While The Water Diviner went from rank outsider to warm favourite in a matter of weeks, bookmaker Sportsbet says there was nothing suspicious about betting on the best film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, which saw a surprise tie between Russell Crowe's post-World War I drama and the horror film The Babadook. As revealed by Fairfax on Saturday, the first count of the "weighted value" of the votes had The Babadook as slight winner, but an anomaly – more first votes, but also more last votes for The Water Diviner – saw the academy declare a tie. When the nominations were announced, the original betting market had The Railway Man as favourite, with The Water Diviner as rank outsider at $15. Sportsbet's Will Byrne says that by the time of the awards in January, The Water Diviner had moved into favouritism (at $2) followed by The Babadook ($2.75), Charlie's Country ($6), Predestination ($7.50), Tracks ($11) and The Railway Man ($16). "The prices fluctuated due to betting, but it was pretty even, with Predestination also in the mix, so I wouldn't suggest there was anything untoward from a betting point of view," Byrne says. "With these novelty markets, we only accept small bets, as they're mainly for punters' entertainment."

Jarratt on karaoke tour

As his role as a freaky serial killer in the Wolf Creek films shows, John Jarratt has always gone his own way. He is certainly doing that in releasing StalkHer, the "inappropriately funny, dark romantic thriller" that he and Kaarin Fairfax both directed and star in. Jarratt plays a charismatic stalker who engages in a battle of the sexes with a nurse played by Fairfax. As part of a national tour of advance screenings, the duo will not just speak at Q&A sessions, they will compete in karaoke competitions with the locals in pubs. Jarratt has some form as a singer, with a clip of the song he growls over the closing credits, Killer In Me, viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube. The tour, leading up to the release on August 27, started in Ballarat this week before heading to Wagga Wagga on Thursday and Tuggeranong in the ACT on Friday. It reaches Sydney's Event Cinemas Macquarie on August 24 and Melbourne's Lido Cinemas on August 26. "We are going to celebrate the release of StalkHer around Australia in almost 50 cinemas," Jarratt says. "I'll be on the road from Geelong to Townsville and Sydney to Perth."

Best men sequel

A sequel to the comedy A Few Best Men is among the latest batch of projects funded by Screen Australia. A Few Less Men will be directed by Peter Templeman (Not Suitable For Children), with Xavier Samuel, Kevin Bishop and Kris Marshall reprising their roles as friends who transport a mate's coffin across Australia after a forced landing strands them in the middle of the bush. The agency has also funded the action-adventure movie The Nest, an Australian-Chinese co-production about the discovery of a mummified emperor from 200BC China that unearths dangerous long-buried spiders. It will be directed by Kimble Rendall, who had a Chinese hit with Bait 3D. Filming is due to start at the Village Roadshow Studios and locations in south east Queensland in October. Also funded is the TV series Wanted, directed by Shirley Barrett and starring Rebecca Gibney.

Films sell widely

It often seems like the box office is the best measure of an Australian film's success or failure. But Screen Australia figures show that even films that do not succeed in cinemas here can sell strongly around the world. Josh Lawson's raunchy comedy The Little Death, which had a disappointing cinema run last year, has sold to 18 territories, with plans to remake it in several other languages. Kriv Stenders' Kill Me Three Times, which has Simon Pegg as an assassin, is just getting special event screenings before a digital and DVD release here, but has sold to 20 territories. So has Robert Connolly's family hit Paper Planes. Michael Petroni's yet-to-be-released thriller Backtrack, starring Adrian Brody, has sold to 21 territories, with Kim Farrant's outback mystery Strangerland, starring Nicole Kidman, selling to 29 territories. As those last two sales show, stars certainly help with international sales. But the biggest success is Jennifer Kent's The Babadook. The horror film barely registered in Australian cinemas – taking $286,000 – but has sold to 30 territories. It took more than $2 million in British cinemas and was a hit in France, Korea and Singapore. "Domestic box office is only a small part of the story," Screen Australia's chief executive, Graeme Mason, says. "People often forget how important the rest of the world is."

The Daughter release rescheduled

With so many Australian films out before Christmas – Short Cuts counts 14 in the last six months of the year – some reassessment has been taking place. Instead of being released next month, director Simon Stone's timber-town drama The Daughter will open in March next year. . Having been selected for both the Venice and Toronto festivals after screenings at the Sydney and Melbourne festivals, a longer lead time and an international profile will no doubt help the release. Adapted by Stone from his stage production of The Wild Duck, The Daughter centres on the crisis that emerges for two families when a man (Paul Schneider) returns home from the US.

Gayby Baby heads to cinemas

As The Daughter moves to next year, another Australian film has jumped into the release schedule – the documentary Gayby Baby, which has just finished screening at Melbourne International Film Festival. Directed by Maya Newell and focusing on the children of same-sex parents, it opens at Sydney's Dendy Newtown and Melbourne's Cinema Nova on September 3. But high schools will be able to screen it for students, teachers and families on August 28 during a day of diversity celebrations. "Having a hybrid-cinema release and screening in schools on Wear It Purple Day really encapsulates the way we believe Australian indie films can make a lasting impact," producer Charlotte Mars says. "For us, it's not about trying to compete with huge studio pictures; it's about empowering audiences and taking the film to the people at a time when the film's themes are once more on the national political agenda."

Mission: Impossible opens solidly

Was Tom Cruise's image hurt by the controversial documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief recently? Even it it was, a clever PR strategy for the release of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation – focusing on the extreme stunts and selected American TV appearances for Cruise that involved no Scientology questions – seems to have worked. The fifth Mission: Impossible movie opened solidly in Australia on the weekend, taking $5 million with an average of $12,400 a cinema.

Jurassic whirl

Winter's box office phenomenon, Jurassic World, has now taken a striking $52.4 million in Australian cinemas. It needs only $171,000 to overtake Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 to become the country's fourth-highest-grossing movie and $810,000 to overtake The Avengers in third position. But there is no chance of going any higher: of the two James Cameron films on top, Titanic took $57.6 million and Avatar a still-extraordinary $115.6 million.

Greek attraction

As Short Cuts noted last month, Peter Andrikidis' Alex + Eve, a comic romance based on a hit play by Alex Lykos, is getting a cinema release on October 22. It has now been announced as the opening-night attraction at the Greek Film Festival at Sydney's Palace Norton Street on November 14. It centres on a romance between a Greek Orthodox man (Richard Brancatisano) and a Lebanese Muslim woman (Andrea Demetriades).

Hollywood opportunity

In what sounds like a break for emerging talent, Australians in Film has called for submissions to the Village Roadshow Entertainment Group and Animal Logic internship valued at $20,000. It is open to Australian film business undergraduate students and recent graduates and involves working with Village Roadshow Pictures and Animal Logic executives in Los Angeles to gain experience in developing, acquiring, packaging and producing films for the international market. Details are at australiansinfilm.org.

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