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By Glenn Dunks

Alison Maclean is not a prolific filmmaker. While her resume is littered with TV (Sex and the City, The Tudors), music videos (Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”) and short films (the superb domestic horror Kitchen Sink, and a segment in Subway Tales), films are few and far between. Her third feature is The Rehearsal and if its release feels awfully quiet then you can probably thank the near 20-year gap between feature projects and her return to her native New Zealand with a thorny film about tricky subject matter and written with a sense of ambiguous mystery.

My knowledge of New Zealand cinema is by far not as thorough as Australian film, but Maclean’s Crush is perhaps my favourite from there that isn’t Heavenly Creatures or The Piano. It is a film rife for rediscovery, not least of all for the delicious performance by Marcia Gay Harden...

Academy Award winner Dion Beebe will receive the Fox Studios Australia International Award at the Australians in Film (Aif) annual awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Beebe joins the already announced honorees, producer Bruna Papandrea (Orry-Kelly International Award), Elizabeth Debicki. (Breakthrough Award) and Pandemonium Films' Bill Mechanic (Ausfilm International Award).

The awards celebrate the achievements of Australians working in Hollywood and also recognises the contribution of individuals to the Australian film industry.

Fox Studios Australia MD Wayne Borg said, "Dion Beebe is a gifted cinematographer who brings an amazing cinematic vision to every film he works on. His incredible award-winning work can be seen in such films as his early work in Australia on Praise and Holy Smoke to his work in Hollywood on Chicago, Collateral, Into the Woods and the upcoming Michael Bay film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi." Beebe.s first narrative feature credit Crush was selected...

The folks at Taste of Cinema have curated a list of 25 of what they dub the best shorts available to watch online. Weighted towards the experimental and animation, it is indeed a good list. One personal favorite is Alison Maclean’s 1989 short, Kitchen Sink, a masterpiece of domestic horror with a strong David Lynch influence. From Kitchen Sink Maclean went on to direct the features Crush and Jesus’ Son and, more recently, various commercials and TV episodes. Back in the day, Kitchen Sink made a huge impact, and I still recommend it to filmmakers looking for an example of […]...

The folks at Taste of Cinema have curated a list of 25 of what they dub the best shorts available to watch online. Weighted towards the experimental and animation, it is indeed a good list. One personal favorite is Alison Maclean’s 1989 short, Kitchen Sink, a masterpiece of domestic horror with a strong David Lynch influence. From Kitchen Sink Maclean went on to direct the features Crush and Jesus’ Son and, more recently, various commercials and TV episodes. Back in the day, Kitchen Sink made a huge impact, and I still recommend it to filmmakers looking for an example of […]...

Columns Festival Roundup The Cannes Film Festival, the Istanbul Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Festival, and the Human Rights Film Festival covered by Howard Feinstein, Paula Bernstein, Paul Shannon and Bill Dole Production Update by Mary Glucksman Legal Affairs Joseph Martin Carasso on low-cost legal advice for independents Technology Robert Kolker on David Blair’s pioneering electronic cinema Words Summer releases reviewed by Marc Schiller, Holly Willis, and Wes Sewell Home Video Rob Edelman on Star Time‘s journey to tape Short Ends Summer 1993 Table Of Contents Features Under Pressure Scott Macaulay talks with Crush‘s Alison Maclean and Marcia Gay Harden …...

The Hive Lab has announced its film-makers to collaborate with artists, theatre actors, choreographers, animators and writers over 11-14 October. The list of film-makers include Sophie Raymond, co-director of Mrs Carey’s Concert and Natasha Pincus, director of music video Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye with artists such as Eddie Perfect and Bill Henson.The announcement:

A roll call of some of Australia’s most extraordinary artists, filmmakers, theatre practitioners, choreographers, animators and writers have signed up for the Hive Lab, taking place during the Melbourne Festival from 11-14 October. The four-day Hive Lab brings seventeen filmmakers and artists together in a creative clash of cultures, nurturing new ideas that cut across artistic boundaries.

The second Hive Lab was originally conceived by Adelaide Film Festival and is co-presented with Australia Council, ABC TV, Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation.

The 2012 Hive Lab participants are arts and performance practitioners Bill Henson,...

Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Today’s is Summer, 1993. Summer, 1993 is another issue whose content didn’t make it over to WordPress. Our cover story was Alison Maclean’s Crush. Sande Zeig interviewed Sally Potter about her Orlando, which was just reissued by Sony Pictures Classics. John Woo, John Greyson, and Ross McElwee were all in the book along with an article tracking the development status of several beloved cult novels’ film adaptations. We also ran a great how-to by Strand Releasing’s Marcus Hu on guerilla marketing your no-budget film. Our director interview was between Ang Lee, whose The Wedding Banquet had taken Berlin by storm,...