APSA for Best Children's Feature Film
‘The Black Balloon’ Australia
Produced by Tristram Miall. Co-Produced by Sally Ayre-Smith, Elissa Down, Jimmy the Exploder and Mark Turnbull.
When Thomas and his family move to a new home and he has to start at a new school, all he wants is to fit in. When his pregnant mother has to take things easy, his father Simon puts him in charge of his autistic older brother Charlie. Thomas, with the help of his new girlfriend Jackie, faces his biggest challenge yet. Charlie’s unusual antics take Thomas on an emotional journey that causes his pent-up frustrations about his brother to pour out – in a story that is funny, confronting and ultimately heart-warming.
“The Black Balloon is really a very well made film; it's a very accomplished film and wonderful acting by both the boys and young girl. There was some talk of whether it was a children’s film but I think that you know if the category is up to 16 years then from about 12 to 16 I think it's perfect for them, I mean it's fine for them. We tend to think that children tend to like childish films and I think often grown ups tend to patronise them and this doesn’t do that.” - Aparna Sen (Jury Member)
“It's very well directed by a young woman and it's a study of family and the young son’s enormous problem with coping with his autistic brother, with the whole family’s problem of coping with the autistic brother. The performances are really wonderful. It's very well done.” - Bruce Beresford (Jury President)
“I felt the The Black Balloon had some of the most incredible performances by young actors that I've seen in a very long time.” - Richard Rothschild (Jury Member)
“The Black Balloon is the most in-depth movie that I have ever seen that tells about a story of a family that has a disabled child, or a story that tells the audience that we should treat kindly disabled people. When I watched this movie for the first time, I said that it should be seen by all the families in the world, all the adults and all the children. Generally, children’s movies would have some education purposes, however, the education purposes of this particular movie is totally dissolved in the story itself, without telling people such general things like what to do or how to deal with… therefore it really touches people just like the story in your family or in my family or in everybody’s family, so it is especially suitable for the whole family to sit together and watch it.” – Professor Zheng Dongtian (Jury Member)
