Murray writes:
This is pretty amazing. Cameron Nugent, director and writer of the feature-length award-winning film “A Boy Called Sailboat” is our guest speaker on Wednesday 6 September. It’s a very fine movie which fell through the cracks here in Australia for reasons which read like the usual you-must-be-kidding-me Hollywood treatment of how these things happen, whether it’s to filmmakers, musicians, or authors. Full details further down this email.
The heart of this fantasy movie (it’s a big heart) is a wonderful musical conceit.
A fantasy movie in which a child composes and plays a song which opens to the notes at the heart of the world.
The soundtrack by the Grigoryan Brothers was nominated for an ARIA. “A Boy Called Sailboat” was overall winner at the Boston Film Festival, among others. Extracts of the film will be played using the Zoom meeting software.
November is our final meeting of the year and Ian Mond will be listing the year’s best sfnal, fantasy, and horror works not packaged as genre.
Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice have a book launch of genre literary critical interest on 19 Sep.
Bruce Barnes’s talk on Brick Bradford will be at a later date. It’s postponed again – with Bruce’s best wishes and kind assent – so that DUFF Winner Alison Scott can be our speaker on 4 October. Delighted to have Alison visit on her travels!
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CALENDAR
6 September – Cameron Nugent on his film “A Boy Called Sailboat”
[Book launch: 19 Sep Aliens & Savages: The Voice in Australia, by Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice]
4 October – Alison Scott, GUFF Winner “Zines and Me”
1 November – Ian Mond’s Mondial best books of the year: the world of sf, horror, and fantasy in 2023
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Australian fantasy from Hollywood studios: A Boy Called Sailboat
Director and writer Cameron Nugent tells the inside story
Cameron has been showing A Boy Called Sailboat at boutique screenings across Australia, with the Grigoryan Brothers playing the soundtrack live and the showing-cum-performance followed by a Q&A. Turns out Cam is a long-time reader and fan of fantasy and science fiction and he’s delighted to be our speaker at the Nova Mob, feeling he will fit right in.
Cam’s name may be familiar to you. His acting credits include SeaChange, Blue Heelers, City Homicide, and Noah and Saskia. Also Celebrity House Cleaners.
So how did a reader, surfer and child actor from the Surf Coast write, direct, and get Hollywood funding for a fantasy film about a poor Hispanic family somewhere in deep Texas?
“A Boy Called Sailboat is an astonishingly assured debut narrative film, managing to be heartwarming but not overly cloying, visually striking without seeming like a formal exercise, thoughtful but probably not too complicated for kids to understand.”
“It’s a special kind of film that can rely on children to drive its story and maintain its charm, but A Boy Called Sailboat pulls it off, evading some of the pitfalls of the quirky indie comedy to deliver something truly wonderful.”
“A Boy Called Sailboat” on IMDB
“A Boy Called Sailboat” on RottenTomatoes
“A Boy Called Sailboat” Trailer on YouTube
Awards for A Boy Called Sailboat
Newport Beach Film Festival
2018 Winner Audience Award – Best Family Film
Cameron Nugent (writer/director)
Prescott Film Festival
2018 Winner Director’s Choice Award
Indie Spirit Award – Cameron Nugent
Boston Film Festival
2018 Winner Festival Prize
Best Director – Cameron Nugent
2018 Winner Festival Prize
Best Screenplay – Cameron Nugent
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards –
2020 Nominee AACTA Award “Best Indie Film”
ARIA Music Awards – 2020 Nominee ARIA Music Award
Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album for soundtrack by Slava Grigoryan and Leonard Grigoryan
Golden Trailer Awards –
2019 Nominee Golden Trailer Award for Best Independent Trailer (For Film Under $1.5 Million)
Adelaide International Youth Film Festival
2019 Winner Jury Award – Best Overall Film
Cameron Nugent (director) Andrew Curry (producer)
Borderscene Film Festival
2019 Nominee Borderscene Film Festival Award: Best U.S. Feature
Meeting details
Nova Mob Wednesday 6 September 2023 –
Cameron Nugent – A Boy Called Sailboat
Please share this invitation with like-minded friends and fans
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at:
Wednesday 6 September 2023 8.00pm – 9.15pm or so, first floor Conference Room Kensington Town Hall
30 – 34 Bellair St Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
By Zoom – simulcast
For those who prefer not to travel or are unable to attend face-to-face. Zoom session broadcast from the Kensington Town Hall. Questions or comments typed into the Zoom chat will be discussed as the opportunity permits, and you’ll have as much airtime as the other Mob members at the venue.
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Wednesday 6 September
8.00pm – 9.00/9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time
7.30pm – 8.30/9.00pm Adelaide time
11.00am UK London time
3.00am USA Mountain View
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
Passcode: nova
This is the wholly reliable web link and it could fit nicely into your bookmarks.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09
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Book launch: Aliens & Savages: The Voice in Australia, by Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice
Launch at Readings Hawthorn on 19 September
Book Launch – Aliens and Savages – click to register your free invitation
You’re invited to the launch by Julian Burnside of Aliens & Savages: The Voice in Australia, by Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice, at Readings Hawthorn on 19 September at 6:30pm. (Invitation via Rob Gerrand).
Janeen Webb is a superb anthologist and writer. Among her claims to fame are Dreaming Down Under and Dreaming Again. Her recent fiction has been published within the US market and it’s a delight to see her literary non-fiction chops at work in a significant Australian publication
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Clarke Award
Winner was announced on 17 August – it’s a good ‘un
“We’re delighted to announce that Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman and published by Sceptre has been announced as the 37th winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award science fiction book of the year.” (From the Clarke Award mailing list).
It’s reviewed here in The Guardian under the rather coy descriptor The Meaning of Life which is fully and niftily accurate as far as it goes.
I’m halfway through it and am finding it very similar to Max Barry’s work, but slightly less tight in the prose. One of the two protagonists is an Australian. Recommended (so far) and essential for Max Barry fans.
“The venomous lumpsucker is the most intelligent fish on the planet. Or maybe it was the most intelligent fish on the planet. Because it might have just gone extinct. Nobody knows. And nobody really cares, either. Except for two people.
Mining executive Mark Halyard has a prison cell waiting for him if that fish is gone for good, and biologist Karin Resaint needs it for her own darker purposes. They don’t trust each other an inch, but they’re left with no choice but to team up in search of the lumpsucker. And as they journey across the strange landscapes of near-future Europe – a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the Baltic Sea; the lethal hinterlands of a totalitarian state – they’re drawn into a conspiracy far bigger than one ugly little fish.”
theguardian.com
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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