25th Festival 1978

The 25th Festival, revelling in its own legacy, screened a series of restored prints from throughout film history. Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil was screened with an added 15 minutes; also screened were a restored print of the 1920 Australian film Robbery Under Arms, the Garbo-Gilbert films Flesh and the Devil and A Woman of Affairs, King Vidor silents The Crowd and The Patsy, Victor Sjöstrom’s The Wind, F. W. Murnau’s long-lost City Girl, von Sternberg’s The Last Command and above all, Chaplin’s missing masterpiece A Woman of Paris, which had been locked in the Chaplin vault for 54 years. To say that this retrospective lineup was impressive would be an understatement.

The film forums of the year likewise represented a wide survey of cinema: films by Jon Jost; a screening of Herbst’s John Heartfield; Fotomonteur; Third World cinema; and cultural screenings from France, Israel and Algeria; women and film; screenwriting; and films on filmmakers, including a screening of Orson Welles’ Filming Othello (screened with Celestino Coronado’s Hamlet).

In celebration of the evolution of cinema, a silent movie marathon was held on the penultimate day of the festival.

Opening Night Film: The Night the Prowler (directed by Jim Sharman)

Closing Night Film: The Shout (directed by Jerzy Skolimowski)

Award winners

Greater Union Award for Australian Short Films (General)

Maidens, directed by Jeni Thornley

Greater Union Award for Australian Short Films (Fiction)

Buck’s Party, directed by Steve Jodrell

Greater Union Award for Australian Short Films (Documentary):

Gary Greenwood, directed by Dinah van Dugteren

Rouben Mamoulian Award:

Debby Kingsland (director of All in the Same Boat)