Australia’s iconic film critic, David Stratton, has died and I am sad.
The reason I ventured forth as a young teenager to watch All The Weird Foreign Movies. I am tearing up writing this.
David Stratton hosted a weekly film review program on SBS (then ABC) for decades, along with Margaret Pomeranz. They argued over films and fought film censorship, and relentlessly promoted Australian cinema. David had watched so many fucking films, and wrote notes on all of them since he was a child. He ran Australian film festivals, film studies courses and was on the jury for Cannes.
We will not see his like again. Thank you Mr Stratton, for your services to film.
Obit here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/14/david-stratton-legendary-film-critic-who-championed-australian-and-international-cinema-obituary
Stratton brought Australia’s movies to the world and the world’s movies to Australia, forming an unforgettable TV partnership with Margaret
