Writer-director James Robert Woods and producer Stephanie Jane Day’s debut feature Moonrise Over Knights Hill is set to make its world premiere as the closing night film of Sydney’s Inner West Film Fest next month.
The film follows high school besties Clare, Angie and Isabel as they spend a luxury birthday weekend away at the six-star Lothian Gate Southern Highlands farmstay with their partners in tow. While the women share a nostalgic bond, the partners are strangers, and the simmering social machinations of the disparate personalities test the couples’ loyalty. Meanwhile, across the manicured grounds, the fraught relationship between the farmstay’s conflicted Indigenous caretaker and his anti-establishment partner threatens to derail the weekend.
The ensemble cast includes Nicola Frew as Clare, Josephine Starte as Angie and Annelise Hall as Isabel, while Ben Gerrard, Luke Jacobz, and David Quirk play the three women’s partners. Robert Preston is the caretaker and Sapphire Blossom his partner.
Moonrise Over Knights Hill is the first feature project from Woods and Day’s production company, Badlands.
Woods also serves as cinematographer and editor. Other heads of department and crew include costume designer Olivia Simpson, production designer Paula Santos and Lisa Twomey, hair and makeup designer Amelia Fell, sound recordist Nathan Bell, sound designer Stuart Melvey and colourist Brett Manson.
Moonrise Over Knights Hill will screen 8.45pm April 17 at Dendy Newtown.