Distribution and film festivals: editorial introduction

A year on from our first instalment of the special issue exploring film distribution and film festivals in Australasia, the state of the local film industry, within Australia at least, seems to have shifted. After a long drought, in 2015 Australian films seemingly found their audience. That crisis of distribution, which shaped our introduction to this topic back in issue 9.1, momentarily eased with a large slate of locally made films finding their way to a range of screens around the country. From the blockbuster heights of Mad Max Fury Road to the romantic Australiana of The Dressmaker, Blinky Bill The Movie and The Water Diviner, traversing the road movie suicide drama Last Cab to Darwin to the biggest non-IMAX doco, That Sugar Film and the emerging new focus of family-friendly hits based on the success of Paper Planes and Oddball, 2015 was a bumper year. What's more, with these films appearing in a range of cinemas, audiences were finally convinced to spend their dollars on viewing something locally made with $84 million expended on local fare. Reports claim that Australian films had achieved an impressive 7.7% share of the national box office by the end of the 2015 (Hawker 2016). While Gardner (2016) warns against the hyperbole of statistics and impressive looking figures released alongside the 2015 successes, there is no denying that over the last year Australian films have managed to gain the attention and perhaps win back a little of the trust of domestic audiences. These gains were in the context of minimal structural changes in the distribution process. The theatrical distribution market has become so competitive that even relatively commercially orientated projects such as Kill Me Three Times and Strangerland have been released on video-on-demand as the primary release platform, after short festival seasons, highlighting distributor's wariness.

Yet, while the successes and interest generated through 2015 might paint a rosier picture compared to this time last year, the reality of the Australian industry and the state of existing distribution strategies for locally made films are still in turmoil. Already new Federal Government funding cuts to Screen Australia set for 2016 threaten to undermine some of the progresses made. While the fact that local films found a willing audience in 2015 offers no guarantees that these audiences will return in 2016 or beyond. The technological changes affecting all aspects of the cinema trade and film industry continue to disrupt established business models and new avenues and ways of thinking about film production, circulation and modes of consumption are still required to ensure the relevance and visibility of Australasian productions into the future.

This third instalment of our special issue on Distribution and Film Festivals continues the themes and challenges raised in our earlier issues. Looking at both present and past, it explores the history and continuation of distribution strategies and film festival operation in Australia. It raises timely questions about the state of the Australian industry and the means by which locally made films are circulated and supported through both traditional and non-mainstream networks of distribution and exhibition.

Focusing a lens on early Australian cinema history, Wendy Haslem asks what can the past tell us about the future of film distribution? Exploring the multimedia spectacles of the Corrick Collection, Haslem examines the connections that link early celluloid distribution with emerging digital cultures. Providing an insight into a long-overlooked moment of Australia's very early film distribution history, this article asks the reader to question the certainties and entrenched views of cinema that, having become set through the twentieth century, are now being disrupted with the increasing intermediality of film and screen cultures in the digital age. Can the past teach us something new about the future?

As we approach 2016 with the inevitable questions ‘can Australian films repeat the success of 2015?’ hanging in the air, Sean Maher, Jon Silver and Susan Kerrigan's article offers a well-timed look at what the past 12 years can tell us about the state and future of the Australian film industry. Analysing data contained within a series of Screen Australia reports from the past decade and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) white paper, along with a counterpoint offered by insights from Screen Producers, this article explores the national importance of feature films at the box office in Australia. Given the recent history of underperformance, the authors question the value of success and what is the acceptable percentage of national films at the Australian box office. Examining the performance of Australian films since the turn of the twenty-first century, they explore what changing screen environments, emerging trends in viewership and the changing dynamics, and costs, associated with traditional forms of theatrical distribution, as well as the reports that track these metrics, mean for the sustainability and future growth of the Australian film industry. As we move into possibly a hangover year after the giddy success of 2015 the authors’ contention is that we require a more thorough integration of data analysis of feature films to provide benchmarks to charting a path towards sustainability of the Australian screen industry in the new distribution context.

Finally, Stuart Richards reminds us that outside of those films that make it onto theatrical screens are a number of films that rely on non-traditional networks of distribution and exhibition. Exploring the history of one of Australia's most significant film festivals, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), Richards examines the fate of a number of recent Australian films and their existence within the queer film festival network. Looking at the role that MQFF plays in supporting these films, Richards unpacks the economic and cultural realities that shape the successful queer film festival. Examining MQFF's negotiation of the demands of its existence as a cultural institution, operating within a creative industries logic, and its origins within the specificities of the Melbourne queer community, Richards explores the mix of commerce and identity politics that shape the event and ultimately inform its role in creating an alternative distribution network of local queer cinema.

Providing more than just the through-line connecting these three articles, questions of film distribution, both in its familiar and non-traditional forms, remain highly topical to any discussion of cinema in Australia. While 2015 might prove to set new benchmarks in what strategies and approaches to film distribution succeed in connecting with Australian audiences, an investigation of the changing dynamics of distribution, as well as the relevance of film festivals and particularly their role as distribution, still requires further consideration. The papers in this third instalment of our special examination of distribution and film festivals work to continue this discussion and seek to engage the reader in this complicated and dynamic field at the forefront of Australian film studies.