Australian Cinema Quotes

National film industries tend to move in cycles. In Australia right now, we're on a high, a feeling of potential, which as yet shows no sign of flagging. But the word 'industry' is misleading. A small national cinema has no industry in the Hollywood sense.

In 1975 Australia was producing things like Picnic at Hanging Rock, in other words films that I would consider still some of the finest products to come out of Australia. I think that our quality now is less than it was then.

There's a film I did years ago, 'Love Serenade,' that I still really love. It's such an oddball sense of humor. It was a really special film for me when I did it.

I did a lot of films in Europe, in Spain. I went to Australia and did 'Mad Dog Morgan'; I did 'Apocalypse Now' in the Philippines; I did Wim Wenders' film 'The American Friend' in Germany.

Coming from theater, and having been to acting school, and done little, small Australian independent movies, a lot of the time, it's always about character.

I guess in Australia every film is sort of an indie film because there are no studios.

All the arts are predominantly national, and therefore the Australian Film Commission should be funding us. The battle gets more and more vicious each year.

We cheer everyone who goes off to Hollywood and tells American stories but telling Australian stories is the greatest thing you can do.

I'm from Australia, where the film industry is potent but small.

I'm never there enough to really keep up with what's going on in the Australian film industry. I just try and be part of it as much as I can.

I just think Australia tends to make very good movies, so if someone hands me an Australian or an American film script I would guess the Australian film would be more intriguing.

I want to go back home and make movies in Australia. There's so many stories that we haven't captured yet. In Australia, we cling on to whatever culture we have. We're such a multicultural country.

Tender Mercies is a very low-budget film, but it was a huge budget compared to anything I had done in Australia. My fee for Tender Mercies was something like five times all of my Australian films combined.

I like the sensibility of Australian film a lot and the crews are fantastic. Great characters, wonderful people and no line between - I think in Hollywood they have this line between actors and crew a lot, and that just didn't exist, which I really appreciated.

On the world stage, Australians are very good short filmmakers.

I'd love to work with the people who really got the film industry going again through the '70s: Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Gillian Armstrong, Fred Schepisi.

There are a thousand weird untold stories in the Australian film industry, this has been one of them.

The Australian film industry is a small industry, so you have to really be flexible within working in different mediums. A lot of actors work in theater, film, and television, because there's not much opportunity in terms of employment there. So you do have to be resourceful and be able to flex your muscles artistically.

There's a bunch of directors that I really admire, and Australian ones as well. It would be nice to do a film at home.

Shiraz' is an important part of our filmmaking and cultural history.

When I was 18 years old, I had never before seen Australian film on the big screen.

It's obviously a lot more of a political undertaking making a movie in Hollywood and it's a business there. In Australia, they don't expect films to make money; whereas in America they're counting on it.

It's hard to pinpoint why all of a sudden a group of Australian films will be doing well and why they perhaps are better made than some from the past.

I will always come back to do Australian films. I think it matters. I think we can make films that people go and see. And I don't think it's too much to ask that films in this country make a profit and that we embrace them.

Compared to the United States and certainly a lot of other countries around the world... per year, Australians do see more films.