[Review] 2008: A Year Of Film

Film - 2008 was a year in which I made a concerted effort to attend more film festivals, with the aim of broadening my awareness of world cinema (as opposed to simply the cinema from big American studios). In brief, I managed to attend film festivals from Mexico, Germany, Israel, and Italy, as well as Sydney (both the International and Underground festival), along with a trek down to Melbourne for their International film festival. It was great to not only see some brilliant movies, but to also be amongst the community-based, film-appreciation astmosphere of such festivals.

I have completed 2 short courses at Sydney University in International Film History. The first of which was taught by Andrew Urban (Urbancinefile). This course was particularly beneficial, because Andrew consistently had guest speakers from each of the countries we focused on (e.g. the director of the German Film Festival, and the Minister for Culture of Argentina). The second course was with David Stratton ('At The Movies'), where we focused on international films from the 1980's era. Whilst overall the 80's wasn't really a period of huge inspiration for me (although i particularly took interest in the British realist cinema of that time), simply listening to David talk about movies was inspiring in itself - as my bulging notepad attests to! Luminary guests such as director Jane Campion ('The Piano') and actress Rachel Ward ('Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid') also heavily inspired. Both courses were great in the sense of contextualising what was happening in film with what was happening in society. As Greek director Costa Gavras ('Missing') said; "film should act as a mirror to society, it should make people think".

Always a nice way to round off the year is to vote in the online 'Best Of' poll' for the 'At The Movies' film review show, hosted by Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton. After some consideration, these are my top 5 films from 2008 that were commerically released in Australian cinemas. The consistent theme amongst these 5 films is that I always exited the theatre a changed person; these films all had a heavy impact on me, and they all served as a very clear mirror to society.

1. Waltz With Bashir (Israel)
2. The Diving Bell & The Butterfly (France)
3. Hunger (UK)
4. Towelhead (USA)
5. Ten Empty (Australia)