The Australian cinema community braved rainy weather for the gala opening night of the Sydney Film Festival .

Miranda Otto, Rachael Taylor, Kate Ritchie, Emma Lung, Leeanna Walsman and Claudia Karvan helped light up the red carpet at Sydney’s State Theatre to see UK director Ken Loach’s comedy Looking For Eric .

The 56th Sydney Film Festival runs from June 3-14 and features three local films in the running for Australia’s largest film cash prize, the Sydney Film Prize. [SOURCE]

x49 Sydney Film Festival Opening Night

After making her name in America with the action blockbuster Transformers, Rachael Taylor has returned home for a gritty, low-budget Australian film debut.

“I had to take the long way round,” said the 24-year-old actress on the eve of Cedar Boys’ sold-out world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, which kicks off at the State Theatre tonight.

Co-starring Les Chantery and Martin Henderson, and told from the perspective of three Lebanese-Australian youths, the film goes on an adrenaline-charged ride from Lakemba to Kings Cross.

“It’s about outsiders looking in,” Taylor said.

Having moved to Sydney from Tasmania when she was just 16, the actress said she could relate to her character in the film.

“Sydney is such a fabulous, city. But if you feel as though you are slightly on the fringe - of wealth or success - it can be quite tough,” she said.

Yesterday she let slip her next film was also likely to be an Australian production.

Melt is a coming of age story set in the Outback. [SOURCE]

Rachael’s movie ‘Cedar Boys’ will finally premiere at next month’s Sydney Film Festival, which will open on June 3 and run through June 14.

There is still a strong line-up of Australian features. After the controversy surrounding The Combination, there will be interest in another Lebanese-Australian drama set in Sydney, Cedar Boys, starring Les Chantery and Rachael Taylor. [SOURCE]

In other news- some untagged photo shoot images and two behind the scenes images from ‘Splinterheads’ have been added to the gallery.

You can find the new pics here.

Lots of new candids have been added to the gallery. Rachael was recently photographed leaving a party in Los Angeles. I have also added some more candids from 2008: Rachael shooting her new HBO show ‘The Washingtonienne’ and Rachael out in New York City:

x004 04-03-2009 Leaving A Party
x009 08-06-2008 Out In NYC
x002 On Set 11-03-2008

There’s also a great new article out that profiles Rachael. You can read it here.

In a recent interview Rachael talked about some of her upcoming movies. She also revealed some interesting new details about her role in those films. In Cedar Boys Rachael plays Amie.

“[A] girl on a downward spiral. She’s such a lost creature, but doesn’t have any of the resources to climb her way out of that”.

“[The movie] is about the Lebanese community - which is sort of a hot topic at the moment”, says the actress. “It’s from an incredibly talented Australian director by the name of Serhat Caradee. It’s his first feature. He’s one to watch. He just doesn’t direct stuff - and not that there’s anything wrong with this - that feels like it’s from an Australian film. He has a very European sensibility.”

Rachael also had some things to say about Zack Snyder’s new animated film, The Guardian’s of Ga’Hoole.

“It’s the most fun I ever had at work ever. I play an Owl in Zack Snyder’s new animated film, The Guardian’s of Ga’Hoole - which has a bunch of Australian voices in it. Zac is a great person to be working for. He’s lovely.”

Imdb lists the premiere date for Rachael’s new HBO show “Washingtonienne” as April 1. But so far I have not seen any promotion efforts on their side and it has been reported that Jason Dohring (who was to be part of the show) has just been cast in another pilot for a D.C. based show- this one on the CW. So April 1 is obviously not correct anymore. I did some research and found this:

The Obama imperative is changing Washington’s image on TV even on shows that don’t yet exist. HBO has a cast for “The Washingtonienne,” based on the autobiography of Jessica Cutler, the young Senate staffer who had a side business in sex and scandal. But the network has sent the series back to the shop for an overhaul “partly because there has been such a profound shift in Washington,” according to Sarah Condon, executive producer of the show. HBO says it’s premature to divulge details, but Condon says the show is being redeveloped “with the Obama administration in mind.” [Source]

New images have also been added to the gallery (here).

Splinterheads premieres at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival today. The trailer and a featurette have recently been released. Both can be watched here. You can also see a great photoblog of everything that’s going on with Splinterheads here. A new poster, trailer caps and movie stills have been added here:

Splinterheads pictures

A beautiful new photo shoot has been added to the gallery. The shoot was done by Yu Tsai and used in Arena Magazine’s June 2008 issue. Unfortunately we don’t have the scans- it would be great if anybody who has them could send them in.

x14 Session 014

Candids of Rachael shopping at Alice + Olivia in West Hollywood with a friend about a week ago have been added to the gallery. In some of the pictures you can see her holding a beautiful dress. A dress which she actually wore to an event later that day. A picture from that event has been added to the gallery as well:

x15 02-27-2009 Shopping In West Hollywood
x01 V Australia Launch Party

Rachael attended the Australian Open during her stay there a couple of weeks ago. Images from the event have been added to the gallery. I have also updated the gallery with a few new photo shoot pictures. And don’t forget to watch out for Rachael at this years SXSW Film Festival (March 13-21 2009). Click here to find out more.

+004 Unsorted Shots
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x003 01-31-2009 Rachael Attending The Australian Open