You go overseas and people are oppressed and scared and worried but we're not like that... we're more like my films and how people come out at the end of seeing them - they feel good.

While the eyes of the world will be on us let's show everyone that we have a great sense of humour.

There are a thousand weird untold stories in the Australian film industry, this has been one of them.

Movies are a complicated collision of literature, theatre, music and all the visual arts.

It was always easy for me. I was born very rich and lucky.

Three years after starting, by physically doing everything from raising the finance to special effects, we'd finally cobbled together our low budget film.

I kind of worry about that a little bit - we lost our film culture for 30 years because the Americans came in and bought up all the cinema chains and wouldn't show any Australian films.