‘Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears’.
Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, the feature film spin-off Every Cloud Productions’ series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and writer-director Michael Bentham’s indie Disclosure, will both make their world premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in early January.
Each will screen as part of the World Cinema Now section, alongside other Australian films, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth and Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch. Samuel Van Grinsven’s Sequin in a Blue Room will screen as part of Queer Cinema Today & the GayLA, and as Australia’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy will also screen alongside the other 51 submissions for the Oscar from around the world.
‘Disclosure’.Directed by the series’ set up director Tony Tilse from a screenplay by Deb Cox, Miss Fisher & Crypt of Tears was shot on location in Melbourne and in Morocco, with Essie Davis reprising her role as private detective the Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher. She is joined by co-stars Nathan Page as Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, Miriam Margolyes as Aunt Prudence and Ashleigh Cummings as her loyal companion Dorothy ‘Dot’ Collins, as well as Rupert Penry-Jones (Vita & Virginia, Spooks, Black Sails), Kal Naga (Vikings, The Last Post) and Daniel Lapaine (Muriel’s Wedding, Upright, Zero Dark City). Fiona Eagger is the producer, with both her and Cox also acting as executive producers. Lucy Maclaren is co-producer.
The film will then be released in Australia by Roadshow Films February 27 and will then screen in the US in select theatres and on streaming service Acorn TV in March 2020. all3media is handling international sales.
“We are absolutely thrilled to premiere Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears in Palm Springs and to have the film launched internationally at such a highly regarded event. Miss Fisher has a huge fan base in the US and they are clamouring to see her on the big screen as are her legions of Australian fans,” said Eagger and Cox.
Bentham’s Disclosure, shot in Melbourne, sees a 4-year-old girl make an allegation against the son of a politician, and an attempt by the children’s parents to resolve the situation soon degenerates into a vicious confrontation. Starring Geraldine Hakewill, Mark Leonard Winter, Matilda Ridgeway and Tom Wren, it was produced by Donna Lyons and is a UK/Australian co-production. Bentham won the Margaret Lawrence Social Justice Award for the film’s screenplay.
Palm Springs International Film Festival runs January 3-12, 2020.