Editor-turned-director Sean Lahiff’s environmental horror/thriller Carnifex and Brenda Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt’s feature doc The Last Daughter will each screen at the Adelaide Film Festival in October.
The two films were unveiled today as part of a festival sneak peak ahead of the full program launch on September 12; both are backed via the event’s investment fund.
Also announced today as Adelaide bound were international festival heavy-hitters, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner, Triangle of Sadness; the Harry Styles-fronted gay romance My Policeman, due to premiere at Toronto, and Aftersun, from Charlotte Wells, which premiered in Cannes.
Carnifex marks South Australian Lahiff’s directorial debut, and stars Alexandra Park as Bailey, an aspiring documentary maker, who joins conservationists Grace (Sisi Stringer) and Ben (Harry Greenwood) on a trip to the Australian outback to track and record the animals left displaced and devasted by bushfires. As night falls, the well-equipped trio discover a terrifying species, but quickly become the ones being tracked.
Shot in Adelaide, the film is produced by Helen Leake and Gena Ashwell of Dancing Road Productions, with the script via Shanti Gudgeon.
The Last Daughter is a personal film for Matthews, and follows her on a mission to unearth the truth about her past and to reconcile the two sides of her family. Matthews’ first memories were of growing up in a loving white foster family, before she was suddenly taken away and returned to her Aboriginal family. Decades later, she feels disconnected from both halves of her life, and goes searching for the foster family with whom she had lost all contact. Along the way she uncovers long-buried secrets, government lies, and the possibility for deeper connections to family and culture.
Adelaide will mark the film’s world premeire. Larissa Behrendt mentored both directors, with producers Simon Williams and Brendon Skinner. Funded via Screen Australia, the film won the Doc Edge prize at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) earlier this year.
Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness comes to Adelaide after screening in sold out sessions at Sydney and Melbourne festivals. Set on a luxury cruise, the satire of celebrity culture stars Harris Dickinson, the late Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Henrik Dorsin, Vicki Berlin, and Woody Harrelson as the boat’s alcoholic Marxist captain.
My Policeman will make its Australian premiere as part of AFF’s Special Presentations Program at the Capri Theatre. A story of forbidden love in 1950s Britian, the film is based on the novel by the same name by Bethan Roberts, adapted for the screen by Oscar-nominee Ron Nyswaner and directed by Michael Grandage. Starring alongside Styles are Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson and Rupert Everett.
Wells’ debut, two-hander Aftersun, will also screen in the Special Presentations program.
The drama follows Sophie’s (Celia Rowlson-Hall) reflections of a holiday she took to Turkey she took 20 years ago with her father (Paul Mescal) as an 11-year-old (Francesca Corio). Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t.
Adelaide Film Festival artistic director Mat Kesting said he was excited to announce the five film as the event readies its first annual program.
“This selection of international festival hits and home-grown cinema are five films for cinema lovers not to miss and are a taste of the incredible full program we will announce on September 12.”
The five titles join the previously announced The Angels: Kickin’ Down The Door, a Madeleine Parry-directed documentary about the iconic Australian rock band that will open this year’s festival. Screening alongside will also be short film Marungka Tjalantananyi/Dipped in Black, written by Derik Lynch, who also stars.
Also on the line-up: Talk to Me, directed by Danny and Michael Philippou (aka RackaRacka) and starring Sophie Wilde and Miranda Otto and Lily Sullivan-starrer Monolith, the inaugural project made under the AFF, South Australian Film Corporation and Mercury CX initiative Film Lab: New Voices. With a renewed emphasis on visual arts programming, the festival will also premiere Soda Jerk’s Hello Dankness, also Gerry Wedd and Mark Patterson’s Wave and Richard Bell’s Embassy.
Previously held biannually, Adelaide Film Festival was able to realise its organisers’ long-held ambitions to become an annual event following a $2 million investment from the Labor state government in July, as well as further funding via Screen Australia and the Adelaide Economic Development Agency. The move is expected to see the program grow significantly over the next three to four years, with a stated aim of making Adelaide a fixture on the global festival calendar.
Adelaide Film Festival will be held October 19-30. Festival passes are available now.