To say that 2020 has been a strange year is an understatement. Many who work in screen production, the arts, and the the creative sectors more broadly have suffered from cancellations, loss of income, delays, disconnection, and the associated stresses of pandemic life. At the same time screen texts and cultures have saved most of us – taken us through lockdown, entertained and engaged us, inspired, and sustained us perhaps more so now and in more ways than ever before. As life has changed, we see the foregrounding of the adaptability of screen works and screen culture, from COVID safe production practices to virtual audiences and the prominence of independent filmmaking, digital content creation, and online film festivals and screen events. The films, series and performances from Australasian auteurs, groups, teams, production cohorts and scholars have produced a range of cinematic, televisual and online stories and images worthy of celebration and interrogation. It is with this sense of inspiration and renewed interest that we look towards 2021.
This issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema rounds out the year with Allison Craven’s work on the intersections between gothic traditions in literature and Australian cinema, Joost de Bruin’s analysis of The Hobbit through the discursive politics of the Aotearoan viewing context, and Alison Horbury’s interrogation of the ‘Real gaze’ or imaginary of the national project from Kotcheff’s (1971) Wake in Fright t to Kent’s (2019) The Nightingale.
I wish to thank everyone whose interest and support has allowed this journal to survive and thrive as we say goodbye to 2020.
As always, please enjoy this issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema.