Sony Pictures Releasing has released first-look images from the Sydney-set Ladies in Black, the new comedy-drama from Academy Award® nominated director Bruce Beresford.

Amongst Sydney locations, the film shot exterior scenes outside the vintage 1909 Mark Foy’s CBD Piazza building (now Downing Centre), and also filmed in the Blue Mountains, a short 1.5-hour drive outside of the city.

Based on Madeleine St John’s best-selling novel ‘The Women in Black’, and featuring a brilliant ensemble cast, Ladies in Black will release in Australian and New Zealand cinemas on October 18, 2018.

Julia Ormond as Magda Szombatheli.

Set in the summer of 1959, when the impact of European migration and the rise of women’s liberation is about to change Australia forever, a shy schoolgirl (Lisa) takes a summer job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s. There she meets the “ladies in black”, who will change her life forever.

Beguiled and influenced by Magda, the vivacious manager of the high-fashion floor, and befriended by fellow sales ladies Patty and Fay, Lisa is awakened to a world of possibilities. As Lisa grows from a bookish schoolgirl to a glamorous and positive young woman, she herself becomes a catalyst for a cultural change in everyone’s lives.

Left to Right – Alison McGirr as Patty Williams, Angourie Rice as Lisa Miles and Rachael Taylor as Fay Baines.

Ladies in Black stars Julia Ormond, Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Alison McGirr, Ryan Corr, Shane Jacobson, Noni Hazlehurst, Susie Porter, Luke Pegler, Nicholas Hammond and Vincent Perez. The film is based on a screenplay by Sue Milliken and Bruce Beresford and produced by Allanah Zitserman and Sue Milliken.

Songs for Ladies in Black and the film score composed by Christopher Gordon (Mao’s Last Dancer, Master & Commander: The Far Side of The World) were recorded at The Simon Leadley Scoring Stage, Trackdown Studios. The songs were recorded by engineer Evan McHugh assisted by Rose Mackenzie-Peterson whilst the score was engineered by Christo Curtis with Pro-tools recordist Craig Beckett and Rose Mackenzie-Peterson assisting.