Matchbox Pictures’ Bad Behaviour will have its international premiere at the 2023 Berlinale Series, after being selected as one of eight global titles for the event.
The four-part drama, set to debut on Stan next month, joins entries from India, China, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the UK, and Romania at next month’s showcase, while being one of seven in competition for the Berlinale Series Award.
Led by an all-female creative team comprising scribes Pip Karmel and Magda Wozniak, producer Amanda Higgs, and director Corrie Chen, Bad Behaviour offers an emotionally and physically intense glimpse into the lives of teenage girls at the wilderness campus of an exclusive girls’ boarding school via a story based on Rebecca Starford’s memoir of the same name.
The cast is led by Jana McKinnon, alongside Markella Kavenagh, Yerin Ha, Erana James, Tuuli Narkle, Dan Spielman, Diana Glenn, Mantshologane Maile, and newcomers
Melissa Kahraman, Daya Czepanski, Bronte Locke, Abbey Morgan, Malaynee Hayden, and Jessica Lu.
In a post on social media, Chen said she was “so very proud”, which she “couldn’t wait to share”.
“Bad Behaviour is off to the Berlin Film Festival, combining my three favourite things – TV, films, and cured meats!” she wrote.
Speaking about the ninth iteration, Berlinale Series head Julia Fidel said “blueprints for the future – realistic and gloomy, humorous or hopeful” was a guiding theme of the selections.
“Scenarios of a world dramatically unbalanced by changes in the meteorological and social climate, pleas for social change embedded in genre narratives as well as reinterpretations of the recent past – the current productions are politically sober, committed to the present and future-oriented,” she said.
Berlinale will be held as part of the Berlin International Film Festival, which takes place February 16-26.