Welcome to Issue 8 of our journal! the editors July 2000 Editorial Issue 8 Festival fever has taken hold of Australia currently. The Sydney Film Festival took place recently, and we have a couple of reports from it, and the Brisbane and the two Melbourne (MIFF and MUFF) festivals are about to begin. We have a special preview of the 49th Melbourne International Film Festival. Also in this issue, we focus on Film Criticism, the practice of thinking, writing, talking film. This practice is becoming more and more important these days, as cinema is constantly debased by the “ratings” mentality and the “hype” machine. We also highlight the talents of Terrence Malick, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, and others, in what is, once again …. a bumper issue.
