Disappointing opening forDavid Michod’s ‘The Rover’

DAVID Michod’s follow-up to his successful ‘Animal Kingdom’, ‘The Rover’, opened with a disappointing $159,845 from 41 screens.

Robert Pattinson, left, and Guy Pearce, cast members in "The Rover," mingle at the U.S. premiere of the film on Thursday, June 12, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

DAVID Michod’s follow-up to his successful Animal Kingdom, The Rover, opened with a disappointing $159,845 from 41 screens this weekend. It ranked 12th for the weekend with a screen average of $3,488. By comparison, The Trip To Italy, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, earned $299,000 on 58 screens in its third weekend. Somewhat surprisingly considering the involvement of Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, The Rover has no chance of catching Animal Kingdom’s Australian box office of $5 million in 2010. The young adult hit, The Fault In Our Stars replicated its US success in Australia, following its opening weekend at the top of the Australian box office with another $2.4 million. The film starring Shalene Woodley has earned $8 million in Australia. The animated sequel How To Train Your Dragon 2 made a mockery of its “preview” weekends, releasing on more screens than all but Maleficent for another $2.1m and $5.2 million at the box office before it “opens” tomorrow. And the early morning screenings of Australia’s first FIFA World Cup match earned $29,540 from 36 screens.

The 61st Sydney Film Festival concluded on Sunday with the Australian premiere of the very amusing New Zealand vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, and a surprise appearance by its filmmakers and stars, Boy’s Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement. In a slightly surprising decision, the $61,000 Sydney Film Prize was awarded to Two Days, One Night directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The jury cited “its masterfully elegant storytelling, its dedication to a fiercely humanistic, super-realist worldview, its brave, essential commitment to community solidarity, and its celebration of a woman’s power and vitality.” Marion Cotillard’s lead performance is astounding in but from Reel Time’s chats, it seemed Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was the favourite of the 12 films in competition, although there was also a bit of love for the opening night film, 20,000 Days On Earth. Even so, the award remains a defining feature of Sydney’s fest and few are likely to argue about this year’s winner after the 2012 debacle in which Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives won, apparently only because one jury member would not bend on his choice. Anyway, among other awards, in the Foxtel Movies Audience Awards, the main best narrative feature prize went to Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Winter Sleep directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The Foxtel Movies Audience Award for best documentary went to Love Marriage in Kabul directed by Amin Palangi. The inaugural Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary was awarded to Janine Hosking’s 35 Letters, with a special jury mention to Tender directed by Lynette Wallworth. The Dendy Live Action Short Award went to I Want to Dance Better at Parties, directed and written by Matthew Bate and Gideon Obarzanek, the Yoram Gross Animation Award to Phantom Limb, directed, written and produced by Alex Grigg and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director to Eddy Bell for Grey Bull. Dave Wade won the Event Cinema Australian Short Screenplay Award for Welcome to Iron Knob. The festival had its seventh consecutive year of growth in attendance, with more than 156,000 people attending in 12 days, said chief executive Leigh Small. Six films from this year’s SFF will premiere in Newcastle this weekend when the Travelling Film Festival begins its NSW and Queensland tour with Gabrielle, Rock the Casbah, Boyhood, Human Capital, Once My Mother and Locke.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is calling for entries for the feature length documentary and documentary Television program categories. The following documentary categories are open until Friday 18 July: television; direction; cinematography; editing; and sound. The AACTA Awards will be held in Sydney in January 2015.

A strange crew of business heavyweights have combined to support a new distribution channel for independent films. Jason Kent, the founder of Pure Independent Pictures, has co-opted Darren De Bortoli, the managing director of De Bortoli Wines, actor David Field and Mambo managing director Angus Kingsmill to join Panavision and Fujifilm as the lead sponsors of the initiative dedicated to promoting Australian independent filmmaking. “We’ll act like a distributor and promote Australian independent films,” Kent told Reel Time. “It works more like a co-op or a not for profit, so any money we make will be used to support other independent films.” Kent said he was concerned many independent filmmakers managed to produce films but then have troubles getting them on screen or in a position to compete against better-resourced product. He added PIP will be a platform for promoting quality independent films, with a number of films lined up. He said there will be a particular type of film PIP is looking at, encouraging very low budget filmmaking where PIP can get a foothold “and trying to get back to basics because sometimes the budgets in Australia have gotten away from us a little bit.” Kent wants to meet independent filmmakers at a place they’re comfortable. He said the business knowledge and marketing heft of players such as Kingsmill and De Bortoli can support film industry. For his part, De Bortoli said he wanted to support it because, “like many Australians I’m proud of our achievements in film.” “Whether Jason’s views are right or wrong, what’s important is debate on the subject,” De Bortoli added. “I’m not an expert on the Australian film industry but the statistics suggest there is a problem and I’m very passionate about having a very successful film industry and the question is how do we go about achieving that?”