The Cinesound Movietone Australian Collection 1929-1975

This collection is significant as a comprehensive collection of 4000 newsreel films and documentaries representing news stories covering all major events in Australian history, sport and entertainment from 1929 to 1975. These films for many years were the only means of audio-visually depicting major events such as wars, elections, floods, bushfires, sporting events and national news, and thus played a vital part in reflecting the nature of Australia over almost half a century. The collection contains the film that won Australia’s only Academy Award (Oscar) for a documentary, Damien Parer’s footage of wartime New Guinea. Much of what is depicted in the Collection is now regarded as significant as an iconic representation of Australia’s twentieth-century history, societal attitudes and changing relationship to the world. The films encapsulate the unique form and narrative style that endeared the newsreel to a broad spectrum of Australians - one that is fondly remembered to this day.

Inscription Number: #4

Year of Inscription: 2003

Physical Location: National Film and Sound Archive

Still from Damien Parer’s Academy Award-winning documentary, Kokoda Front Line, from Cinesound Review.

Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive

Senior Curator Meg Labrum shows Friends from Canberra’s cultural institutions posters and other documents from the Cinesound Movietone Collection at the National Film and Sound Archive.

Photo: Sabine Friedrich

Sue Terry (top above) and Andrew Pike (above) hold the Oscar statuette won by Damien Parer for Kokoda Front Line.

Photos: Sabine Friedrich

Captain de Groot of the New Guard ‘opens’ the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, from the Cinesound Movietone Collection.

Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive