At two of the world's most-prestigious film festivals, prizes are awarded to the best queer movies on the lineup. Not all cinephiles can attend Cannes and Berlinale, so Australia's Mardi Gras Film Festival is bringing LGBTQIA+ flicks from both 2024 fests Down Under in 2025. Romania's Three Kilometres to the End of the World won the Queer Palm. The Istanbul-set Crossing took home the Teddy Jury Prize in Berlin. They're both highlights of this year's MGFF program, which has a date with Sydney cinemas in February — and boasts a roster of almost 150 flicks. The movie-loving component of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, MGFF wants audiences to enjoy its feast of LGBTQIA+ films on the big screen if they can. The bulk of the lineup will hit picture palaces across Thursday, February 13–Thursday, February 27, at venues including Event Cinemas George Street and Hurstville, Dendy Newtown, Ritz Cinemas Randwick, the State Library of NSW and The Rocks Laneway Cinema. For those who can't make it in-person, there's also a small-screen component, streaming a selection of titles on-demand nationwide from Friday, February 28–Monday, March 10. If you're hitting up movie theatres, award-winners aren't Mardi Gras Film Festival's only drawcards. On opening night, coming-of-age tale Young Hearts will start the proceedings with a story of romance in rural Belgium, while French standout Somewhere in Love is doing the honours to close out the physical event. In-between, viewers have 72 sessions to choose from, complete with the world premiere of In Ashes from Denmark-based filmmaker Ludvig C Poulsen; South Korea's Love in the Big City; the Alan Cumming (Schmigadoon!)-starring Drive Back Home; and Ponyboi, which features Australian actor and The White Lotus favourite Murray Bartlett (The Last of Us). Or, catch Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, which tells of its namesake's tale from her 50s Nashville success through to disappearing from the public for four decades; Aussie effort Heart of a Man, about a closeted Indigenous boxer; period drama Lilies Not for Me with Fionn O'Shea (Masters of the Air) and Robert Aramayo (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Duino, a semi-autobiographical effort about an Argentinian filmmaker working on a movie about his first love; and the Venus Xtravaganza-focused I'm Your Venus, which is a must for fans of Paris Is Burning. That's just a taste of the program, which spans Aussie festive slasher Carnage for Christmas, Nina Hoss (Tár) in Foreign Language, a documentary about Ani De Franco, Brazilian drama Streets of Gloria and more, too. Blasts from the past come courtesy of a free screening of The Birdcage, plus a 20th-anniversary session of Imagine Me & You (featuring Lena Headey long before Game of Thrones), with both showing under the stars. If you'd like to don a habit, croon tunes in a cinema or both, Sister Act is getting the sing-along treatment. And from the 70s, Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers — which is one of the first-ever trans-led feature films — is making its Sydney premiere. Cabaret is also on the bill, a fitting choice given that documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is on the lineup as well — gifting Liza Minnelli obsessives a double feature.
Australia's longest running exhibition and art prize of its kind, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) was established in the early 1980s when the commercial popularity of Aboriginal art was just starting to develop. The coveted award not only offers one of the biggest prizes for First Nations artists in the country, but it also aims to highlight the diversity and evolution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and its various forms. This year, there are 65 artists who have been selected as finalists for the seven awards, which have a total prize value of $80,000. So we've partnered with Telstra to give you a rundown on seven impressive artists that we think you should get to know better — and support — as they share their artistry with the world. Make sure you visit the NATSIAA website on Friday August 7, from 6pm, to watch the Awards presented live by host Brooke Boney. VICTORIA'S MULTI-TALENTED ARTIST CASSIE LEATHAM Inspired by walking the country near her two-acre property in Central Gippsland, Taungurung woman Cassie Leatham, from the Kulin Nation, is a true slashie. She's an artist, designer, weaver, dancer and educator. Leatham is hoping her second entry in the Telstra NATSIAA — a woven artwork that tells the creation stories passed to her by her elders — connects with the Award's judging panel. 'Nugal-ik Liwik Bundjil (My Ancestors Creation Story)' features a mix of pipe clay, emu fat, wattle sap, stringy bark, mud, ochre, sand crystals and wedge-tailed eagle feathers. The artist says her goal is to maintain cultural practices, with her dream being to create a teaching centre on her property to keep her culture alive. WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S KNIFE WELDING ILLIAM NARGOODAH Emerging artist Illiam Nargoodah is gaining acclaim for continuing an ancient tradition. Based out of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region, the 23 year old uses his skills to create knives by hand from found objects, crafting every part of the knife from handle to blade. Upholding knowledge that runs in the family, the young artist has been learning alongside his father — a leatherworker — since he was a young boy. The artist's first Telstra NATSIAA entry consists of several special knives that were crafted out of metal objects and artefacts collected on community station properties near his home. QUEENSLAND'S VISUAL ARTIST RYAN PRESLEY Using the iconographic traditions of Christian art as his launchpad, Marri Ngarr man Ryan Presley has his second entry in the Telstra NATSIAA this year. It's a political work that depicts the "beauty, resistance and everyday heroism of Aboriginal people today", he says. 'Crown Land (till the ends of the earth)' mixes oil, synthetic polymer and 23 karat gold on canvas. Presley, who was born in Alice Springs and now lives in Brisbane, is known for creating works that reference the impacts of colonisation on First Nations people, and the devastation of country and wellbeing from industries such as mining. CANBERRA-BASED SHELL ARTIST KRYSTAL HURST Proud Worimi woman Krystal Hurst brings the strength of the women in her family, and her ancestors before her, to her art. Working with banded kelp shells, bitjagang (pipis), fishing line and seaweed, Hurst has created a layered necklace for this year's Telstra NATSIAA. This is her second time entering the Awards, and the jewellery maker's artwork references an enduring connection to the sea and the continuation of knowledge passed on through generations. Hurst grew up on the Mid-North Coast and she continues to tell the stories of her people through her jewellery, and via weaving workshops that she runs at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. SOUTH AUSTRALIA MOTHER-DAUGHTER PAINTERS BETTY AND MARINA PUMANI Winner of the Telstra NATSIAA 2016 Telstra General Painting of the Year, Betty Kuntiwa Pumani enters the awards again this year — but this time in collaboration with her daughter Marina Pumani. Based in Mimili, a remote community in the APY Lands of South Australia, the mother-daughter duo has made two paintings that celebrate matriarchal knowledge. Painting Antara, a special site for the women in their community, Marina adds her knowledge to this particular diptych, referencing Maku Tjukurpa (the witchetty grub songline), which is central to all of Betty's paintings, marked by her signature use of vibrant reds. NEW SOUTH WALES DISRUPTOR AMALA GROOM Mixed media artist Amala Groom is the only New South Wales-based artist to make the finalist list of this year's Awards. Based out of Bathurst, the Wiradjuri artist has re-appropriated a beaten up print of a famed painting by Frederick McCubbin — a prominent member of the Heidelberg School movement — found discarded in a parking lot during the bushfire crisis, earlier this year. Groom's piece 'The Fifth Element' is a "conceptual intervention into the Australian canon of art history", she says. It comments on the uncertainty of our current times and remind us of ngumbaay-dyil — that 'all are one'. ARNHEM LAND TEXTILE ARTIST DEBORAH WURRKIDJ A previous Telstra NATSIAA finalist, Maningrida-based artist Deborah Wurrkidj has this year created a woven sculpture that reflects a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris taken in 2019. Alongside four other artists from the Bábbarra Women's Centre, Wurrkidj was asked to exhibit her artwork at the Australian Embassy in Paris, which was then profiled in Vogue. This new work, woven from memory, is inspired by the Eiffel Tower. Wurrkidj says, "I saw that tower and I thought I'll go back to Maningrida and I'll make her. Yes, I can weave that tower in our way, our Aboriginal way, not balanda [a white/European] way. And I did it." Find out more about the upcoming Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Top image: Krystal Hurst
We hope you weren’t expecting to get much work done this summer. The Sydney concert calendar is bursting with so much talent that getting to the ‘must-sees’ alone could be your full-time job. This summer will see an impressive array of international acts packing their bags for Sydney’s festival frenzy, some exciting local collaborations featuring at the Sydney Festival, and a barrage of side shows throughout the new year. The Sydney Opera House will provide your indie-folk fix, serving up a tantalizing platter of international wonders including Fleet Foxes and Beirut in early January, and Bon Iver later in March. During the Sydney Festival, they’ll also play host to Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner and his new friends at the Australian Youth Orchestra, bound to bewitch us with 41 Strings, his eclectic composition featuring acoustic and electric, violins and synths. The Keystone Festival Bar in the Hyde Park Barracks - everybody’s favourite cheeky midweek night out - has more fun in store for us at the 2012 Sydney Festival. The bar will be nicely christened by Dan Deacon joined by his five-piece ensemble and Animal Collective keyboarder, John Maus. The following week will see a double dose of So Frenchy So Chic, featuring the soulful Nigerian-French artists Asa and Fefe, followed by Nouvella Vague and Moriarty reinterpreting the '80s. The Sydney Festival will also see Beth Orton mixing folk and electronics in the ethereal acoustics of the City Recital Hall after her five year absence from Oz. The Enmore delivers a comprehensive collection of acts in 2012, dotted with festival sideshows including Laneway headliner Feist, Girl Talk and The Drums. A definite highlight on their calendar is alternative hip hop group Odd Future, a killer collective all the way from LA. A summer line up this good is not going to be easy on the wallet. Let’s just hope that after a couple of months of epic gigs followed by dusty days at work, you’ve still got your day job. DecemberDecember 1 - Armin Van Buuren @ Metro Theatre December 2 - Donny Benet @ FBi Social December 8 - Future Of The Left @ Annandale Hotel December 10 - Gang Gang Dance @ Sydney Opera House, Studio December 16 - Oscar & Martin @ Oxford Art Factory December 30 - Architecture in Helsinki @ Cargo Bar December 31 - Little Red and Jinja Safari @ Rock Lily, Pyrmont JanuaryJanuary 2-4 - Fleet Foxes @ Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall January 2 - Dum Dum Girls @ Oxford Art Factory January 3 - Grouplove @ The Factory Theatre January 4 - Aloe Blacc @ Enmore Theatre January 5 - Beirut @ Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall January 5 - Metronomy @ Manning Bar January 6 - The Kooks @ Hordern Pavilion January 7 - Holly Throsby @ Sydney Festival First Night, Hyde Park January 8 - Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro and Electric Empire @ Keystone Festival Bar January 8-10 - The Jolly Boys @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden January 9 - Deerhoof and DJ Yamantaka Eye (The Boredoms) @ Keystone Festival Bar January 11 - Dan Deacon Ensemble and John Maus @ Keystone Festival Bar January 12 - Sons and Daughters, Songs & The Laurels @ Keystone Festival Bar January 13 - Shabazz Palaces, Taylor McFerrin & Shangaan Electro @ Keystone Festival Bar January 13 - Arctic Monkeys @ Enmore Theatre January 14 - Picnic: Andrew Weatherall & Neville Watson @ Keystone Festival Bar January 14 - Summer Sounds in the Domain: Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane @ The Domain January 14-15 - CANT @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden January 17 - Julianna Barwick @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden January 17-18 - Beth Orton @ City Recital Hall Angel Place January 17-21 - iOTA: Young, Hard and Solo @ Sydney Opera House, Play House January 18 - So Frenchy So Chic: Asa & Fefe @ Keystone Festival Bar January 18-19 - PJ Harvey @ State Theatre January 20 - Tune-Yards and Jonti @ Keystone Festival Bar January 21 - The Whitest Boy Alive & New Navy @ Keystone Festival Bar January 21 - Dan Sultan & Busby Marou with Kasey Chambers @ Old King’s School Site January 22 - 41 Strings by Nick Zinner @ Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall January 23 - Battles @ Metro Theatre January 23 - Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds @ Enmore Theatre January 24 - Odd Future @ Enmore Theatre January 24 - Kitty, Daisy & Lewis @ Metro Theatre January 24 - Kasabian @ Hordern Pavilion January 25 - Washington presents Insomnia @ Sydney Opera House January 25 - Foster the People @ Enmore Theatre January 25 - Mad Racket: Peven Everett @ Keystone Festival Bar January 27 - Royksopp @ Enmore Theatre January 27 - The Stepkids & Electric Wire Hustle @ Keystone Festival Bar January 28 - Cavalera Conspiracy @ Metro Theatre January 28 - Girl Talk @ Enmore Theatre January 28 - Future Classic: DJ Koze & Prins Thomas @ Keystone Festival Bar January 28-29 - Eleanor Friedberger @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden FebruaryFebruary 2 - The Horrors @ Metro Theatre February 6 - Wu Lyf @ Metro Theatre February 7 - Feist @ Enmore Theatre February 7 - Portugal The Man/Givers @ Metro Theatre February 8 - The Drums + Cults @ Enmore Theatre February 8 - Anna Calvi @ Metro Theatre February 8 - Glasser @ The Standard February 9 - Laura Marling @ Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall February 9 - M83 @ Metro Theatre February 9 - Austra @ The Basement February 24 - Death Cab for Cutie @ Enmore Theatre MarchMarch 11-13 - Bon Iver @ Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall March 16-17 - Kate Miller-Heidke @ Sydney Opera House, Studio
Young Henrys have teamed up with Brisbane boys Dune Rats and have given a beautiful birth to the Dunies Lager, which the band calls, "A can so cold it'll cool ya house." The brand new brew, like most great inventions, came from a pub bet. "We hung out with our mates Young Henrys one arvo and it came up that we were gunning for number one when our new album dropped," the band says. "The fellas said if you get the top spot we'll brew you your own beer." So when the Dune Rats' second album, The Kids Will Know It's Bullshit, unsurprisingly made its debut on the ARIA charts at numero uno, the lads at Young Henrys stuck to their word and knocked up a batch of crisp lager to honour the bet. Behold, the bet winners: And let's face it, the equally-as-happy-looking bet losers: The Dunies Lager is sold in tinnies, either in the six pack or by the case, with a Dune Rats-yellow design by artist Lee McConnell. On top of that, a select few venues around Sydney will be treated to a keg or two, so there'll be the chance to whet your whistle with the draft stuff. Now, you can't release the product of a beautiful union like Young Henrys and Dune Rats without throwing a big ol' party to celebrate, and the Dunies Lager won't be an exception. There's a shindig going down this Sunday, February 26 in Darlinghurst. Tickets are free, but there are only 200 available here, so best to get in quick. Mary's will be onsite with food available to purchase and and everyone through the door before 8pm will get a free drink on arrival. The combination of bands and booze isn't a new one. It's not even Young Henrys first foray, having created the Pils 'N' Thrills with DZ Deathrays last year. However, a brand new beer from a brewery and a band like Young Henrys and Dune Rats is nothing to shake a stick at, so check out the Young Henrys website for further instructions on how the blow the froth off a few cold ones.
With seven EPs and three full-length albums between them, Jack Carty and Jordan Millar, both 26, have a lot of music in their hands. They’ve also clocked up many a mile on Australia’s national highways. In fact, it’d be fair to say that they’re among the most committed singer-songwriters on the national scene. Since March, the two ‘acoustic poets’ have been on the open road together, pursuing their ‘Cold Lights on a Modern Life’ tour from Adelaide to Byron Bay, and this weekend, they’ll be bringing their melodic musings and lyrical ramblings to Sydney’s Brighton Up Bar. The multi-awarding winning Millar, who’s supported the likes of The Fray, Xavier Rudd and Lisa Mitchell, dropped his self-produced sophomore LP, Cold Lights on Curious Minds, on February 15th. He has described it as “much more focused” than previous recordings. Meanwhile, Carty is gearing up to release his forthcoming EP, Modern Life.
Ah, the poignancy of Grand Theft Auto V. We're not even kidding. There's no denying that the naturalistic light effects of GTA 5 are astoundingly realistic, and really quite beautiful to behold. Hazy daylight, golden sunsets and atmospheric nightscapes are equally convincing in the world of the game, which has been the talk of the town since its recent launch. GTA 5's aesthetic appeal has not escaped the notice of 20-year-old Brazilian SVA art student Fernando Pereira Gomes, an avid street photographer and gamer who recognised certain parallels between his two passions. He's been taking artistic stills using a character's in-game camera phone in GTA 5, composing shots just as though he were turning a camera lens on the real world, and the results are both sensitive and pretty dope. In-game photography is not new, as seen here. Gomes, who's one of those hardcore fans that stood in line to grab a copy of the game at midnight when it first launched, got the idea for his ongoing series Street Photography V when he began simply driving around GTA 5's various pixelated Los Santos landscapes and realised how the movement of the characters through digital vistas resembled scenes he'd try to capture IRL every day — not least because of the unpredictability of the scenes unfolding, and their fleeting nature. As he told The Independent, "It was very similar to photographing on actual streets — with me having to run across the road, pulling out my camera in time, framing the shot, and taking it at the right moment.” On his site he says: "The game is so realistic that it felt like being in the streets outside ... anticipating passersby’s movements and reactions. In a way, it was also incredibly frightening that these algorithms could look so real, or is it that we ourselves are becoming ever more algorithmic?" The pictures reveal what attracts Gomes's eye: frequently the images are wide angle shots with an isolated figure turned away from us, a shadow cutting the frame in half or a perfectly flat and symmetrical view of a figure or two against a wall. Be sure to check them out.
You may not be in Flemington for the Melbourne Cup, but that doesn't mean you can't dress up and seriously indulge. And Sydney's QT Hotel has just the luxurious lunch for it. To celebrate 'the race that stops a nation', Gowings Bar & Grill is hosting a special, rather decadent Melbourne Cup lunch. You'll be greeted with a glass of G.H. Mumm bubbly before sitting down to a delicious three-course menu. For $125pp you'll be feasting on a choice of beer-steamed prawn cocktails, wood baked oysters 'Marchetti style', salt-baked baby beetroot salad with ashed chevre, and that's just to start. Mains are decadent territory, from provincial wood roasted black truffle chicken to pepper 'steak au poivre' with Gowings' red and green whole peppercorn sauce, and woodfired barbecue spice crusted calamari. For dessert? Tiramisu "Classic But My Way, Served at the Table, Loads of Alcohol, Espresso, Marscapone". Nice. You don't have to worry about missing a single second of the Cup — there will be two large screens broadcasting live. Plus, there'll be lucky door and best dressed prizes, so fancy it up. Afterwards, channel all your post-race adrenaline into the afterparty on Gowings' second level in Gilt Lounge. There'll be sabrage demonstrations (opening a champagne bottle with a sword) by Danielle Bietola and tunes well into the night. Don't want to commit to the full luncheon? Parlour Lane Roasters downstairs will be doing $10 glasses of Mumm with two screens broadcasting the race, surrounded by spring racing carnival-inspired installations in the heritage display cabinets by stylist Jane Frosh. Bookings are essential, call (02) 8262 0062.
The 60th edition of Wildlife Photographer of the Year is winging its way to Sydney from London's Natural History Museum, bringing along 100 images selected from 59,228 entries across 117 countries and territories. This year's winner is Shane Gross, a Canadian marine conservation photojournalist, for his work The Swarm of Life. This stunning image captures the mesmerising underwater world of western toad tadpoles — now a near-threatened species due to the widespread destruction of their habitat. Winner of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year is Germany's Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas. His image Life Under Dead Wood depicts slime mould alongside a teeny-tiny springtail. It's made up of a combination of 36 images, each with a different focus, taken in rapid succession. Also in the exhibition are three images from Australian photographers. See Jannico Kelk's Hope for the Ninu, winner of the Animals in their Environment category, which portrays a greater bilby (ninu) in a fenced reserve. Then check out A Diet of Deadly Plastic by Justin Gilligan, which won Oceans: The Bigger Picture category for his mosaic of 403 pieces of plastic found inside the digestive tract of a dead flesh-footed shearwater. And don't miss Matthew Smith's Under the Waterline, which won the Underwater category for its depiction of a leopard seal beneath Antarctic ice. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is showing at the Australian National Maritime Museum between Thursday, May 15–Sunday, October 19.
Presenting the latest in cutting-edge new Australian writing, Batch Festival will hit Sydney this month for a second year. Griffin Theatre Company's exciting series offers audiences a chance to see some of Australia's most innovative emerging talent in action across two weeks of quirky, crazy and category-bending shows. Following on from the inaugural festival's success, the 2019 lineup features a fresh batch (see what we did there?) of storytellers, poets, comedic artists and non-traditional performances that'll be undoubtedly entertaining and provocative throughout. The showcase will run from Friday, April 26 to Saturday, May 11 at Kings Cross' SBW Stables Theatre. Some of the highlights include Tales of an Afronaut by Melbourne-based poet wāni Le Frère, which presents untold stories within the black/African diaspora through spoken word; the world premiere of James Elazzi's Lady Tabouli, a sharp commentary on queerness and culture; and the award-winning Lou Wall's Drag Race, which welcomes a brash evening by comedy superstar Lou Wall and Australia's most outrageous non-binary troupe Drag Royalty. There'll be multiple performances showing each day, so we recommend teeing up a couple that pique your interest and making a night of it. Meanwhile, local brewery Batch Brewing Company's craft drops will be available to enjoy between shows. Tickets to Batch Festival shows start at $20. For the full festival calendar and to book your tickets to this genre-defying showcase of Aussie theatre, head to the website.
Fifteen years ago this week, in two Los Angeles cinemas, The Room enjoyed its world premiere. Telling the tale of a banker, his adulterous fiancée, his conflicted best friend, a local teen caught up in a drug deal, a mother with cancer, a particularly awkward party, a bunch of guys playing football in tuxedos and the worst apartment decorating scheme you've ever seen, the film wasn't met with applause, acclaim or anything in the way of excitement. And yet, all this time later, it has an avid fan base, still sells out screenings around the world, and has inspired both a behind-the-scenes book and an Oscar-nominated movie. Of course, you've seen The Room, thrown spoons at it and marvelled at how Tommy Wiseau somehow managed to make a movie that's both terrible and enjoyable — but Wiseau and his co-star Greg Sestero aren't done yet. They both played a part in last year's The Disaster Artist, as based on Sestero's book of the same name, and now they're back in something completely unrelated to their big claim to fame. In Best F(r)iends, the pair return as a mortician and a drifter. Yes, you can guess which part the lank-locked Wiseau plays. Sestero's down-on-his-luck LA resident Jon is given the chance to work for Wiseau's morgue owner Harvey Lewis, but neither is being completely honest with each other. Scripted by Sestero but (thankfully) not directed by Wiseau, the black comedy is literally a film of two parts, with Best F(r)iends: Volume One currently touring the world ahead of Best F(r)iends: Volume Two later this year. With Sestero returning to Australia for Q&A screenings of the first film, we chatted to him about not only making another movie with Wiseau, but writing a part specifically for him, among other topics. These are the ten things we learned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTu9N40E_MI HE WANTED TO MAKE A MOVIE THAT SHOWCASED TOMMY WISEAU'S ACTING TALENTS "For so long, I didn't expect to work with Tommy again after The Room for many reasons. But once I decided to take him seriously, I realised that he really hasn't been utilised properly as an actor. And this is really a chance to really do him right and put him in a part that he could succeed in — while at the same time, I was really genuinely interested in working with again. I really believe that Tommy can be interesting as an actor, but he just hadn't been given the right part." HE NEVER CONSIDERED GETTING WISEAU TO DIRECT "I really wanted to see him focus on being an actor. I'd handle the producing, and put the right team together that would just be there to make a film, and we wouldn't make The Room 2. And I thought he really shines as an actor — and I thought giving him a chance to focus on that. And he really put in the work. We rehearsed a lot. You know, he memorised most of his lines. I wrote the part with him in mind, so the dialogue definitely catered to his strengths, but he put in the work and he showed up ready to do this best." BEST F[R]IENDS IS BASED ON THE TIME WISEAU THOUGHT SESTERO WANTED TO KILL HIM "I took a road trip with Tommy up the California coast back in 2003. I thought we were just going up to have a good time, but Tommy assumed that I was plotting this thing against him, and that I was going to try to kill him. I mean it was just really far out. So when he explained to me why he thought that, and what he was feeling, all these years later when I was sitting down to write this story, I explored that. And I thought 'what if I was, and how would it go down, and what would happen?'. And so it kind of gave me a jumpstart into writing this story." THE FILM ALSO INCORPORATES A VERY REAL BLACK MARKET "The other true event was that my brother is a dentist, and so he told me this very bizarre, underground business that is happening in dentistry, with human teeth. So we use all real teeth in the film. That's all kind of stuff that actually goes on." HE DIDN'T REFERENCE THE ROOM ON PURPOSE, BUT YOU'LL SPOT A FEW NODS "Any reference to The Room, to be honest with you, was accidental or worked its way in. When I wrote the script, there were no references. There was no basketball scene. We shot at a real morgue, so there are bodies that'd come in and out that would interrupt the shoot — and we decided to play basketball as a break, and that ended up being filmed and being turned into a scene. The spiral staircase that was in that office just happened to be there, you know. There wasn't any intention to reference The Room in any way, but the things that did, I feel like if they were organic and worked their way in, it was fine." HE CREDITS THE ROOM'S SUCCESS TO WISEAU "It's just something that is completely unique — because it was made by one man who had creative control, had the money to say 'this is the way we're going to do it', and just sees the world so differently. So people see it and they can't believe that it really exists, and it's just one of those things you want to share with people because it has no business succeeding or even existing. And there's just kind of this magic to it. Because there's nothing else that exists like it, it unites people in a way — they're craving something different — and it just delivers a flavour that you know you can't recreate it. It's just to the power of being original, I think, is what I've learned. Tommy hasn't tried to change himself for acceptance. He just is himself, and I think people like that." IT REALLY ISN'T EASY TO BREAK FREE FROM THE ROOM "I never thought anybody would see The Room — it was kind of something that I was backed into. But I love a challenge, and I think there is something fun and challenging about trying to rework what you're working on I think it started with The Disaster Artist book. When a lot of people thought I was going to write a book about the experience, I think they expected fan service and a quirky making-of, like 'lets look at all these wacky things that Tommy did'. But I really approached it in a way that I thought could tell a story that could become an Oscar-calibre film. At the time I think people thought that was a little far-fetched. It's definitely a challenge for any cult film, but especially with this one — where it's considered the worst movie, and people who see it throw spoons at the screen, and actually get involved in the performance or the film that you're making. You just need to be really aware of what you're trying to say to your audience. I believe your audience will follow you if you approach things properly." HE'D LIKE TO MAKE A BABADOOK-STYLE HORROR FILM NEXT "I want to make a horror film. I definitely have been influenced by The Babadook and these kind of new horror films — and I want to play on the psychological aspect of horror rather than the blood and guts, or to try to combine the two. But definitely horror is the genre that I'd love to go for." HE'S FINE WITH AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION — SO BRING TEETH "People have started showing up with bloody shirts and holding homeless signs, but I think throwing plastic gold teeth would be kind of cool. That could catch on — or maybe plastic lemons or serving lemonade? That could be pretty cool. The audiences that I've seen it with, there's definitely some interaction — but nothing being thrown yet. But I'm sure that people will come up with something." BEST F(R)IENDS: VOLUME TWO IS HIS FAVOURITE THING HE'S EVER DONE "It's completely different. It's insane. I like to think that if this film is Nightcrawler and Double Indemnity, then Volume Two is Psycho meets Breaking Bad. But it's totally different. I think Volume Two is my favourite, but I think it really compliments Volume One — and I can't wait for people to actually get to watch them back-to-back. I really hope they enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it." As well as touring Australia and New Zealand in Q&A screenings, 'Best F(r)iends: Volume One' will open at Melbourne's Cinema Nova on July 5.
Still: motionless, placid, calm, unruffled. Still: a denudation of impossibly complex human relationships, where true desires and needs are explored to a depth beyond the quotidian and lives become overturned by the wild emotions that spring from deep romantic involvement. Independent theatre company Mad March Hare Theatre presents this play by Jane Bodie (This Year's Ashes) at the bohemian warehouse space of the Old 505 Theatre inside Hibernian House. In a series of eight monologues, a motif is made of the idea of wanting, and all the baggage that it carries: sexual tension, anxiety and sheer agony. From the personal humiliation of a failed sexual conquest to the painful state of denial that bumping into your ex-lover and his new partner in the supermarket causes, Still exposes the harsh truth and bloody mess of relationships with searing wit and empathy. This collaborative project is realised through the thinking hats of five established and versatile female directors working collectively on the gritty urban set: Lara Kerestes, Fiona Hallenan-Barker, Cathy Hunt, Scarlet McGlynn and Jessica Tuckwell. Still won its British, Sydney-based playwright the Green Room Award for Best Writing in 2002. Now Head of Playwriting at NIDA, Bodie claimed in 2003 she was a "hopeless romantic" — a debatable claim owing to her nettlesome storylines. Still may have you a little ruffled after all.
Short of physically volunteering your time, there aren't many ways you can help those in need over lunch. But Sydney-based social enterprise food company Two Good is trying to change that, with their buy-one, give-one lunch delivery model. After launching in Melbourne in September last year, Two Good has continued to deliver delicious salads through Deliveroo in the two cities — and for every one sold, a meal is donated to domestic violence shelters in both. They're not just any old salads either. After working with Yotam Ottolenghi and renowned Melbourne chef Andrew McConnell last season, the Two Good guys — Rob Caslick and Cathal Flaherty — have teamed up with Melbourne's Ben Shewry of the 33rd best restaurant in the world Attica to create a lunch option that far surpasses any soggy salad you were planning on making in your office's kitchenette this afternoon. The kimchi, chicken and soba noodle salad will be available to order for lunch through Deliveroo for $14 each Tuesday starting today, which is a pretty standard price for a salad in this town. And, considering for each salad you order Two Good will donate a meal to a domestic violence shelter in your city, it's an incredibly low-cost way to feed yourself and help someone who needs it. Meals are donated to shelters around NSW and Victoria. What's more, Two Good also employ women from the shelters they work with in NSW, and are looking to do the same in Victoria in the near future. If you want to buy a salad, you can place an order through Deliveroo between 11am and 2pm in Melbourne and Sydney. For more information on Two Good, go to twogood.com.au.
Merivale's much talked about mammoth 2016 opening is finally opening its doors at noon on Good Friday. If you want to be one of the first to visit The Newport to experience the expansive beer garden, pizzeria, 'vintage gymnasium' and menu by chef Sebastien Lutaud, make your way up to the Northern Beaches on Friday and/or Saturday for all of the above, as well as live music and DJs. But Sunday is when the real action kicks off. They'll be holding an Easter egg hunt at 9am (with gold coin donations going to charity) and the very first Newport Sunday Sundown session will also kick off at 3pm, with Saskwatch, Yes You and Two Can playing. Best of all, it's free.
In its very first moments, House of the Dragon's opening episode delivers exactly what its name promises: here be dragons indeed. Within ten minutes, the Iron Throne, that sprawling metal seat that all of Westeros loves fighting about, also makes its initial appearance. By the time the 20-minute mark arrives, bloody violence of the appendage-, limb- and head-lopping kind fills the show's frames as well. And, before the debut instalment of this Game of Thrones prequel about House Targaryen's history even hits its halfway mark, a brothel scene with nudity and sex is sighted, too. Between all of the above, the usual GoT family dramas, squabbles over successors and power struggles pop up. Of course they do. Kicking off on Monday, August 22 Down Under — via Foxtel and Binge in Australia and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand — House of the Dragon was always going to check all of the above boxes. None of this can constitute spoilers, either, because none of it can come as a surprise. Game of Thrones' fame and influence have become that pervasive, as have its hallmarks and trademarks. Everyone knows what GoT is known for, even if you've somehow never seen this page-to-screen franchise yet or read the George RR Martin-penned books that it's based on. Also, everyone knows that Game of Thrones was the most-talked about and obsessed-over show on television between 2011–19, and that it didn't exactly go out with a bang when it wrapped up its eighth and final season three years back. Accordingly, trying to recapture past glories was bound to be HBO's main aim in its first step back into this fantasy world, rather than daring to tread new territory. House of the Dragon happily sticks to the saga's basics, so much so that everything you think will happen does — and making a drinking game around it is as easy as spotting feuds, orgies, incest, gore and fraying bonds of blood in the Seven Kingdoms. After green-lighting a different prequel to pilot stage, scrapping it, then picking this one to run with instead — and also making plans to bring novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg to TV, working on an animated GoT show, exploring other potential prequels and forging ahead a Jon Snow-focused sequel series — House of the Dragon is the first Game of Thrones successor to arrive in streaming queues. Its focus: the Targaryen crew 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story. Cue silky silver locks aplenty, of course, including cascading from King Viserys I's (Paddy Considine, The Third Day) head as he takes to the Iron Throne over his cousin Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie). She had a better claim to the spiky chair, but is also female. New show, same male-dominated hierarchy and accompanying bullshit. History repeats itself several times over, with Viserys' leap to power just the starting point. House of the Dragon is concerned with the same fights about the throne, but over whether the king's dragon-riding daughter Princess Rhaenyra (Upright's Milly Alcock, then Mothering Sunday's Emma D'Arcy) becomes his heir, or the future son he's desperate to have, or his headstrong younger brother Prince Daemon (Matt Smith, Morbius). No one wants the latter, and everyone around Viserys has an angle. It isn't out of kindness that Hand of the King Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, The King's Man) tells his own daughter Alicent (The Lost Girls' Emily Carey, then Slow Horses' Olivia Cooke) to cosy up to their ruler at his loneliest. And when Rhaenys' husband Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, It's a Sin) suggests an option, it's all about tying his Valyrian bloodline with the Targaryens. Even if the word "succession" wasn't uttered every couple of minutes — and it is — it'd be clear that another HBO series has left an imprint on showrunners Miguel Sapochnik (an Emmy-winner for directing Game of Thrones' 'Battle of The Bastards') and Ryan Condal (Colony). If House of the Dragon's key pair had written both GoT's and Succession's main characters and narrative beats on post-its, stuck them on a wall, then rearranged the lot to create a slightly different story, this would easily be the end result. That familiarity and formula is exactly what HBO want, too. Sitting down with House of the Dragon is meant to feel like slipping back into an old favourite like no time has passed, and it does. Seeing recognisable places, spying already-explored character dynamics, revisiting how difficult it is to be a woman in Westeros, hearing names such as Lannister and Baratheon get a mention: that's all part of the comfortable design. Some prequels evoke their predecessors perfectly, while also evolving into their own spaces. One of the absolute best examples, Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, just finished up its run. From the first six episodes in its ten-chapter debut season, House of the Dragon is content with the initial part of that equation, flapping the same wings and getting the same reaction as GoT — doing what HBO knows will work, and endeavouring to put Game of Thrones' lacklustre ending in its slipstream. Thanks to its visibly hefty budget, as seen in what makes it on-screen (dragons and all), it easily and instantly looks the part; however, House of the Dragon's biggest strength in achieving its main aim springs from its packed cast. New show, similar story, more dragons, thrilling performances: that's also the blueprint — and when it works, it works. Considine, Smith, Alcock, D'Arcy, Carey, Cooke and company navigate been-there-done-that tales, but ensure this prequel do-over never plays like a mere and rote rehash. Considine can bring depth to any part he takes on, including House of the Dragon's Ned Stark equivalent, while Smith ranks alongside Ben Mendelsohn as one of the most compelling actors at playing shady and shifty that's working today. This isn't really Viserys and Daemon's story, though. It's Rhaenyra and Alicent's, and Alcock and D'Arcy, plus Carey and Cooke, are up to that task. Here be dragons, and here be the women forced to deal with more and worse, including their own complicated relationship. Yes, as sure as winter is coming, this is a Game of Thrones spinoff. Check out the full House of the Dragon trailer below: House of the Dragon airs and streams from Monday, August 22 Down Under via Foxtel and Binge in Australia and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand. Images: Ollie Upton/HBO.
Three Malaysian architecture students have won the 2010 Skyscraper Competition for their revolutionary and ambitious design of a prison in the sky. Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee and Beh Ssi Cze proposed the Vertical Prison System, a prison that would be suspended above a city with the prisoners living in a 'free' community that contributes to the host city below, with the only access via elevator pods that run from the prison down to the ground. The reasoning behind the design is that studies have shown that rates of re-offending are so high because prisoners are not given the opportunity to rehabilitate in a desirable community. As well as avoiding the need for prison bars, the design includes farms, factories and recycling plants to produce goods for the wider community and serve to rehabilitate the inmates. The Vertical Prison System would revolutionalise the penitentiary system in a sustainable and ecological friendly design. The design also makes potential escape from the prison more difficult or at the very least more exciting, there would be no scaling walls, no Shawshank Redemption tunneling, however there would be plenty of opportunities for Hollywood blockbuster escape plans involving helicopters, jetpacks or ridiculous parachute designs.
If you'd like to spend the rest of 2022 hopping between music festivals and doing very little else, that's definitely a possibility. Everything from Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival to Woodford Folk Fest, Spilt Milk, Lost Paradise, Festival X, Grapevine Gathering, Beyond The Valley and Jungle Love is making a comeback before the year is out — and, as just-announced, so is The Grass Is Greener. Queenslanders should already be familiar with the music, food and art festival, which made its debut back in 2016. In 2022, it'll return to Cairns and the Gold Coast, spreading the love from one end of the Sunshine State to the other. And in excellent news for festival fans and music lovers down south, it's also branching out further for the first time ever. Your destinations: Canberra and Geelong, with The Grass Is Greener expanding nationally but keeping a focus on bringing tunes to cities beyond the usual state capitals. It'll do the regional rounds across the last two weekends in October, starting on the Goldie, hopping down to the ACT, zipping back up to its Tropical North Queensland birthplace, then wrapping up its 2022 run in Victoria. "With plans to grow The Grass Is Greener into a national festival falling through in 2020, we couldn't be more thrilled to bring regional Australia a truly unique offering they deserve," said organisers Handpicked Group. Each 2022 stop will boast multiple — and themed — stages, other eye-catching activations, and VIP packages. Exactly who'll be on the bill won't be announced till Thursday, June 16; however, given that The Grass Is Greener has played host to Amy Shark, All Day, Hayden James, Ocean Alley and Tyga before, expect a characteristically impressive lineup spanning both international and Aussie artists. [caption id="attachment_856350" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Curdin Photo[/caption] THE GRASS IS GREENER 2022 DATES: Saturday, October 22 — Gold Coast Sunday, October 23 — Canberra Saturday, October 29 — Cairns Sunday, October 30 — Geelong The Grass Is Greener will hit the Gold Coast, Canberra, Cairns and Geelong in October 2022. The full lineup will be announced on Thursday, June 16 — head back here then for further details — with pre-sale tickets going on sale from Wednesday, June 22 and general sales from Thursday, June 23. Head to the festival website for more info and to register for pre-sales. Images: Mitch Lowe and Curdin Photo.
It might not be quite the same as jetting off on an international getaway, but the banks of Circular Quay are about to get a taste of New Caledonian beach life, as part of a four-day pop-up this July. A whole heap of sand will transform the eastern side of the quay, between the ferry terminals and the Sydney Opera House, into a tropical oasis inspired by the French island's beach villages. The summery beach is part of the city's annual Bastille Festival, which also includes a wintry Christmas in July Village over in the Rocks. As well as New Caledonia, the temporary beach takes inspiration from the artificial beaches that pop-up along the Seine in Paris during summer. The Sydney beach, however, will have a bit more going on. From July 11 to 14, the sandy stretch is set to be the ultimate playground for those avoiding winter, dotted with beach chairs and palm trees and filled with cocktails, treasure hunts, games and island-inspired fare. Imagine lazing beneath the beach umbrellas while you tuck into the likes of barbecued prawn and pineapple skewers and coconut-glazed roast pork, before sampling limited-edition Noumea-style ice cream treats and desserts from your mates at KOI and Messina. Yep, the Sydney dessert big guns are getting involved for this one. To match, there'll be a bar serving a cocktail selection heavy on rum, coconut and pineapple, along with a tidy lineup of French rosé and bubbles. But it doesn't have to be all lounging and lazing. If you prefer a more adventurous sort of summer getaway, round up your own crew of pirates to take part in a giant treasure hunt, trekking all through Circular Quay and the Rocks. Or, have a crack at 'coconut pétanque' — a riff on the classic European game, which plays a little like Aussie lawn bowls. The Island Kanak Beach Village will be open from Thursday–Saturday 10am–10.30pm and Sunday 10am–8.30pm.
Recently opening the Sydney Film Festival to great buzz, 20,000 Days on Earth is a documentary that's fiction. It imagines the 20,000th day on earth of singer and raconteur Nick Cave, and it's a day that includes him talking to his shrink, recording an album, helping archivists make sense of his historical record, lunching with his pals, driving Kylie Minogue around Brighton, and playing at the Sydney Opera House. A pretty great day, by any standards. Instead of clarity and chronology, what you get is a fragmented sense of biography that you have to put together yourself, or let wash over you as a series of impressions, sensations and enraptured moments. Artists-turned-directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard have basically conjured a new format here, made sweeter by the flair and flamboyance Cave brings. 20,000 Days on Earth is in cinemas on August 21, and thanks to Madman Entertainment, we have ten double in-season passes to give away in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8vy-DO-I5E
We’ve known for a while that Public Enemy are headlining the eighth Golden Plains Festival next year, so we knew it would probably kick a fair few arses. But we had no idea it would be this many. The lineup includes such a tasty smorgasbord of local and international artists that the March long weekend can’t come quick enough. The overseas contingent boasts some of the world’s finest, including the soulful, confusing and perpetually beautiful Neko Case, Japanese funk legends Osaka Monaurail and Kiwi super-dub soldiers Fat Freddy’s Drop. The home crowd is just as exciting, with rock stalwarts You Am I leading the charge, followed closely by new rave pioneers Cut Copy and the supernatural soul crew that has earned Questlove’s glowing endorsement, Hiatus Kaiyote. The lineup is an eclectic mix of dance, funk, soul, blues and good ol’ rock 'n' roll, all spaced out with care over a long weekend in the country. Hot damn, we say to Golden Plains. Hot damn to the promise of a chilled-out festival in the middle of nowhere with a lineup that’s got something for everyone, and then a little more. Words cannot express. For the full lineup, check out the Golden Plains website. The ballot is open now for tickets.
Star Wars fandom has taken over the galaxy, from concert screenings and battle parties to boozy cantinas and saucy burlesque shows. Loving the George Lucas-created space opera isn't just about heading out to see multiple interpretations of the hit franchise, however — you can also wear your affection thanks to BlackMilk Clothing's new Star Wars collection. Pop culture-themed apparel is far from new, of course, and neither is Star Wars clothing. BlackMilk first took inspiration from jedis, rebels, siths and wookiees back in 2012, as its very first licensed collection, to massive sell outs. Now it's doing it all over again, unleashing the range for the third time. But in this collection, everything from leggings to dresses to swimsuits draws upon both the film series' beloved classic characters and on newcomers such as Daisy Ridley's Rey. If you're keen on a R2-D2 one-piece just in time to hit the pool this summer, fancy a pair of cuffed pants filled with droits and sentients that you are actually looking for, or need to get comfy in a big t-shirt adorned with Chewie and a few porgs, you'll find them all here. In total, the range spans 22 pieces, and they all go on sale from 9am on Tuesday, September 18. Unsurprisingly, the clothing items are expected to be popular — this is the company that turned exercise into something magical with its Harry Potter activewear, after all. BlackMilk Clothing's new Star Wars range goes on sale at 9am on Tuesday, September 18. For more information, head to the brand's website.
Today, Public Transport Victoria released its twice-yearly fare compliance figures, stating that 95 percent of travellers on metropolitan services have been touching on and off. But what about the other five percent — namely, those that have no choice but to fare evade to get to where they need to go? In an attempt to help out on this front, the Victorian Government has today launched a trial 'emergency relief' ticket system for those that need it. This will allow homeless and disadvantaged Victorians to access free weekly and monthly travel passes so that they can get to appointments and access basic services. Approved schools and community organisations (like the Red Cross and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, for example) will purchase the passes at a "heavily discounted" rate, and then pass the onto the people they support for no cost. The passes are valid in zones one and two, and on regional buses . The decision comes after a review found that those that can't afford to buy a ticket are often forced to fare evade — and, in turn, get fined and stuck in the legal system — to get access the services and care they need. This trial will attempt to avoid this. Previously, disadvantaged Victorians could access free day passes, but these longer passes will allow for more flexibility and changing circumstances. "This is the next step in our ongoing work to make our public transport ticketing system simpler and fairer for passengers across Victoria," said Minister for Housing Martin Foley today in a statement. The trial will run for 12 months — if it's deemed successful, it's likely that it will continue indefinitely. And, hopefully, be introduced in other states.
Not a whole heap of regular folk can say they love flying. The crying babies, the contortions you perform to try and get comfy, the inevitable sore neck. But, there's something that makes it all a little better: the bar cart. The flight attendant finally rolls that booze-filled trolley to your aisle and you get to pick between a tiny white wine or a tiny red wine. Ah, the life. We're all missing travel at the moment, which, apart from the obvious, we can tell by how quickly Aussies snapped up the Qantas pjs when they went on sale. And to help ease some of that yearning, Qantas is selling 1000 bar carts. Yes, its bar carts. And they come stocked full of those mini bottles of booze, too. The bar carts are from the now-retired Boeing 747 fleet, which have gone to live in the Californian desert, and come in two sizes: a full cart or half. They will set you back a pretty penny, but you do get a lot of booze. The full cart is $1474.70 — or 256,000 points, if that is something you have — and includes 80 187-millilitre bottles of white wine, 80 of red wine, two sleeves of Tim Tams, two full bottles of champagne, four amenity kits, two first-class blankets and four sets of those coveted pjs, plus some smoked almonds and savoury biscuits. The half cart is quite literally half a cart and half of the contents, but not quite half of the price ($947.70). You can also buy the mini bottles individually for $2.99 a bottle. The carts can be delivered to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth metro postcodes. Yes, you could definitely just go and buy cheap wine and pretend you're on a plane — but, would it be as fun? No. So, get your mates to chip in and plan a night of low-altitude revelry. Qantas' bar carts are on sale until Friday, October 9 or until sold out. Snag yours over here.
Celebrity chef Luke Mangan and his meticulous Luke's Kitchen crew at Pitt Street's Kimpton Margot Hotel are doing a luxurious rendition of Mother's Day brunch. Mangan relocated his popular Dank Street eatery into the sleek Art Deco lobby of the Kimpton Margot, but his culinary focus — combining French and Asian influences with fresh local produce, beautifully plated — remains true to his original vision. The menu for Mother's Day Brunch brings it to life in five generous courses. The lineup includes: sashimi of hiramasa kingfish with nam jim, coconut yoghurt wild rice and kaffir lime; onion galette topped with soft poached egg; barbecue spiced king prawns; grilled Brooklyn Valley sirloin; and pear and raspberry crumble with vanilla bean ice cream. A vegan menu is also available for plant-based diners. For $125 per person you'll get the five-course meal and a glass of Taittinger on arrival. There will also be a roving bartender on hand to mix table-side Bloody Marys to your exact specifications, if you're mum is after something with a bit more kick. Seats are limited so book now at the Kimpton Margot website.
The stories we see on screen become the stories we tell ourselves as a person and a society. So it matters that the default story character is a dude — specifically, only 10% of protagonists in our major motion pictures, or a third of ensemble casts, is female (Bechdel test, drive this point home). It turns out there's one simple fix for this: have women direct, write, produce or edit the film. As the organisers of the Seen and Heard film festival point out, having at least one female director bumps up women's screentime by 25%, and one female writer by 33% — but only 38% of 2011's top 250 films had women in any major production roles. Jeez Louise. Seen and Heard is out to spread awareness in us filmgoers and simultaneously celebrate the achievements of women in film. At the Red Rattler over three consecutive Thursdays in March, they'll screen short and mid-length films that have a woman's (not necessarily gentle) touch. See the likes of Catherine Scott's Scarlet Road, about Sydney sex worker Rachel Wotton, who caters to people with disabilities; Maya Newell's Two, which visits the world of 'adult babies'; Liz Canner's Orgasm Inc, a document of the race to develop Viagra for women; and Luran Xiao's Escape, an animation that captures the inner life of a pornographic model. In the ultimate marker of accessibility, entry to the festival is by donation. To see more fabulous works by women, check out the WOW Film Festival. Image from Maxwell and Sierra and the Inside Out by Hannah Arrioti. https://youtube.com/watch?v=TUY-iTf2T1A
Summer is over for now and spring is still almost half a year away. But if you want to start thinking ahead, Surfers Paradise is set to welcome a brand new attraction that'll keep you busy when the warm weather hits. Do you like hanging out by the beach? Splashing around in several pools? Enjoying a few games of volleyball on the sand? Watching a movie under the stars? If you answered yes to all of these questions — and you also like to spend your sunny days and starry nights kicking back in a cabana, hopping between multiple restaurants and bars, dancing to DJs and gathering the gang on a rooftop with a view — then you'll want to add Cali Beach Club to your must-visit list. First announced late in 2020 and originally scheduled to open this past summer, Cali Beach Club will feature all of the aforementioned facilities and activities in the one spot. Yes, it's going to be more than a little jam-packed with things to do when it launches just in time for spring this year. Although an exact opening date hasn't yet been revealed, the new precinct will officially open on the corner of Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Elkhorn Avenue sometime in August — perched four levels about the street, sprawling across more than 5000 square metres, and boasting vantages over both the ocean and the Surfers' skyline. The Gold Coast might be known for its theme parks, but this is shaping up to be the boozy adult alternative, as run by Australian hospitality group Artesian Hospitality. Whether you're a Brisbanite heading down the highway, a Sydney or Melbourne resident enjoying the lack of border restrictions, or hail from elsewhere in the country, you'll find quite the spread awaiting once you step inside. That includes four pools to swim in, and plenty of daybeds, sun lounges and cabanas where you can while away the hours. There'll also be exercise areas and sports facilities, such as the aforementioned beach volleyball court, and a dance floor as well. In terms of food and drink, you'll have options, thanks to two restaurants and four bars. Exact details of what they'll be serving, and what'll make them different from each other, haven't yet been revealed — but one eatery will sit right by the ocean. Come evening, a moonlit cinema will screen flicks by the water — again, though, no other details have been revealed. Showing Jaws and Point Break seems like a must, however, because everyone likes catching movies about the sea while they're literally right next to it. [caption id="attachment_793063" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Map of Cali Beach Club[/caption] All the other questions you're currently pondering — such as opening hours, cost, capacity and social distancing measures — haven't been answered yet either. But, while it looks perfect for spring and summer shenanigans, Cali Beach Club plans to operate year-round. The Gold Coast does have the weather for it, after all. And, although the precinct will officially welcome in the general public in August, it'll actually be completed sometime in June. Over that two-month gap, it'll let a few exclusive corporate functions and events — and even weddings — have the run of the place. If you or someone you know are currently looking for a space for a up to 150 guest for a special occasion, take note. Cali Beach Club will open on the corner of Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Elkhorn Avenue, Surfers Paradise, sometime in August 2021 — we'll update you when an exact date is announced.
If all a horror movie needed was a killer concept, then Lights Out would sit at the top of the spooky cinematic heap. At its core is an idea that's equally obvious, ingenious and universal: the unsettling feeling that springs in children and adults alike when a flick of a switch plunges a room into darkness. In fact, when Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg first toyed with the notion in his two-and-a-half-minute short film of the same name, it became a viral sensation, catching the eye of horror producer James Wan in the process. Three years later, Sandberg has fleshed out the attention-grabbing effort into his feature film debut. In Lights Out, stressing about whatever sinister presence just might lurk in the shadows isn't simply a sign of anxiety or an overactive imagination, as Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and her ten year old brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) come to realise in the wake of a family tragedy. Initially, Martin isn't overly concerned when his grief-stricken mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), starts speaking to someone who isn't there. But then he spies a ghostly figure that only appears when his lamp turns off. When he flees his dimly lit home to stay in Rebecca's apartment, she starts seeing the apparition too. It's enough to make them jump, run and scream repeatedly, in a movie that knows how to make the most of its unnerving moments. Indeed, although writer Eric Heisserer seems fairly content to keep playing in formulaic territory after penning the recent remakes of both A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Thing, Sandberg perfects the ominous look, uneasy mood and expert sense of timing that a film about things going bump in the dark requires. More specifically, Sandberg's spot-on directorial choices include a focus on the obvious but essential: if you're going to call a film Lights Out, you have to master the many flickers and silhouettes that tend to come with luminous bulbs and the like. From the glow of exterior lighting shining down on an eerie-looking warehouse in the film's opening shot, to the contrast of every high- and low-wattage source of brightness you can think of against gloomy interior surroundings, the movie becomes a striking exercise in setting a specific tone through lighting and cinematography. As a result, what it lacks in narrative surprises, it makes up for in successful scares and inventive imagery. Thankfully, the small but spirited cast follows suit, even though they're largely saddled with cookie-cutter horror roles. No time is wasted on jostling for laughs or taking things too seriously, with the 81-minute feature proving an example of economical yet mostly effective filmmaking. Accordingly, even as Palmer's heroine makes more than a few predictable choices, and Bello's frazzled parent does the same, they're both pitched at just the right, relatable level.
Kylie Kwong is one of Sydney's most admired chefs, and she'll share the secrets to some of her tastiest Australian-Chinese food creations at a cooking masterclass taking place at Carriageworks on September 17. Owner of one of our favourite Sydney restaurants Billy Kwong, Kylie is a powerhouse in the cooking world and has a lot of fingers in a lot of delicious pies. She manages the running of her busy fine-dining restaurant at the same time as hosting a cooking show (Heart and Soul), popping up on Masterchef every now and then, and writing six books that celebrate traditional principles of Cantonese food. She's also just returned from presenting at René Redzepi's MAD5 Symposium in Copenhagen, Denmark, so there's that. Kylie's philosophies are collaboration, celebration and community with a focus on using fresh Australian produce, while staying true to the Cantonese food principles she learned from her mum. We wish we'd listened more to our own mums on the cooking front and were as good as Kylie. In the meantime, there's this masterclass. Get your $25 ticket via Carriageworks.
As the home of Stranger Things, Netflix has been serving up big doses of 80s-themed nostalgia for the past five years. The platform has just found another way to get viewers thinking fondly about the past, however, all thanks to its new acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC) — which includes all of the British author's beloved books. If this sounds familiar, that's because the big friendly giant of the streaming world first found itself a similar golden ticket back in 2018, when it announced that it was bringing 16 of the writer's classic novels to the service in animated form. That's still happening — including via two new series from Taika Waititi based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — but this new purchase will significantly expand the amount of Dahl-inspired content hitting the streamer's catalogue. As part of the earlier deal with the RDSC, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Matilda and The Twits are all slated to get adapted into animated television shows, so get ready for Oompa Loompas, everlasting gobstoppers and everyone's favourite book-loving schoolgirl with telekinetic abilities. They're already set to be joined by basically every Dahl novel you read and adored as a kid — including The BFG, Esio Trot, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Henry Sugar, Billy and the Minpins, The Magic Finger, Dirty Beasts and Rhyme Stew. The author's autobiographical efforts Boy – Tales of Childhood and Going Solo had also already been earmarked to hit the platform, with one detailing Dahl's youth and the other delving into his journeys to Africa as well as his service in World War II. For many of these works, including the tales about the author himself, it'll be the first time that they've been adapted for the screen. 🚨 Some very exciting breaking news🚨 https://t.co/uovvO3SYye — Netflix ANZ (@NetflixANZ) September 22, 2021 In its new announcement, Netflix advised that an adaptation of Matilda the Musical is also headed its way, but remained vague about exactly what viewers can expect otherwise. "As we bring these timeless tales to more audiences in new formats, we're committed to maintaining their unique spirit and their universal themes of surprise and kindness, while also sprinkling some fresh magic into the mix," the service advised in a statement. In other words, expect the tales you know and love, as well as tales that expand upon those tales. And, expect to have plenty of them to watch in years to come. Netflix also hasn't said when all this Dahl-based content will hit the platform, so you can't mark any dates in your calendar as yet. But if you just can't wait, Wes Anderson's delightful stop-motion animation version of Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox is currently streaming on the service, as are a number of other flicks adapted from the writers' works — including both the original and recent versions of The Witches, plus 1996's Matilda. For more information about Netflix's acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company, head to the Netflix website.
The current true crime craze has filled our ears with acclaimed podcasts and packed our streaming queues with must-watch TV programs. Now, it's turning a former teen idol into a serial killer. After singing his way through high school, playing frat pranks at college and saving lives on California beaches, Zac Efron is swapping teen musicals, Bad Neighbours flicks and Baywatch remakes for a stint as notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. The end result is Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which focuses not only on the horrific string of killings that would eventually lead to Bundy's arrest and execution (he confessed to 30 homicides, but is suspected of committing more), but also on his relationship with single mother Liz Kloepfer (Lily Collins). How did the infamous figure charm his victims? How did Kloepfer fall in love with a psychopath? Both questions sit at this heart of this crime thriller. The movie's first trailer, which dropped in late January, showed us that it's quite the change of pace for Efron, who has been garnering impressive reviews for his performance. Also starring John Malkovich and Haley Joel Osment, the film screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year, debuting 30 years after Bundy's execution on January 24, 1989 — almost to the day, a case of gruesome timing that obviously isn't a coincidence. Now, a second eerie trailer has dropped for the film (below). This time round, Efron is a lot less charming and whole heap more unsettling — which, you know, is appropriate (since he's a serial killer and all). True crime fiends will be happy to know that a release date has also dropped — and you only have to wait 30 days until the thriller hits your Netflix queues. Yep, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile will be hitting the streaming service on Friday, May 3. Maybe schedule in a long weekend. In the meantime, you can watch (or rewatch) the equally chilling Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, which are also on Netflix. And watch the new unsettling new trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdMtnvMJcDA&feature=youtu.be Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile will hit Netflix on May 3, 2019.
Well, well, well, summer, looks like you finally made it. We're diving headfirst into December's balmy days with this month's cruisy Sydney itinerary. From all the smoked meats you could eat to Tokyo-style bicycles, hidden coves to Kurt Cobain's sunglasses, this month's looking pretty promising for Sydneysiders. Let's swim, play and eat our way through, with a little retail therapy at the close. Just remember to be a total legend and whack on some sunscreen and a hat before you head out; check out Pretty Shady for their (free) go-to skin savers. SWIM: MILK BEACH Clearing one thing up, the water at Milk Beach is completely dairy free. This sandy cove is hidden behind Strickland House at Vaucluse, one of Sydney's best harbour beaches and perfect for long, summery days by the sea. With views across to the Sydney skyline and the Opera House, Milk Beach has the perfect balance of city buzz and beach hideaway elements. Pitch your umbrella, pick out your best and brightest bucket hat and lather up with SPF30+. 53 Vaucluse Road, Vaucluse. PLAY: KURT COBAIN, THE LAST SESSION The perfect plan for those dastardly summer thunderstorm days. Although it’s been a long time since we farewelled the god of grunge, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain. Photographer Jesse Frohman was behind the lens of the last ever formal shoot Nirvana did. Taken in November 1993, mere months before Cobain’s suicide, the photographs were published for an article in the London Observer. In their larger and more vivid glory, they are currently on display at Paddington’s Blender Gallery. December 14 - January 17; Blender Gallery; FREE. EAT/DRINK: MEAT DISTRICT CO. Darling Harbour and Old Pasedena now have something in common. Meat. Meat District Co., to be precise: a brand new addition with a big fat focus on ribs, burgers and waterfront views. And while the Harbour many love to hate may not have the same glam-fest reputation of LA, the guys behind Meat District Co. (brothers Coco and Gary Simonian, owners of Platinum Restaurant Group) have done well to land themselves this location and we’re pretty certain they’ll pull in the crowds even in Sydney’s saturated bun-and-patty market. If you can nab a table upstairs facing the water you’ll definitely be set for an hour or two (and you'll be in that cool, cool shade). 11 Lime Street, King Street Wharf. SHOP: TOKYOBIKE This store opened in 2010 as the first permanent tokyobike outside the suburb of Yanaka in Japan. The name came from the design of the bikes; in the same way a mountain bike was designed for the mountains, tokyobike was designed for Tokyo. Pedalling through the streets of Surry Hills, we may be a fair way from the Japanese capital, but we'll be damned if we don't like to pretend otherwise. The four tokyobike models are designed with simplicity, enjoyment and comfort over speed front of mind. And they come in a range of preeetty colours. Cue heart eyes for days. Suite G.02, Ground Floor Paramount Building, 80 Commonwealth Street. Check out Pretty Shady for more summer tips and ideas on how to beat that dastardly sun at its own game. By the Concrete Playground team. Image credits: Milk Beach by Jayphen and Eddy Milfort cc.
The teenagers of Point Place are at it again: hangin' out down the street, that is, usually in the Forman family basement. This time, decades have passed on- and off-screen since the world first met a group of high schoolers happily doing the same old things they did last week in the fictional Wisconsin town. Netflix's new That '90s Show picks up just over 15 years after That '70s Show's timeline, embracing all that the mid-90s had to offer from raves and Alanis Morissette's initial fame to video stores and Donkey Kong. (Yellowjackets isn't the only series going all-in three decades back right now.) For viewers, the 1995-set series arrives 17 years after its predecessor said farewell. The years might've changed, but the basics stay the same in a wave of familiar places, faces, scenarios and themes — and the overall formula. From 1998–2006, Eric Forman (Topher Grace, Home Economics), girl-next-door Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon, Orange Is the New Black), and pals including Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher, Vengeance), Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis, Luckiest Girl Alive) and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama, NCIS) earned That '70s Show's attention as they chatted through their hopes and dreams, got stoned frequently, and tried to work out who they were, who they loved and what they wanted. Now, doing the same is Eric and Donna's 14-year-old daughter Leia (Callie Haverda, The Lost Husband), plus the new friends she makes while visiting her loving, supportive but sometimes embarrassing empty-nester grandparents. It's during a July 4th weekend stopover at Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp, WandaVision) and Red's (Kurtwood Smith, The Dropout), aka her dad's childhood home, that Leia finds something she doesn't have in Chicago: peers that truly understand her. Despite dashing Eric's dreams of a father-daughter space camp trip just as Red is informing him and Donna that they're now "upstairs people", Leia decides to stay in Point Place for the summer. As perky as ever, Kitty is thrilled to have the house — all levels — filled with kids once more. The perennially cantankerous Red doesn't share or even feign her enthusiasm, but he is eager to start threatening another generation with an emphatic kick in the rear — and to call them all "dumbass". Those new teens? The elder Formans' neighbours Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide, Four Kids and It) and Nate (Maxwell Acee Donovan, Gabby Duran & The Unsittables) — one a feisty riot grrrl getting Leia to rebel for the first time in her life, the other the airhead successor to Michael Kelso — and their existing friends. There is a genuine Kelso, too, in the form of hunky ladies' man Jay (Mace Coronel, Colin in Black & White), who's firmly his dad's son. Rounding out the gang: the witty Ozzie (Reyn Doi, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar), the openly gay member of the group, and Nate's super-smart girlfriend Nikki (Sam Morelos, Forgetting Nobody). Including recognisable character traits and the entire new pot-smoking, basement-dwelling crew's dynamic, as well as their hijinks — and spanning the chaos brought by Gwen and Nate's mother Sherri (Andrea Anders, Ted Lasso) as a replacement for Eric's elder sister Laurie, plus the return of the same theme tune (but given a decade-appropriate makeover), the stoner circle and each episode's interludes — That '90s Show is the blatant doppelgänger of TV sequels. Reviving teen-centric hits from decades back is one of pop culture's favourite recent trends, covering everything from Saved by the Bell and Gossip Girl to Bel-Air, but this comeback is deeply determined to give exactly what worked the first time — and for 200 episodes at that — another spin. In a series developed by That '70s Show creators Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner alongside their daughter Lindsey Turner and also That '70s Show producer Gregg Mettler, cue layer upon layer of nostalgia — for That '70s Show and for the new series' own titular decade alike. Entertainingly for fans of the original, That '90s Show's love of nods and references to its predecessor is as vast as Eric's still-buzzing love for Star Wars (see: Leia's name, and Eric's job as a professor exploring the religion of Star Wars). Obviously, the Netflix continuation couldn't be called That '90s Show if it didn't embrace its namesake as well, complete with references to Clerks, Home Alone and Free Willy, and a Beverly Hills 90210-inspired fantasy sequence. The extra dose of nostalgia? Not only getting viewers thinking about That '70s Show and the 90s, but recalling watching it in the 90s and 00s, and also wading through its affection for the 70s at the same time. Here, nostalgia and familiarity are in, making any big new moves is out — other than for Leia when she decides to stay with Kitty and Red the summer, putting herself out there to make new friends and chasing her heart. Sticking with what this franchise knows could've been unambitious and straightforward, but it couldn't suit both That '70s Show and That '90s Show better. Before it made stars out of Grace, Prepon, and the now-married Kutcher and Kunis, a considerable part of the first series' appeal was its low-key vibe; it was a show to hang out with, just as its main players did with each other while they navigated recognisable and relatable suburban teen life. This follow-up knows not to depart from that key trait, just as it knows that the mechanics of being in high school haven't shifted no matter how long has passed. Could this be a continuation of That '70s Show if the old gang didn't show up at various points, including the OG Kelso, Jackie, now-celebrity hairdresser Fez and always-high hippie Leo (Tommy Chong, Color Out of Space)? Of course not. Could this new series escape the temptation to have Leia fall for Jay and use that will-they-won't-they situation as one of its ongoing threads? Of course not again. That '90s Show is an endearing, laidback, easily bingeable throwback all the same — well-cast, too, although Doi and Morelos deserve more focus if it returns for a second season — and one that gets its levels of dripping nostalgia exactly right. Case in point: when it opens, it's with Kitty dancing in her kitchen to the apt 'Groove Is in the Heart', that 1990 Deee-Lite hit that hailed back to the 70s. Check out the trailer for That '90s Show below: That '90s Show streams via Netflix. Images: Patrick Wymore/Netflix © 2022.
The close ties between Italy and Australian can't be ignored. Italians love pasta and wine, and we also love pasta and wine, after all. Accordingly, what better way to celebrate this joyful union than to head along to an Italian street festival on your Sunday. Returning for 2019, Ferragosto will bring a solid dose of Italian culture, food and general entertainment to Sydney's Five Dock on Sunday, August 18, with over 150 food stalls hawking street eats and handmade goodness (including Pasticceria Papa's famed ricotta cheesecake), as well as dance and music across five stages. Aussie singer and former Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo will headline alongside comedian Joe Avati — and if you've ever wished you were cruising across Florence on a vespa, there'll be a bunch of fancy Italian vehicles on display. Last year's event drew more than 100,000 people, so it seems that the people of Sydney enjoy Italian culture a fair amount: and with this being Ferragosto's 22nd birthday, the obsession doesn't seem to be fading. What's to argue with when it comes to pizza and cannoli, really? Ferragosto runs from 10am–4pm. Image: Ann-Marie Calihann
Gone are the days of sidling into bottle shops and covertly trying to identify the second cheapest wine on the shelf. The brainchild of The Iconic founder and former managing director Cameron Votan, Spokewine is the brand new online wine store that may well revolutionise the way you think about your drinking — with a unique customer rating system. The online equivalent of a well-stocked cellar door, Spokewine features wine options from more than 70 different Australian wineries, many of which have never before been available to buy on the web. With a focus on boutique producers, customers can browse by wine type, region or individual winery, or simply take a look at what's trending with their fellow oenophiles — which, let's face it, is basically just a fancy word for knowledgeable alcoholic. Once you've found the wine that suits your palate, you can order by the case and have it delivered to you absolutely free. Shipping should take between 4-10 days, and you'll need someone over 18 to sign for it on arrival. Sorry kids, there's no gaming the system. What makes Spokewine unique is their democratic review process, which takes the power away from snooty wine critics and puts it back into the hands of the people. Basically, it's like IMDb, but for your liver. After logging in through Facebook, you can choose between 'love', 'like' and 'not for me', or get more in depth feedback through tasting notes and written reviews. After you've rated the vino, your score and everyone else's get aggregated into two separate rankings — the 'approval' rating counts the percentage of positive votes, while the 'passion' rating calculates the number of 'love' votes as a percentage of people who ranked it positively. The Spokewine venture may prove a new mode of doing business for the former Iconic head and his partners Nicholas Turner, Michael Larsen and Victor Garcia. Votan told BRW the move was a "real partnership" with winemakers, as opposed to the set-up with labels: arguing over rebates, charging fees for lost custom. Looks like Votan is going to do things a little differently this time. "Not just The Iconic but any retailer I’ve ever been involved with, whether through consulting or an operational role, is that merchants are by nature in an adversarial relationship [with suppliers],” Votan told BRW. "It would be impossible to do that with the set of vendors that we’re working with now. They just don’t work like that. They’re up for partnerships for life. They want you to come and look them in the eye, walk through their vineyard with them, understand their story and at the end shake hands and say let’s do business." Now if you'll excuse us, we've got some user-reviewed wine to order.
The best movies of the 2014 Sydney Film Festival are just a month and some strategic ticket booking away. All those hotly awaited preview screenings and festival circuit favourites are vying for our attention. But after years of festival attendance, if we've learned anything, we've learned that a good film festival is all about balance, variety and the payoff of open-mindedness. So here's our guide to creating a great festival program for yourself — including the best, ballsiest and most challenging films — using the festival's most popular ticket, the Flexipass 10. Of course, if you find yourself getting a Flexipass 20 or 30, we've got you covered too. https://youtube.com/watch?v=isp2OUG6phE One likely Competition winner With his last film, David Michôd gave the world the most sinister Smurf ever, and in return got awards from the Academy, Golden Globes and Sundance. Since Animal Kingdom, Michôd has been working on The Rover, conceived with Joel Edgerton and set in a near-future, dystopian Australia where the western economy has collapsed and people from all over the world come to work in the mines (a la gold rush). Guy Pearce is in the grizzled lead role, with Robert Pattinson as his annoying protege (really). So no rainbows and unicorns in the Michôd oeuvre anytime soon. Alternatively: It's a tough field in the Sydney Film Festival Official Competition, which will see one filmmaker awarded the $60,000 prize by the expert jury. The latest risky feature from Hail director Amiel Courtin-Wilson (this time co-directing with Michael Cody), Ruin is a love story set among the violence and desperation of Cambodia's underclass. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ISaSHUSrEUw One ambitious formal experiment Did you know that for the last 12 years, Richard Linklater has been tinkering away on the same project? Oh yes, in between Before Midnight and Before Sunset, A Scanner Darkly and Bernie, there's been Boyhood, an intimate coming-of-age drama utilising the same cast (Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and kids Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater) and interested in the kind of authenticity that can be created when you're not artificially ageing or swapping in older actors. "There has simply never been anything like this film," wrote Rolling Stone, and it does look very exciting indeed. Alternatively: There's some fantastic formal experimentation taking place this year. Check out The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her and Him, two separate films detailing two different halves of a relationship breakdown; the single-shot, 134-minute Iranian slasher film Fish & Cat; Locke, which takes place entirely inside a car; or Manakamana, which takes place entirely inside a cable car. https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4Bg9dsurqE One advanced preview you can't wait to see Michael Fassbender in a papier mache head. Does it seem like director Lenny Abrahamson might have shot himself in the foot there? Fassbender is obscured by mask for basically the whole of Frank, the sweet, Jon Ronson-penned feature about genius, illness and selling out in the music industry, which we've been buzzing about since it premiered at Sundance. The SFF is scattered with films like this in the special presentation stream — they're basically guaranteed to come out in cinemas in the next few months, but this is your chance to see them at the luxe State Theatre (and before your friends). Alternatively: Also at the State are the Michel Gondry/Noam Chomsky film Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?, sure to be a work of great joy, as well as the long-awaited (by some) sophomore effort from Zach Braff, Wish I Was Here. Not at the State, Gia Coppola makes her directorial debut with Palo Alto, the film that James Franco may have sexted a teenager for. https://youtube.com/watch?v=KinAEqb3Kts One foreign-language film to challenge you Prepare to feel like you've accomplished nothing with your life. At the age of just 25, director Xavier Dolan has been hailed as a genius more times than most of us have been told that we're just pretty okay. This French-Canadian triple-threat won the SFF Prize in 2010 for his sophomore film Heartbeats, and now returns with Tom at the Farm, a psychological thriller about a man — named Tom (Dolan) — who attends the funeral of his boyfriend, only to find himself caught in a twisted game with members of his dead lovers' family. Alternatively: Diao Yinan's neo-noir Black Coal, Thin Ice took the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and looks to be amongst the most intriguing entries in the festival sidebar focused on China. Meanwhile, the Angelina Jolie-produced child abduction drama Difret appears grimly well-timed in light of the Boko Haram kidnappings currently making headlines around the world, and transgender filmmaker Ester Martin Bergsmark takes a look at young love in Something Must Break. The latest from one of your favourite cult directors Brilliant South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (Mother, The Host) makes his English language debut with Snowpiercer, a highly politicised post-apocalyptic thriller. When a botched attempt to solve global warming plunges the earth into a second ice age, the last remnants remains of humanity — including Chris Evans, John Hurt and Tilda Swinton — take shelter aboard a perpetually moving train. After rave early screenings on the European festival circuit, American distributor Harvey 'Scissorhands' Weinstein caused controversy by suggesting he planned to cut out 20 minutes from the film so that American audiences would be able to understand it. Thankfully, it appears that the film will screen uncut at SFF, just as Bong intended. Alternatively: David Gordon Green (Prince Avalanche) teams up with Nicholas Cage for the Mississippi-set drama Joe, while Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) ventures into the third dimension with quirk-filled The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet. There are also new films from Atom Egoyan, Kelly Reichardt and The Dardennes. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4DlSfb0kIVs One eye-opening documentary Maybe you've thought that Ukraine's topless protesters FEMEN are a pretty crap version of feminism. Maybe you just don't know enough about Ukraine to judge. Australian director Kitty Green's Ukraine Is Not a Brothel takes a keen-eyed look at the politics, society and personal stories surrounding the group — and their shadowy mastermind. Plus, let's face it, you could probably use a primer on Ukraine considering how central it's become to geopolitics. Alternatively: The Australian and international documentary streams are full of stranger-than-fiction stories told in interesting, rigorous ways. We love the look of Gracie Otto's vivacious The Last Impresario; Errol Morris's latest, The Unknown Known; and the rollicking tale of the most influential sci-fi film never made, Jodorowsky's Dune. https://youtube.com/watch?v=N02z93-TtqY One exceedingly weird thing that will never get a mainstream release There's no point in going to a film festival if you're only going to see movies that'll be released at the multiplex next week. Being a movie buff means liking weird things with absolutely no commercial prospects — like Ne me quitte pas, a Belgian documentary about two drunken old men hanging out together in the woods. Described by Indiewire as both hilarious and touching, you'll never know how great (or terrible) a movie like this is unless you're willing to give it a chance. Alternatively: A father and son provide running commentary on grainy footage from a 1988 Romanian soccer match in The Second Game, while another match gets interrupted by zombies in Goal of the Dead. https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8vy-DO-I5E One visual trip through music This year's opening film is none other than 20,000 Days on Earth, a fictionalised documentary portrayal (huh?) of a day in the life of Nick Cave. The film won a pair of awards Sundance for directing and editing, and shows the iconoclastic musician visit the psychotherapist, work on his latest album, and have imaginary conversations with figures from his past. Sounds strange, which should suit fans of Cave's music just fine. Alternatively: The festival's Sounds on Screen section has been popular feature with music lovers for quite some time now. This year's highlights include a Jimi Hendrix biopic starring André 3000 and a doco about Australian jazz pioneer Clark Terry and his friendship with a blind young pianist, Keep on Keepin' On. https://youtube.com/watch?v=TyvfQIdx_Ao One comedy that lightens the mood Look, if you only saw the critically talked-up stuff at the SFF, you'd probably find yourself gravely depressed. The stuff of reviewer reverence is rarely uplifting; it's usually important, unsentimental and keen to deny you the closure of a neat ending. We know it. That's why it's vital you heed this step and add a comedy to your schedule, just to keep you in your right mind. The must-see this year is really What We Do In the Shadows, the NZ vampire mockumentary from the makers of Flight of the Conchords. Enough said. Alternatively: The creator of web series The Slope, Desiree Akhavan, has produced the "queer Persian-American Annie Hall", Appropriate Behaviour, while Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey and Lena Dunham all hang out in Happy Christmas, from director Joe Swanberg. One unforgettable film experience Ultimately, film festivals are about creating experiences that stick with you after the lights come up. To that end, take a trip to the Skyline Drive-In on Friday the 13th, for a late-night screening of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Never will the growl of the rusty saw sound so close, nor the blood look less fake, than in this carefully restored digital print. Forty years on, it's a classic for a reason. Be sure to lock your doors. Alternatively: Check out the always awesome SFF Hub for a ton of extra-curricular activities. Grab a drink, listen to a panel, take part in the Vladmaster Viewmaster experience or watch Australian critics duke it out in the take-no-prisoners Film Critics Death Match. By Rima Sabina Aouf and Tom Clift.
If you're heading to Byron Bay this summer, get ready to ride the world's first solar-powered train. The two-carriage chugger was built in Sydney in 1949, but, from December 16, it'll travel along a three-kilometre track between downtown Byron Bay and Northbeach Station up near Sunrise Beach and the Byron arts and industrial estate, driven solely by the sun's energy. Byron Bay Railroad Company, which is operating as a non-profit, has spent four years restoring the train, which was in disuse. There are seats for 100 passengers, as well as standing room for extras and, importantly, space for surfboards and bicycles. To begin, the train will operate on a limited timetable, but will run once per hour between 8am and 10pm — at a cost of three bucks per person — from January. More frequent runs will be considered in line with passenger demand and operating costs. Back in the day, the train ran on diesel. Its conversion took place at the Lithgow Railway Workshop, where solar panels were added to the roof and solar-charged batteries installed. While Indian Railways did launch a solar-powered train earlier this year, the sun only powers the lights, fans and displays on that vehicle. By comparison, on this train, the batteries can power every system, including lighting, air compressors, control circuits and traction. And, should the sun hide its face for a while, they'll gain energy from the grid's green arm. One diesel engine has been removed and replaced with an electric drive package. The remaining diesel engine is staying on-board for to provide emergency back up in the case of an electrical glitch. The Byron Bay Railroad Company's services operate from 8am to 10pm daily from January. For more information, visit byronbaytrain.com.au.
Barbenheimer, aka the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer on the silver screen on the same day, is the biggest thing in cinemas worldwide right now. Thanks to the current situation in Hollywood, it might just prove the biggest thing in picture palaces for the rest of 2023. With Tinseltown's actors and writers currently striking for better conditions, film studios are reportedly rethinking their release plans, which means likely pushing back some of the year's other big blockbusters until 2024. Already Down Under, Australian crime-thriller Force of Nature: The Dry 2 has ditched its planned August release, with star Eric Bana a member of the striking SAG-AFTRA. Unsurprisingly, it seems that more movies will follow — and globally. Variety reports that Dune: Part Two, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom and The Colour Purple are among the titles being considered for a 2024 rendezvous with cinemagoers instead. Also possibly getting a release-date rethink, Variety predicts: The Marvels, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Napoleon. Yes, it's happening again, maybe: just like when the pandemic sparked stay-at-home orders, restrictions and closed cinemas, a heap of big-name flicks might shift back their debuts in cinemas. The list of titles that Hollywood's studios are considering pushing is undoubtedly even longer — spanning more than sandworms, underwater superheroes, Oprah Winfrey-produced musicals, Marvel teamups, volunteering as tribute and French emperors. For cinema's spiciest sci-fi saga, this is a particularly familiar situation. Dune: Part One was delayed considerably due to COVID-19, jumping from Boxing Day 2020 to early December 2021. Wondering exactly why dates could be pushed back this time if the films are already finished, or the actors and writers have already done their parts? Neither stars nor scribes are permitted to promote films during the strike. That means no Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya talking about getting sandy, Jason Momoa chatting about life underwater and the like. Splashing famous faces around via interviews is usually a big part of a movie's promotional strategy — aka something that the studios value from actors, a fact that shouldn't escape notice given the current situation. Hollywood talents are fighting against diminishing residual payments for performers, and to establish firm rules about the future use of artificial intelligence in the industry, among other improvements to working conditions. When they took action in mid-July, SAG-AFTRA's members joined their counterparts in the Writers Guild of America, who've been striking since May. We'll update you if and when any of this year's big upcoming movies change their release date. Via Variety.
After a funding dispute resulted in the cancellation of Corroboree Sydney, the fate of the Black Arts Market was up in the air. But, luckily, Carriageworks came to the rescue, and has given the Indigenous arts market a new home at their Eveleigh site this November. Featuring 55 stallholders and 93 Aboriginal artists from Australia's southeast region, the two-day market is a showcase of the cultural heritage of southeastern Aboriginal Australia. The market itself has been curated by former curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Hetti Perkins, and Sydney-based Aboriginal multimedia artist Jonathan Jones. According to Perkins and Jones, the market "showcases artists who have transformed their traditional knowledge and skills into contemporary artworks and products of wonderful and inspiring diversity". It will feature 55 stallholders, including shell artist Esme Timbery (whose work earned her the inaugural Parliament of New South Wales Indigenous Art Prize back in 2005), Aboriginal florist Flannel Billy, who will be creating native floral arrangements on-site, and Uncle Greg Simms, who'll demonstrate wood carving techniques. Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with the artists and learn about southeast Australian Indigenous cultural practices, as well as purchase works, which will include homewares, ceramics, weavings and contemporary visual arts. Local Indigenous students from Alexandria Park Community School and Darlington Public School have also collaborated with established artists to create a Welcome to Country book and a collection of contemporary rugs called the Jarjums Collection, respectively. The Black Arts Market will take place at Carriageworks on November 12-13. For more information, visit carriageworks.com.au.
Let's admit it: us coffee lovers have always had that ambitious plan of becoming a skilled barista in our own homes every morning just like the pros. Ain't nothing wrong with that either. For many, however, the desire to tamp, extract and pour before the work commute becomes all but a distant reality when that fancy coffee machine bought in a flurry of caffeine-fuelled enthusiasm becomes but a dust collector on the kitchen bench. Contrary to the general misconception that your local barista actually cares about your hangover, office politics, how beautiful your cat is and your dramatic love life, it's more than likely they've got better and more relevant things to think about. It's time to give these guys a break from the earful we give them every morning, and we've just the plan. The gastrodome of the inner west, The Grounds of the Alexandria, has launched barista training workshops that will run throughout 2013. Jack Hanna, master roaster and 2007 National Latte Art champion, is interested in pinning down some barista basics at home without any complicated scientific prerequisites necessary. The classes run for two hours and are held at The Grounds' 'research facility' — just a fancy name for the venue's cafe space. Hanna's approach is straightforward and honest with no coffee-geek dictionary necessary. "There are many factors that contribute to a good cup of coffee; however, it's very simple and anyone can do it," says Hanna. "Everything takes practice and you need to play around with a few things before you get it right." Hanna demonstrates the process step-by-step on the machine, starting from the grind right up to steaming the milk to achieve that silky consistency. He emphasises that a warm, clean machine and glasses are key aspects to good coffee. "The coffee will lose flavour instantly if it hits a cold cup!" he says. Apparently, another essential component is dosage. Too much coffee or a grind that's too fine can result in over-extraction and bitter coffee. Hanna suggests tasting as you go, "This way, you know what you’re doing right and wrong." Once you've mastered the dosage and crema, it's time for some milk steaming and latte art. "What you're basically doing is stretching the milk, putting foam in it and bringing it to a temperature of about 65-68 degrees," says Hanna. What about the latte art part? Well, let's just say there's bound to be plenty of laughs at some of the shapes students come up with. All part of the experience, we say. And lest we forget to mention that students may even be lucky enough to witness Jack's flawless technique as he pours some R-rated latte art. We're pretty sure there'd be a couple of shocked pram pushers if he sent these out of a Saturday morning service. Most importantly, Hanna's classes are nurturing; he doesn't use convoluted idioms and you can count on him to ensure everyone can see and understand what's happening. As Hanna says, quite simply, "Coffee is fun!" *Classes cost $80 and run for approximately 1.5-2 hours. *Private, corporate and more advanced classes are available, as well as Roasting and Cupping Workshops. *All workshops held at The Grounds of Alexandria; Building 7A, 2 Huntley Street, Alexandria; 02 (02) 9699 2225; www.groundsroasters.com.
Pixar certainly has a formula, but much like Coca-Cola, they won't share what it is. Nevertheless, whatever creative ingredients they are putting into their delicious movie soda is working — with their 13 major features to date averaging 89 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes. The company continues to make creative, moving and visually stunning family-friendly films that allow us to unashamedly enjoy a children's movie. The animation entrepreneurs have recently come under scrutiny, though, from critics who argue that the tried and tested formula is beginning to tire. They point to Pixar's production of sequels such as the Toy Story franchise, Cars 2 and the announcement of Finding Dory to contend that the company is no longer reaching for infinity and beyond. What they are neglecting, though, is that the magic of Pixar derives from their great storytelling that children and adults across the globe can relate to. And the newest addition to this Pixarpedia is Monsters University, the company's first foray into the prequel world, and this brilliant film will silence whoever wants to argue that this is an example of filmmaking fatigue. It tells the tale of how Monsters Inc. stars Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) became friends and went on to be employed together at Monsters Incorporated. Whilst audiences who saw the original may know the final outcome, the getting there certainly serves up some unexpected and enjoyable twists right up until film's end. The focus is on some typically university-centred life lessons, such as defining oneself and sustaining friendships in the face of unforeseen roadblocks. They've sidestepped the other, more adult content of college life; this is a clever, G-rated version. Then again, who needs alcohol when you have friendship, right? Of course, being a Pixar movie, it is largely about the aesthetics and Monsters University expertly showcases the company's stellar attention to detail. From the monstrous architecture of the campus buildings to the fang zips on students' backpacks, no stone is left unturned. There is also an incredible variety of monsters — with the visual standout being Art — and this vast populous ensures that the film never stagnates as new monsters appear throughout as well as some excellent cameos from the original. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and there is certainly nothing broken at Pixar. If they continue making visually beautiful, surprising and compelling stories like Monsters University then I will happily see robot Billy Crystal voicing Monsters Retirement Home in 100 years time. Also, stick around until the cinema lights come on for the most entertaining post-credits scene in Pixar history.
The rise of the smartphone has seen the demise of the public telephone booth. Good riddance, you might say — those things were an eyesore anyway (and they didn't even have Instagram). But it's a bit of a different story in the UK; their fire engine-red phone booth are iconic cultural landmarks, and the streets of London just wouldn't look the same without 'em. So to stop them from entering extinction, New York co-working company Bar Works are looking to repurpose the booths into tiny on-street offices. It's not the first time someone has decided to give telephone boxes a new life — Berlin have turned theirs into a series of mini nightclubs — but it certainly seems like the most productive way to use them. Pod Works, which will be launching in London, Edinburgh and Leeds, will transform the phone booths into mini workstations for people who are working in the city and need a place to tap out some emails, make a call or prep for a meeting on the go. The pod 'offices' will be fully equipped with Wi-Fi and internet connections, a printer and scanner, a wireless mouse, a 25-inch screen, a hot drinks machine and a power source. Membership will cost £19.99 (roughly AUD $39) and will allow you to access the pods whenever you like through an app on your phone. "Entrepreneurs and others constantly on the move need a convenient, affordable and private place to work," said CEO Jonathan Black in a press release. "Why should they sit in Starbucks or any other coffee bar when using one of our Pods will allow them to truly focus on their job before an important meeting or presentation at less than the price of two cups of coffee a week?" If you've ever had to make an important Skype call in a loud cafe with shitty Wi-Fi (or had to endure someone else doing the same), you'll know that an insulated internet pod is exactly what this world needs. Telstra, please take note. Image: Negative Space.
Winter in Sydney has become synonymous with Vivid, and this year, we're in for more light, more music and more ideas. Interactive light art is expanding to Martin Place and the harbour waters, new music event Modulations comes to Carriageworks while the Pixies prop up the Opera House, and the Vivid Ideas program will bury you under the cumulative wisdom of 300 speakers. Vivid Music includes several new initiatives, including a Stephen Pavlovic-curated event, Modulations, at Carriageworks; New Wave club nights at the Seymour Centre and uber-contemporary performances at both The Basement and the Argyle Centre. We're eagerly awaiting the full VividLIVE announcement on March 24, but for now we can tell you that the Opera House will be hosting The Pixies in intimate mode, a groundbreaking ACO-Presets collaboration traversing 42,000 years of music history and 230+ songs, and a DJ-set from Giorgio Moroder (Daft Punk, Donna Summer, Scarface, Top Gun). Meanwhile, Modulations will feature the Pet Shop Boys' epic multi-sensory ‘Electric’ show, as well as an immersive adventure from Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly), involving music, light, sculpture and interactive technology. Lighting the all-important sails this year is creative agency 59 Projections, who count the London Olympics and the spectacular War Horse among recent works. Last year's projection stars Spinifex are working on the MCA, this time collaborating with artist Jess Johnson, while France's Danny Rose is transforming the facade of Customs House into playable instruments. Even the vessels on Sydney Harbour don't escape a cloak of light. Fifty art installations will grace the hugely popular light walk, including an Aurora Australis; Luke Hespanhol's LOL, beach-ball smiles that laugh with you in Walsh Bay; and one that really appeals to our narcissistic sides, Simon Brockwell's e|MERGEnce in the new Vivid venue of Martin Place. It 3D projection maps your face onto a giant sculpture. While functioning as an umbrella for some massive creative industries events — such as Semi-Permanent and Good Design — Vivid Ideas is still hogging some star speakers for its own signature program. Before I Die artist Candy Chang, viral strategy secret-keeper Sara Critchfield from Upworthy, Antipodium's Geoffrey J Finch, 4D printing leader Skylar Tibbits, American Apparel's Ryan Holiday and street culture juggernauts Joshy D & Mike Giant all feature. As usual, the Vivid Ideas Exchange on level six of the MCA will be the place to let all these thoughts meld. The panels and workshops there will be based around eight 'content clusters', including 'The Future of Work', 'UX IRL' and 'DIY & Maker Culture'. The 18-day festival, named Australia’s Event of the Year in 2013 at the Australian Event Awards, is on from May 23 to June 9. It's kind of staggering how much it's achieved since starting in 2009, last year attracting 800,000-strong crowds and selling 11,000 Vivid-related packages to the international market. Photos of our crazy light shows spread around the world, while Circular Quay restaurants regale with stories of running out of food to serve the swarming masses. For the full program and ticketing information, see the Vivid Sydney website. By Rima Sabina Aouf and Jasmine Crittenden.
It's a series about the squabbling children of a global media baron who, after their father's health takes an unexpected turn, start trying to position themselves as next in line to the empire. It's obviously set among the one percent, in lives of luxury and privilege that most folks will never know, too. But the idea that depiction doesn't equal endorsement is as rich in Succession as its always-bickering characters. Created by Peep Show's Jesse Armstrong — someone who knows more than a thing or two about black comedy — this Emmy, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Writers Guild and Directors Guild Award-winner is savagely witty, darkly biting and often laugh-out-loud funny about its chosen milieu. Succession also has one of the best casts currently on TV, and its stars keep picking up accolades and nominations that demonstrate just that. Brian Cox is as formidable as ever as family patriarch Logan Roy, but he's matched at every moment by Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Australian actor Sarah Snook as three of the four Roy children.
Autumn might be in full swing across Australia — whatever autumn looks like in your part of the country — but an endless summer now awaits. Fancy spending a year flying around the country, and the world, to various beach spots? Win Jetstar's latest giveaway and that's on your agenda. The Aussie airline is handing out a golden ticket — and, because it isn't Willy Wonka, there's no free chocolate involved. Instead, the carrier is gifting the lucky recipient a year's worth of free flights, although there is a limit to how much you can get soaring over a 12-month period. One person will receive up to $24,000 in Jetstar flights, which'll come in the form of 12 return flights to any beach within Australia, plus six international return flights — both for two people. So, if you win, your other half / bestie / sibling is going to want to start making holiday plans, too. Before you can go in the running for the contest, which is only open to over 18s, you need to start how Jetstar wants you to continue: by hitting up a local beach. Until Thursday, March 16, the airline is asking for your snaps — but where you'll need to head, when and what you'll need to do for your picture varies. On Saturday, March 11 in Melbourne, for instance, you'll need to head to Catani Gardens Beach in St Kilda between 10am–12pm. On Sunday, March 12 in Sydney, the same applies at Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club from 10am–12pm, too. At both spots, folks will find a pair of 14-karat gold trunks. And yes, that's what you'll need to take a photo of — a selfie, in fact — then upload it to Instagram Stories while tagging @JetstarAustralia #TheGoldenTicketTogs. Those shimmering swimmers won't be heading elsewhere, but residents of Canberra will still want to hit up Lake Burley Griffin from 9am–5pm on Monday, March 13 — and Adelaide inhabitants should make their way to Adelaide Oval from 9am–5pm on Tuesday, March 14. In Perth, you're going to City Beach from 9am–5pm on Wednesday, March 15. And southeast Queenslanders, including Brisbanites, have a date with the Pelican Beach boat ramp on the Gold Coast in their future from 9am–5pm on Thursday, March 16. Visit those togs-free spots in the ACT, SA, WA and Queensland, and you'll be looking for Golden Ticket Togs posters and billboards. Again, you'll need to take a pic, then upload to Instagram Stories while tagging @JetstarAustralia #TheGoldenTicketTogs. Jetstar advises that the most creative golden snap will win, so interpret that however you like. It'll then pick one per state/territory, and open up the ultimate winner to a public vote. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jetstar Australia (@jetstaraustralia) Jetstar's Golden Ticket Togs promotion runs on different dates in different states, closing with its Queensland leg on Thursday, March 16. Head to Jetstar's Instagram for further details, and the airline's website for terms and conditions. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Over the past few years, Qantas has launched 17-hour non-stop flights from Perth to London, and trialled even lengthier trips direct from the east coast to the UK and US. The Australian airline introduced biofuel into its jaunts from Melbourne to Los Angeles, and committed to phasing out single-use plastics and paper boarding passes. And, since 2014, it has also begun each year in an impressive way: by being named the safest airline to travel on. Earning the highly sought-after accolade again in 2020, the Aussie carrier has now topped AirlineRatings.com's list for seven years in a row. Entering its 100th year of operation, the airline emerged victorious from a pool of 405 carriers from around the world, with Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand also making the site's top 20. The other 17 airlines span EVA Air, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Alaska Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, TAP Portugal, SAS, Royal Jordanian, Swiss, Finnair, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and KLM. If you're a budget-conscious flyer, the website also outlined the ten safest low-cost airlines. While Jetstar made the list last year, it didn't repeat the feat for 2020 — with Air Arabia, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, IndiGo, Jetblue, Volaris, Vueling, Westjet and Wizz doing the honours instead. Factors that influence a carrier's placement on the two lists include crash and incident records, safety initiatives, fleet age, profitability, and audits by aviation governing bodies, industry bodies and governments. Via AirlineRatings.com.
Hyde Park Barracks, built in 1819 to house male convicts and now a UNESCO World Heritage-listed museum, has reopened after undergoing an $18-million makeover. In the year since it closed, Sydney Living Museums has installed state-of-the-art interactive experiences. Prepare to step back into convict history and discover its impacts on First Nations peoples. Behind the revamp is Local Projects, a New York-based design studio, who has worked with Sydney Living Museums to breathe new life into the Barracks' 4000-strong collection, many of which are now on display for the first time. They've drawn on powerful stories, added interactive elements and created installations that surround you with visuals and sound over three storeys. [caption id="attachment_763829" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brett Boardman[/caption] "The new design for Hyde Park Barracks places the personal narrative at the centre of the experience, creating a deeply moving journey for our visitors," said Sydney Living Museums Executive Director Adam Lindsay in a statement. For tens of thousands of years, the land on which the museum stands was home to Gadigal People, who remain the land's traditional custodians. The new Museum explores their connection to the area, as well as how their lives where impacted by the Barracks' construction and, more generally, colonisation. [caption id="attachment_763828" align="alignnone" width="1920"] James Horan[/caption] Commissioned by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and designed by convict-turned-architect Francis Greenway, the building served as a convict prison from 1819–1848, when it transformed into temporary accommodation for female immigrants, mainly Irish orphans escaping the Great Famine. More than 100,000 people lived in the building between 1819 and 1887. But it wasn't until the early 1980s that archaeologists dug up the 120,000 objects – from coins and soup bones to clothing and bottles – left behind. If you head to the new-look Hyde Park Barracks before Sunday, March 15, you'll get to see its (temporarily) transformed courtyard, too. For his site-specific art installation untitled (maraong manaóuwi), Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones has covered the building's 2500 square-metre courtyard with red and white stones from Wiradjuri Country. You'll spot a symbol on the rocks that can be interpreted in two ways (and conveys two very different historical perspectivies): the maraong manaóuwi (which means emu footprint in the local Gadigal language) and English broad arrow. You're invited to look at — and walk across — the artwork for free until it disappears mid-March. A heap of workshops are running alongside the installation, too, which you can check out over here. Hyde Park Barracks Museum is open daily from 10am–5pm at Macquarie Street, Sydney, and tickets are $20–24. Top images: Brett Boardman
Dust off your petticoat and get your doublets out of the attic — because London's historic Globe Theatre is heading online. You can't currently visit the site itself, which was originally built by Shakespeare's playing company and housed his greatest works; however you can watch six of the Bard's plays performed on its stages thanks to Shakespeare's Globe On Screen. History buffs and Shakespeare enthusiasts alike now have the opportunity to soak in productions on the venue's YouTube channel, with a different pre-recorded performance made available every fortnight. And, checking out these acclaimed works won't cost you a cent, with the six plays streaming for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TuR24xhtYg Until Sunday, April 19, ponder whether to be or not to be with a 2018 production of Hamlet. Then, between Monday, April 20–Sunday, May 3, revisit the star-cross'd romance of Romeo and Juliet, as performed in 2009. The fortnight spanning Monday, May 4–Sunday, May 17 will be all about a 2013 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with The Two Noble Kinsmen (from 2018; streaming from Monday, May 18–Sunday May 31), The Winter's Tale (from 2018; streaming from Monday, June 1–Sunday, June 14) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (from 2019; streaming from Monday, June 15–Sunday, June 28) all following. Top images: John Wildgoose / Shakespeare's Globe.
For almost 80 years, a biannual, women-only charity event has been putting clothes on the backs of customers and vulnerable children alike. Hosted by Barnardos Australia and the Peter Pan Committee, the Peter Pan Summer Op Shop brings together donations from everyday Aussies alongside designer brands for three days of clothing bargains. All the proceeds go to Barnardos, a charity dedicated to helping vulnerable children who suffer from abuse or neglect. The upcoming Peter Pan Summer Op Shop will be hosted at the Paddington RSL from Friday, November 10 to Sunday, November 12. On offer will be a massive haul of wearable items, including a surplus of designer goods, pre-loved favourites, vintage pieces or end-of-season stock from local retailers. Additionally, this time, Kult Models will be supporting the event with clothing and talent to support the proceedings. Donations are still welcome and encouraged, so if your wardrobe is overflowing with outfits you never wear anymore, this is a great reason to send them to a new home — your clothes will join a catalogue next to brands like Sass & Bide, Zimmermann, Dior, Camilla and more. The Peter Pan Summer Op Shop runs from 10.30am to 5pm on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, and then from 10.30am to 3pm on Sunday, November 12. For more information, visit the website.
2025 is going to be the year when Australia gets to see Oasis live again. And, after already announcing two Down Under shows on their reunion tour now that Liam and Noel Gallagher are happy to take to the stage together once more, the Manchester-born band has doubled their upcoming Aussie gigs. They're still only playing two cities, however, doing a couple of shows apiece in Sydney and Melbourne. Next year marks 20 years since Oasis last toured Australia, but that's where the lengthy gap between the band's Down Under shows is ending. There's comeback tours and then there's Britain's most-famous feuding siblings reuniting to bring one of the country's iconic groups back together live — aka the biggest story in music touring of 2024 since Liam and Noel announced in August that they were reforming the band, and also burying the hatchet. [caption id="attachment_975202" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Simon Emmett[/caption] Initially, Oasis locked in a run of shows in the UK and Ireland. Since then, they've been expanding their tour dates, also confirming visits to Canada and the US. From London, Manchester and Dublin to Toronto, Los Angeles and Mexico City, the entire tour so far is sold out. That's the story, morning glory — and expect Australian tickets to get snapped up swiftly for Oasis' four announced concerts. The Aussie tour starts on Halloween 2025 at Marvel Stadium in the Victorian capital, and now will also return to the same venue on Saturday, November 1. It's Sydney's turn in the Harbour City a week later, at Accor Stadium across Friday, November 7–Saturday, November 8 . [caption id="attachment_975205" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oasis Knebworth 1996, Photo by Roberta Parkin/Redferns[/caption] Oasis broke up in 2009, four years after their last Australian tour, and following seven albums from 1994's Definitely Maybe through to 2008's Dig Your Soul — and after drawing massive crowds to their live gigs along the way (see: documentary Oasis Knebworth 1996). If you're feeling supersonic about the group's reunion, you can likely expect to hear that track, plus everything from 'Live Forever', 'Cigarettes & Alcohol', 'Morning Glory' and 'Some Might Say' through to 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and 'Champagne Supernova' when they hit Australia. Oasis Live '25 Australian Dates Friday, October 31–Saturday, November 1 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Friday, November 7–Saturday, November 8 — Accor Stadium, Sydney Oasis are touring Australia in October and November 2025, with Melbourne tickets on sale from 10am AEDT and Sydney tickets from 12pm AEDT on Tuesday, October 15. Head to the tour website for more details. Top image: Batiste Safont via Wikimedia Commons.
Sometimes it seems like most up-and-coming bands gather their inspiration from the same batch of indie artists. If you've grown tired of the monotony, fear not, for some new sounds are coming to Australia soon — Japanese alt sounds, that is. Sonny King of Melbourne rock band Lucy's Crown is eager to show just how great Japanese alternative music can be with Australia's first Japan Music Festival. Featuring bands Jill, 101A, Sparky Quano and Kaimokujisho, King set out to represent the large range of sound that exists in the underground music scene of Japan, from J-Pop to J-Rock. "I was on tour with Lucy's Crown in Tokyo and was astonished just how good the Japanese underground bands were that we played with and thought that Australia should see them," says King. Choosing bands that were enthusiastic about coming to Australia was another big factor in how the acts were chosen. He also took into account how Australian audiences might respond to them. "It was a difficult process because there were so many good bands but we wanted diversity in both music and image and we also needed them to be accessible to the people going to the gigs," says King. Japanese music, especially of the underground variety, is constantly evolving. Yet it still holds onto the roots of the previous musical trend. Bars and clubs that cater to a particular music genre or band are very popular in Tokyo. "There are Ritchie Blackmore bars, Yngwie Malmsteen bars, Jeff Beck bars, clubs and restaurants for The Stones and The Beatles, '60s bars, '70s bars, '80s bars, the list is almost endless," says King. King is optimistic about the future reach of Japanese music in Australia. With the internet becoming such an influential way to get smaller bands heard, it's only a matter of time before musicians from Japan and other similar countries break into international markets. The problem, he says, is the oversaturation now prevalent in the music world. "It's a bit like learning to read and then being taken to a world library and being told to help yourself," says King. "You'd start with what is familiar, Australian, English, American, etcetera. and eventually you'd get around to the Japanese stuff, and that's the same with exploring world music." Though this is only the first Japan Music Festival, King is optimistic about the future. "We already have the foundations in place for next year and are receiving discs from Japanese bands who want to come." With four shows scheduled in three cities, and music and instrument demonstrations happening at select JB Hi-Fi stores, the Japan Music Festival promises music entirely different from the usual festival line-up. For now, King is keeping focused on running a successful first festival. "This is the inaugural event so once it's finished I can sit back, take a look at it with fresh eyes and raise the bar for next year."
If you're not the heiress of a Russian billionaire or a Victoria's Secret model, then it's probably unlikely that you have the spare cash to buy yourself a private island or hold your 21st birthday on one. Despair not. Do what you can to rustle up $1500 and you'll have the option of spending the night on a man-made island: Africa's first underwater hotel room. Opened as the Manta Resort's newest attraction on November 1, 2013, the subaquatic accommodation floats in a circular blue hole in the coral reef near Pemba Island, off the East Coast of Tanzania. The top floor — above sea-level — features an open-air deck where guests can relax, take in the idyllic Indian Ocean surroundings and soak up some sun or gaze at the stars. The bottom floor, submerged to the depth of four metres, is a bedroom, walled entirely in glass and affording dreamy views of passing sea-life. The nocturnal scenes, illuminated by spotlights, have been described as rather surreal. The vacation innovation was designed by Swedish installation artist and sculptor Mikael Genberg. He's the brains behind the Utter Inn, an underwater room built in a lake near Stockholm, and is currently contemplating putting a Swedish-style cottage on the moon. Funding was achieved via a newly formed company registered in Zanzibar, Genberg Art UW Limited, which represents a collaboration between several Swedish and Tanzanian investors, including Genberg Underwater Hotels, Christer and Jacky Abrahamsson, Hans Elis Johansson and Michael Wild. Via PSFK.
