The original London Australian Film Festival (LAFF) was an annual film festival held at the

Barbican Theatre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings an ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England between 1994 and 2011. It was supported by agencies of the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

. In 2017, the volunteer-run London Australian Film Society founded a new festival, initially named Oz Film Festival, but later renamed London Australian Film Festival (also referred to as LAF Film Festival). Held at three cinemas across London, the 5th edition took place in September 2023.

History

LAFF at the Barbican

London Australian Film Festival, supported by the

Australian Film Commission The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a product ...

(AFC), was held at the Barbican Theatre. The inaugural

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

in March 1994 screened 12

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

s and eight

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s. It continued to screen most major Australian feature films and documentaries made each year, along with selected shorts and films from the archive. It was founded by The Barbican's director of cinema and festival director, Englishman Robert Rider, with support from the AFC (which later closed its London office), after he had previously organised two successful short seasons of Australian films. In 2003, the ninth edition of the festival, half of the screenings were sold out before opening night, and the week-long program was extended to 11 days. In that year,

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

films had a significant presence, including ''

Rabbit-Proof Fence The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from ...

'' and '' The Tracker''. In 2005,

National Australia Bank National Australia Bank Limited (abbreviated NAB, branded and stylised as nab) is one of the four largest Banking in Australia, financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "Big Four (banking), The Big Four") in terms of mar ...

was its chief commercial sponsor, which gave it naming rights to this 11th edition, while it continued to be supported by the AFC, in partnership with the Australia International Cultural Council (AICC), an initiative of the

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is the department of the Australian government responsible for foreign policy and international relations, development aid (under the name Australian Aid), consular services, overseas trad ...

, and the Australian High Commission in London. The festival included a program of shorts (one before each feature), presented for the second year in association with

Flickerfest Flickerfest is an international short film festival held annually in January at Bondi Beach, Sydney. It is an Academy and BAFTA recognised short film festival for both international and Australian film makers. History The festival originated ...

, as well as the London edition of

Tropfest Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. It has also become known as the world's first global film festival. Founded by actor/director John Polson, Tropfest began in 1993 as a screening for 200 people at the 'Tropicana Caffe' in ...

. In addition, for the first time, several feature films and documentaries selected from the festival toured the UK between April and June 2005, including

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. By the 15th edition in 2009, after

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

had been created to absorb some of the functions of the AFC, the new funding regime was a generous one, especially to established Australian filmmakers. Films screened that year included

Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962) is an Australian film director, producer, writer, and actor whose various projects extend from film and television into opera, theatre, music, and the recording industries. He is regarded by ...

's ''Australia'' and

Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary film director, director, best known for ''My Brilliant Career (film), My Brilliant Career'' (1979), ''Mrs. Soffel'' (1984), ''High Tide (1987 film), Hi ...

's '' Death Defying Acts''. In its 16th edition in 2010, the festival included two genre sections, featuring horror and

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

Warwick Thornton Warwick Thornton is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film '' Samson and Delilah'' won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awar ...

's debut feature '' Samson and Delilah'' played on the opening night, and other films included

Robert Connolly Robert Connolly (born 1967) is an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is best known as the director and writer of the feature films '' Balibo'', '' Three Dollars'', '' The Bank'' and '' The Dry' ...

's documentary feature ''Balibo'' and

Rachel Perkins Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Indigenous Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She founded and was co-director of the independent film production company Blackfella Films from 1992 until 2022. Perkins and the ...

' musical ''

Bran Nue Dae __NOTOC__ ''Bran Nue Dae'' is a 1990 musical set in Broome, Western Australia, that tells stories and of issues relating to Indigenous Australians. It was written by Jimmy Chi and his band Kuckles and friends, and was the first Aboriginal Aust ...

''. The 17th edition in 2011 appears to be the final edition.

Current festival

In 2017, the volunteer-run London Australian Film Society founded a new festival, initially named Oz Film Festival but later renamed London Australian Film Festival (also referred to as LAF Film Festival). Although the name is identical, it has nothing to do with the LAFF at the Barbican. This festival is still active, with the 5th edition taking place 21-24 September 2023. The four-day festival featured six Australian premieres, with films being shown at Picturehouse Central, Finsbury Park Picturehouse, and The Garden Cinema.

References

{{authority control Film festivals in London 1994 establishments in England 2017 establishments in England