AUSTRALIAN FILM "TOOMELAH" SELECTED for CANNES

CONGRATULATIONS IVAN - "TOOMELAH" has been SELECTED FOR OFFICIAL SELECTION - UN CERTAIN REGARD - in the 64th CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL of 2011

Toomelah is the new feature film from Australian director, Ivan Sen. It is his second film to be released since his debut film "Beneath Clouds". It played in competition at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the "Best First Movie Award". The film is set entirely in the remote Indigenous community of Toomelah, located on the NSW, QLD border. It was created as a mission during the 1930s, bringing together Gamilaroi and Bigambal people from the surrounding area. Continue reading...

"To be honest, the Cannes invitation was a huge relief. Toomelah is a pretty unique movie, which was made in a very unorthodox way. I try not to get too carried away about festivals, but Toomelah the community, is my family's home, and I'm so proud of them all. I'm related to almost everyone there, and almost half the population pops up in the film. It will be an honour to take the movie and cast to Cannes. One of them has never been on a plane before, and the lead actor Daniel, has only been as far as Brisbane." Writer/ Director, Ivan Sen.

Ivan Sen was raised in Inverell, New South Wales, Australia. He graduated with a degree in photography at Griffith University in Queensland. He studied filmmaking at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in Directing in 1997. Throughout the late 1990s Sen worked on numerous short films, before making his feature film debut with Beneath Clouds in 2002. The film follows two teenagers, Lena (Dannielle Hall) and Vaughn (Damian Pitt) who hitch-hike together to Sydney. It won Sen global acclaim, winning a Silver Bear at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, Best Director at the 2002 Australian Film Institute Awards and screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, Sen has subsquently written and directed a number of award winning documentaries. His documentary Yellow Fella screened in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.