Crisis in Australian Film Industry

“Films from down under are going, well, down and under”(Humphries S cited in Kaufman T, 2009). This essay will confirm there is a crisis is the Australian Film Industry through exploring the economic, political and cultural factors that led to the crisis. The current economic climate and political decisions have had a significant impact on the Australian film industry, leading to lower production rates of overseas films in Australia. The internal and external cultural factors will be explored to highlight the responsibility the Australian public and the industry had and how failing to meet these responsibilities has further deepened the already unfortunate circumstances in the industry. However there are economical, political and cultural factors that have led to the crisis in the industry; this essay will also explore why it is called a ‘crisis’. Thus exploring the loss of jobs, the lack of Australian films being produced, and most importantly the erosion of a sense of national identity that Australian’s gain through Australian cinema. Recent successful Australian films ‘Australia’ (Luhrmaan B, 2008) and ‘Black Balloon’ (Down E, 2008) represents the quality that films should be produced to create a successful industry; this reinforces the sense of nationhood at risk of being lost.

There is a common misconception that the strong Australian dollar benefits the economy (Bodey M, 2010). However for the Australian film industry this is not the case, the Australian dollar has risen to a 28 year high (Dingle S, 2011) so it is justifiable to say this has significantly contributed to the crisis in the industry. Film executives believe that “the industry is in a crisis and in real pain but we can’t tell the real story without sending your international customers running” (unknown cited in Bodey M, 2010). Therefore, due to the strong dollar the film industry is in a lose-lose situation further deepening the crisis it is faced with. This is because international films