All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane

All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane
Official Production Poster
Directed by	Louise Alston
Produced by	Louise Alston Jade van der Lei
Written by	Stephen Vagg
Based on	play by Stephen Vagg
Starring	Charlotte Gregg Matt Zeremes Cindy Nelson Ryan Johnson Romany Lee Gyton Grantley Sarah Kennedy
Music by	Caitlin Yeo
Cinematography	Judd Overton
Edited by	Nicola Scarrott
Distributed by	Accent Film
Release date	October 2007 (AUS)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	A$42,000

All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane is a 2007 Australian romantic comedy film directed by Louise Alston and written by Stephen Vagg. It follows Anthea, a 25-year-old girl who hates her job and has to sit back and watch as all her friends move away from her hometown, Brisbane, to make a better life. In 2013, The Guardian referred to it as a "cult film" inspired by "a typically Brisbane lament... the departure of people in their late 20s to Sydney, Melbourne, London or New York."

Anthea (Charlotte Gregg) is undergoing a crisis of confidence: overworked, no boyfriend, and now all her friends are leaving Brisbane. She is tempted to leave herself, but is opposed by her longtime best platonic male friend Michael (Matt Zeremes).

Michael thinks people who leave Brisbane are copycats who follow the crowd; he is quite happy to stay in Brisbane, he is in a stable job and a stable very low-maintenance "sex-with-the-ex" relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie (Sarah Kennedy). In short, he is in a rut.

Anthea's temptation to leave Brisbane increases with the impending departure of her flatmate Kath (Cindy Nelson). However, she then hears that her ex-boyfriend Jake (Gyton Grantley) is coming back to Brisbane to live. To Michael's annoyance, she dreams of a great future with him.

Michael is then thrown out of his comfort zone by starting a new relationship with a girl he meets at work; Simone (Romany Lee). Slightly "alternative" and good natured, Simone is totally different from the sorts of girls he normally deals with, and he finds himself in a relationship over which he does not have total control.

On her last day in Australia, Anthea and Michael finally resolve their feelings for each other.

Originally, All My Friends are Leaving Brisbane was a stage performance at the University of Queensland's Cement Box Theatre, where director Louise Alston first saw it. She could see that the story would make an ideal feature film and worked with writer Stephen Vagg on developing a script.

Producer Jade van der Lei then became interested in the film and was able to raise a budget of A$42,000. The film was shot in the middle of a Queensland summer, January 2006, over a three-week period. Afterward, The filmmakers successfully applied for post-production funding from the Australian Film Commission, which enabled additional shooting. The film completed post-production in early 2007 and made its world debut at the 2007 Brisbane International Film Festival.