Tom McEvoy’s Welcome to Greensborough may have won the Best Guerrilla Film award at the 2005 Melbourne Underground Film Festival, but the film was recently refused a classification by the Australian Film Commission (AFC).

Ok, I don’t really know much about how the Australian film industry works (and if I weren’t lazy, really shouldn’t I look it up before writing this?), but from what I understand the government funds a lot of it and also dispenses ratings for what is to be screened, something that is self-policed by the MPAA here in the states. So, I suppose that if a film doesn’t get a classification, then it can’t be shown in theaters. I’ve only read two very brief articles on the Greensborough controversy (this one is still online) and that’s what I’m inferring from them. How it works in the U.S. is that a film doesn’t have to receive an MPAA rating, but most theaters will refuse to show unrated movies — but they’re certainly not under pressure from the government to not show them.

If any Australian film folks want to clarify any of this, please leave a comment below. Cuz I’m also confused why those articles say the film is “banned” by the AFC, but the classification entity seems to be the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC).

The movie, which I don’t know anything about either, is described on the 2005 MUFF site as the “Australian answer to Kids, Gummo and Ken Park.” MUFF then goes on to slam Larry Clark and claims Greensborough is more authentic since it was filmed by a young director. Who cares? If it’s good, it’s good. I never understand the knocking of one director in order to pump up somebody else. Regardless, it sounds like an interesting film that should be screened somewhere or at least get a DVD release. But there’s no official site for the film or the filmmaker and no listing on IMDB for me to get more info. The best I can do is a mini-bio of the director here.