The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is hosting Game Masters, a world premiere exhibition charting the history of video games and their talented developers including local talent, from 28 June–28 October 2012. Features 125+ playable games. Federation Square, Melbourne. The exhibition also includes a sideline in classic SF films. (acmi.net.au)

Narnia, a stage presentation based on C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, is playing 23 June–18 August 2012 at the Brisbane Arts Theatre. Tickets $16, book online, suitable for all ages. (artstheatre.com.au)

Writers, Alison Goodman, author of EON and EONA, the bestselling and award-winning fantasy duology, will be running weekend masterclasses on the first two pages and narrative structure, at the Queensland Writers Centre in the State Library of Queensland, South Brisbane, July 21 or July 22. (qwc.asn.au)

And then, writers, you can practice your newfound skills: submissions close 30 September 2012 for the new Fablecroft anthology, tentatively titled One Small Step: an anthology of discoveries. Must be speculative fiction stories between 2,000 and 12,000 words that in some way address the idea of discoveries, new beginnings, or literal or figurative “small steps”. (fablecroft.com.au)

Jason Nahrung will be appearing on a panel about Australian dark fantasy fiction at Brisbane’s Logan North Library’s SF Month with Kirstyn McDermott and Angela Slatter on Saturday August 11, and at Noosa Library at 1pm on Tuesday August 14 to talk about Salvage (see below). See www.jasonnahrung.com for more information.

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is celebrating its 10th birthday with the release of issues 54 and 56! (ASIM 55 had a disagreement with the time-space continuum, but should be appearing soon).

ASIM 54, edited by Simon Petrie, features stories by Robert P Switzer, Zen Cho, Tamlyn Dreaver, Edwina Harvey, Kent Purvis, Sarah frost, Sue Bursztynski, Nike Sulway, M Darusha Wehm, Alter S Reiss, Anatoly Belilovsky, Nichole M Taylor, Belinda Crawford, Dirk Flinthart, Robert Porteous and C A L poetry by s.c. virtes and David Luntz as well as interviews, articles and book reviews. Cover art from Lewis Morley. Available as print or e-book from andromedaspaceways.com.

ASIM 56 was a collective editorial effort from the ASIM crew to celebrate the magazine’s 10th birthday. It features stories by Cathy Bryant, Lee Battersby, Jack Nicholls, Pete Aldin & Kevinn Ikenberry, Spencer Koelle, Matt Ward, David Tallerman, Grant Stone, Marina Finlayson, Christopher Kastensmidt, Daniel I Russell, Lyn Battersby, Baden Chant, Jacob Edwards, Mark Harding, Christine Lucas, Alec Austin, Sam Ferree, Logan Albright and Nigel Read. Articles by Edwina Harvey and Ian Nichols, and book reviews. Cover art from Nick Stathopolous. Available as print or e-book from andromedaspaceways.com.

SCREEN

The Revelation Perth International Film Festival will run from 5–15 July 2012 at Astor Theatre, Perth. Films include The Caretaker (vampires), The 25th Reich (time travel. And Nazis), Love (SF?), and Yakuza Weapon (violent SF), amongst the thrillers and horrors and dramas. Also includes the inaugural RevCon Academic. (revelationfilmfest.org)

Sydney’s Fuel VFX delivered more than 200 complex visual effects shots for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic Prometheus as one of the three lead visual effects vendors on the film. (fuelvfx.com)

PAGE

Book launch for Night’s Engines by Trent Jamieson, author of the Death Works series (Orbit) and Roil (Angry Robot Books), to be held on Thursday 19 July, 6.30pm, at Avid Reader, West End, Queensland. RSVP to events@avidreader.com.au or call 3846 3422.

Jason Nahrung‘s seaside Gothic novella Salvage has been published by Twelfth Planet Press. There will be a Brisbane launch at Avid Reader 6–8pm on Friday August 10. See www.jasonnahrung.com for more information.

Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear is a new anthology from Peggy Bright Books, edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon Petrie, featuring stories from Joanne Anderton, Adam Browne, Sue Bursztynski, Brenda Cooper, Katherine Cummings, Thoraiya Dyer, Kathleen Jennings, Dave Luckett, Ian McHugh, Sean McMullen, Ripley Patton, Rob Porteous and Anna Tambour. Available in print ($24.95) and e-book ($4.95) format from Peggy Bright Books. (peggybrightbooks.com)

Congratulations to Australian author Mark Barnes, whose debut fantasy novel and two sequels have
been acquired by 47North, Amazon Publishing’s Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror imprint, in a deal by John Jarrold, to editor David Pomerico. The first novel, Garden of Stones, will be published in spring 2013, with the first sequel following six months later. (thanks to Jonathan of SF2 Concatenation)

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

The second annual E. G. Harvey Award, sponsored by the Harvey Australia Foundation, will be given at Conflux 8 (see below) in September 2012. All entries must be original visual art works produced by an Australian artist in the previous 12 months. The medium for the work may be acrylic, oils, watercolour, pencil and/or ink, charcoal, mixed medium, sculpture, photography, animation or video-works. The value of the award is AU$500 (nonacquisitive). To be eligible for judging, works must be exhibited from the opening to the close of the Conflux Convention. Please book your space & display requirements by August 2012 by downloading the entry form and sending to artshow@conflux.org.au. (conflux.org.au)

CONVENTIONS

The Unseen University Convivium 2012 for Discworld fans takes place from 6–8 July 2012 — next weekend — at the University of Adelaide, in (surprisingly) Adelaide. Online registration has now closed, but tickets will be available at the door. The full programme is online, but highlights include a quiz, a gala dinner, a debate, a maskerade, and divers alarums and excursions and discussion panels and lectures. And if you’re tweeting, use #dwoz for easy searching. (ausdwcon.org)

Con 9 will be held in Melbourne this month, on 14–15 July 2012. Con 9 is a not-for-profit science fiction convention devoted to the “golden age” of classic Sci-Fi movies, TV shows and radio programmes up to 1965 (though the primary focus is mainly the 1950s). For the fans, by the fans. For membership and more information check out the website.

Heroes and Villains Pop Culture Expo will run 25–26 August 2012. It cuts across sci-fi, fantasy, horror, general TV and film, gaming, anime and animation to celebrate (surprisingly) heroes and villains. It will be held in the West Sydney suburbs at Panthers Exhibition Pavilion, Penrith.

Conflux 8 SF Convention (On the Beach — an Australian Apocalypse) will be held at the Novotel in Canberra from 28–30 September 2012, including pre-Con workshops. Guests so far include New York Times bestselling urban fantasy and paranormal romance author, Keri Arthur and Keith Stevenson, speculative fiction editor, reviewer, podcaster and author.

Nullus Anxietas IV, the fourth (…surprisingly) National Discworld Convention will be held in Melbourne on March 8–10, 2013 (Labour Day weekend in Victoria), at Bell Rydges, Preston. (ausdwcon.org/pages/NullusAnxietasIV)

Got more Australian SF/F news? Add it in the comments and/or send an email to have it included in next month’s issue and/or spread about on Twitter (follow @sfbullsheet).

CONFLUX 8 SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The Conflux 8 Short Story Competition closes June 29. You need to be a Conflux 8 member (Supporting or Full Membership) to enter. See www.conflux.org.au for information on becoming a member.

For the first time, cash prizes will be awarded: First Prize — $200, Second prize — $100, Third prize — $50. Winners may be published in the convention magazine at the discretion of the Conflux committee.

Stories must be on the Conflux 8 theme (which is apocalyptic, since everyone has heard the world is ending this year), be a maximum of 2000 words and contain a speculative element.

Stories must not be previously published, no simultaneous entries. Writers can enter more than one story, but only one story per writer can win a prize.

Stories must follow usual formatting eg 12pt Times New Roman, double spaced, one inch margins. The stories will be blind-read so please ensure your name is not present on the story, in either the body or the header.

Please submit by RTF attachment by midnight June 29, 2012 to storycomp@conflux.org.au.

Winners will be chosen by a panel consisting of multiple-award winning author Jack Dann, Fablecroft Publishing editor Tehani Wessely, and Edwina Harvey, Author, Editor and Ad Girl for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

The Aussie Spec Fic Snapshot 2012 runs the first week of June and features interviews across the Australian spec fic scene.

Australian spec fic writer Sean Williams joined the ABC Adelaide’s 891 Book Club for a discussion about the growth and popularity of speculative fiction as part of Writers Week in Adelaide.

Notions Unlimited Bookshop is a new genre-specialist bookshop located in Chelsea, Victoria. It opened earlier this year and offers free meeting facilities for genre groups as well as supporting local genre authors and publishers with in-store events. You can find an ad for Notions Unlimited on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUcRSaqt8U0.

The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild anthology, next is open until 15 October to Australian writers until 15 October, and you can view the full submission guidelines at their website: http://csfg.wordpress.com/.

MOVIES

View the first episode of new Australian web series Event Zero on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PatL5k6oQ74.

A new Australian film project is to be the world’s first Indigenous sci-fi film. Short film Kindred is based on a Dreamtime story by the Worora tribe of Western Australia who tell the story of the Wandjina, a tribe that “came down from the sky in boats and created the world”. The project is raising funds using crowd funding platform Indiegogo. The campaign has 60 days left. SF Bullsheet is a “witness from afar”. Who wants to be an abductee?

Australian actor Liam Hemsworth has been nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the “buzzworthy” Breakthrough Performance category for his role as Gabe in the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games. Which is impressive since he’s on screen for about five seconds. Apparently he’s “hungry” for the award. These headline writers…if I could think of a good pun right now, maybe I too could enter the glamorous, fast-paced world of internet headlines.

Ethan Hawke will be visiting Australia next year for the filming of time-travel action thriller Predestination, which is about a secret government agency designed to prevent killers and terrorists from ever committing their crimes; and which description makes it sound like a Minority Report clone; but which is based on the Robert A Heinlein short story All You Zombies. It will be directed by Australian brothers Michael and Peter Spierig.

Continuing on the film theme, Australian horror film Muirhouse has been selected to screen at Louisville’s Fright Night Horror Weekend Film Festival, June 29–July 1. It is currently screening at Marche Du Film at this monthʼs Cannes Film Festival and the director has announced it will be included in the Official Selection of the US horror festival.

Australian singer/actress Kylie Minogue is starring in new “surreal” SF film Holy Motors, set in Paris and telling the story of a man travelling between parallel lives.

Zak Hilditch’s short film Transmission, about a deadly pandemic and its impact on a father-daughter relationship, won Best Short Film at the St Kilda Film Festival last month. The short was made to support upcoming feature film These Final Hours, which is set to shoot in and around Perth in the second half of this year.

Ballarat actrress Jacinta John has won the best actress award at the LA Fear and Fantasy Film Festival for her role in iSolate, a psychological thriller coming to Australian screens this month.

BOOKS

Tokyo-based Australian writer Andrez Bergen, author of the well-reviewed Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, will have a new title out in the second half of this year. Entitled One Hundred Years of Vicissitude and published with Perfect Edge Books, Bergen’s second novel is a mix of surrealiam, mystery, steampunk and SF, and focusses on Japan, from 1929 on into the near future (plus a little bit of Melbourne in the ’70s & ’80s).

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

Nominations for the 2012 Aurealis Awards are open. The 2012 Aurealis Awards are for works of speculative fiction written by an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and published for the first time between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012. Entries close 23 December but you’re encouraged to send in your entries as close to publication as possible to give the judges time to consider each entry.

Which must mean that the 2011 Aurealis Awards have been awarded… With a record number of entries across the 13 categories, the judges had a tough time picking their winners. Congratulations to all the finalists and the ultimate winners, and you can view the full list at the Aurealis website: http://aurealisawards.com.

The Australian Science Fiction Foundation has announced the 2012 Norma K Hemming Award shortlist, for (thought-provoking approaches to) race, gender, sexuality, class and disability in Australian speculative fiction. The winner will be announced at the 51st Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne (Continuum Eight) next weekend. There’s some great books on the shortlist.

CONVENTIONS

Supanova Pop Culture Expo will be in Sydney and Perth in June. See their website for their huge array of pop culture stars.

Continuum 8 (Melbourne’s SF and pop culture convention) will take place on the Queen’s Birthday Weekend, 8–11 June 2012, and the full program is now available from http://continuum.org.au/program-available/#content.

The Unseen University Convivium 2012 takes place from 6–8 July 2012. Since it’s only a month away, it’s got a lot of deadlines coming up, including for buying exclusive merchandise and booking tickets for events, so get onto it if you’re onto it.

Con 9 will be held in Melbourne on 14–15 July 2012. Con 9 is a not-for-profit science fiction convention devoted to the “golden age” of classic Sci-Fi movies, TV shows and radio programmes up to 1965 (though the primary focus is mainly the 1950s). For the fans, by the fans. For membership and more information check out the website.

Got more Australian SF/F news? Add it in the comments and/or send an email to have it included in next month’s issue and/or spread about on Twitter (follow @sfbullsheet).

Powerhouse Museum in Sydney will be the only place in Australia to see HARRY POTTER: The Exhibition, opening on November 19. The exhibition offers fans a look at the artistry and craftsmanship that went into creating the iconic props and costumes that have appeared throughout the Harry Potter film series. (www.powerhousemuseum.com)

Issue 30 of Apex Magazine features an article on “The Australian Dark Weird” by TANSY RAYNER ROBERTS. (apex-magazine.com)

Australian writer ISOBELLE CARMODY talked about fantasy writing on Radio National’s Life Matters. (abc.net.au/rn/lifematters)

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) is organising a COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS MASTERCLASS, run by US illustrator Colleen Doran. It runs on the weekend of 19—20 November from 9am—5pm each day, at the Aerial UTS Function Centre, Broadway, Sydney, and costs $135 for ASA members, $165 for students, and $195 for non-members. (comicsmasterclass.com)

NEW RELEASES

Glide in Slowtime is a new book by Australian author BARRY ROSENBERG. Glide has the pen pusher blues until the day his black cloud of depression turns into a magic man who whisks him off to Auslan, a former paradise in need of a hero. But first Glide has to untangle the secret of Slowtime. A comedic fantasy reminiscent of early Pratchett, with a uniquely Australian flavour and a steampunk twist, Glide in Slowtime will take you on a romp where science is magic and magic is science. Available in print and ebook formats. Find out more at Winterbourne Publishing. (winterbournepublishing.com.au)

Trade and hardback editions of the Year’s Best Australian FANTASY AND HORROR ANTHOLOGY are available through Ticonderoga Publications. It features the best 33 genre stories from Australian authors published in 2010. The collection process for 2011 hus begun.

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

Congratulations to ALISA KRASNOSTEIN, winner of a Special Award—Non-professional for Twelfth Planet Press at the World Fantasy Awards. (worldfantasy.org/awards/)

Voting for the 2012 GUFF (Get Up and over Fan Fund or Going Under Fan Fund) is open and you can download the voting ballot.

CONVENTIONS

The Fantastic Asian Film Festival (FAFF) is a celebration of the diversity and invention of Asian genre films, kicking off with Yoshihiro Nishimura’s hilarious and mind bogglingly excessive zombie-splatter-comedy, Helldriver, and ending with one of the funniest, cutest, sweetest and yet downright filthiest films ever produced, Shinji Imaoka’s Underwater Love. It’s on in Melbourne next week from November 10—13 at Cinema Nova, Carlton. (faff.com.au)

SUPANOVA Pop Culture Expo is on next weekend in Melbourne (12 November, The Plenary MCEC). (www.supanova.com.au)

Continuum in June 2012 is the Australian National SF Convention for 2012, and is seeking volunteers — info@continuum.org.au. (continuum.org.au)

Got more news? Add it in the comments and/or send an email to have it included in next month’s issue.