‘Cargo’.
Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s debut feature Cargo – dubbed a ‘zombie tearjerker’ – will make its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in October.
Martin Freeman leads the film’s cast as an infected man trying to protect his daughter in the aftermath of a violent pandemic. Produced by Causeway Films and Addictive Pictures, Cargo is based on Ramke and Howling’s 2013 Tropfest short by the same name that has garnered over 13 million views on YouTube. David Gulpilil, Susie Porter, Anthony Hayes and Natasha Wanganeen also star.
Netflix acquired the worldwide rights to the film, to be branded a ‘Netflix Original’, back in February. Umbrella will handle rights outside of the Netflix SVOD window within Australia.
Joining Cargo at Adelaide Film Festival is the world premiere of Closer Productions’ ABC series F*!#ing Adelaide, starring Pamela Rabe, Tilda Cobden-Hervey and Kate Box. The comedy drama, funded through ABC and Screen Australia’s Long Story Short initiative, is the brainchild of Sophie Hyde, who won the directing award for world cinema at Sundance and Crystal Bear at Berinale for 52 Tuesdays.
After the Apology, an Adelaide Film Festival Fund-doco from Larissa Behrendt that exposes the rate of Indigenous child removal over the past decade, will also make its world premiere.
As announced last week, Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country will also screen direct from its world premiere in competition in Venice.
Among the festival’s international competition titles are two Australian premieres, Nicole Kidman-starrer How To Talk to Girls At Parties, and documentary Dolphin Man.
The festival has also announced the Arts on Screen sidebar; a collection of short films to presented in one feature session which celebrate artists on screen.
They include Emma Magenta’s Remembering Agatha, starring Andrea Demetriades and Alex Dimitriades; Back to Back Theatres’ Oddlands; and Benjamin Dowi’s short documentary Brumley’s Suitcase, which follows three musicians from Adelaide Dan Crannitich, Taasha Coates and Kelly Menhennett.
Of the early highlights, Adelaide Film Festival artistic director Amanda Duthie said: “Three words – Vive le Punk. Adelaide Film Festival is proud to be presenting the mavericks, the outliers, the auteurs, the radicals, the ratbags, the artists and the supreme creatives at this year’s festival. This is just a tease of the soon to be released full program. We wish to acknowledge the opportunity to collaborate with incredibly talented filmmakers and the privilege of presenting their work in Adelaide.”
Adelaide Film Festival’s full program will be released August 29, with the festival to run October 5-15.