Regular readers of this site will know I spent the formative years of my life in New Zealand. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t often miss the place – the rugby, the jetboats, the chocolate fish, the icecream – it really was a tiny land of plenty. So a film like Boy, set in 1980s Aotearoa, was always going to get me into a bit of a tiz.

Written and directed by Taika Waititi, the man responsible for 2007’s Eagle vs. Shark, Boy looks at the life of the titular 11-year-old (James Rolleston), who lives on a farm with his gran, a goat and his younger brother, Rocky (Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu), as well as several cousins. Boy’s father, Alameinn (played by Waititi), has been missing for seven years, locked away for armed robbery. In that time, Boy has built up in his head a heroic idea of his dad, one that involves deep-sea diving and a blood connection to Michael Jackson. But when Alameinn finally returns home, Boy comes face-to-face with the real version – an incompetent hoodlum who has returned only to find a bag of money he buried years before.

20/20 Filmsight is now fixing an outboard motor in the backyard with Transmission Films and Pop Culture, giving away ten double passes to see Boy, valid from today until the end of the film’s theatrical season.

To win a double pass, send your name and address to xxxxxxxxxxxxx and tell me the final score from last weekend’s All Black match (hint: it was played against South Africa). Sorry, the competition is now closed.

For the first ten to respond the passes will be mailed out ASAP, along with an oily old tea towel that you have to hang on your kitchen wall.

Sorry - this giveaway is for Australian residents only

If we’re honest, we probably would have preferred a fan event to Red Dawn, just to experience John Milius blowing cigar smoke in our faces. But under these new millennial circumstances, Tomorrow When the War Began will just have to do. Anybody on the east coast of Australia anticipating what could turn out to be the biggest local film release of the year would do well to get to Borders Bondi Junction in Sydney on 9th, Borders Jam Factory in Melbourne on the 12th, or the Main Stage of the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane on the 17th, where Tomorrow When the War Began screenwriter-director Stuart Beattie will be making public appearances alongside some of the major cast members. Fans will have a good chance to see the actors and filmmaker who have brought John Marsden’s book to life on the big screen, and may even be able to grab an autograph or two. As for Marsden, he was going to come but had detention.

The writer-director bug strikes again in South Solitary, a film that promises much in its first half but has ultimately delivered very little by the time the credits roll.

Now this would have been a challenge. Shooting an Australian film in India on location, on a limited budget and juggling both professional and nonprofessional actors – if nothing else, filmmaker Claire McCarthy proves her worth as a multitasker, acting as both director and producer on her latest feature, The Waiting City.

They say to write about what you know. Claire McCarthy took that advice and ran with her latest feature film, The Waiting City. Set in and around Kolkata, McCarthy has over the years spent much time in the West Bengalese capital herself, doing volunteer work with Mother Teresa’s sisters in 2002 and returning on a number of occasions in subsequent years to finish a documentary.

The filmmakers are probably a little tired of it, but conducting a conversation about The Horseman is tricky without at least mentioning the film’s meagre budget. Not because this is a bad film made better by the fact it was produced with little money, but because writer, director, co-producer and editor Steven Kastrissios really has taken thriftiness to another level.

Last year is now remembered as a great one for Australian cinema, but 2010 is quickly looking like it’s going to have it all over 2009 in terms of quality local content on local screens. Animal Kingdom could almost do the business itself, but there’s also next week’s release of The Horseman in Sydney and Brisbane to look forward to, as well as South Solitary at the end of this month.

If you’ve been to the cinema recently you’ve probably witnessed the teaser trailer for Tomorrow: When the War Began. Based on the bestselling John Marsden book, the film follows a bunch of Australian teenagers who return from a camping trip to find their homes deserted, their families imprisoned and the country being steadily occupied by a foreign military force. I’ve never read the book, but if the teaser is anything to go by this is John Milius’s Red Dawn, minus the Commie bashing. In any case, Paramount Pictures Australia has today finally released the full-length trailer. It shows a film keen to flex its muscle, and if screenwriter Stuart Beattie has got his directing debut right, this could be very impressive indeed.

By this point in proceedings, Animal Kingdom hardly needs any introduction. The Australian film has garnered worldwide acclaim since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the psychological drama centring on a rotten Melbourne crime family hitting most critics for six.