• On 18 March, Ms Lyn Maddock was appointed by Minister Garrett as the Interim Chief Executive Officer of Screen Australia. Ms Maddock will manage the merger of the AFC, FFC and Film Australia until 31 July 2008.
  
  
• On 9 April the AFC in collaboration with the Australian Ballet, ABC2 Live and The Australia Council for the Arts, presented a live via satellite transmission of Graeme Murphy's interpretation of Swan Lake to the eight regional cinemas on the AFC's Regional Digital Screen Network. More details.



• The AFC has announced further revised terms of trade to assist producers to derive revenue from the innovative and long-term exploitation of their projects. More details.



• April IndiVision News is now available to view online. This edition includes extracts taken from sessions and interviews with Lab advisors and guests including acclaimed American producer Christine Vachon (Boys Don't Cry, I'm Not There); low-budget film producer Julie Ryan (The Tracker, Ten Canoes); and award-winning London-based writer Laurence Coriat (Wonderland). You can also check out video clips of the Lab here .



• Australian films enjoy continued international success with Hot Docs, Canada's International Documentary Festival which is screening two Australian films as part of its 2008 program. More details. Aspen Shortsfest and the Annecy International Animated Festival have also selected five Australian films to screen across the two festivals. More details.



• Under the Prime Ministers Project, the NFSA has identified 6,700 film and sound items in the Collection relevant to Australia's 26 Prime Ministers. The project has unearthed footage of all the PMs except John Watson, recorded sound of all but five (Barton, Deakin, Watson, Reid and Fisher) and a very rare colour film of Prime Minister John Curtin visiting London, Washington and Ottawa in 1944. More details. Fact Sheets summarising holdings relevant to each Prime Minister are available on the NFSA website.

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• The AFC and BigPond are calling for applications for the new mobile phone animation initiative, Great Moments in History - (or funny stuff that happened between the Big Bang and the End of the World. Applications close 28 April. Guidelines.



• The AFC and ABC TV have announced that the Australian development studio Infinite Interactive has been selected to build the Good Game prototype. More details.



• AFC funding deadlines in April and May:
  
  FILM DEVELOPMENT
  DOCUMENTARY
  Documentary Development (formerly Strands J and K) - 18 April
  Shooting Time-critical Material - 16 May
  
  ANIMATION
  Great Moments in History - 28 April
  
  PRACTITIONER SUPPORT
  Internships - 16 May
  Short-term Development Investment Facility - 30 May
  
  SCREEN BUSINESS VENTURE PROGRAM
  Business Support Strand - 11 April
  Business Growth Strand - 2 May
  
  INDUSTRY AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
  National Touring Fund - 21 April
  For further information and selection criteria, please refer to the ICD Funding Guidelines.



• AFC funding approvals.

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• The band Trouble in the Kitchen has won this year's NFSA National Folk Recording Award for their second CD entitled The Next Turn. The result was announced at the National Folk Festival at Easter in Canberra. More. As well as presenting the National Folk Recording Award the NFSA also hosted a number of special screenings at the festival, including The Sentimental Bloke, High Lonesome and South by Southwest. Full details.



• The NFSA hosted two Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research (CSAR) Fellows in February and March this year. Wendy Borchers was at the Archive to research her project 'The Australian Quest for Knowledge', an examination of visual material relating to the education of children throughout Australia; and Daniel Syron, whose project 'Brian Syron - A Man Ahead of His Time', examines the film and television career of the first Indigenous Australian to work as a director in the Australian theatre industry. More details.



• More than 200 people attended the recent screening at the Arc Cinema of Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl with live accompaniment by pianist Mauro Colombis. More details. Throughout April the Arc Cinema continues its popular screening program with highlights such as Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962) and The 400 Blows (1959), Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000) and John Cassavetes' Faces (1968). View the complete calendar.

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• Toronto Film Festival pre-selector Jane Schoettle will be in Australia in April to view Australian feature films and feature documentaries for the 2008 festival. Contact Martina Vascotto at the AFC's Marketing Branch if you have an eligible film to be viewed. Submission deadline 12 April. Full details.



• The AFC is calling for Cannes 2008 attendees. If you are attending the festival and/or market in 2008 please contact Julie Archet to take advantage of discounted rates and be included in the market screenings booklet. More details.



• IFP Independent Filmmaker Narrative Rough Cut Lab is calling for entries. Held in New York City in May and June the labs are lead by seasoned independent producers and are designed to assist filmmakers in submitting their films to festivals. More details.



• Congratulations to all the filmmakers whose AFC-funded / supported films have recently won awards or been selected to screen at other festivals around the world. More details.



• The Australian films
  The Black Balloon
  Death Defying Acts
  Hey, Hey It's Esther Blueburger
  Global Haywire
  Black Water
  Cactus and
  The Children of Huang Shi
  are screening in April and May so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.

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• Mildura hosted its 6th Big Screen film festival in March to record crowds, including 730 people at the outdoor screening of Happy Feet. The new feature Cactus was screened to a full house on the opening night with special guests EP Bryan Brown, director Jasmine Yuen-Carrucan and producer Paul Sullivan. At Big Screen in Yamba award-winning actor Wendy Hughes introduced a double bill of her films My Brilliant Career and The Man Who Sued God in Yamba. Big Screen travels to Quorn 25-26 April with Gallipoli and Lucky Miles. Visit the Big Screen website for other Big Screen programs.



• Screening on the AFC's Regional Digital Screen Network in April is the Berlinale winner The Black Balloon and a live via satellite transmission of Swan Lake (presented in collaboration with The Australian Ballet and ABC2). Visit the RDSN webpage for more details.



• In April Black Screen, in conjunction with School Screen, will be screening a collection of Indigenous films on 35mm at the Cobar Cinema in association with Outback Arts, the local school and the Indigenous community. Black Screen and CAAMA will screen Indigenous titles in the remote Northern Territory communities of Ampilatwatji, Titjikala, Areyonga and Alice Springs. Visit the Black Screen webpage for more details.



• In collaboration with Big Screen in April, School Screen screened The Silly Billies Save The Circus!! (G), Dr Plonk (G) and The Caterpillar Wish (M) in Yamba. In Mildura over 500 primary and secondary school children attended screenings of Dr Plonk, Kokoda and Romulus, My Father. School Screen also joined forces with the AFC's RDSN to screen the award-winning Australian film The Black Balloon (M) in Albany, Yarram, Katherine, Port Augusta, Wagga Wagga, Hervey Bay and Singleton.
  
  Continuing their partnership with the National Library of Australia, School Screen is presenting free screenings of classic Australian films to ACT schools. The April screening is They're A Weird Mob (G). Bookings for the majority of these screenings can be made online on the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) website. If your school is not able to access any screenings on offer, you can contact the AFC's Education Programs Coordinator, Bob Percival robert.percival@afc.gov.au, to discuss organising a screening in your local cinema, or a free screening at your school if there is no cinema nearby. Visit the School Screen webpage for more details.



• The new Arabic collection will be screened at Embassy Roadshow events in Amman in Jordan in May.
  

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• In April australianscreen celebrates it's 1000th title. Recent addtitions include the experimental essay feature Breathing Under Water and Ken G Hall's The Squatter's Daughter. New Indigenous documentaries include Marn Grook about the origins of AFL, and Sammy Butcher: Out of the Shadows a biography of the Warumpi Band musician.
  
  New functionality added to australianscreen this month allows users to easily access educational study guides from EnhanceTV and the Screen Education and Metro Magazine Education Shop.
  
  australianscreen continues to attract enquiries about Australian film and television from all over the world, with increasing numbers of overseas visitors, particularly from Europe and the US. If you have a title on the website please make sure the AFC knows where the full title can be purchased or viewed. Contact Don Featherstone don.featherstone@afc.gov.au.



• Positions vacant: for current vacant positions at the AFC.



• Are you looking for details of a particular Australian film title - feature, short, TV drama or documentary? The Searchable Film Database includes Australian and co-produced features, TV drama and documentaries from 1990 and shorts from 1998. It is updated on the AFC website each month.



• Latest updates to industry statistics in Get the Picture Online.

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• The AFC's Industry and Cultural Development Division proudly supports the following upcoming festivals and events:
  
  In the Bin Touring Film Festival 2008
  1-3 April - Dubbo (NSW), 9-11 April - Tumut (NSW), 17-19 April - Innisfail (Qld)
  
  World of Women (WOW) National and Regional Tour
  Until June 2008
  
  Sydney Travelling Film Festival (TFF) 2007/08
  Until June 2008
  
  
• The five successful documentary project teams will participate in the Headlands 2008 documentary development residential workshop 7-11 April. The workshop will enable the filmmakers to develop their projects in an intensive 'hothouse' environment with feedback and advice from national and international documentary experts. More details.



• Metro Screen are holding workshops for young filmmakers 16-18 April. More details.



• The 2008 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards are now open for entries. Deadline 10 June. Visit the ATOM Awards website for entry forms and further details.



• QPIX is calling for applications for RAW NERVE 2008, applications close 30 June; NOVA INTERNATIONAL 2, applications close 1 August; and interested crew for their Short Film Productions. Visit the QPIX website for more details.



• The ACT Filmmakers' Network is a not-for-profit cultural film and television industry agency that delivers a range of workshops for practitioners in the national capital and region.



• Metro Screen is a non-profit organisation that offers training, equipment hire and production support to filmmakers and digital media practitioners. They have monthly Metro Screen Network meetings and Filmmakers' Studio events.



• mo:life monthly is an informal gathering on the second Monday of every month, that offers the opportunity to discuss the latest advances and opportunities in mobile media technology and culture. Contact d.opitz@metroscreen.org.au



• OPEN CHANNEL is a screen resource organisation located in Melbourne's Docklands. They run training courses, have support programs and hire out production equipment.



• OzDox, a joint initiative of documentary filmmakers, industry bodies and academics, to foster, promote and provide a monthly forum for documentary culture, holds regular industry events.



• ScreenWest and PAC Screen Workshops run the PAC Script Labs, rehearsed readings of WA feature film scripts on the last Wednesday of every second month. The aim is to hone WA scripts and increase the profile, quality and awareness of WA film projects.



• Popcorn Taxi, a regular film event where filmmakers and film lovers can meet, watch films of all types, and discuss the filmmaking process all year round, runs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin.



• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

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