Australian acting icon Hugo Weaving, actor Baykali Gananbarr (The Nightingale), actor Lily Sullivan (Monolith, Picnic at Hanging Rock), environmentalist Bob Brown, Australian Afghani photographer Muzafar Ali, Olympian Sam Willoughby and founding members of the band The Angels head a list of South Australian, Australian and international guests heading to the upcoming Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) which takes place at cinemas and theatres across the city from October 19 – 30.
The Angels will be joined by the director of the brand-new documentary The Angels: Kickin’ Down the Door, Madeleine Parry, whose Netflix documentary Nanette featuring Hannah Gadsby became a world-wide sensation. The Angels: Kickin’ Down the Door will have its World Premiere on the Opening Night of the Festival, October 19, with a live performance by the band to follow.
Also joining the Festival guest line-up – live from Europe and the US – will be legendary Spanish actress Rossy de Palma (Parallel Mothers, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), long considered Pedro Almodovar’s muse, and director/choreographer Benjamin Millepied, in a Q&A to follow the Australian premiere of their spectacular film Carmen, the Australian-French co-production, partially filmed in South Australia. The film’s producer Rosemary Blight, who has brought films such as Top End Wedding to previous AFF galas, will attend the Australian premiere screening at the beloved Her Majesty’s Theatre.
The screening of Carmen will begin with a performance by another of the film’s stars, internationally acclaimed and Adelaide-born flamenco dancer, Marina Tamayo.
International filmmakers travelling to Adelaide include director Elwira Niewiera, whose Ukrainian documentary The Hamlet Syndrome is in the Documentary Competition. The film documents five young Ukrainians who, in the lead up to the current Russian invasion, combine the themes of Hamlet with their combat experiences in the war between the two countries since 2014. This confronting documentary captures a generation caught in the eye of the cyclone of history.
Leading Bengali filmmaker Indrasis Acharya, director of In the Mist/Niharika, is also a Festival guest.
The New York-based Australian art collective Soda Jerk will be in Adelaide to premiere their new work Hello Dankness at Adelaide’s Samstag Museum as part of the Adelaide Film Festival. The film is the 2022 biennial Art & Moving Image commission by the Adelaide Film Festival, in partnership with the Samstag Museum of Art.
David Jowsey, the recipient of this year’s Don Dunstan Award, presented in recognition of an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture, will be In Conversation with AFF patron and industry legend Margaret Pomeranz. David Jowsey is the co-founder of BUNYA Productions with Ivan Sen and producer of films and series such as Mystery Road and The Drover’s Wife.
Other ‘In Conversations’ not to be missed are Adelaide Film Festival director favourite Rolf de Heer and producer Julie Byrne chatting to film journalist Sandy George about their new film The Survival of Kindness, which has its World Premiere at the Festival, and Festival guest Elwira Niewara discussing The Hamlet Syndrome with SA director Chris Drummond. Niewara and Drummond will discuss the intersectional capacity of theatre and documentary to create powerful works about contemporary trauma, as well as advocacy documents for critical issues.
Director Larissa Behrendt and artist Richard Bell will attend the World Premiere of You Can Go Now, with Bell’s visual artwork Embassy to be presented as part of Tarnanthi, AGSA’s acclaimed continuous celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. Embassy is inspired by the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the protest camp set up 50 years ago on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra. This installation, exhibited on the AGSA forecourt, will feature film screenings and talks providing a platform to challenge preconceived ideas and stereotypes about Aboriginal people, art and culture.
The roll call of other Australian filmmakers who are guests of the Adelaide Film Festival include actress Shantae Barnes-Cowan, who stars in the award-winning Sweet As, Adelaide’s Michael and Danny Philippou (aka RackaRacka) whose feature debut Talk to Me closes the Festival, documentary director Penny McDonald and her subject Audrey Napanangka, directors Matt Vesely (Monolith), Sean Lahiff (Carnifex), Laurence Billiet (The Giants), Noel Smyth (Gloriavale), Charlotte Wheaton (Greenhouse by Joost), Brenda Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt (The Last Daughter), Dick Dale (Ripspreader), Sinem Saban (Luku Ngarra), Serge Ou (Ride), Jolyon Hoff (Watander: My Countryman) and Beck Cole (We Are Still Here).
Mat Kesting, AFF CEO & Creative Director, said: “We are thrilled to welcome so many filmmakers and guests from Australia and around the world as well as guests from here at home in South Australia. AFF has always been known as the friendly festival, where filmmakers, other special guests and our wonderful patrons can get to know each other and share their passion for cinema.”
South Australian Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said: “It’s no surprise the Adelaide Film Festival is attracting such an incredible variety of national and international film industry names to town to celebrate the event’s opening. The AFF team is to be congratulated for curating this outstanding program of films that includes directorial debuts and award-winning films from both Australia and the rest of the world. I am particularly pleased to see the program opens and closes with local South Australian talent. The South Australian Government’s additional $2 million investment to annualise the AFF will give a major boost to the contribution already made by the AFF to the local creative sector over the past 20 years.”
