Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cinema & Television
Although Sydney might be considered the centre of the Australian film industry, new pro-
duction facilities at Docklands, slightly lower costs for film production and generous gov-
ernment subsidies have seen Melbourne wield its movie-making muscle. And Melbourne
does looks gorgeous on the big screen. Film-makers tend to eschew the stately and urbane
and highlight the city's complexity, from the winsomely suburban to the melancholic and
gritty.
Film culture is nurtured in Victoria through local funding projects, tertiary education and
exhibition. Funding for features, documentaries, shorts, digital media and game content is
provided by Film Victoria (
www.film.vic.gov.au
), which also provides mentoring schemes.
Federation Square has consolidated a big part of Melbourne's screen culture, housing the
Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Special Broadcasting Service
(SBS) television channel.
The prominence of film in Melbourne is evident in the number of film festivals the city
hosts. Apart from the main Melbourne International Film Festival
(
www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au
)
, there's everything from the Melbourne Underground
Film Festival (
www.muff.com.au
)
to shorts at the St Kilda Film Festival
(
www.stkildafilmfestival.com.au
)
and the Sydney-import Tropfest (
www.tropfest.com.au
)
.
Other film-festival genres include foreign-made, seniors, hip-hop, queer and documentary.
Beat Magazine
(
www.beat.com.au
)
and
Fasterlouder
(
www.fasterlouder.com.au
) have weekly, all-genre gig
guides; Mess+Noise (ww.messandnoise.com) is a great forum for local indie/rock news and happenings.
The 3MBS arts diary (
www.3mbs.org.au/arts.html
)
is an invaluable resource for what's going on in classic-
al music.
Some well-known Australian films shot in Melbourne and regional Victoria include
Mad
Max
,
Picnic at Hanging Rock
,
Chopper
,
Romper Stomper
,
Animal Kingdom
and
The Man
from Snowy River
, while international films include
Where the Wild Things Are
,
Ghost
Rider
,
Jackie Chan's First Strike
and
Salaam Namaste
.
There's an enduring affection for police drama and comedy shows on Australian TV, and
many of these have emanated from Melbourne. The barely fictionalised Melbourne-
organised-crime series
Underbelly
didn't initially make it to air in the city in which it was
set - not because of its tits-and-arse overload but because a court decided that its plot lines
could prejudice concurrent court proceedings. Other made-in-Melbourne TV series to hit
