A week before its release, Australia director Baz Luhrmann and most of his major cast members assembled at Sydney's Museum Of Contemporary Art for a press conference to discuss the sprawling epic.

Australia's stars - homegrown cinema heavyweights all - are seated at a long table, fronting a press pack in Sydney only hours before the film's world premiere. Margaret Pomeranz is playing MC, introducing the epic's cast and crew individually. David Wenham, Hugh Jackman, Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman.But when the At The Movies co-host introduces Brandon Walters - Australia's 13-year-old show-stealer - the infamously cynical media cheer loudly. No-one else at the table receives that kind of reception today.

Expect to hear a lot about this incredible young indigenous actor. Brandon (a leukemia survivor) does the impossible: he upstages Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown and the other aforementioned heavyweights. Brandon's character Nullah narrates this romantic Outback story. Australia is an adventure, a journey, a tale of war. It's also a film about The Stolen Generation, and Luhrmann deserves credit for not only his sensitive handling of the issue, but for having the guts to feature it in a mainstream movie.

Veteran indigenous actor David Gulpilil also feels the press pack's love today. The media had seen Australia the evening before, witnessing the magic that Gulpilil brings to the film. At the centre of the table is the film's director and co-writer, Baz Luhrmann. To his right sits a relaxed Jackman. To his left, an elegant Kidman. Up close, Kidman is radiantly beautiful. If Jackman was any sexier, he'd have to be locked up for his own protection. FILMINK is starstruck. When one journo asks Kidman about her lip-locks with Jackman, she replies: "Obviously we're in character when we kiss, but it was good to go to work."

Kidman also hints at retirement: "I'm in a place in my life where I have had great opportunities," she says. "I may just choose to have more children. I have no idea what is in my future, but I'm very at peace with where I want to be. There are many things I want to do besides act."

During the media conference, her maternal warmth towards Brandon was obvious and real. "I feel very protective," Kidman says of her feelings for the teenage actor. "And I've said this to a lot of people.if the film does really well, he's going to need a lot of protection."

When Luhrmann speaks of his epic, he frequently uses the phrase "the faraway" to describe where he's taking the audience, and often refers to sweeping Hollywood classics like Lawrence Of Arabia as his point of reference. Luhrmann was inspired by a "passion and desire" to make a movie that was like the ones he loved as a kid - movies "that everyone could come and see", and that were "inclusive".

In speaking of naming the film, he explains: "These stories, they're set in faraway lands.I wanted to use our own country as a metaphor for the faraway. A film like Casablanca, it's not about Casablanca. The word Casablanca is about characters who are border characters - refugees, coming from somewhere going somewhere. In the end, the word Australia alone - the symbolism of that word - vast, faraway, big, mysterious . was the most honest [title] that we could come up with. We knew that it would cause a bit of a stir."

Appropriately enough, his characters are archetypes - particularly Jackman's nameless Drover. "Baz and I started talking a year before we actually started filming," says Jackman. "So the journey of creating The Drover and fitting that into the story was definitely for me the greatest role I've had.I don't say it lightly."

At the screening the previous night, the media were asked not to publish reviews of the film until after the red carpet premiere. Luhrmann wanted to maintain a cone of silence as the cast and crew had not yet seen the finished product. The press largely ignored the embargo and their opinions were mixed, with two large media outlets using similar headlines: "Good but not great", they reckoned. Ignore the naysayers. Australia is a film to embrace, enjoy and get very, very excited about...

Australia is released on November 26.