will deeply engage with peers at the APSA Screen Forum and with Asia Pacific Screen Academy members whilst performing the important task of selecting the outstanding films and performances for the year. The APSA Academy proudly grows to be more than 1,500 members strong in 2023, reflecting the exceptional screen storytelling expertise of the region and the cultural diversity that makes up this vast area like never before.” 

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards and Forum are presented by the Asia Pacific Screen Academy with the support of major partners the City of Gold Coast, Screen Queensland, the Motion Picture Association and Griffith Film School, Griffith University.

The full list of nominations for the 16^th Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the full Forum programme will be announced on October 4.

ABOUT APSA

The Asia Pacific Screen Academy (APSA) has presented the region’s highest accolade in film, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards since 2007. APSA ignites and honours the cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world’s fastest growing film region: comprising 78 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, and responsible for half of the world’s film output.  

APSA and its Academy is committed to its ongoing global partnerships with FIAPF, the European Film Academy (EFA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), Premios Platino del Cine Iberoamericano, NETPAC (the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema), the Asia Pacific Screen Lab (APSL) and Griffith Film School.

All APSA nominees, Nominations Councils and Jury members are inducted into the prestigious APSA Academy presided over by Australian screen legend Jack Thompson AM PhD. In 2023 the Academy totals more than 1,500 members of the region’s leading filmmakers. It provides exclusive networking, development and funding opportunities available to Academy members through the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund, and Academy mentoring opportunities for the next generation of Asia Pacific filmmakers through the Asia Pacific Screen Lab.

The awards venue, HOTA, on Australia’s Gold Coas, is located on the traditional lands of the First Nations Kombumerri families of the Yugambeh Language Region.

Tickets are now available for the Asia Pacific Screen Forum at: https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/asia-pacific-screen-forum

www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/about-academy

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CANVA has created The Visual Economy Report to show business leaders how important visual communication is, in today’s highly competitive world, as a tool for more effective business development.

The Visual Economy Report presents actionable data from 1,600 global business leaders as examples of how business leaders can innovate visually to improve performance on many levels.

Canva – the Australian company that lays claim to being the world’s only all-in-one visual communication platform – has created the report to provide the most comprehensive view so far “into how global business leaders are approaching visual communication principles internally and externally to run more efficient teams, build stronger audience engagement, and fuel greater economic returns on their business”.

Among the top findings of The Visual Economy Report are:  

Visual communication enhances workplace efficiency and collaboration

Nearly all business leaders agree that visual communication methods increase efficiency (90%), enhance collaboration (89%) and carry more authority (85%) than other methods of communication. The majority (89%) also agree visual communication tools result in stronger business returns.
 

Visual communication accelerates sales cycles

With teams more global than ever, visual communication is making it possible for teams to be more collaborative; therefore, more productive in a world that’s now digital-first.
The majority of global business leaders (89%) believe visual communication has had a positive impact on remote and hybrid team members connecting with each other. About 88 percent also say visual communication tools have accelerated their sales cycles. That’s because most business leaders (85%) agree that visual content is generally more digestible, leading to more responsive prospects that stay engaged throughout the sales process.
 

Design literacy is now table stakes for most jobs

Design literacy has become critical for most professionalsbeyond trained designers. For this reason, more than half of business leaders (61%) say that employees in non-design roles are expected to have extensive design knowledge, such as the ability to create persuasive visual assets and engaging presentations, as well as being able to edit others’ designs with ease. As a result, nearly two-thirds (63%) provide training to those not in graphic-design roles.
 

Businesses need better visual content

Businesses are plagued by consistency, workflow, and quality issues with their design platforms. Nearly two-thirds of business leaders (64%) say that their company lacks a streamlined visual design software platform, and more than half agree their content is neither aesthetically pleasing (53%) nor consistent (56%).
 

Gen Z is driving design in the workplace

Generation Z is more agile and creative and is embracing visual communication tools more frequently in the workplace. More than other generations, Gen Z (93%) feel visual communication helps them articulate ideas better.

Canva’s research shows today’s businesses are operating in a newfound visual economy, where shrinking attention spans and an explosion of digital content have led to a demand for compelling, shareable visuals. Employees and customers now expect a brand's content to be as visual and digestible as what they see across social media platforms.

As a result, there are significant business opportunities for those that embrace a design-first approach by empowering everyone in their organization to design, leading to the ability to produce tremendous levels of quality content at scale.

“As business leaders navigate a changing economic environment, visual communication can help brands get ahead,” Canva CMO Zach Kitschke said.

“From helping win new customers, to attracting and retaining talent, to marketing in a way that breaks through, visual communication has never been more critical to unlocking better communication, collaboration and creativity,” Mr Kitschke said. “Today, capturing anyone’s attention can be fleeting so great design can be make or break for organisations who strive to stand out in this new visual era.”

Canva’s methodology

Canva commissioned the Morning Consult company to survey 1,600 business leaders in marketing, sales, human resources and commerce who have knowledge of company revenue goals. This group also influences their organisations’ audience engagement strategy, as well as how internal teams communicate with each other, other teams, and the company at large. Specifically, Canva surveyed 850 business leaders in the US, 375 in Australia, and 375 in the UK.

www.canva.com

About Canva

Launched in 2013, Canva is a free online visual communications and collaboration platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast range of templates ranging from presentations, documents, websites, social media graphics, posters, apparel to videos, plus a huge library of fonts, stock photography, illustrations, video footage, and audio clips, it is a platform that aims to allow anyone to ‘take an idea and create something beautiful’.

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