Australian Story: Oct 22

Monday’s Australian Story is about two film-makers who’ve finally hit the big time at the Sundance Film Festival after seventeen years of hard work and are now tipped for Oscar nods.

It is introduced by Deborra-Lee Furness and features John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy.

Ben Lewin and Judi Levine made a number of successful films in Australia and Europe before moving to Los Angeles in 1994. But despite their talented filmmaking skills, Hollywood proved a hard nut to crack.

“You get a break and everyone says, ‘Oh great, this is it. But in fact it’s really hard to crack into and he (Ben) wasn’t in it. Then he was writing material that was not necessarily what they were looking for.’ ” says wife Judi Levine.

By 2010 Lewin and Levine were ready to move back to Australia.

As Ben Lewin recalls, “It looked pretty grim. We felt we were treading water in terms of our personal dreams.”

Then he happened across a compelling article written by a fellow polio sufferer, Mark O’Brien.

For Lewin it was a ‘burning bush moment’ and gave him the wherewithal to try his luck again. Passionate about the material, he wrote an inspired script.

Now, backed by family and friends, they have put together a low budget movie with no Hollywood studio funding and attracted some major marquee names to appear in it.

“People in the industry are a frightened bunch and anything different just spells danger,” says Ben Lewin.

Called The Sessions, it’s already received considerable acclaim and two awards at the Sundance Film Festival. It is now being tipped as an Academy Awards contender.

The Year of Living Famously reveals the story behind the surprise hit of the Oscars season.

Monday October 22 at 8pm on ABC1