Sean Byrne’s survival horror Dangerous Animals will make its world premiere in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, marking the first Australian feature to screen in the sidebar in more than a decade.
The independent Directors’ Fortnight runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival and is dedicated to showcasing a program of contemporary cinema.
Dangerous Animals is one of 18 features selected, the first from Australia since Zak Hilditch’s These Final Hours in 2014.
The line-up this year also includes two shorts from Australian directors: The Body, from Louris van de Geer, and Nervous Energy, from the New York-based Eve Liu.
Shot on the Gold Coast, Dangerous Animals stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer who is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer, played by Jai Courtney.
Zephyr must figure out how to escape before the killer carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. The only person who realises she is missing is new love interest Moses (Josh Heuston), who goes looking for her only to be caught by the deranged murderer as well.
The cast also includes Ella Newton.
Brouhaha Entertainment’s Troy Lum and Andrew Mason produced, alongside LD Entertainment’s Pete Shilaimon and Mickey Liddell for LD Entertainment, Oddfellows Entertainment’s Chris Ferguson, and Range Media Partners’ Brian Kavanaugh Jones. The script was written by Nick Lepard.
Opening Directors’ Fortnight this year will be Enzo, directed by France’s Robin Campillo, while the closing night film is Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby.
Cannes Film Festival runs May 13 – 24. Distributor Kismet has slated Dangerous Animals for a June 12 theatrical release in Australia.