Departures: Entries open for the Kathleen Mitchell Award

The Trust Company as Trustee has called for entries for the 2012 Kathleen Mitchell Award for talented young writers and announced a substantial increase in the prize money awarded to the 2012 winner from $10,000 to $15,000.

The biennial Kathleen Mitchell Literary Award presents $15,000 to a young Australian author aged 29 years or less at the time of their book's first publication. The Trust Company will announce the winner in early June as the entry judged to be of the highest literary merit.

Established in 1996 by the will of Kathleen Adele Mitchell, the award aims to act as an incentive to improve young writers' literary skills, as well as encourage them to maintain their passion and dedication to the advancement of Australia literature.

Film Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 142 minutes. Directed by Gary Ross. Screenplay by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray. Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins.

Verdict: Exceptional story-telling in this cinematic game-changer.

It is impossible to recall a recent film as engrossing as this absorbing, complex, richly-layered piece of cinematic story-telling. Defining, precisely, what it is about The Hunger Games that makes it so entirely watchable, will be the subject of the many conversations about its many extraordinary qualities that are guaranteed to result from the first viewing. What is unarguable, however, is the extent to which its deeply-affecting and profound cultural impact is in the process of challenging the rules of cinematic engagement around the world.

Departures: ABC’s 80th birthday

Skirts got a whole lot shorter after the scandal of Jean Shrimpton’s mini-skirt at Derby Day in 1965, the nation mourned after the horror of the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996, and we tasted the sweetest victory of all when Australia II won the America’s Cup in 1983. These critical days in recent Australian history are amongst 80 days explored in the new ABC website 80 Days That Changed Our Lives.

The site examines 80 significant and table-turning days in history to coincide with the ABC’s 80th birthday. 80 Days That Changed Our Lives gives some of the best material from the ABC archives a new lease of life and provides us with an opportunity to share in the celebration.

Film Review: 21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street. Rated MA 15+ (strong violence, crude humour, coarse language and drug use). 109 minutes. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Screenplay by Michael Bacall.

Verdict: This lame, sluggish, patchy affair all goes downhill even faster after the Johnny Depp cameo appearance.

Playing fast and loose with the iconic television drama series (pictured) on which it is based, 21 Jump Street certainly has its moments – few and far between though they are. Where the series (1987–1991) focussed on relevant and topical issues of the day, this big screen version goes entirely for laughs and, with a couple of exceptions, misses them by a wide margin.

Departures: The 2012 Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards

Update: As per Krissie's comment below, the revised closing dates are now updated.

The Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards (SOYA) is Australia’s leading grants program for emerging, young creative talent. Talented Australians aged 30 and under across eleven creative fields – fashion, interactive content and gaming, written word, visual design and communications, film and video, photography, visual arts, craft and object design, music, architecture and interior design and animation – are invited to submit their work for a chance to receive financial support in the form of $5,000 in cash, as well as a rare 12-month mentorship opportunity with leading luminaries from the international creative community.

Celebrating its eighth year, SOYA has been instrumental in unearthing and nurturing young artists, designer, and creatives, helping them expand their horizons, build up their business and learn the ropes from some of the greatest creative minds in the world. This year, winners will also be sent on the trip-of-a-lifetime to premiere industry only events at the forefront of their fields.

All submissions can be made here.

Film Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Rated PG (mild themes and coarse language). 129 minutes. Directed by Stephen Daldry. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Verdict: Lovers of great drama will be richly-rewarded by this compelling exploration of grief, hope and the power of imagination.

One of the major issues involved with making a film about the events of September 11 is the fact that the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center were so widely broadcast – and witnessed by people around the world – in real time. Most of us remember where we were and how we felt – and the analogy at the time (an attempt, perhaps, to make sense of the incomprehensible horror), was that it was like watching a movie.

The challenge, then, for filmmakers taking on “the worst day” is as simple as it is complicated: what are you going to tell us about this preposterous act of terrorism against a country’s civilians that we haven’t already been told? How, ten years later, are you going to further illuminate the events and/or the lasting legacy of what happened on September 11?

Film Review: The Artist

The Artist. Rated PG (mild themes). 100 minutes. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius.

Verdict: This little film’s Oscar haul is totally deserved as the rules of contemporary motion picture production are rewritten.

With the release of Warner Bros.’ The Jazz Singer (1927) starring Al Jolson and Lights of New York (1928), the era of silent film in Hollywood began an irreversible decline. Honoured, respectively, as the first feature-length ‘part-talkie’ and ‘talkie’, these two films heralded the arrival of synchronised dialogue and images – and by 1929, Hollywood was no longer producing silent films.

Any reservations about the extent to which a black and white, almost entirely silent film would rate against the kind of movies we are more used to seeing these days, instantly vanished. With his affectionate pastiche on the end of Hollywood’s celebrated silent era, Mr Hazanavicius delivers an extraordinarily involving, richly rewarding and complete cinematic experience.