A new milestone was reached for me the other day in regards to my work for Scenestr magazine. I was lucky enough to cover the opening night of the Brisbane International Film Festival 2018 for Scenestr which I will cherish for a long time to come. This follows on covering opening night in Brisbane for the Cine Latino Film Festival 2017 and the Italian Film Festival 2018 and reviewing Australia Day for Scenestr at BIFF 2017 and two events at the Byron Bay Film Festival 2017. Given my fond memories and deep love for the BIFF though I think long time readers will understand why this was a particular highlight to take in.
Karen was unable to attend so a mutual friend Rosie was kind enough to keep me company as we rubbed shoulders with industry insiders and guests. Opening night film Celeste an uneasy character drama starring Radha Mitchell was a bold choice from Artistic Director Amanda Slack-Smith for opening night. You can read more of my thoughts here http://scenestr.com.au/movies-and-tv/celeste-brisbane-international-film-festival-opening-night-and-film-review-australian-cinematheque-goma-20181015 and there is plenty more BIFF coverage to come.
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and now Victoria! every month too.
-Lloyd Marken
Back to the Drawing Board Productions 
Good to see you at the BIFF opening, and looking mightily pleased with yourself, with good reason.
That was a solid review too, though I’m unsure if it’s my kind of film.
Oh, and tell Rosie from me, she looked great! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Smooth Pete. 😉 Like Don Rickles, “Rosie you were a vision, what an amazing outfit! Lloyd you looked alright.” Ironically I looked better in my own photo than the professional one but I’m happy to have it and yes Rosie looked nice and was great to have there. She’s been a good and loyal friend over the years and I was happy to bring her along. She always makes things fun and has an energy and positivity that is infectious. A student of the director came and chatted at our table for a bit and was a really cool guy. Others kept dropping their glasses at our tables, common practised at events where there’s few tables but some couldve done it a bit smoother. Rosie piped up at one point “What are we the friggen bar?” which I just loved that she did that. Fortunately waitstaff kept clearing them quickly. The waitstaff were fantastic quickly circling with refills and when one found out Rosie was a vegetarian he always remembered to come with vegetarian nibblies to her as soon as he had one. There was a beetroot one that was really good. The heavier savoury ones including an amazing mango and fish one seemed to circulate less than the earlier ones but we did learn as very to get a seat before the party completely finished. It was $84 per ticket for paying customers to opening night this year. Last year I bought tickets for $45 each for Karen and I to attend opening night. There was more entertainment and food last year at a much more reasonable price in my opinion. I really don’t want to break triple digits to attend an opening night with my wife you know? I wouldn’t say it was Rosie and mine favourite movie at BIFF but you will read how the rest of the film festival went for me. Rosie, Sandro, Karen and I went to BIFF 2011 to see Melancholia by Lars Von Trier.
Sounds like a fun time and your red carpet pictures look great! You and Rosie have great smiles and wear black well. 🙂
Thank you Cindy, no Rosie definitely did a good pose.
Sounds like an excellent night!
Thank you Jay, always love your posts from the big film festivals.