Lido Cinemas becomes an Ozploitation grindhouse of horrors on Friday 13 September with a screening of the newly released 4K remaster of Australian classic Dead End Drive-In (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1986) and eco-horror revenge odyssey TERROR NULLIUS (Soda Jerk, 2018). In between the films, we’ll celebrate the culture of homegrown horror with a raucous panel of exploitation experts and enthusiasts.
At a time when Ozploitation is having a revival through films like Birdeater (2024), Sissy (2022) and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), we’ll showcase how art/horror is not a binary but a spectrum, and revel in the weirdest corners of Australia’s cult cinema, from its low-brow leanings to its cutting political satire.
Moderator:
Hudson Sowada, Umbrella Entertainment; Artistic Director, Fantastic Film Festival Australia
Speakers:
Cerise Howard, Program Director, Melbourne Queer Film Festival and co-curator, Melbourne Cinematheque
Jim Clark and Jack Weir, Directors, Birdeater 2024
Lauren Simpson, Producer, Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism 2023; Founding director, Iris Arc Pictures
Running order:
6:30pm: Introduction
6:40pm: Dead End Drive-In
8:30pm: Panel discussion
9:00pm: TERROR NULLIUS
10:00pm: Finish
Produced in collaboration with ACCA and RMIT University as part of Screams on Screen, and presented in the lead up to ACCA’s upcoming exhibition Tennant Creek Brio: Juparnta Ngattu Minjinypa Iconocrisis.
Supported by Creative Australia and City of Melbourne.
Co-presented with Fantastic Film Festival Australia, ACCA and RMIT.
About the panellists
Hudson Sowada is the artistic director and lead programmer at Fantastic Film Festival Australia. An event that examines the cross section of cult, genre and art house cinema. With a keen eye for subversive and thought-provoking cinema, the event is a celebration ground-breaking work from new cinematic perspectives. Hudson is also is the National Sales manager at Umbrella Entertainment a leading film distribution company that specialises in signature driven local and intentional independent cinema.
Hailing from Aotearoa New Zealand, Cerise Howard is the Program Director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and a co-curator of the Melbourne Cinémathèque. She previously co-founded the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia and was its Artistic Director from 2013-18; she was also a co-founding member of tilde: Melbourne Trans and Gender Diverse Film Festival. For six years she has been a Studio Leader at RMIT University, specialising in media studios incubating film festivals and interrogating the shortcomings of the canon. She’s a long-time commentator and widely published writer on film, a regular broadcaster on 3RRR, and plays a mean bass guitar.
Jim Weir is a Sydney-based director and co-founder of independent production company FAX MACHINE. His breakout feature, Birdeater 2024, co-directed with Jack Clark, premiered at Sydney Film Festival in 2023 to critical acclaim, winning the Audience Choice Award for Best Australian Feature. Birdeater had its international premiere at SXSW 2024 in Austin, Texas, and has since screened at EIFF, BiFAN, Cinema Jove and NZIFF, to name a few. Birdeater was released in Australian cinemas in July 2024, and is slated to hit streaming services later in the year. Before Birdeater, his 2021 short film Julia premiered at Flickerfest and earned him a Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award nomination at Byron Bay Film Festival. Collaborating again with Jack Clark, Weir is currently in development with Sweetshop & Green on a follow-up feature, a coming-of-age thriller set on Schoolies.
Jack Clark is a Sydney-based filmmaker and screenwriter. His early short films such as Threshold 2020 drew attention for their use of genre elements from horror and crime in new, subversive contexts. He is a co-founder of the Australian independent production company FAX MACHINE alongside Jim Weir. Clark’s debut feature film, Birdeater 2024, which he wrote and co-directed with Weir, had its international premiere at SXSW in 2024. He is currently in early pre-production on his second feature with Weir, called ‘Bluebottle’.
Lauren Simpson began her film journey at California State University Long Beach, earning a Bachelor of Film and Television from Swinburne University and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business. With a diverse background including roles at Filmlnk Movie Magazine and Event Cinemas, she excelled as an International Service Producer, creating impactful commercial and narrative content globally. As the founder of Iris Arc Pictures, she produced Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism 2023, distributed by XYZ Films and Umbrella Entertainment. The film premiered at the Overlook Film Festival and won the Audience Choice Award at both Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival before it’s limited theatrical release and subsequent release on Foxtel, Binge and Shudder in AUNZ and as a Tubi Original in the USA. Lauren is dedicated to promoting gender equality and diversity in the industry, serving as President of Women in Film & Television Victoria (WIFT Vic) and a Board Member of Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI), advocating for inclusive representation both on and off screen.
