Then if your movie clicks with real audiences, you'll be sucked into some sort of Hollywood orbit. It's a devil of a place where the only religion that really counts is box office.

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

So we have to be careful because if you don't protect your culture you won't have it for very long.

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.

Can you imagine what it would be like if all the Aussie film talent was able to make Australian stories?

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

Getting your screenplay right is the most important thing you'll ever do on your film.