A quartet of Australian films has made it into the line-up for next year’s Sundance Film Festival, with Robert Connolly’s Blueback, Noora Niasari’s Shayda, Daina Reid’s Run Rabbit Run and Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou’s Talk To Me all set to screen.
They are among the 99 feature films selected for this year’s event, which will take place in person in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort from January 19-29. The 2023 offering heralds a return to theatres for festivalgoers after this year’s hybrid schedule was forced online due to a spike in COVID cases.
Helping to launch the proceedings will be the Western Australian-shot Blueback after it chosen as the Salt Lake City Opening Night Gala Film.
An adaptation of Tim Winton’s novella, the film stars Mia Wasikowska as Abby, a young girl that befriends a magnificent wild blue groper while diving, beginning her life-long journey to save the world’s coral reefs. The cast also includes Radha Mitchell and Eric Bana as well as newcomers Ariel Donoghue and Ilsa Fogg.
The Sundance selection comes after the Arenamedia production had its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Connolly, who is a producer on the project in addition to writer and director, said he was delighted to have the US premiere at Sundance, which he described as “one the most innovative and distinctive film festivals and champions of cinema in the world”.
Shayda will also screen early in the festival, having been selected as the Opening Night Film of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
Written and directed by Niasari, the film follows a young Iranian mother (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) and her six-year-old daughter as they find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowrooz) which is celebrated as a time of renewal and re-birth. Aided by the strong community of women at the refuge, they seek their freedom in this new world of possibilities, only to find themselves facing the violence they tried so hard to escape. Joining Amir Ebrahimi in the cast are Osamah Sami, Leah Purcell, Jillian Nguyen, Mojean Aria and Selina Zahednia.
It is joined in the competition by New Zealand dark comedy Bad Behaviour, which Jennifer Connelly and Ben Whishaw alongside Australian writer/director Alice Englert.
Niasari said it was a thrill to have her directorial debut included in the competition.
“It is an honour for us to be one of the Opening Night films, to showcase our talented Iranian/Australian cast and crew on the world stage and to hold a spotlight on the brave women of Iran,” she said.
Both Run Rabbit Run and Talk To Me will be shown as part of the festival’s Midnight section, designed to showcase films with provocative subject matter across multiple genres.
The former is a horror/thriller that follows a fertility doctor (Sarah Snook) whose grasp on the cycle of life is put to the test when her young daughter Mia, to be played by newcomer Lily LaTorre, begins to exhibit increasingly strange behaviour.
Written by Hannah Kent, the film also stars Damon Herriman and Greta Scacchi.
Speaking about the selection, Reid paid tribute to her collaborators on the project, which will have its world premiere at the event.
“It has been an incredible journey making this film and working with such a massively talented writer in Hannah Kent and our amazing leading actors Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre, and Damon Herriman,” she said.
“Indeed all our cast, our outstanding crew, and wonderful producers.”
Fellow South Australian Film Corporation-supported production, Talk To Me centres on a group of friends that discover how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand and soon become hooked, only for one of them to go too far and opens the door to the spirit world.
Written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, the cast includes Sophie Wilde, Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Zoe Terakes, and Otis Dhanji.
Danny and Michael Philippou described having the international premiere of the film at Sundance as “surreal”.
“We’re so excited to be premiering Talk to Me at the Sundance Film Festival,” they said.
“We cannot thank everyone involved enough for all their amazing hard work and unbelievably kind support.”