Australian Genre Film

Australian Genre Film interrogates key genres at the core of Australia’s so-called new golden age of genre cinema, establishing the foundation on which more sustained research on film genre in Australian cinema can develop. The book examines what characterises Australian cinema and its output in this new golden age, as contributors ask to what extent Australian genre film draws on widely understood (and largely Hollywood-based) conventions, as compared to culturally specific conventions of genre storytelling. As such, this book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of Australian genre film, undertaken through original analyses of 13 significant Australian genres: action, biopics, comedy, crime, horror, musical, road movie, romance, science fiction, teen, thriller, war, and the Western. This book will be a cornerstone work for the burgeoning field of Australian film genre studies and a must-read for academics; researchers; undergraduate students; postgraduate students; and general readers interested in film studies, media studies, cultural studies, Australian studies, and sociology.

1. Australian Film Genre Studies Mark David Ryan and Kelly McWilliam 2. The Action Genre and the ‘International Turn’ in Australian Cinema Amanda Howell 3. ‘Beethoven had his Critics, too…’: The Australian Biopic in the Twenty-First Century Adrian Danks 4. A Seamless Wedding: Comedy, Diversity, and the International Lesley Speed 5. New Australian Crime Drama Greg Dolgopolov 6. A Monstrous Landscape Filled with Killer Animals and Madmen: Tropes of Contemporary Australian Horror Movies Mark David Ryan 7. The Musical in Australia: Moving Minorities into the Mainstream Liz Giuffre 8. Traversing Genre: The Australian Road Movie Deborah Thomas 9. Courting the Romance Kelly McWilliam 10. Looking to the Future: Three Tendencies in Australian Science Fiction Cinema since 2008 Andrew James Couzens 11. ‘Growing Up Was Never Easy’: Coming of Age in the Teen Film Kelly McWilliam 12. Sun-lit Noir: Australian Thrillers Jonathan Rayner 13. A Wider Angle: Australia’s War Films of the New Millenia Daniel Reynaud 14. Questioning the Australian Western Grayson Cooke

Kelly McWilliam is an Associate Professor in Communication and Media Studies at the University of Southern Queensland and the Immediate Past President of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA). Mark David Ryan is an Associate Professor in Screen and Media Studies and a Chief Investigator for the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology. He was the President of the Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand (SSAAANZ) between 2015 and 2018.