Alex Archer

AUSTRALIA’S OPEN charts the Australian Open’s meteoric trajectory from a suburban tennis club to the biggest annual sporting event in the southern hemisphere. Along the way, a nation’s evolving self-image is revealed in a process organisers call ‘Australianisation,’, featuring stock horses on court and a ‘Beachside Bar.’ As the tournament differentiates itself from the other tennis majors, it projects a free and breezy image to the world, dovetailing with Paul Hogan’s legendary tourism campaigns.

And by 2017, it has hosted finals that well and truly grab the world’s attention. But while organisers, government and business celebrate the international spotlight, inevitably, the world’s attention strays beyond the court to the country that hosts the event.

AUSTRALIA’S OPEN counterpoints irresistible on-court dramas with the nation’s off-court divisions, as they are inadvertently revealed to the world. In recent years, billions tune in for the tennis as the Australian Open also becomes a stage for the nation’s same-sex marriage debate; confronting treatment of refugees; and complex relationship to its colonial past.

The film’s heavy-hitting cast includes former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley, Broadcast Legend Bruce McAvaney, and international players Liam Broady, Frances Tiafoe, Rennae Stubbs and Katrina Adams

Through telling archive and lyrical tennis, AUSTRALIA’S OPEN captures the poetry of the tournament as well as its power … because on centre court at the Australian Open, there is always more than a game at stake.

Director: Ili Baré
Producer by: GoodThing Productions