Category: News

I’ve made the shortlist!

I don’t have the words to express my excitement…

A kooky 2000-word fictional narrative I wrote at the beginning of this year— ‘The undying love of Specimen A398’—has been shortlisted for the Open Short Story Competition of The Furphy Literary Award 2025!

This means I’m heading up the highway to Shepparton on 26th July to attend an awards ceremony held by The Furphy Foundation with the other 16 finalists.

While of course, I’d love to take first prize, I already feel like a winner because the final 16 stories are included in The Furphy Anthology book, which will be published at the end of 2025.

It’s also been a generation since I wrote fiction, and wasn’t sure if I had it in me anymore. This is the kick up the arse I needed to get back in the saddle.

More about the award (and the short & long lists) below.

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Member: The Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers

Twenty years of service to the film & cinema industry? And to think I’m still working out what I want to be ‘when I grow up’! But seriously, it’s an honour to join the ranks of The Society of Australian Film Pioneers.

Thanks to fellow members Jamie Blanks and Annette Smith for nominating me. Eternal love to the amazing Lee Gambin for giving me the confidence to keep going.

Now for the next 20 years… Must write screenplays… Must write screenplays… Must write screenplays…

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Dark Nights Film Festival Jury 2024

Right at this very moment, I’m mid-judging for the Inaugural Dark Nights Film Festival, 11th to 13th October @ Ritz Cinemas, Sydney.

Talking about inaugural things, this is the first time I’ve been on a judging jury for Best Unproduced Screenplay, but having judged a number of categories at other festivals in the past (not just film), it’s a credit I’m very pleased to add to my résumé.

Hats off to the hard work of the many writers who have submitted their screenplays. I’m done with the shorts, now I’m onto the features.

Come along to the festival itself to hear the results.

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Lee Gambin 1979-2024

My cherished friend and co-conspirator in film, Lee Gambin, passed away suddenly from a heart attack on Thursday 23rd May 2024. I am still in disbelief. It has taken me until now to formally acknowledge his death here on my website, on his birthday, 13th July. He would have turned 45.

I am so blessed to have known Lee and to have been drawn into his orbit as a close friend. To have been loved by Lee was a special thing. To have shared in his passions in cinema was a extraordinary privilege, the kind of which very few people get to experience in life. I count myself among the lucky few.

Lee still feels very close. There are countless audio commentaries, podcasts, radio shows, panels and other appearances where we shared the stage together. Gone but still here. I love you, darlst ❤️

Read more about Lee in these beautiful obits from two other dear friends:

In Fangoria by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
At the MQFF by Cerise Howard

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I’ve co-written a new book: SECONDS

FINALLY, I can share the news that Jez Conolly and I are in the final stages of a book for Auteur Publishing’s Constellations science fiction imprint on John Frankenheimer’s much-underrated masterpiece, SECONDS, from 1966.

We’ve been at it across the past 12 months, working away quietly under wraps. But, the manuscript has now been sent to our publisher, John Atkinson. This thing is real!

I can’t thank Jez enough for (a) asking me to be his co-author and (b) providing such beautiful writing to encourage me (hopefully) to be better. I would dare to even call the experience ‘transformative’.

I’m so looking forward to giving SECONDS the attention this magnificent film deserves. It is really something very, very special, which our book is attempting to fully capture for the first time in long-form print.

Thank you, too, to Salome Jens, who is resplendent in the role of Nora Marcus, and who kindly agreed to be interviewed as part of our research.

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Hunting THE BRIDE in Los Angeles

POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS

I’m heading to LA in the first two weeks of May! Why?

Because I am researching my book on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and, like Indiana Jones, I’m on a hunt for the Ark and whatever else I can uncover about this beautiful, important film.

Given this is a business trip, I’m open to any other cinema/film opportunities that might come my way. Stories? Interviews? Other potential jobs? Martinis at Musso & Frank’s? Hit me up with your requests.

I’m already looking forward to catching up with Mark Shostrom, Scott Essman, Tom Blunt, Sam Irvin, my LA housemate Louise Heseltine and the ghost of Ms Elsa Lanchester…

Email emma@emmawestwood.net

Matrimonially yours,
Emma 💋

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Primal Screen and satanic cinema

Over the holiday break, while Plato’s Cave was on hiatus, I was asked by my good friend, Sally Christie, to join her and another good friend, Lee Gambin, (and his stunning dog, Buddy) on her special summer show on Triple R, Caught in a Celluloid Jam.

Sally used Caught in a Celluloid Jam as a forum to present some of her favourite topics/genres of cinema. The episode in which Lee and I participated focused specifically on satanic cinema. And what a hoot it was! I strongly suggest you take a listen and hear us rabbit on about approximately 20 films of the devilish kind.

But something else happened over summer… Plato’s Cave has changed!

Now under the name Primal Screen at 7pm Mondays on Triple R, Plato’s Cave gets a same-same-but-different reworking, which includes a new lineup of weekly co-hosts: Paul Anthony Nelson, Sally Christie and Flick Ford.

Old faithfuls, Cerise Howard and myself, will be making the occasional appearance as guests but, in 2020, everything’s getting a makeover, including the show intro, which sounds something like this…

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17th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards

I have super exciting news – I’ve been nominated for a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Commentary with my creative brother, Lee Gambin, for our DVD commentary on William Castle’s STRAIT-JACKET, which appears on Indicator’s Vol. 2 release of William Castle films. Such news deserves an exclamation mark!

This is my first time being nominated, and a huge honour, especially given the esteemed competition in the same category (Kim Newman, Tim Lucas, Bill Ackerman, Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Amanda Reyes, etc). My head is spinning like Linda Blair’s, to say the least.

Given these awards are decided on popular vote, I’d love it if you’d support me with yours. All you have to do is send an email to taraco@aol.com before 20th April 2019, and specify your Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards votes:

BEST COMMENTARY:
Lee Gambin, Emma Westwood: STRAIT-JACKET (Indicator)

If you feel like providing even further support, please also vote for the box set in which our STRAIT-JACKET commentary appears:

BEST BOX SET:
WILLIAM CASTLE AT COLUMBIA: Volume One, Two: Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, Mr. Sardonicus; Zotz!; 13 Frightened Girls; Old Dark House; Strait-Jacket (Indicator)

And Cinemaniacs’ glorious book on Scarecrows in which I have written two pieces on JEEPERS CREEPERS:

BOOK OF THE YEAR:
IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN: Scarecrows in Film and TV, edited by Lee Gambin (Cinemaniacs, softcover, 242 pages, $21.50). Essays that go far beyond Oz.

~ Thanking you, Emma

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