With international breakout films from Australia as scarce as brains in a wombat, the sector watched Tim Haslam, a formidable international sales agent working from the UK, discuss the problem like a dingo hunting a pissing tree in the desert. His message? Forget all this self-consciously Australian crap. You love it but the rest of the world doesn’t care.
Tim Haslam was a targetted import by Screen Australia, who set up two day seminars in Sydney and Melbourne for selected producers, encouraged to discretion by confidentiality agreements, so he could speak freely. The seminar was mostly technical, built around returns and contracts, which provided valuable information about the nature of the international deals.
