# Newsfront
**Newsfront** is a 1978 Australian feature drama directed by [Phillip Noyce](https://www.edgepedia.org/phillip-noyce) that follows two brothers working for rival cinema newsreel companies in the late 1940s and 1950s, the decade before television ended the newsreel era in Australia. Produced by David Elfick for Palm Beach Pictures, it was Noyce's debut as a feature film director and became one of the most honored films of the Australian revival of the 1970s.[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/Newsfront-39/) • [2](https://cinema3.acmi.net.au/film/newsfront/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Phillip Noyce (feature debut); producer David Elfick; production company Palm Beach Pictures[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/Newsfront-39/) • [3](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91703--newsfront-dvd/) |
| Release | Opened in Australian cinemas on 29 July 1978; debuted at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival[4](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/model-cinesound-newsreels-holden-fj-panel-van) • [5](https://files.ehive.com/accounts/202990/objects/files/7a6ad037605f4cff8ea9d421768ca0e1.pdf) |
| Setting | Australian newsreel industry, 1948 to the mid-1950s, covering the arrival of television[2](https://cinema3.acmi.net.au/film/newsfront/) |
| Lead cast | Bill Hunter (Len Maguire), Gerard Kennedy (Frank Maguire), Wendy Hughes (Amy Mackenzie), Chris Haywood (Chris Hewitt), Angela Punch McGregor (Fay)[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077986/fullcredits) |
| Awards | Won a then-record 8 AFI awards from 14 nominations, including Best Film for David Elfick[4](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/model-cinesound-newsreels-holden-fj-panel-van) • [1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/Newsfront-39/) |
| Running time | Reported as 110 minutes by the Australian Classification Board and 111 minutes by Screen Australia; streaming listings give 1h 46m to 1h 51m[7](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/newsfront) • [1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/Newsfront-39/) |
| Restoration | The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia completed a digital restoration that premiered in 2014[8](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/newsfront-nfsa-digital-restoration) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film is set in the late 1940s, before the coming of television. Len Maguire (Bill Hunter) is the leading cameraman for the Cinetone newsreel company, working with his young sidekick Chris Hewitt (Chris Haywood). An old-school operator, Len is loyal to his company, the [Australian Labor Party](https://www.edgepedia.org/australian-labor-party) and the Catholic church, and he struggles to keep his principles as times change.[9](https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/newsfront/notes/)
His brother Frank (Gerard Kennedy) is more ambitious: he leaves Cinetone to head the Australian branch of an American newsreel company, Newsco, in competition with Len's firm, and looks toward new forms of electronic journalism while Len stays committed to traditional ways.[3](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91703--newsfront-dvd/) • [10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/newsfront) Around the brothers are Amy Mackenzie (Wendy Hughes), a production assistant working in a predominantly male environment who loves Frank; Fay (Angela Punch McGregor), whom Len marries; the studio boss A.G. Marwood (Don Crosby); and the Newsco cameraman Charlie Henderson (John Ewart).[3](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91703--newsfront-dvd/) • [11](https://nostalgiacentral.com/movies/movies-l-to-z/movies-n/newsfront-1978/)
Spanning a number of periods, the narrative centers each one on a significant Australian news event: the vote to outlaw the Communist Party, the Redex car trial that circled the continent, flooding at Maitland, and the Olympic Games. Chris's fling with a girl in the outback leads to a quick marriage before he dies accidentally during the floods. By the mid-1950s television has arrived, Newsco has been forced to merge with its rival, and Len, on the brink of resignation, is offered the chance to film the Olympic Games in Melbourne. He ends the film alone, with his integrity intact, carrying the most valuable scoop footage he has ever shot toward an uncertain future.[11](https://nostalgiacentral.com/movies/movies-l-to-z/movies-n/newsfront-1978/)
## Production and writing
The screenplay went through several hands. IMDb credits Phillip Noyce with the screenplay, Bob Ellis with the original screenplay, David Elfick with the concept, and Philippe Mora among the uncredited contributors.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077986/fullcredits) The production is famous for behind-the-scenes arguments between Ellis, Noyce and Elfick. After extensive cuts were made, Ellis removed his name from the credits, a decision he later regretted; a restored DVD release includes commentary from all three, in which Ellis calls the film among the best work he has done.[9](https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/newsfront/notes/) Ellis said in a 1996 interview that the legend of his enormous script was exaggerated: set out one short scene to a page, it ran to about 300 pages but played at roughly two and a quarter hours for a story covering ten years.[12](https://www.netflixmovies.com/newsfront-1978)
The New South Wales Film Corporation insisted that seven minutes be cut from the film for its overseas release, after it had shown at Cannes in 1978 and proved popular there.[12](https://www.netflixmovies.com/newsfront-1978) Key crew included cinematographer Vincent Monton, editor John Scott, composer William Motzing, and production designer Lissa Coote.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077986/fullcredits) The National Film and Sound Archive provided newsreel footage, viewing and consultation facilities for the production.[13](https://www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/australias_lost_films.pdf)
## Use of archival footage
The film's most distinctive technique is its integration of genuine newsreel footage with newly filmed dramatic material, shifting between black-and-white and color, sometimes within a single scene. The Australian Screen curator Paul Byrnes describes this as the film's most original quality, giving it a sense that history is alive in the present.[9](https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/newsfront/notes/) The blend is close enough that viewers at moments cannot tell whether they are watching a documentary or a feature.[14](https://australiancinema.info/db/2000/newsfront.html)
Through this archival footage, the film puts a human face on the propaganda battles of the late 1940s, on [Robert Menzies](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-menzies)' ascent and the Catholic church's growing political role, and on the first stirrings of workplace feminism.[9](https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/newsfront/notes/) One sequence shows Len and Chris covering the 1953 Redex Reliability Car Trial in a panel van like the Cinesound Film Unit vehicles of the era; the real 1954 Redex rally footage in the NFSA collection documents 246 entrants driving 15,450 km over 18 days on rough terrain and unsealed roads.[4](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/model-cinesound-newsreels-holden-fj-panel-van)
## Reception and legacy
Newsfront was a critical and commercial success in Australia and launched Noyce's international career, which later included *Dead Calm* (1989), *Patriot Games* (1992) and *Rabbit-Proof Fence* (2002).[4](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/model-cinesound-newsreels-holden-fj-panel-van) • [15](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/newsfront-propaganda-or-news) It won a then-record 8 AFI awards from 14 nominations, including Best Film.[4](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/model-cinesound-newsreels-holden-fj-panel-van) After Cannes it screened at the 1979 [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival), and later retrospectives included the Moscow International Film Festival and a 1996 program at LACMA.[1](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/Newsfront-39/) American reception was cooler: a 1980 Washington Post review called it a pet of critics at Cannes and New York and faulted its casting and moral contrast between the brothers.[16](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/01/15/newsfront-reeling-through-the-years/7000683e-7ac9-40be-8a9e-a76474ecc949/) Roger Ebert, reviewing in November 1978, called it a pleasant and nostalgic movie that lacked a deep level of personal emotion, while praising its control of tone and its use of real footage.[17](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/newsfront-1978)
Australian critics have ranked it far higher. Byrnes calls it a contender for the best film ever made in Australia, and the film debuted at Cannes in 1978 as an instant Australian classic.[9](https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/newsfront/notes/) • [5](https://files.ehive.com/accounts/202990/objects/files/7a6ad037605f4cff8ea9d421768ca0e1.pdf) Writing in *Senses of Cinema*, Adrian Danks describes it as a rare Australian fiction film about cinema itself, one that displays a wide array of filmmaking practices conceived in terms of work rather than art, and that suggests a more complete and varied Australian film history than the common myth of a "void" in the 1950s and 1960s.[18](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/key-moments-in-australian-cinema-issue-70-march-2014/on-the-home-front-newsfront-phillip-noyce-1978/)
The NFSA's digital restoration, premiered in 2014 as part of its NFSA Restores program, returned the film to circulation; ACMI presented it in association with that program.[8](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/newsfront-nfsa-digital-restoration) • [2](https://cinema3.acmi.net.au/film/newsfront/)
## References
1. [Newsfront, Screen Australia Screen Guide](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-guide/Newsfront-39/)
2. [Newsfront (1978), ACMI Cinema 3](https://cinema3.acmi.net.au/film/newsfront/)
3. [Newsfront [DVD], ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91703--newsfront-dvd/)
4. [Model of Cinesound Newsreels Holden FJ Panel Van, NFSA](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/model-cinesound-newsreels-holden-fj-panel-van)
5. [In the Frame 1 (Newsfront 20th anniversary program), eHive](https://files.ehive.com/accounts/202990/objects/files/7a6ad037605f4cff8ea9d421768ca0e1.pdf)
6. [Newsfront (1978) full cast and crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077986/fullcredits)
7. [NEWSFRONT, Australian Classification](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/newsfront)
8. [Newsfront: NFSA Digital Restoration, NFSA](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/newsfront-nfsa-digital-restoration)
9. [Curator's notes: Newsfront (1978), Australian Screen (NFSA)](https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/newsfront/notes/)
10. [Newsfront, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/newsfront)
11. [Newsfront (1978), Nostalgia Central](https://nostalgiacentral.com/movies/movies-l-to-z/movies-n/newsfront-1978/)
12. [Newsfront (1978) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/newsfront-1978)
13. [Australia's Lost Films, National Library of Australia](https://www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/australias_lost_films.pdf)
14. [Newsfront (1978), Australian Cinema database](https://australiancinema.info/db/2000/newsfront.html)
15. [Newsfront: Propaganda or news?, NFSA](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/newsfront-propaganda-or-news)
16. ['Newsfront': Reeling Through the Years, The Washington Post (1980)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/01/15/newsfront-reeling-through-the-years/7000683e-7ac9-40be-8a9e-a76474ecc949/)
17. [Newsfront movie review, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1978)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/newsfront-1978)
18. [On the Home Front: Newsfront (Phillip Noyce, 1978), Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/key-moments-in-australian-cinema-issue-70-march-2014/on-the-home-front-newsfront-phillip-noyce-1978/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1970s › Released 1975 to 1979*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license