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VOL. 07·ISSUE 79·JULY 2026MONDAY, 6 JUL 2026
SCREENTIMES
Independent Australian film, television, and culture. Criticism with its eyes open. Reporting with its receipts shown. Six years of it, and counting.
FILED MONTHLY
01 / 04NOW SHOWING
FILM/RETROSPECTIVEISSUE 79
Geoff Burton's light and the truth of Sunday Too Far Away
The NFSA's restoration returns Ken Hannam's shearing drama to full clarity, and what comes back is a film that honours the work without ever romanticising the men who do it.
BRONTE HAUGHEY02.07.2026 · 05:00
THE MASTHEAD
Five writers. One desk.
02 / 04FEATURED
MUSIC№ 01
Shine and the score hiding under the Rachmaninoff
David Hirschfelder had to write original music that lives under the loudest warhorse in the piano repertoire, and the quiet writing is what carries the film.
KIERAN BOUSTANY25.06.2026
FILM№ 02
My Brilliant Career and the woman who would not marry the plot
Gillian Armstrong's 1979 debut took a heroine who refuses the marriage plot and made the refusal the whole shape of the picture.
BRONTE HAUGHEY24.06.2026
MUSIC№ 03
Every Australian film has a sound and most of them go unheard
This column has spent six years listening to what Australian cinema sounds like, and the answer keeps changing.
KIERAN BOUSTANY01.05.2026
03 / 04READING LIST
№ 01
TV16.04.2026
Australian television in 2026 has more shows and fewer places to put them
The shows are good, the platforms are crowded, and the audience is splitting into fragments too small for any one show to own.
RHYS TAVITA
№ 02
MUSIC08.04.2026
The newest Australian score worth hearing is the one nobody is talking about
The film opened in twelve cinemas, the score opened in none of the conversations about it, and both deserve better.
KIERAN BOUSTANY
№ 03
ESSAYS02.04.2026
Leah Purcell rewrote the bush myth and then set fire to it
Purcell took a Henry Lawson story, stripped it to the frame, and rebuilt it as a story about the women Lawson's Australia was built to forget.
MARA DENG
№ 04
FILM28.03.2026
Sydney Film Festival 2026 opens with a question the programme cannot answer alone
The programme is strong, the Australian titles are stronger, and the question of who will be in the audience remains.
BRONTE HAUGHEY
№ 05
INDUSTRY24.03.2026
Screen Australia funded 112 development projects in 2025 and most will never be made
The development fund is the widest part of the funnel and the least visible, and the conversion rate tells the real story.
ODETTE MALOUF
№ 06
ESSAYS18.03.2026
Cate Blanchett keeps one foot in Australia and Australian cinema keeps asking her to put it down
Blanchett produces Australian work, funds Australian stories, and has not starred in an Australian film in over a decade, and nobody quite knows how to talk about that.
MARA DENG
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04 / 04THE INDEX
27.06.2026Plum and the game that breaks the men who love itRHYS TAVITA14.06.2026A sports streamer now owns one of our biggest drama buyersODETTE MALOUF12.06.2026Bay of Fires and the town full of people you should not trustRHYS TAVITA11.06.2026Nigel Westlake smuggled a cathedral into a film about a pigKIERAN BOUSTANY10.06.2026Wake in Fright and the negative that almost burnedBRONTE HAUGHEY02.06.2026The Home Song Stories and the mothers we have to explainMARA DENG29.05.2026Apple Cider Vinegar knows exactly what it isRHYS TAVITA28.05.2026Man of Flowers and the patience Paul Cox demandedBRONTE HAUGHEY08.05.2026Furiosa and the country George Miller will not leaveBRONTE HAUGHEY07.05.2026Boy Swallows Universe and what Netflix actually paid forRHYS TAVITA06.05.2026Six years of writing about Australian film taught me what I was looking forMARA DENG06.05.2026Of an Age and the country a 24 hour love can holdMARA DENG