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Cinema of Australia
The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers with international reputations started their careers in Australian films, and many of these have established lucrative careers in larger film-producing centres such as the US and the UK.
Commercially successful Australian films include Crocodile Dundee, George Miller's Mad Max trilogy, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!, and Chris Noonan's Babe. Award-winning productions include Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, The Tracker, Shine and Ten Canoes.
The Australian film critic David Stratton characterized the history of the country's film as one of "boom and bust": there have been deep troughs, during which few films were made for decades, and high peaks, during which a glut of films reached the market.[need quotation to verify]
The first public screenings of films in Australia took place in October 1896, within a year of the world's first screening in Paris by Lumière brothers. On 22 August 1896, the first films projected to a paying audience in Australia were at Harry Rickards' Melbourne Opera House (later known as the Tivoli Theatre). The film by magician Carl Hertz was screened as part of a variety show act. Australian tours with similar projection machines followed. Australia's first cinema, the Salon Lumière at 237 Pitt Street, Sydney, was operating in October 1896, and showed the first Australian-produced short film on 27 October 1896.
The first locally produced and successfully screened cinema program was a series of eleven one-minute film reels taken from the Victoria Derby on 31 October 1896 and the Melbourne Cup on 3 November 1896, both of which races were won by the same horse, Newhaven. Directed by Henry Walter Barnett, the Lumiere Brothers film was photographed by celebrated cinematographer Marius Sestier. They were first shown at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on 19 November 1896, then taken to Sydney where they were shown at the Criterion Theatre on 24 November 1896. Three of the reels are still in existence.
The Athenaeum Hall in Collins Street, Melbourne, operated as a dance hall from the 1880s, and from time to time would provide alternative entertainment to patrons. In October 1896 it exhibited the first movie film shown in Australia, within a year of the first public screening of a film in Paris on 28 December 1895 by the French Lumière brothers. The Athenaeum would continue screenings, such as Life in Our Navy, a 60,000 foot film of life on HMS Jupiter, shown on 26 January 1901 by G. H. Snazelle, who provided additional entertainment.
A landmark of newsreel photography was in 1897, when films of both the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup were screened at the Melbourne Opera House on the evenings of the race. The events had been captured on film for W. C. Baxter and developed the same day by photographer Robert William Harvie (died 5 October 1922) and inventor Ernest J. Thwaites (c. 1873 – 12 July 1933).
Some of the earliest movie film shot in Australia consisted of films of Aboriginal dancers in Central Australia, shot by anthropologists Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen between 1900 and 1903. They pioneered sound recording on wax cylinders and shot their films under very difficult conditions.
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Cinema of Australia
The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers with international reputations started their careers in Australian films, and many of these have established lucrative careers in larger film-producing centres such as the US and the UK.
Commercially successful Australian films include Crocodile Dundee, George Miller's Mad Max trilogy, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!, and Chris Noonan's Babe. Award-winning productions include Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, The Tracker, Shine and Ten Canoes.
The Australian film critic David Stratton characterized the history of the country's film as one of "boom and bust": there have been deep troughs, during which few films were made for decades, and high peaks, during which a glut of films reached the market.[need quotation to verify]
The first public screenings of films in Australia took place in October 1896, within a year of the world's first screening in Paris by Lumière brothers. On 22 August 1896, the first films projected to a paying audience in Australia were at Harry Rickards' Melbourne Opera House (later known as the Tivoli Theatre). The film by magician Carl Hertz was screened as part of a variety show act. Australian tours with similar projection machines followed. Australia's first cinema, the Salon Lumière at 237 Pitt Street, Sydney, was operating in October 1896, and showed the first Australian-produced short film on 27 October 1896.
The first locally produced and successfully screened cinema program was a series of eleven one-minute film reels taken from the Victoria Derby on 31 October 1896 and the Melbourne Cup on 3 November 1896, both of which races were won by the same horse, Newhaven. Directed by Henry Walter Barnett, the Lumiere Brothers film was photographed by celebrated cinematographer Marius Sestier. They were first shown at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on 19 November 1896, then taken to Sydney where they were shown at the Criterion Theatre on 24 November 1896. Three of the reels are still in existence.
The Athenaeum Hall in Collins Street, Melbourne, operated as a dance hall from the 1880s, and from time to time would provide alternative entertainment to patrons. In October 1896 it exhibited the first movie film shown in Australia, within a year of the first public screening of a film in Paris on 28 December 1895 by the French Lumière brothers. The Athenaeum would continue screenings, such as Life in Our Navy, a 60,000 foot film of life on HMS Jupiter, shown on 26 January 1901 by G. H. Snazelle, who provided additional entertainment.
A landmark of newsreel photography was in 1897, when films of both the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup were screened at the Melbourne Opera House on the evenings of the race. The events had been captured on film for W. C. Baxter and developed the same day by photographer Robert William Harvie (died 5 October 1922) and inventor Ernest J. Thwaites (c. 1873 – 12 July 1933).
Some of the earliest movie film shot in Australia consisted of films of Aboriginal dancers in Central Australia, shot by anthropologists Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen between 1900 and 1903. They pioneered sound recording on wax cylinders and shot their films under very difficult conditions.