Donald Pleasence in Wake in Fright, 1971. Courtesy of the Wake in Fright Trustees. NFSA title: 775732
Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, Australia, 1971) was a key film in galvanising the Australian feature film revival of the 1970s. It largely disappeared from view after its initial release and was never available on home video in Australia.
Anthony Buckley, who edited the film, began to search for the original negatives in the mid-1990s. With the support of the NFSA, the negatives were eventually found in a bin marked for destruction at the CBS vault at Pittsburgh, in the US. These were returned to Australia where Buckley collaborated with the NFSA and Atlab to restore the film to its original release version.
The restored Wake in Fright is re-released in Australian cinemas in 2009, after a gala relaunch at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It is the first Australian film ever selected to screen in the Cannes Classics program and one of only two films to date to be officially selected twice to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.
NFSA website: Wake in Fright recovery, restoration and re-release
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