A few articles concering The Slap being screened at MIFF.

THE SLAP
Australia, 2011 (Prime Time)

The slap seemed to echo. It cracked the twilight. The little boy looked up at the man in shock. There was a long silence.

This year’s MIFF will host a special world premiere screening of the first two episodes of the long-awaited ABC TV adaptation of The Slap, the controversial, highly praised and Premier’s Award winning novel by Melbourne-based Christos Tsiolkas.

When a backyard cricket match turns into an out-of-control tantrum for an irritable boy, one man’s attempt to punish a child that is not his own explodes into a world of litigation and resentment. A biting portrait of the seething underbelly of middle-class Australian life seen through the eyes of eight affected characters, The Slap is a bleakly comic demolition of our cosy assumptions about community, family and the way we raise our children.

Stars Jonathan LaPaglia, Essie Davis, Sophie Okonedo, Sophie Lowe and Melissa George.

Cast and crew will be present for the screening.

D Jessica Hobbs P Tony Ayres, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon S Kris Mrksa, Emily Ballou Dist ABC TD HD Cam/2011

Sessions
Code: 2104
Film: THE SLAP (110 min)
Date Time: Thu 4 aug 6:30 PM
Venue: Greater Union Cinema 6

MORE INFO AND BUY TICKETS

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Slap hits the big screen at MIFF
Megan Miller From: Herald Sun July 06, 2011 12:00AM

IN A slap to the small screen, ABC-TV’s most hotly anticipated mini-series for 2011 will make its world debut at this month’s Melbourne International Film Festival.

The first two episodes of Aunty’s eight-part TV adaptation of the award-winning novel The Slap will screen as part of MIFF’s new Prime Time category, which focuses on works made for television by filmmakers better known in cinema.

Tony Ayres, the AFI-winning writer and director of The Home Song Stories, is co-producing the mini-series, which will air on ABC1 later this year.

In other MIFF programming news announced last night at Toff in Town, Belgium romance The Fairy will open the event.

It is one of the 25 flicks – also alongside Lars von Triers’ Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst – picked up from May’s Cannes Film Festival in France.

Super Size Me star Morgan Spurlock will be a guest of the fest, presenting his latest project, POM Wonderful: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a doco about, and made via, product placement.

US director Mike Mills will also hit town, accompanying his film Beginners, inspired by his own father’s decision to come out before his death and starring Ewan McGregor.

A pick of the local fare is the world premiere of Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm, with Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis.

This year is the 60th anniversary of MIFF. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Various venues July 21-August 7
Visit miff.com.au

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[Wed 29/06/2011 03:04:22]

By Amanda Diaz

ABC’s The Slap will first screen not on television but at a film festival.

The first two episodes of the much-anticipated miniseries will be shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival next month, as reported by The Australian.

The Slap, which features a high-profile cast including Melissa George and Sophie Okonedo, follows the repercussions of an incident at a Melbourne barbecue where a man slaps another parent’s child.

The first two episodes of the Matchbox Pictures production were directed by Jessica Hobbs (Rake).

Earlier this month, the international rights were acquired by distributor DCD. The company will launch the series at MIPCOM in Cannes later this year.

Christos Tsiolkas’s novel, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, has been adapted by five writers including Cate Shortland and Brendan Cowell. The writers worked under a US-style model, which saw Tony Ayres acting as showrunner.

The series finished shooting in April and will air on ABC from September.

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DCD Rights to launch new drama series The Slap at MIPCOM as part of recent investments in new programming

LONDON: 16 June 2011 – As part as a raft of recent investments in new quality programming, international distributor DCD Rights has acquired global distribution rights to Australian 8-part drama The Slap, which it will launch at MIPCOM 2011.

Produced by Matchbox Pictures for ABC Australia, the series boasts a stellar cast including Golden Globe Award nominee Melissa George, Academy Award Nominee Sophie Okonedo, Tony Award nominee Essie Davis, Jonathan LaPaglia, AFI Nominees Alex Dimitriades, Sophie Lowe, and two-time AFI Award-winning actor Anthony Hayes.

Nicky Davies Williams, CEO, DCD Rights, says: “we are thrilled to be launching this new high profile drama as part of our top highlights for MIPCOM this autumn. This partnership further demonstrates the breadth of our commitment in the drama genre and successful collaborations with top producers around the world.”

Pilar Perez, SVP Acquisitions, DCD Rights, added: “our distribution reach and access to significant funding enables us to invest in exciting new productions around the world, and we are constantly on the look out for programming with huge international appeal such as The Slap”.

The Slap is based on the award winning novel by Christos Tsiolkas and traces the shattering repercussions of a single event on a group of family and friends. At an Australian backyard barbeque, a man slaps a child who is not his son. The boy’s parents are so affronted by the assault that they call the police and legal action results. The Slap explores what happens when the veil of civility that binds us as a society, is rent aside by one disturbing action. It brings to vivid life questions of parenting, the rights of children, race, class, sexuality, and the different perspectives of men and women.

AFI Award-winning directors include Jessica Hobbs (Love My Way, Answered by Fire), Matthew Saville (Noise, The King), Tony Ayres (Walking on Water, The Homesong Stories, Saved), and Robert Connolly (Balibo, The Bank). Series producers are Helen Bowden (Soft Fruit, Girl in a Mirror), Tony Ayres and Michael McMahon (The Home Song Stories, Saved), ; Penny Chapman (My Place, RAN) is Executive Producer and Christos Tsiolkas is Associate Producer and Story Consultant.

The series in due to premiere later this year on ABC Australia.

 

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Doesn´t show Sophie, but shows a short preview of The Slap!

CAST and crew were left in tears after filming the key incident on The Slap, Melissa George has revealed.

The L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival ambassador said making the ABC mini-series was proving an emotional experience.

George said the actual slap scene – shot last week in the northern suburbs – was intense.

“We were shocked,” she said. “We just went for it.

“It’s my little boy that gets slapped and I just forgot where I was, I think.

“I was just so devastated by what I didn’t really see but then I hear . . . and we’re all in the back yard and it’s all very messy and it’s all very . . . it’s just amazing.

“It was surprisingly emotional. The director was crying, the cameramen were wiping away tears. It was just really good, really good stuff.”

George stars alongside Sophie Okonedo, Jonathan LaPaglia, Sophie Lowe and Alex Dimitriades in the eight-part adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’s award-winning novel.

George said she would return to her home in Argentina next week and spend a month with her husband, Claudio Dabed.

She will return to Melbourne on March 14 for her duties with LMFF and to wrap filming on the mini-series.

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Sarah Whyte
January 16, 2011

INCEST, adultery and child abuse: Sophie Lowe doesn’t shy from controversial roles. The 20-year-old Sydney actress known for her confronting performance in Rachel Ward’s incest-filled Beautiful Kate is about to embark on yet another challenging role in the TV series The Slap.

Adapted from the award-winning book by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, Lowe will play Connie, an orphaned teenager who has an affair with a 40-year-old man, roughly the same age as Lowe’s father Ian Lowe.

“Connie is such a great character,” Lowe said. “She is a teenager coming of age and working herself out, and she is experiencing all these new emotions.”

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Having had a “too happy” upbringing, Lowe said she was attracted to more unconventional roles when auditioning.

“They do attract me so I can challenge myself and see if I can do it,” she said. “But I don’t really plan it. I just connect with more challenging and meaningful roles that people can relate to.

“That’s kind of where I hover, too. It’s easier for me to cry in a scene than laugh. It’s weird. I have trouble laughing because I always feel like it’s really fake.”

Lowe said mentors such as Ward helped her deal with her more disturbing roles.

“If I didn’t have someone who was so warming and comforting I don’t think I would be able to do it,” she said.

The Slap follows the aftermath of a backyard barbecue gone wrong when a man slaps another guest’s son. The shocked boy’s parents call the police which then leads to messy legal action.

Lowe will join Melissa George, Alex Dimitriades and Sophie Okonedo in Melbourne tomorrow for rehearsals.

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