Can this confronting film become a new Christmas classic?
Love Actually. Home Alone. A Christmas Carol... How to Make Gravy? It lacks the Hallmark warm and fuzzies but may be the most realistic depiction of a family Christmas going.
Love Actually. Home Alone. A Christmas Carol. How to Make Gravy?
Muscling in on the Christmas film market is a brave move, given it’s an already crowded field. But the secret sauce of Binge original How to Make Gravy – a film set at Christmas – could well be that it goes beyond the feel-good cliches of the festive season and explores some confronting and painful themes that often emerge for families at this time of year.
The film is based on the classic Paul Kelly song of the same name, and is the first feature film produced by Binge since the entertainment streaming platform was launched in 2020.
Binge executive director Alison Hurbert-Burns, who is also the executive producer of How to Make Gravy, has had many debates with her colleagues as to whether the film should be classified as a Christmas movie, but says while it has a yuletide setting, the ambition was to draw out universal and timeless themes.
“A great film that ‘travels’ tends to hold a mirror up to human experiences,” Ms Hurbert-Burns said. “In general, the Christmas film market is a bit warm and fuzzy in a Hallmark kind of way. How to Make Gravy is not that film – obviously there’s a Christmas component to it, but for me, at its heart it’s an Australian family drama. My view is that you can watch it anytime of the year but, of course, I hope it becomes an annual Christmas watching tradition.”
Ms Hurbert-Burns acknowledged that Binge’s decision to invest in the film carried an element of risk, given shorter TV series are generally considered a safer bet for streaming platforms.
“The way film has been changed by the advent of streaming is different to the way television has been changed by streaming,” she said.
“For Foxtel, we have wonderful films that we buy and have on our platform, but we’ve tended to focus on TV series for our commitment to originals because they can endure over 10 weeks, or whatever the time frame is. If you drop an episode on a weekly basis, obviously the presence on our content slate has a longer impact simply because of the number of (on-screen) hours.
“Film is different, but for the right story and the potential size of the impact it might have, we think it’s a great investment.”
Ms Hurbert-Burns said she was confident How to Make Gravy would be well received by audiences in Australia and overseas, following on from the recent successes of Binge original shows Colin From Accounts and The Twelve. “Our job is to make Australian storytelling possible, and we want to make it the best in the world,” she said.
Binge’s international partner, Fifth Season, will distribute the film in overseas markets, starting with the US and Britain.
Actor Daniel Henshall, who stars in the film alongside Hugo Weaving, said while the film had an unmistakeable Australian feel, universal themes were at its core.
“People understand isolation, what it means to suppress trauma, and the healing of community. I think the film will speak on many levels to many people across the world,” he said. “Australians might appreciate some of the nuances that international audiences won’t, because of the way the film looks and feels, but the overarching story is universal.”
How to Make Gravy premieres on Binge on Sunday, December 1, and is available on Hubbl and Foxtel on Demand.
Foxtel is 65 per cent owned by News Corp, publisher of The Australian.
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