NFSA Restores is an exciting program to digitise, restore and preserve, at the highest archival standards, classic and cult Australian films so they can be seen on the big screen in today’s digital cinemas.

Restored films include Shame (1988), Storm Boy (1976), Starstruck (1982), Bliss (1985) and Proof (1991).

‘Do you ever think you’re nothing? Sometimes I think I’m nothing. Useless.’ So says Muriel Heslop, the flawed protagonist of the PJ Hogan Australian classic Muriel’s Wedding, played to perfection by Toni Collette. 

This clip is from the NFSA Restores digital restoration of Muriel's Wedding. 

Summary by Amal Awad

This is an excerpt from The Cars That Ate Paris, the 1974 debut feature film by acclaimed director Peter Weir.

In the clip, the Pioneers ball is disrupted when the town’s young people show their anger, in retaliation for an earlier scene where the mayor has torched one of their cars. They unleash a storm of demolition.

The Cars That Ate Paris was filmed predominantly on location in the New South Wales town of Sofala, and starred Melissa Jaffer, Chris Haywood (in his feature film debut), Bruce Spence and Max Gillies. Many of those who worked on the film collaborated with Weir on subsequent projects including producers Jim and Hal McElroy (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, The Year of Living Dangerously), composer Bruce Smeaton (Picnic at Hanging Rock) and actor Terry Camilleri, who played a small role in The Truman Show more than 20 years later. 

The film marked a significant leap for Weir from directing documentaries and 16mm shorts for the Commonwealth Film Unit. Cars gained international recognition at the Cannes Film Festival where it premiered internationally in 1974. To publicise the screening, Weir drove a second-hand Volkswagen through the French Alps to be transformed into the film’s now iconic metal-spiked buggy by a local mechanic who then drove it up and down the Cannes Croisette.   

The reception of Cars domestically was mixed, after it screened at both the Sydney and Melbourne film festivals in 1974. But its success at Cannes and later at the Chicago International Film Festival helped establish Australian cinema and Weir on the global stage. Today the film is a cult classic. While lesser known than the rest of Weir’s films, Cars began his exploration of the impact of modernity and consumerism and the struggle for maintaining personal identity, themes that echo throughout much of his later work.

The NFSA restoration of The Cars That Ate Paris premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on 13 June 2024. It screens at ACMI in Melbourne on 30 January and 9 February 2025.

An excerpt from the NFSA Restores version of documentary The Coolbaroo Club (1996), which mentions celebrity guests of the club including Nat 'King' Cole and The Harlem Globetrotters. 

The Coolbaroo League began in Perth in 1946. It ran the Coolbaroo Club to give Aboriginal people a place of their own to gather.

The Coolbaroo Club’s popular dance nights were attended by Indigenous people from all over the city and from neighbouring camps and towns.

They also attracted Black musicians, performers and celebrities from all over the world, some of whom were barred from performing in other venues.

Read the story behind the award-winning documentary as told by guest contributor Stephen Kinnane, the co-writer and co-producer of The Coolbaroo Club (1996) and a Marda Marda from Miriwoong Country.

The NFSA restoration of The Coolbaroo Club premiered at the 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival.

At the Pan Pacific championships, Doug Hastings (Barry Otto) starts a handclap in support of son Scott (Paul Mercurio) and his partner Fran (Tara Morice). Scott and Fran give a thrilling exhibition of their rule-breaking paso doble. The crowd goes wild.

NFSA Restores: Strictly Ballroom was selected to screen as part of Cannes Classics at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It also screened at the 2022 Sydney Film Festival. Learn more about the restoration.

A Q&A session with Strictly Ballroom stars Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice at the NFSA in September 2022.

In September 2022, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, Australia, 1992), and the NFSA Restores restoration for the anniversary, the NFSA threw the film a party! 

Following the sold-out screening of the film, our audience was thrilled to welcome lead stars Tara Morice and Paul Mercurio on stage for a Q&A, moderated by Public Engagement Manager, Karina Libbey.

The conversation was fantastic; Tara and Paul were exceptionally friendly and generous in sharing their experience of making the film and entertained us with many enjoyable anecdotes.

You can listen to the full audio here.

The NFSA's digitally restored version of Clara Law's Floating Life premiered at the Hong Kong Film Festival in April 2021 and also screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival in 2021. Read more about the restoration of Floating Life (1996).

The film explores the Asian migrant experience in Australia in the early 1990s. The Chan family arrives in their new home in Australia – a new house on a new street in a new suburb. Mr Chan (Edwin Pang) marvels at the size of the kitchen. The younger boys Chau and Yue (Toby Chan and Toby Wong) immediately set off to explore the house.

Bing (Annie Yip) warns everyone of the dangers of life in Australia – from skin cancer to redback spiders to pitbull terriers. Mrs Chan (Cecilia Lee) unwraps the family altar, which has travelled on the plane with her. 

Summary by Paul Byrnes

This is a clip from the NFSA Restores digital restoration of Wrong Side of the Road (Ned Lander, Australia, 1981).

In this clip, the members of the band No Fixed Address leave for their gig. During their performance the police arrive.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

This is a clip from the NFSA Restores digital restoration of My Survival as an Aboriginal (Essie Coffey, Australia, 1978).

Essie Coffey gives the children lessons on how to survive in the bush. She shows them different sorts of fruits and trees. Summary by Romaine Moreton.

This is a clip from the NFSA Restores digital restoration of Lousy Little Sixpence (Alec Morgan and Gerry Bostock, Australia, 1983).

Flo Caldwell, born in 1910, from Ulgundarhi Reserve and Violet Shea, born in 1912, talk of their experience of schooling on the reserve and being selected by the Protection Board inspector for cheap labour. Summary by Romaine Moreton.

The NFSA has completed a full digital restoration of Radiance (1998). 

In the film Radiance, based on the 1993 Louis Nowra stage play, three sisters reunite for the funeral of their mother after having not seen each other for an extended period of time. They are forced to confront their mother's legacy of half-truths, unfinished business and family secrets.

Radiance is a significant Australian film, being Rachel Perkins' first feature and only the second film directed by an Indigenous woman, after Tracey Moffatt's BeDevil (1993). It boasts a powerful female cast including Deborah Mailman, Rachael Maza and Trisha Morton-Thomas. 

NFSA Restores: Radiance had its world premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival in October 2021 and also screened at the 2021 Sydney Film Festival.

Read more about the restoration of Radiance (1998) and watch behind-the-scenes clips from the film.

This documentary film examines the way Australians see themselves 200 years after the British fleet sailed into Sydney harbour to found a colony.

As part of our NFSA Restores program we have restored the landmark observational documentary Australia Daze (1988). The digital restoration will screen on 26 and 27 January 2021 in various locations across Australia. 

The production of Australia Daze involved dozens of camera crews across the nation, under the overall direction of Pat Fiske. They filmed from midnight to midnight on 26 January 1988 to capture the many facets of the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia.

From First Fleet re-enactments to Indigenous protests, backyard barbeques to royal visits, Australia Daze chronicles a broad array of events on that historic day and diverse voices and perspectives from across Australian society.

Australia Daze is a snapshot of one day in the millennia-long history of the country. The film is an opportunity for Australians to remember where they were, or to catch a glimpse of Australia’s past before they were born or arrived here.

It is a chance to reflect on how much things have changed in 33 years – and also how little has changed.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of Mabo: Life of An Island Man.

The documentary tells the private and public story of Eddie Koiki Mabo, who was born on Murray Island in the Torres Strait. Mabo's actions helped change the legal and political landscape of Australia. 

On 3 June 1992, six months after Eddie Mabo's tragic death, the High Court of Australia upheld his claim that Murray Islanders held 'native title' to three islands on the eastern fringe of the Torres Strait.

Eddie Mabo is seated on the right in the image from Mabo: Life of An Island Man, 1997, Film Australia Collection © NFSA.

One of Australia’s greatest silent films celebrates its 100th anniversary with a new digital restoration by the NFSA.

Based on the verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by CJ Dennis, this is a tale of romance, jealousy, temptation and redemption.

It tells the story of Bill ‘The Kid’ (Arthur Tauchert), a larrikin who cleans up his act when the beautiful Doreen (Lottie Lyell) enters his life.

Directed by legendary filmmaker Raymond Longford, The Sentimental Bloke is set in the then-rough streets of Woolloomooloo and the beaches of Manly, offering contemporary audiences a rare glimpse of Sydney 100 years ago.

A huge box-office hit at the time, The Sentimental Bloke is one of few silent-era Australian films to have survived in its entirety.

NFSA Restores: The Sentimental Bloke premieres at Sydney OpenAir Cinema on 15 February 2020, accompanied by a new musical score composed by ARIA Award-winning musician Paul Mac, who will also perform it on the night.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of Black Robe, directed by Bruce Beresford. You can rent or purchase the full film from Umbrella Entertainment.

In this scene, Father Laforgue (Lothaire Bluteau), his young French accomplice Daniel (Aden Young) and a party of Algonquin led by Chomina (August Schellenberg) are blessed by a Jesuit priest before they set off by canoe. This is where the hazardous journey begins. Summary by Lynden Barber.

The acclaimed 1994 Australian documentary film Eternity has been digitally restored as part of the NFSA Restores program.

Eternity tells the story of Sydney personality Arthur Stace. He famously wrote the word 'Eternity’, in perfect copperplate script, on the footpaths of Sydney more than half-a-million times over a 40-year period.

Known to many as ‘Mr Eternity’, he became part of Sydney iconography and mythology.

The restoration of Eternity premieres at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2019.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of Sunday Too Far Away, starring Jack Thompson. You can rent or purchase the full film from Umbrella Entertainment.

In this scene from the newly restored version, Foley (Jack Thompson) discovers he has competition from an unknown, Arthur Black (Peter Cummins). Shearing contractor Tim King (Max Cullen) gives Jim the learner (Graham Smith) a second chance.

Summary by Paul Byrnes

The empowering 1979 classic Australian film My Brilliant Career has been digitally restored as part of the NFSA Restores program. 

Film Synopsis

During the drought of 1898, headstrong and vivacious Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) dreams of escaping the drudgery of farm life for a career as a writer. On an extended visit to her aristocratic grandmother (Aileen Britton), she meets Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), a well-to-do grazier. Sybylla must decide if love will interrupt her plans for a brilliant career.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of Celia (1989), the debut feature from Ann Turner. The film explores Australian suburban childhood in the 1950s through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl.

In this clip, an excerpt from the NFSA's digital restoration of the film, Celia (Rebecca Smart) and her friends are playing with a Japanese mask that she has taken from her grandmother's room. Another girl steals the mask and runs away with it into the woods. Celia gives chase but is stopped in her tracks by what seems to be an eerie and unsettling supernatural force moving through the woods. 

In the film, Celia lives with her conservative parents (Nicholas Eadie and Mary-anne Fahey). When her beloved grandmother dies, a devastated Celia befriends her new neighbour Alice (Victoria Longley) and her young children.

When Alice is outed as a communist sympathiser, Celia's father forbids her from seeing Alice or her children. Then Celia's pet rabbit is taken from her – a result of the 1950s government program to eradicate the rabbit plague. As Celia's world spirals out of control, her blurred perceptions of real life and fantasy have tragic consequences.

You can rent or purchase the full film from Umbrella Entertainment.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters (One in Seven Collective, produced by Digby Duncan, 1980).

The documentary tells the story of the very first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on 24 June 1978, a protest march that ended in 53 arrests.

In this clip, one of 'the 78ers' describes what happened after her arrest on the night of the first Mardi Gras.

This clip is from the NFSA Restores digital restoration of Rocking the Foundations (Pat Fiske, Australia, 1985). You can rent the full film from the Ronin Films website.

Sydney, Australia, is established as the location of the film and the narration introduces the film’s premise and establishes the filmmaker as the story-teller. Summary by Susan Lambert.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of Gallipoli (1981).

Lost in the desert, on their way to join up, Archy (Mark Lee) and Frank (Mel Gibson) discuss politics, patriotism and the reasons for war.

Gallipoli remains one of the most loved of all Australian films. It’s one of Weir’s most nakedly emotional films and one of his most poetic.

Summary by Paul Byrnes.

The NFSA has completed a digitial restoration of Newsfront (1978).

In Australia in the late 1940s, before the coming of television, Len Maguire (Bill Hunter) and his young sidekick Chris (Chris Haywood, both pictured) cover the big news stories for the Cinetone newsreel company. Times are changing and Len struggles to maintain his principles in a turbulent era.

The award-winning classic film, directed by Phillip Noyce, makes extensive use of real newsreels; it integrates new and old footage, shifting effortlessly between black-and-white and colour. The cast also includes Wendy Hughes, Bryan Brown, Gerard Kennedy and Angela Punch McGregor.

The NFSA restoration premiered in 2014.

A scene from the NFSA Restores digital restoration of The Man From Kangaroo (1919). Directed by Wilfred Lucas and starring Reg L 'Snowy' Baker.

After two thieves attack and rob a wealthy farmer, John Harland (Snowy Baker) knocks one of them to the ground before chasing the other through city alleyways and streets, climbing a steep wall and jumping from a high bridge. Crash-tackling the second thief, Harland delivers both thieves to police.

Summary by Graham Shirley

A scene from the NFSA Restores 2K digital restoration of The Empire Builders (Duke Worne, USA, 1924).

This silent film with English intertitles was the second film made by Reg L 'Snowy' Baker in the USA. It is set during the Second Boer War, starring Baker as Captain William Ballard of the British Army Territorials. Ballard is sent to make a treaty, but he meets with resistance.

We restored the film in collaboration with Haghefilm Digitaal in the Netherlands, completing a new HD scan of a 35mm tinted nitrate negative following an extensive clean-up of the image. Unfortunately the source components for the start of the film were so badly deteriorated as to be unusable. To fix this problem, we used a 16mm print that had been donated to the NFSA in the 1980s as a substitute source for the early deteriorated sections.

Snowy Baker is one of the greatest all-round athletes in Australian sporting history and all his skills are on display in The Empire Builders, his third partnership with prolific Hollywood producer Phil Goldstone. Also starring Hollywood silent film starlet Margaret Landis, the film features Snowy's trademark stunts, equestrian skills and some spectacular dives that thrilled cinema audiences, particularly in Australia where it was a big hit.

While Baker only made two more major films – The Sword of Valor (Duke Worne, USA, 1924) and Fighter's Paradise (Alvin J Neitz, USA, 1924) – he found a new career as manager of the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. There he taught Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn sword and fencing techniques and coached the 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor in horseriding for National Velvet (Clarence Brown, USA, 1944).

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of The Sword of Valor (Duke Worne, USA, 1924), starring Snowy Baker as an American sailor who falls in love with the daughter (Dorothy Revier) of a Spanish noble.

We restored the film in collaboration with Haghefilm Digitaal in the Netherlands, completing a new HD scan of a 35mm tinted nitrate negative following an extensive clean-up of the image.

Baker utilises his strong horseriding skills in this action comedy set in Spain and the French Riviera. His beloved horse Boomerang receives a prominent credit and is even front and centre on the film's poster!

The Sword of Valor also features daring stunts and fine swordplay between Baker and the moustache-twirling villain played by Edward Cecil.

While Baker only made one major film after The Sword of Valor – Fighter's Paradise (Alvin J Neitz, USA, 1924) – he found a new career as manager of the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. There he taught Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn sword and fencing techniques and coached the 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor in horseriding for National Velvet (Clarence Brown, USA, 1944).

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of the silent version of The Cheaters (1929), one of the earliest Australian films made by a team of female filmmakers.

The McDonagh sisters - Paulette (director), Phyllis (art director) and actress Isabel (billed as Marie Lorraine) - experienced great success with their first two films, Those Who Love (1926) and The Far Paradise (1928). 

In The Cheaters, Paula Marsh (played by 'Marie Lorraine') decides to end her career as a thief after falling in love with Lee Travers (Josef Bambach), son of a wealthy businessman.

The film was completed as a silent movie in 1929, after American 'talking pictures' were already flooding the market. The McDonagh sisters tried to broaden the film's appeal by converting it to a part-talkie and later to a full-talkie film in 1931, but it was too late.

Today it is the original silent film that survives as the most complete version of The Cheaters. The restoration is based on the only 35mm (nitrate) film print known to exist.

The digital clean-up achieved significant improvements in re-stabilising, de-flickering and grading the image, and extra time was needed to address some remaining distracting scratches and spots and return the image to a condition as close as possible to the original without changing it.

Danny (Noah Taylor) is a gawky 15-year-old, in love with his best friend, the beautiful and free-spirited Freya (Loene Carmen). They’re misfits in a country town in NSW in 1962. When Freya falls for football star Trevor (Ben Mendelsohn), Danny’s sexual longing turns to jealous confusion. As he tries to win her back, Danny uncovers a dark secret in the town’s past.

The NFSA has completed a digital restoration of The Year My Voice Broke. Made 30 years ago, the negative in a few places was already showing early signs of degrading, and if this preservation work had not been undertaken, sections may well have been irretrievably lost.

Writer-director John Duigan: 'Thanks to the care and meticulous attention to detail of the NFSA team, a definitive and very beautiful digital version of the film is now preserved. The work of film preservation is of incalculable value to our culture. Without it whole swathes of our film heritage, including classics from the relatively recent past, may, sooner than we think, be lost forever.'

The NFSA restoration of The Year My Voice Broke premiered at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival.

At a private boys’ school in 1965, class misfit Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) finds his romantic soulmate in Thandiwe (Thandie Newton), a precocious, intelligent girl of African heritage from the nearby private girls’ school. After misunderstandings and misadventures they come together for a sweet if regrettably brief period that neither of them will ever forget.

In this clip, Danny meets Thandiwe at a football match – which he refers to as 'a mating ritual'. Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts also feature.

Flirting is the sequel to writer-director John Duigan’s 1987 award-winning The Year My Voice Broke. It stars Noah Taylor and Britain’s Thandie Newton, in her first significant screen role, with memorable early roles for Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. It won the AFI (Australian Film Institute) Award for Best Film, in 1990.

Flirting has been digitally restored as part of the NFSA Restores program. It premiered at Arc cinema in Canberra in August 2017.

John Duigan comments, 'The work of film preservation is of incalculable value to our culture. Without it whole swathes of our film heritage, including classics from the relatively recent past, may, sooner than we think, be lost forever.'

Perth lawyer Asta Cadell (Deborra-lee Furness) crashes her motorcycle near a small town in Western Australia, where a ‘boys will be boys’ culture allows rape and violence against women. Asta tries to help a young woman (Simone Buchanan) who has been gang-raped, inspiring local women to stand up and rally against criminal behaviour that has gone unpunished.

In this clip, Asta arrives in town and gets her first impression of the locals.

Director Steve Jodrell comments on the NFSA restoration, ‘It has an immaculate freshness and luminosity that reminds me of its initial screening almost 30 years ago. There’s a powerful message in the film – sadly, one that is even more relevant today than when it was first released’. 

On the film's release in 1988, Deborra-lee Furness' performance earned her best actress awards from the Film Critics' Circle of Australia and Seattle International Film Festival. 

She says now, ‘Shame remains one of my favourite films that I have worked on. I remember the response this film received when it was released, how potent the message was, and how this story resonated globally. I am thrilled that Shame has been restored so that this beautifully crafted film will continue to have an audience.’

The NFSA restoration of Shame premiered at the 2017 Melbourne International Film Festival with director Steve Jodrell and stars Deborra-lee Furness and Simone Buchanan in attendance.

The NFSA’s digital restoration of The Odd Angry Shot premiered in Tasmania in August 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.

Directed by Tom Jeffrey the 1979 film features an all-star cast including Graham Kennedy, Bryan Brown, John Jarratt and John Hargreaves.

The Odd Angry Shot follows a single tour of duty of an Australia Special Air Service Regiment reconnaissance team in Vietnam, and their daily life in camp.

Less about the politics of Australia’s involvement in the war, the film was more about the men, the conflict and their adjustment to life back home.

Writer-director Tom Jeffrey (2016): ‘The new digital print is fantastic and it has given [the movie] a new lease of life. [The film] remains the only Australian motion picture dealing with our participation in the Vietnam War, and is a tribute to the professionalism of our soldiers serving in extremely difficult circumstances.’ 

The NFSA restoration of Starstruck premiered at the 2015 Adelaide International Film Festival.

Teenage cousins Angus (Ross O’Donovan) and Jackie Mullens (Jo Kennedy) live in the Harbour View Hotel, beneath the Harbour Bridge in Sydney’s The Rocks. 

Jackie is 18 and wants to be a singer; Angus is 14 and writes songs, while avoiding school and dreaming up wacky schemes to get his cousin noticed. The brewery wants to repossess the pub, so the teenagers set out to win a national talent contest, with a cash prize of $25,000.

Producer David Elfick, cinematographer Russell Boyd and director Gillian Armstrong all contributed to the restoration process. It was complicated as there were two versions of the film: a 105-minute Australian version and a 95-minute international one. 

The NFSA did not have complementary picture and sound components, but with the assistance of David Elfick, we were able to source the international soundtrack to match the interpositive we hold in the NFSA collection.

Proof (1991) has been digitally restored by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia with the generous support of the public.

The NFSA restoration of Proof premiered at the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival on 29 July 2016.

Martin (Hugo Weaving), a visually impaired man, lives an emotionally isolated life. Holding a deep-seated mistrust for the people around him, he takes photographs of his surroundings as a safeguard against being deceived. 

An object of obsessive but unrequited desire for his housekeeper (Genevieve Picot), Martin embarks on a cautious friendship with a young restaurant worker (Russell Crowe). In doing so, he sets in motion a love triangle in which trust can be built and shattered.

In May 2016 the NFSA asked the public to help us fund the restoration of Proof. Over the course of 45 days, we were able to raise $27,000, thanks to the generosity of 266 film lovers from across Australia and around the world. Whether they gave two or two thousand dollars, each one of their donations was crucial to help us reach our goal. 

Their contribution is not only financial; their support is a vote of confidence in the work of the NFSA, and proof that Australians care about the preservation of their film history.

The NFSA restoration of Bliss premiered at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival.

Harry Joy (Barry Otto) dies – for four minutes – after a heart attack. When he is revived, he suspects he’s living in hell. His wife Bettina (Lynette Curran) is having an affair with his business partner Joel (Jeff Truman), his son David (Miles Buchanan) sells cocaine and Harry’s advertising agency promotes products that cause cancer. 

Harry turns over a new leaf when he meets a North Coast hippie, Honey Barbara (Helen Jones), and begins the long process of earning her trust, and his own redemption.

There are three versions of Bliss, Ray Lawrence’s bold satire that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win the AFI Awards for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay. 

Once the NFSA confirmed that the interpositive and final mix of the original theatrical version in the national collection matched, we digitally preserved and restored this version that had become a cult hit with Australian audiences in 1985. 

Director Ray Lawrence (Lantana, 2001; Jindabyne, 2006) and producer Anthony Buckley, along with our restoration partners Frame Set Match, contributed to the restoration process of Bliss. 

Lawrence said, ‘It’s an honour to have your first film preserved like this. I’d only ever seen it with a lot of scratches; this restoration is the best print of the film I’ve seen in 30 years!’.

Jerboa (Imogen Annesley) escapes her tribe to seek refuge in Sydney. She meets and falls in love with Donny Martin (Leigh Biolos), who refuses to believe her when she confides she’s a werewolf.

Their union results in the birth of a marsupial werewolf baby that Jerboa and Donny will have to protect from those who seek to capture the child.

This before and after clip shows the work of the NFSA in restoring 35mm prints. The NFSA has the original camera negative for Howling III: The Marsupials, which was used to create a digital master.

Director Philippe Mora explains: ‘As I recall, the negative did not need much fiddling with at all – exposed right down the middle’. When cinematographer Louis Irving sat in on a screening he was extremely pleased with the final result.

The NFSA restoration of Howling III premiered at the 2015 Adelaide International Film Festival. 

Sons of Matthew is a legendary film in the history of Australian cinema. 

It is arguably Charles Chauvel's most personal and ambitious work and took 18 months to complete, with filming in Queensland affected by flooding and heavy rain. 

It was a huge success with local audiences when it opened in December 1949, and was also released in the UK and US (as The Rugged O'Riordans).

The film pays tribute to the pioneering farmers of northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland. Chauvel's family had roots in this area and he worked on cattle stations while he was growing up. 

In this clip from the NFSA digital restoration completed in 2017, the cattle have broken out of their pens during a cyclonic storm. Cathie (played by Wendy Gibb) is riding after them when a falling tree knocks her from her horse. Shane (Michael Pate) rushes into the forest in search of her.

The NFSA restoration of Storm Boy premiered at the 2015 Adelaide International Film Festival.

A 10-year-old boy (Greg Rowe), living with his father (Peter Cummins) in the wild Coorong wetlands of South Australia, rescues a baby pelican orphaned by hunters. 

With the help of Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil), the boy and the bird become inseparable, until the outside world encroaches.

The NFSA’s experts had their work cut out for them when they discovered the oxide was lifting off two reels of the final sound mix. This required ‘baking’ them in a low-humidity rejuvenation chamber for seven days before they could be safely digitised. 

Restoration partners Frame, Set and Match had to spend considerable time digitally cleaning and grading the picture. Producer Matt Carroll contributed to the process and the South Australian Film Corporation were very happy to see the film digitally restored.

The NFSA’s digital restoration of Three Days to Live (1924) premiered at Arc Cinema, Canberra in February 2017 with a live piano accompaniment by Mauro Colombis. Once thought lost, Three Days to Live is one of the earliest known titles to include the work of Oscar-winning filmmaker Frank Capra (It Happened One Night, 1934).

The film is a mystery set across San Francisco’s share market and India, where a shadowy investor is forcing people into bankruptcy. When Grace (Ora Carew) realises her father is being targeted, she seeks police protection but takes events into her own hands. It also stars Helen Howell, who would later become Capra’s wife.

Capra is credited as Titles and Editor; according to biographer Jim McBride, he was also likely to have been assistant director.

Three Days to Live was first brought into Australia in 1925, with the earliest recorded screenings in Tasmania and South Australia at Port Pirie’s Alhambra Theatre. ‘From attempts to locate the film elsewhere it appears the NFSA holds the only identifiable copy of the film, so it is unique': NFSA Film Curator Sally Jackson. 

The year-long restoration project secures an important piece of Australian and world cinema history.

Jeffrey Walker reflects on his role as eight-year-old Martin (Hugo Weaving plays the adult version) in the 1991 film Proof, and his relationship with actress Heather Mitchell, who played his mother.

In May 2016 the NFSA asked the public to help us fund the restoration of Proof. Over the course of 45 days, we were able to raise $27,000, thanks to the generosity of 266 film lovers from across Australia and around the world. Whether they gave two or two thousand dollars, each one of their donations was crucial to help us reach our goal. 

Their contribution is not only financial; their support is a vote of confidence in the work of the NFSA, and proof that Australians care about the preservation of their film history.

Ray Lawrence’s 1985 AFI Award-winning classic Bliss has been digitally restored by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia as part of its NFSA Restores initiative.

Based on the 1981 novel by Peter Carey, Bliss premiered in competition at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. Despite a rocky start - 400 of the 1,600 audience at Cannes walked out - the film became an art-house hit in Australia, receiving glowing reviews and winning the AFI Awards for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Harry Joy (Barry Otto) dies – for four minutes – after a heart attack. When he is revived, he suspects he’s living in hell. His wife Bettina (Lynette Curran) is having an affair with his business partner Joel (Jeff Truman), his son David (Miles Buchanan) sells cocaine and Harry’s advertising agency promotes products that cause cancer. 

Harry turns over a new leaf when he meets a North Coast hippie, Honey Barbara (Helen Jones), and begins the long process of earning her trust and his own redemption.

Director Ray Lawrence (Lantana, 2001; Jindabyne, 2006) and producer Anthony Buckley, along with our restoration partners Frame Set Match, contributed to the restoration process of Bliss. 

Lawrence said, ‘It’s an honour to have your first film preserved like this. I’d only ever seen it with a lot of scratches; this restoration is the best print of the film I’ve seen in 30 years!’.

The NFSA restoration of Bliss premiered at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival.

NFSA Ambassador Margaret Pomeranz thanks the 266 people who supported the digital restoration of the 1991 Australian film PROOF, particularly the 'Film Conservators' who donated $1,000 or more.