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Auatralian Directors Overseas

© Joshua Smith

Peter Weir, George Miller, Bruce Beresford, Richard Franklin, Gillian Armstrong - these are the filmmakers that shaped Australia's cinema revival of the 1970s. Such creative geniuses, drawing upon a country's untold history, refused to submit to pressures resulting from restrictive budgetary constraints, creating works that exhibited both plot and stylistic innovation. Filmmakers from the Post New Wave era of Australian film, similarly, have redefined the public face of Australian cinema (O'Regan, 1997), breaking free from commercial restrictions by creating works that sacrifice a glossy exterior for a more unique, deeply 'artistic' product. Australian film critic Tom O'Regan has cited the fact that, "Australian filmmakers need to provide inventive solutions to being on the margins of the more dominant film cultures of the USA, UK and continental Europe." (O'Regan, 1996, p.110)

Such inventiveness, according to O'Regan, should not lead filmmakers too far from the Hollywood mould, though, if they wish to be rewarded with positive financial results in the international territories. Doing so, he suggests, could alienate an audience that has been "trained into accepting Hollywood protocols as they are" (O'Regan, 1996, p.96). As a result, films from directors such as Baz Luhrmann, Paul J. Hogan and Jocelyn Moorhouse exhibit a wide canvas of story and stylistic elements, while conforming to many of the conventions of mainstream (Hollywood) cinema. Recent films, such as Muriel's Wedding (1994), Sweetie (1989), Bad Boy Bubby (1994), Strictly Ballroom (1993), Proof (1992) and The Adventures of Pricilla Queen of the Desert (1994) have showcased elements referred to as 'quirky', 'individual' or 'eccentric'. These films can be seen as indicative of the Post New Wave struggle to create works that depart from the banal, social realist settings of earlier Australian film (O'Regan, 1997), as well as an attempt to tap into the lucrative US market by constructing works around universal themes. While this has, on occasion, been dismissed as an "international contamination" of Australian cinema (Gibson, 1992), it has been recognised that, primarily as a financial consideration, the Australian/American connection in films is ultimately necessary in order to support the local industry (O'Regan, 1997). As Scott Murray wrote in 1984, "For almost all Australian films, it is no longer possible to break even in the local market. Overseas audiences must be found" (Murray, 1984).

The lack of adequate public funding, resulting from the partial dismissal of the 10BA tax concessions, coupled with the low budgets that a reliance on government financial support necessitates does, regardless of Australian filmmakers' predilection for innovation, restrict artists from reaching the "larger international stage that Hollywood can provide" (Duran, 1996). George Miller has voiced his concerns regarding the current funding system that operates within the Australian industry by stating,

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