Talent Down Under

As an Australian living in Los Angeles, I cannot help but be filled with a dose of national pride for the number and quality of home-grown Oscar nominees, but I also have to wonder what effect the talent drain has on the local Australian film industry (“Hollywood’s in an Australian State of Mind,” by Robert W. Welkos, March 17).

In an ideal world, one would hope that young Australian filmmakers and actors would aspire to a vision of filmmaking that is uniquely Australian and would reflect the Australian experience, and not be seduced by the glamour of Hollywood and the often distorted artistic values that it espouses.

For the record, Jane Campion is a distinguished director from New Zealand, not Australia, a distinction often lost on mainstream American media.

CRAIG JOHNSTON

Marina del Rey

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Tracey Mair replies for the Australian Film Commission: “Australia has always considered ‘The Piano’ to be an Australian film as the producer is Australian and it was primarily financed here. Jane Campion now lives in Australia, so we tend to identify her as Australian.”