It was going to the cinema on a regular weekly basis with my grandmother that triggered my passion for movies.

I loved the Disney features, comedies with Bob Hope and Danny Kaye, musicals, westerns, thrillers – in fact almost anything.

When I travel I love to learn about the history and culture of the places I’m visiting, as well as sampling the food and wine.

Highlights of the last FF at sea included the visit to Ingmar Bergman’s island, Faro; the Hermitage in St. Petersburg; and exploring cities like Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The films I selected reflected the places we visited: BARBETTE’S FEAST in Copenhagen and ONE TWO THREE in Berlin were among the highlights.

Margaret and I haven’t yet got together to discuss the films we’ll show on the coming cruise, but we can promise some interesting choices, both recent and not so recent, and some lively discussions.

David Stratton

David Stratton AM was the well-known co-presenter of At the Movies on ABC television. He is also a former director of the Sydney Film Festival, former film critic for international film industry magazine Variety, and is currently film critic for The Australian. A recipient of the Australian Film Institute’s Raymond Longford Award, David has also served as a former president of the International Critics Jury for the Cannes and Venice film festivals, authored two books and is now lecturing in Film History as part of the Continuing Education Program at the University of Sydney. He is the successful leader of four previous Film Festivals at Sea. David’s decades-long involvement with movies makes him the ideal person to lead this exciting cruise.