Starstruck

The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) are working on a ground-breaking major collaborative travelling exhibition project: Starstruck. Striking, beautiful and poignant portraiture documents the making and marketing of films.

When the creative experience of production is over, the film’s portraiture remains as a personal souvenir, an evocative historical record or an iconic image of Australian life. The Starstruck project unites the NPG’s expertise in portraiture and exhibitions development and the National Film and Sound Archive’s expertise in Australian film heritage/history with an extensive collection of over a century’s worth of portraits depicting Australian actors and production crew. Our Starstruck project will be the first exhibition surveying the role and presence of portraiture across Australian cinema, rather than focussing on a particular era, place or person.

Starstruck draws on the NFSA’s collection of portraits relating to Australian feature films from the early 20th century to today. There will be a large exhibition, Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits, including original material and costumes, that will travel to large metropolitan venues in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland and a small self-install exhibition Starstruck: On Location, to make these collections available to the widest possible audience in regional and remote Australia. Major themes will explore portraiture’s place in film, how cinema has shaped portraiture and the influence of these images on Australian culture. We are also developing a significant print publication and an extensive website. NFSA and the NPG are in full partnership on this project.