Australian New Wave - Background

Background

The Australian film industry had declined in the late-1950s and early-60s and was coming to a virtual stop. The Gorton and Whitlam governments intervened in the early 1970s to rescue the industry from its expected oblivion. The federal and several state governments established bodies to assist with the funding of film production and the training of film makers through the Australian Film Television and Radio School, which created a new generation of Australian filmmakers who were able to bring their visions to the screen. The 1970s saw a huge renaissance of the Australian film industry. Australia produced nearly 400 films between 1970 and 1985 - more than had been made in the history of the Australian film industry.

In contrast to pre-New Wave films, New Wave films were often viewed as fresh and creative. As one writer comments: "The Australian films exported to the U.S. were not, by and large, noted for their formal or stylistic innovation, nor were they reactions against dominant norms in national cinema, for the good reason that until 1970 there was no real national cinema for them to react against. At the time of their successes in the U.S. market in 1979 and the early 1980s, Australian films were no longer particularly new even in Australia. Their novelty was primarily that they were from a country the American distribution and exhibition industries had largely ignored through the preceding decade".