Tag: Umbrella Entertainment

Review: The Golden Spurtle

Growing up in Australia, there was an Uncle Toby’s instant oats ad where a young Scottish lad emphatically told us: “That’s no how you make porridge.” Turns out he was right all along, and the World Porridge Making Championships in the Scottish village of Carrbridge have been certifying that fact for over three decades.

Australian director Constantine Costi, a theatre librettist and director known for Siegfried and Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, became fascinated with the contest after stumbling across its story while travelling. Following Toby Wilson, an Australian taco chef and two-time Carrbridge finalist, Costi introduces us to a delightful ensemble of regulars, locals, and newcomers, each one adding texture to this surprisingly heartfelt culinary showdown.

The townsfolk and competitors often feel like they’ve stepped out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary. With stagey to-camera intros and locked-off shots of Carrbridge, Costi and cinematographer Dimitri Zaunders shoot with all the whimsy of a Wes Anderson film. Yet he never loses sight of the fact that these are real people with real ambitions, and more than a little emotion invested in the battle for the titular Golden Spurtle.

Take honorary Golden Spurtle Chieftain Charlie Miller, who fled the rat race for a quieter life in Carrbridge. His health may be faltering and he’s no longer young, but his love for the town and its weird little tradition is undiminished. There’s reigning champ Lisa Williams, and the legendary Ian Bishop, described as “mad” and doing little to dissuade us from the label. Health store owner Nick Barnard might be the most Guest-like of all: a repeated finalist, baffled that his oats still haven’t reached the top of the podium.

Costi’s steady hand is a perfect counterbalance to the barely contained chaos of the competition itself. As the day arrives and a torrential Scottish downpour sets in, the only constants are the revered dishwashers backstage and Miller, scrambling to hold it all together. Yet, like Costi’s film, it somehow works: beautifully, eccentrically, and against all odds.

THE GOLDEN SPURTLE may join the ranks of offbeat documentaries like Scott Gawlik’s Set! or Slavko Martinov’s Pecking Order, but it stands apart thanks to Costi’s warm and generous approach to the material. Here’s hoping Carrbridge’s Golden Spurtle runs another 30 years, and that someone’s there to capture it when it does.

2025 | Australia, UK | DIRECTOR: Constantine Costi | WRITERS: Constantine Costi | CAST: Charlie Miller, Toby Wilson, Ian Bishop, Nick Barnard, Lisa Williams | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, Umbrella Entertainment | RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)

June 9, 2025
‘The Merger’: Damian Callinan’s new Australian film gets a trailer

“It’s when one shit team joins up with another shit team to make a slightly less shit team.“

Director Mark Grentell and producer Anne Robinson have joined forces with comedian/actor/writer Damian Callinan to adapt his stage show THE MERGER to the big screen. Umbrella Entertainment has now released a trailer, which you can check out below.

We first heard about THE MERGER back in May 2017 when the Screen Australia and Create NSW announced that they were providing production investment funding for the film. It combines two of Australia‘s most discussed topics: our response to the refugee crisis, and the footy.

READ MORE: Damian Callinan’s ‘The Merger’ gets Australian feature funding

The township of Bodgy Creek has seen better days: the population is dwindling, jobs are scarce and the litter has built up around the fading Tidy Town sign. The next victim of the town’s decline is the cash-strapped Aussie Rules footy club. Living a hermit-like existence on the town’s fringe, former football star Troy Carrington (Callinan) is coaxed into coaching after striking up an unlikely friendship with young Neil who is struggling with the recent loss of his father. Teaming up with Neil’s mum Angie (Kate Mulvany) who is running a nearby refugee support centre, they conspire to recruit refugees to ensure the team survives.

Shot on location in Wagga Wagga, and garnering official support from the AFL, it also stars John Howard, Nick Cody, Penny Cook, and a number of refugee voices both on camera and behind the scenes.

Callinan hopes that the film will serve as a message to all of Australia. “When you bother to listen and learn from what our refugees have actually been through, wanting to turn them away isn’t an option,” said Callinan.

Presented by Crow Crow Productions, Dream Genie Films, Definition Films, and distributed by Umbrella, no release date has been announced yet, but expect to see this later in the year.

July 3, 2018
Review: Cargo

The zombie film has undergone some pretty radical changes between the late, great George Romero and The Walking Dead. What keeps us engaged with the stories is the core belief that humanity will ‘make it’ even in the face of adversity. Which is what makes Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s CARGO less about zombies than it does about survival and love.

Adapting their own Tropfest short of the same name, the feature film introduces us to Andy (Martin Freeman) and Kay (Susie Porter) and their daughter Rosie, surviving on a houseboat in the wake of a pandemic. When tragedy strikes, Andy has less than 48 hours to find a suitable caretaker for Rosie before he too succumbs to the virus.

If Geoffrey Simpson’s breathtaking photography of outback South Australia doesn’t immediately distinguish CARGO from other films in the genre, then Ramke and Howling’s commitment to world-building will. They don’t simply place their lone wolf and cub in the middle of a familiar setting, but instead craft a whole background to the viral epidemiology and the response to it.

This is never done with heavy-handed exposition, with Ramke’s occasionally episodic script dropping visual hints about the events that led to this. ‘First aid’ kits tell us all we need to know about how far the virus had advanced by the time we join Andy and Rosie. A key encounter with Vic (Anthony Hayes) and Lorraine (Caren Pistorius) show us what people are willing to do for the sake of normality in this fresh hell of post-apocalyptic Australia.

Undoubtedly one of the points of difference is the seamless incorporation of Indigenous stories into the character arcs, principally led by the young Toohie, in search of the Cleverman (David Gulpilil) who she believes can save her own zombified father. Rather than come across as somehow tokenistic, these elements offer an alternative to the returning to ‘status quo’ before the plague.

Freeman leads an excellent cast, taking his unlikely trajectory as a leading man and focusing all of his energy on a singular goal. Hayes and Pistorius in particular offer great counterpoints to his protectionism, and its great to see faces like Rabbit-Proof Fence‘s Natasha Wanganeen in small but significant roles.

While there’s a very thin line that CARGO skirts along the edges of saviour and magical native narratives, it never gives into either. What Ramke and Howling manage to do is use our familiarity with the tropes and continue to ramp up the tension until we get to the inevitable but powerful conclusion. The result is a showcase for original Australian stories, and one of the most remarkable new takes on the genre.

2017 | Australia | DIR: Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling | WRITERS: Yolanda Ramke | CAST: Martin Freeman, Anthony Hayes, Caren Pistorius, David Gulpilil, Susie Porter, Kris McQuade, Bruce R. Carter, Natasha Wanganeen | DISTRIBUTOR: Umbrella Entertainment Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 6 October 2017 (ADLFF)

October 6, 2017
‘The Babadook’ producers to release Rodd Rathjen’s feature debut ‘Buoyancy’

Screen Australia announced Wednesday that they will provide production investment funding for Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature BUOYANCY from Causeway Films. The debut feature for writer and director by Rodd Rathjen, his previous credits include the short film Tau Seru which premiered at Cannes International Film Festival as part of Critics Week and won Best Australian Short at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) in 2013.

The Causeway films production trio of Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh are best known for their 2014 breakout horror film The Babadook, and the upcoming post-apocalyptic Cargo, which will be the first Australian feature to be released under the Netflix Original banner.

BUOYANCY is set deep in rural Cambodia and follows the story of an innocent boy who is enslaved on a fishing trawler and soon realises his only hope of freedom is to become as violent as his captors.

The feature has also received financing from Film Victoria, MIFF Premiere Fund, Aurora Media and post-production company Soundfirm. Umbrella Entertainment will distribute the film in Australia and New Zealand, with international sales to be handled by Charades and Echo Studio. Talent for the film includes producer Rita Walsh, director of photography Michael Latham and editor Graeme Pereira.

Screen Australia also announced that West of Sunshine, Chasing Comets and 1%, who independently financed their productions, have received completion funding to “get these impressive titles over the finish line.”

In the meantime, here’s Rathjen’s 2013 short:

Tau Seru from Rodd rathjen on Vimeo.

September 6, 2017
‘In This Corner of the World’: Umbrella sets Australian release for 7 December

Umbrella Entertainment has announced that it will release the Japanese animated wartime drama IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD on 7 December 2017 in Australian cinemas.

The acclaimed Sunao Katabuchi film, based on the manga of the same name by Fumiyo Kōno, made its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August, coinciding with the US release of the animated film.

Set in the 1930s and 1940s, it follows Suzu (voiced by Non), an innocent young women from Hiroshima who moves to nearby Kure when she marries. An enthusiastic sketch artist, we watch her innocence and lust for life ebb and sometimes fade as the realities of the war creep into her small town life.

The film uses terrific levels of detail to reconstruct life in and around Hiroshima before the bombing, giving new life to the many people who died during the tragic attack during the Second World War.

Praising the innovative art style and the slice-of-life approach to a wartime scenario in our review, we concluded that it was “a gorgeously drawn testament to the endurance of hope in adversity.”

READ MORE – REVIEW: IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD

August 25, 2017
Review: Jungle

It sometimes seems that Greg McLean has spent a decade building a franchise around his debut feature Wolf Creek. Follow-ups Rogue, The Darkness, and The Belko Experiment would imply a certain trajectory for the filmmaker, but with JUNGLE he shifts into a new thematic terrain, albeit one filled with a different kind of horror.

Based on the real-life story of Israeli backpacker Yossi Ghinsberg (played here by Daniel Radcliffe) who, along with Swiss teacher Marcus Stamm (Joel Jackson) and American photographer Kevin Gale (Alex Russell), follows Austrian expat Karl Ruprechter (Thomas Kretschmann) into the uncharted Amazon on the promise of new experiences. It rapidly becomes a harrowing tale of human endurance and an unforgiving landscape.

The back of the tin will mark this clearly as a survival thriller, and this is ostensibly the main thrust of the narrative. Yet if McLean’s previous works have fit into existing horror genres of serial killers, the supernatural and monster flicks, then JUNGLE could also be loosely called ‘body horror.’ There is, of course, the mysterious stranger that screenwriter Justin Monjo (adapting Ghinsberg’s book interprets as a pseudo-villain, but the ultimate opposition becomes nature itself. Starvation, rotting feet, and one very graphic sequence of a squiggling critter being removed from a head wound are all designed to show a body being pushed beyond its intended purposes.

In fact, the last time we saw Radcliffe try to find his way out of the wilderness he was a corpse, and McLean’s promise of something equally different is delivery in some hallucinatory sequences. Even so, the story itself falls back on a number of familiar beats from the genre, from flashbacks to parental figures offering hope to last-minute rescue fake-outs. There’s even a quicksand sequence. The tale might be based on a true story, but the telling shapes it into something that could be found in any survival film.

Punctuated by some stunning aerial cinematography from Stefan Duscio (TV’s Barracuda), and a phenomenal and all-encompassing soundscape, JUNGLE is unquestionably a strong technical achievement from the filmmaker. Similarly, Radcliffe continues to showcase his versatility and watchability as a leading man in his post-Potter career.

The real Ginsberg has gone on to become a tech entrepreneur and humanitarian, returning to the very place that almost killed him. As such, we have a tale that’s missing the raw revenge-filled emotion of The Revenant or the poignancy of Into the Wild. Which leaves us with a final question: if this is a horror film, then what are we as viewers to take from the Final Boy’s survival?

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | Australia, Columbia | DIR: Greg McLean | WRITER: Justin Monjo | CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Joel Jackson, Alex Russell | RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: Umbrella Entertainment | RELEASE DATE: 11 August 2017 (MIFF)[/stextbox]

August 15, 2017
Review: The Go-Betweens: Right Here

Despite never cracking the top of the charts locally, The Go-Betweens remain one of Australia’s most highly regarded bands. Much of this praise focuses on the Lennon-McCartney pairing of singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan. Yet their career was filled with drama, and filmmaker Kriv Stenders’ look at their journey as it went round and round and up and down pulls few punches.

The chronological narrative of THE GO-BETWEENS: RIGHT HERE is straightforward in its telling. Where things get interesting are in the interpersonal stories, and the gorgeous way that Stenders presents the material. Covering their humble beginning in Brisbane, highlights include their first single “Lee Remick,” the joining of Linda Morrison as their longest serving drummer, recording in the UK, the release of “Cattle and Cane,” the entrance of multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown, and the beginnings of the end.

Stenders’ professional history with the band goes back to the music video for 1988’s “Streets of Your Town,” arguably The Go-Between’s most recognisable song. Despite being part of this story, the filmmaker keeps his distance. Indeed, as the surviving lead vocalist, Forster provides much of the narrative voice. He’s joined by Morrison, Brown, archival footage of the late McLennan, and virtually anyone who has been in the band for more than five seconds.

For a band that stood out as mindful in a landscape of punk rebellion in the late 1970s, it’s appropriate the documentary is shot differently to other archival music films. Stenders has chosen to shoot his interviews, and frame archival clips, in CinemaScope to quite literally make these musical legends larger than life.

By the same token, Stenders manages to get unfettered access to some of the most intimate moments and confessions. There’s a scene towards the end of the film where Morrison and Brown sit facing each other, barely holding back the tears as they talk about the way they felt dismissed by respective former lovers Forster and McLennan. It’s a powerful moment that underlines all that we have witnessed.

The film closes out much as it began, with Forster staring thoughtfully at the future/past, and doing what he does best with a guitar.THE GO-BETWEENS: RIGHT HERE paints a picture of a band that may not quite have achieved the stardom they may have aimed for, but gives them the legacy they deserve.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | Australia | DIR: Kriv Stenders | WRITER: Kriv Stenders | CAST: Robert Forster, Grant McLennan, Lindy Morrison, Amanda Brown | DISTRIBUTOR:Umbrella Entertainment (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes | RELEASE DATE: June/August (SFF/MIFF), 28 September 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

August 10, 2017
Review: Descent into the Maelstrom

The 1996 Big Day Out appearance of Radio Birdman made audiences recall what an influence the early Sydney punk band had on the scene. Yet as Jonathan Sequeira’s DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM points out, the gig revived a myriad of fractures and tensions that were at the heart of the band’s history. This warts and all examination of their history lets the band speak for themselves.

Along with The Saints, Radio Birdman was one of the first Australian bands to push the protopunk genre of music. Formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974, the documentary paints a portrait of a band that wore their non-conformity on their sleeves. At least when they wore shirts, that is.

The doco traces Radio Birdman’s career from their early performances and their struggles to find a right fit in a recording environment, through to their break ups and reunions. For a band that saw their formative years in the pubs and clubs around Sydney’s Oxford Street and Taylor Square, there’s understandably only a handful of videos of these early performances, so much of this period is covered by talking heads.

Sequeira has managed to get access to virtually all of the surviving members, friends, and several fans of the band. They don’t pull any punches either, with Tek, Younger, Chris Masuak, Jim Dickson and ‘Pip’ Doyle happily airing all their dirty laundry for the public. You Am I’s Rusty Hopkinson, who was briefly the drummer for the band, isn’t interviewed on camera, but his own dissatisfaction with the period is certainly expressed by other interviewees. When the music does cut loose, including a handful of live appearances, we can now retrospectively hear all of the alternating joy and frustration in every note.

Longevity is a rarity in the music industry, and even rarer on the Australian scene where international success is elusive. Radio Birdman may not have got the kudos their deserved in their day, and this film proves that they may not have even been craving it in the 1970s. Yet their legacy of influence continues to this day. Indeed, at the time of writing, Radio Birdman have just completed a tour with Died Pretty, showing that even this most fractious of bands outlasted the Big Day Out on the Australian scene.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | Australia | DIR: Jonathan Sequeira | WRITERS: Jonathan Sequeira | CAST: Warwick Gilbert, Pip Hoyle, Jules Normington, Chris Masuak, Deniz Tek | DISTRIBUTOR: Umbrella Entertainment (AUS)| RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 20 July 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

July 21, 2017
Review: Rip Tide

Star Debby Ryan might know a thing or two about the pressures of a youth lived in front of the camera. Having been featured in TV and film since the age of 13, Ryan has become best known for her work in the Disney Channel’s The Suite Life on Deck, and her lead role in Jessie. Which makes her perfect casting for Australian filmmaker Rhiannon Bannenberg’s second feature RIP TIDE, a charming morality tale for a family market.

As the daughter of the head of a major modelling agency, teenage model Cora (Ryan) has always lived under her mother’s (Danielle Carter) shadow. When the video of Cora’s emotional breakdown on set goes viral, she takes some time out in Australia with her estranged aunt Margot (Genevieve Hegney), a former pro-surfer. With her aunt’s surfing business on the rocks, Cora’s presence provides a mutual learning experience for everyone.

RIP TIDE is a film squarely aimed at a young teenage girl audience. From the slick teen-dream opening of a stylish New York fashion shoot, through to its quaint version of Australian seaside life that appeals to international perceptions (“No chickens in the kitchen!”), Cora’s fish-literally-out-of-water scenario is an easy metaphor for the soul-searching all young people do as they come of age.

MORE: Listen to our interview with RIP TIDE director Rhiannon Bannenberg

Ryan’s Australian feature debut brings her carefully constructed Disney Channel persona to the antipodes, giving her character a great contrast with the local talent. Hegney’s arc is the most satisfying, brushing against the trauma of losing her husband Caleb (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor in flashback), even if it is dealt with superficially. Tom (Andrew Creer) is hunky but perfunctory as the obligatory love interest. It’s the “quirky” sidekick characters that bring the most on-screen joy: Valerie Bader is wonderful as the wise Bee, while Naomi Sequeira steals every scene she is in as skater girl Chicka.

Impressively shot in just 18 days in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, RIP TIDE reportedly only had a six month turnaround period from the day the money dropped to the premiere at the Sydney Film Festival. Tania Lambert’s cinematography captures beautiful coastline and surfing sequences, but also has a modern pop influence to the fashion sequences.

“You need to get out there and make something, and you need to finish it,” was Bannenberg’s advice to young women filmmakers at the World Premiere in Sydney. With a largely female cast and crew, including writer Georgia Harrison, RIP TIDE puts that passion into practice. It may have a lighthearted narrative, but it’s also got a lot of character and a positive message for young women.

RIP TIDE debuted at the Sydney Film Festival 2017. It releases in Australia on 14 September 2017 from Umbrella Entertainment.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | Australia | DIR: Rhiannon Bannenberg | WRITERS: Georgia Harrison | CAST: Debby Ryan, Genevieve Hegney, Andrew Creer, Naomi Sequeira | DISTRIBUTOR: Umbrella Entertainment, Sydney Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 10 June 2017 (SFF), 14 September 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

June 11, 2017
Damian Callinan’s ‘The Merger’ gets Australian feature funding

ScreenAustralia have given the green light to THE MERGER, a feature film based on comedian Damian Callinan’s one-man show. Directed by Mark Grentell (Backyard Ashes), and written by Callinan, Screen Australia and Create NSW will provide production investment funding for the film.

THE MERGER tells the story of former professional football player Troy Carrington who has returned home to the fictional town of Bodgy Creek after an abrupt end to his sporting career. He is persuaded to coach the hapless local footy team, the Roosters, where he sees an opportunity to recruit refugees from the Regional Support Centre to turn the team’s fate around. What follows is a comedy about a man seeking redemption, a team trying to reclaim victory, and a community coming to terms with the changing face of Australian rural life.

The timely film is described by Screen Australia as a “low budget gem,” and will no doubt find audiences in the warm and fuzzy regions of the nation next year.

Australian audiences may best know Callinan from his multiple appearances on ABC’s Spicks & Specks, along with various other cameos. His writing talents graced the credits of 22 episodes of The Wedge, one of the shows that gave Rebel Wilson her breakthrough in the industry.

Aimed for a 2018 release, THE MERGER will be distributed throughout the country by Umbrella Entertainment.

May 29, 2017