After successful seasons in Canberra, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Bathurst and Geraldton between 2017 and 2019, you can now find highlights from the Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits exhibition online.

Presented by the NFSA and the National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition explored striking portraits from 100 years of Australian movies drawing extensively on items from the NFSA collection.

This short documentary about Starstruck features behind-the-scenes footage of the NFSA collection, as well as interviews with curators and some of the award-winning photographers whose work featured in the exhibition:

Costumes and collections

Since Starstruck opened at the National Portrait Gallery on 10 November 2017, we've unearthed stories behind some of the photographic portraits, production shots, rare film posters, casting books and original costumes that featured in the exhibition.

We've interviewed prolific on-set stills photographer Matt Nettheim (Tracks, The Babadook), whose work featured in the exhibition.

Curator Jenny Gall explored the link between character and some of the iconic costumes featured in the exhibition, while Jennifer Coombes took a closer look at the red satin gown worn by Nicole Kidman as Satine in Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, Australia, 2001).

We've also published a curated collection of images from the exhibition including photographs of Nicole Kidman, Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush, Abbie Cornish, Heath Ledger and Chips Rafferty.

Three Women

Among the highlights of Starstruck are the 1930s Cinesound casting books – containing applications, letters and photographs sent by aspiring students to the Cinesound Productions talent school.

We profiled the lives of three actresses who feature in the casting books – Diana DuCane, whose granddaughter contacted us with more information about her life and career; Pearl Schweig, surf queen and Norman Lindsay model, whose acting career lasted from the 1930s into the 1970s; and Betty Bryant, who caught the eye of Hollywood before retiring from acting to focus on charity work.

Click on the links above to read more about each of these women. You can also learn more on the Starstruck website.

A National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and National Portrait Gallery exhibition supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program.