Eddie Izzard in ‘The Flip Side.’
Five Australian films have been invited to the 73rd edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs from June 19–30.
Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding, Thomas M Wright’s Acute Misfortune, Marion Pilowsky’s The Flip Side and Miranda Nation’s Undertow will screen in the World Perspectives strand.
Tony D’Aquino’s debut feature The Furies, a female-driven survival thriller, will be showcased in the Night Moves strand.
The festival describes D’Aquino’s film, which stars Airlie Dodds, Danielle Horvat, Linda Ngo and Taylor Ferguson, as a “gripping modern take on the 1980s slasher film, full of gore.”
Acute Misfortune is a “striking, brilliant and unconventional portrait” of one of Australia’s most acclaimed and idiosyncratic painters Adam Cullen; The Flip Side is a breezy rom-com about a budding chef and a British actor; Undertow is a tense and moving female-led drama; and Top End Wedding is a rom-com about family ties and contrasting cultures, it says.
Robert Connolly, executive producer of Wright’s film, said: “Edinburgh is one of the most innovative and exciting cultural cities in the world and its film festival is the perfect platform to launch Acute Misfortune’s international life.”
Canadian-born director Shelagh McLeod’s drama Astronaut, which stars Richard Dreyfuss as a lonely widower who dreams of a trip to space, will have its world premiere in World Perspectives.
Boyz in the Wood, the debut feature of Scottish music video director Ninian Doff, which stars Eddie Izzard as a mysterious huntsman in pursuit of four city boys, will open the festival.
The program encompasses 121 new features from 42 countries including 18 world premieres and 78 UK premieres. Almost 43% of the feature films and short films have a female director.
Izzard also stars in The Flip Side together with French actress Vanessa Guide, Emily Taheny and Luke McKenzie. Produced by Sue Murray, Pilowsky and David Willing, the comedy is being sold internationally by Gary Phillips’ UK-based Moviehouse Entertainment. It’s been picked up by Sky Movies in the UK and for worldwide airlines by Captive Entertainment.
The closing night film is Adrian Noble’s Mrs Lowry & Son, which stars Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall in the story of the relationship between the artist L.S. Lowry and his controlling mother. It opens here via Rialto in December.