The Netflix of Australia is on its way, promising to bring nothing but true blue Aussie films to people’s respective computer screens.
The new service will be unveiled with a marketing campaign on Australia Day, and will go live sometime in the first half of 2016, according to co-founder Ron Brown, a veteran of the film and TV industry with more than 40 years of producing experience.
According to Fairfax reports, at the time of the launch Brown and his partner in the venture, Alan Finney, aim to have between 250 and 400 movies on the service, with top hits from this year such as Mad Max: Fury Road and Paper Planes sitting alongside films audiences might be less familiar with.
By the end of the first year of operation they hope to have 1000 titles.
“At the end of three years I’d like to have everything,” Brown told Fairfax. “Our database identifies just over 2000 titles, going all the way back to The Story of the Kelly Gang… We’ll eventually have every Aussie movie ever. That is our objective.”
And with the support of stacks of Aussie stars, including actors like Sigrid Thornton, Claudia Karvan, Priscilla director Stephan Elliot and Mad Max director Dr George Miller, it looks set to get off the ground in a very real way.
“Australian film is completely unique,” Stephan Elliot said. “We need more original platforms to get heard now or we will get lost in the swamp. A platform like this is absolutely pivotal in reminding us that we shouldn’t be afraid of who we are.”
“We have such a great history of making really bloody great films in this country,” actress Deborah Mailman added.
Producer and director David Elfick said, “There is a massive problem in accessing Australian films once they’re not in the DVD store and they’re finished in the cinema”.
“I think Ozflix provides us with a brilliant opportunity to revalue everything that’s been done in this industry,” actress Kerry Armstrong added.
Brown and Finney have set up a parallel not-for-profit organisation, the Australian Film Futures Foundation, which, per Fairfax reports, is in discussions to make the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive available to stream.
“It will give people a greater overview of our industry,” Finney said. “It will fill a hunger among up-and-coming filmmakers. We have a very proud and substantial and creatively valuable industry in this country, though a lot of people don’t realise that.”
