ScreenWize

It’s been quite a year for Warwick Thornton. After his debut feature film Samson & Delilah picked up the Camera D’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, it has gone on to collect a string of other gongs and nominations, including six IF awards, the Audience Award at the Adelaide Film Festival, and eight nominations in the Australia-Pacific Screen Awards. To top that list, the film has also been selected as Australia’s official entry to be considered for the 82nd Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. But Thornton – who last month became a Northern Territory Australian of the Year – has more immediate things on his mind. Tonight he’s suiting up for the 51st Australian Film Industry (AFI) Awards – where the film could possibly take out 13 prizes – including four for Thornton himself.

What’s particularly unusual about Samson & Delilah is that the film is both winning critical acclaim and doing well at the box-office – a rare feat for Australian cinema. Thornton isn’t exactly sure why. “If we knew how all this worked we’d be doing it regularly,” said Thorton on a short and well-earned rest back home in Alice Springs. “We deliberately made the film with less money because we knew – from 20 years of history – that this kind of film doesn’t usually find a big audience in Australia, and probably wouldn’t make much at the box-office.” A quick scan of the results for films like Sweetie, Erskineville Kings, and The Nostradamus Kid tell the now well-known tale – all these films failed to take more than a few hundred thousand dollars at the box-office. In stark contrast Samson & Delilah has already passed the $3 million mark, entering the All Time Top 100 Domestic Box-office list for Australian film at no.62 – just above Romper Stomper.

But although Thorton believes there’s no magic formula for getting it right, he is convinced that filmmakers should be telling stories that connect with the times. “Everybody’s heard of ‘the intervention’ and seen bits of indigenous life on the television news and current affairs over the past couple of years” he says, “and the sorry word is out there. Australians are now really interested in stories about their own people. There is an opening right now for this kind of story.”

It was Thornton himself who wrote the screenplay, and it’s one of four prizes he might win, the others being Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Original Music Score. He laughs at the last nomination. “I’m a frustrated rock’n’rolla, and this is the closest I’ve got to it for years,” he confesses warmly. Other nominations for the film include Best Film, Best Lead Actor (Rowan McNamara) and two nominations for the AFI Young Actor Award (for Marissa Gibson and Rowan McNamara). Of all the prizes the film might win, it’s these last ones that Thornton would dearly love to see given to his cast. “For Rowan and Marissa to get a prize would be beautiful,” he says “it would make them strong for the rest of their lives, and make them see that they are good enough to do anything from here.”

Despite the film’s success with critics and audiences alike, one prize it definitely won’t be winning is the AFI’s new Highest Grossing Film Award. This prize marks the end of the industry’s strange reluctance to take box-office and audience response seriously and might help integrate the highly fragmented nature of filmmaking and film distribution. The AFI’s new CEO Damian Trewhella says it’s an important step. “The AFI is well known and respected for it’s peer-review process when it comes to giving out awards, but general audiences don’t always think like our members,” he says. “It’s also important for us to recognise the role that distributors play in the industry. It’s been a big year for Australian films at the box-office. Typically we only have one film that leads the box-office pack – and in the last eight years there has only been one change to the list of the top 15 highest grossing Australian film of all time – when Happy Feet entered the list at number three. This year Australia ascended to the number two position and Mao’s Last Dancer is already heading towards the Top 10.”

The year also sees the Paul Hogan and Shane Jacobson comedy Charlie and Boots enter the top 100 – just ahead of Samson and Delilah with a cumulative domestic box-office of $3.8million. Measuring total domestic box-office from Australian films (which hit $65 million this year) and total local industry activity (38 feature films) has led some – including Arts Minister Peter Garrett - to talk up the bright side of Australian cinema. “The results show just how strong our local film and TV industry has proved to be in the last year,” says Garrett positively. Yet the total share of domestic box-office by Australian films remains in a seven-year slump, with local content accounting for less than 5% of all film revenue in each year since 2001.

Nevertheless, Trewhella sees the importance of recognising and celebrating the achievements of individual films when they attract local audiences. “The success of Australia created a space for people to see other home-grown stories,” he says. “When people see a great Australian film they come out and want to watch another one.” Warwick Thornton agrees. “People want to see good stories about their own country,” he says. “And Australian filmmakers have a responsibility as storytellers to tell our stories – to show Australia to Australians.”

Thornton believes that success at the AFI awards tonight will be critically important in helping sales of the just-released DVD of Samson & Delilah. “We don’t have access to the huge advertising and promotion budgets that Hollywood films have, so gaining exposure through Festival and industry prizes is critical for Australian films.” But it’s not only Australian audiences that Thornton has his sights set on – he leaves for Los Angeles on Monday to start screening the film for Academy Award voters. Getting an Academy Award nomination to add to the hoard of accolades the film has already received – and will almost certainly collect tonight - would be a truly extraordinary way to finish Thornton’s year traveling around the world selling the film.

Filed Under: Interviews by Simon