The Adelaide Film Festival has partnered with Cannes Marché du Film for a second year in order to bring a delegation of five South Australian filmmakers to France to present their projects.
The following projects have been selected this year:
- Feature film Rewilder, to be represented by producer Madeleine Parry. From writer/director Cameron Bruce Nelson, it follows a sheep farmer who uncovers a life-altering secret after a mysterious toddler nearly drowns on his land.
- Documentary Troublemaker, represented by co-director Jared Nicholson, follows a gun massacre survivor and a filmmaker who form an unlikely bond as they slip down the rabbit hole of paranoia and conspiracy, in a desperate search for solace and truth. Ben Lawrence is the other co-director.
- Documentary Acts of Forgetting, represented by producer Philippa Campey. Directed by Rhys Graham, it follows a group of Australian and Spanish artists who gather in Madrid over several years to resurrect painful stories of Franco’s dictatorship in pursuit of a new and bold work of theatre directed by Andrew Bovell.
- Feature film Diabolic, to be represented by producer and director Daniel J Phillips. Diabolic is a horror film about a 17-year-old girl who undergoes a ‘Baptism for the Dead’ ritual with the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, an oppressive Mormon offshoot. When the name ‘Larue’ is invoked, an entity corrupts the ceremony.
- Feature film The Run, to be represented by producer Chloe Gardner. A thriller to be directed by Stephen de Villiers about a near-future dystopian world crippled by a global fertility crisis, where an ageing smuggler and his teenage foster son must fight to protect a runaway teenager and her newborn baby from ruthless criminals.
Each of the five films will be presented by the filmmakers to an audience of sales agents, investors and programmers on May 16 in a special showcase at Cannes’ Palais Theatre. Adelaide Film Festival will also co-ordinate a series of roundtables and facilitated introductions for each of the filmmakers.
The ‘Adelaide Film Festival Goes to Cannes’ initiative was open to South Australian filmmakers or AFF Investment Fund alumni with a work in progress seeking market investment.
Last year’s projects included Lesbian Space Princess, which went on to win the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival and The Iron Winter, which was selected for the International Feature Film Competition at Visions du Réel International Film Festival.
“AFF’s establishment of international festival “bridges” and market connection to support filmmakers has demonstrated success for Australian projects,” said Adelaide Film Festival CEO and creative director Mat Kesting.
“Lesbian Space Princess and Iron Winter, for example, participated as part of this initiative last year where the team formed direct connection with sales agents and numerous festival programmers. AFF is excited by this year’s line up and anticipates participants will be well placed to secure market investment for future projects too.”
The AFF x Cannes initiative is funded by the South Australia government and the Department for Premier and Cabinet. Screen Australia and South Australian Film Corporation have provided in-kind support.