2010: The good, the bad and the ugly in film
Encore was asked by Matt Riviera to provide its list of the Top 10 films released theatrically in Australia in 2010 and, even though our specialty as a publication is local productions, it was a pleasant surprise to look at our final list and see two Australian films (and one with a considerable amount of Aussie talent) that deserved a spot in it. It wasn’t a pat on the back for the local industry, but a genuine recognition of the power of their stories and the skill of its execution.
The public is slowly starting to recognise it too; the top 10 highest grossing Australian films of 2010 made $45m at the box office, a figure that has brought optimism to an industry in desperate need of reassurance from the audience it serves.
This is the list Encore has contributed – and probably the only one topped by Toy Story 3, as animated films (especially those that no matter how critically acclaimed, are still considered ‘family’ movies) are often dismissed at the end of the year by more ‘serious’ material.
- Toy Story 3
- Animal Kingdom
- The King’s Speech
- Winter’s Bone
- The Loved Ones
- The Social Network
- Boy
- Inception
- Let Me In
- Micmacs
Our purely Australian Top 10 films are:
My top Aussie films of the year were The Tree, Animal Kingdom, Triangle, The Horseman, The Waiting City, The Loved Ones, Tomorrow and Bran Nue Dae. Such a wonderfully diverse mixture of titles there. Unfortunately, stuff like South Solitary, Beneath Hill 60 and Girl Clock were quite poor.
South Solitary was fantastic! You’re obviously not the target audience, Glenn!
How can you say you are a specialist in local productions if you haven’t even seen them all ? It isn’t as if there are that many!
Bill, most of the films I mentioned had extremely limited releases and in most cases we were not given an opportunity – by the filmmakers and publicists – to view them. Girl Clock, for example, only screened in Brisbane; The Wedding Party has only played at MIFF.
This list was written by me, the editor, and represents my honest opinion. Part of this honesty implies warning readers that I haven’t been able to see everything, which many other journalists would probably not be willing to admit publicly.
An example would be Playing for Charlie, top industry critics including Stratton and Shembrie,and others noted the merits of this film, which has also screened at over 20 international film festivals , and has played in Sydney and Melbourne theatres, in Melbourne for a month. Surely a magazine that claims to specialise in local productions would have seen this film. You really are out of touch.
Each to their own.
Apparently Sanctum is a pile.
Sanctum was really dissapointing. Badly cast except for the guy playing the son.
It was a shambles with a thin script. 3 d production values cant make up for a lousey story and bad acting