Monica Pellizzari, the Syndey-born writer/director of Rotterdam screener Fistful Of Flies, has warned that Austrialia's right-wing government is set to "devastate" the film industry, as Adam Minns found out.
Pellizzari warned that the governing Liberal Party, which was due to receive a new report on film financing earlier this week, was poised to slash arts funding across the board, reduce film subsidies and dismantle or suspend the state funding body the Film Finance Corporation. Speaking from the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, she claimed this would drastically reduce the amount of films being made in the country from what she estimated as 20 a year to 4.
"This will drastically reduce the quality of Australian films," she said. "There will be less room for independent film makers, for the left of field, and more support for the so-called mainstream."
She accused the government, elected last year under prime minister John Howard, of seeking to deliberately hurt the film industry. "It is punishing artists for supporting the previous Labour government," she said. "It's as simple and as blatant as that."
She said Australian film makers had to "re-group" and would "come out fighting as they always do."
Pellizzari, now developing her next script, revealed she had been in talks with US producers following Fistful's screening at Sundance but had no plans to join the wave of Australian film makers working abroad. "I'll take it step by step, you don't suddenly go from US$2.5 million to US$50 million." Adam Minns
[Home ] [Content ] [The Sponsors ] [The Team ] [Comments ] [Help ]
