Sydney-based production house BADLANDS are venturing into the distribution space with the rollout of their critically acclaimed feature The Birthday Trip. Previously known as Moonrise Over Knights Hill, the unflinchingly funny drama following three millennial couples whose relationships are thrown into disarray when they descend on a Southern Highlands farmstay for a luxury birthday weekend. The film stars a lauded ensemble cast including Luke Jacobz (X-Factor, Home and Away), Nicola Frew (I Am Woman, The Daughter), David Quirk (Rosehaven, Please Like Me) and Annelise Hall (Grease, Mamma Mia).
To launch the film theatrically, BADLANDS is privileged to welcome Kelly Wong (former General Manager, Sony Pictures Hong Kong) as Distribution & Marketing Manager, and Gus McGrath (multi-disciplinary Artist and Film Curator) as Engagement & Partnerships Manager. The pair are working alongside founders James Robert Woods, Stephanie Jane Day and Associate Producer Max Enright toward a May release, with PR & Publicity to be handled by Tracey Mair Publicity.
Of the venture, Woods says “Cinema is our country’s number one cultural activity, yet only 5% of people are seeing Australian films. I believe that’s because our funding-production festival-distro pipeline too often shuns authorial voices in favour of safe, homogenised storytelling.”
Day adds, “There is incredible talent in Australian Cinema. Audiences are hungry, our cohort is making brilliant work and yet there is an industrial blockage. We’re hacking through the weeds on the periphery in the hope that we reach a starved Australian public.”
Named to channel the authorial spirit of Terence Malick's debut feature, BADLANDS produces – and now distributes – uniquely Australian cinema. Following The Birthday Trip’s rollout, the company will embark on development, production and release of its next project Slowness, the debut feature from Stephanie Jane Day.
Press for The Birthday Trip
“Bloody brilliant” (The Curb)
“One of the best Australian films of the year” (Cinema Australia)
“Rare, intimate, intense… Pulses with energy and insight” / 8.7/10 (FilmInk)
“Funny, sharp, incredible performances… Satire that feels really contemporary” Jared Richards (ABC, The Guardian, The Age)
“A fully fuelled bulldozer ploughing through the asbestos shack of our cultural stagnation” Patrick Marlborough (Vice, Rolling Stone, The Guardian)