By Travis Johnson
AACTA Social Shorts award winner Whoever Was Using This Bed has just been selected for the Peekskill Film Festival in New York, its 150th international film festival. The film will screen at the historic Paramount Hudson Valley Theatre on the opening night of July 27.
To date, Andrew Kotatko’s short film has won over 75 festival and industry awards since its premiere screening at Flickerfest Short Film Festival in 2016. Based on a short story by Raymond Carver (Birdman), the film stars Jean-Marc Barr (The Big Blue), Radha Mitchell (Man on Fire) and French icon Jane Birkin (Blow-Up). The psychological drama focuses on a married couple’s nocturnal journey into fear and desire.
Kotatko says the greatest honour he has received was high praise from Raymond Carver’s widow, American poet Tess Gallagher. “Whoever Was Using This Bed was a very personal story for Ray, so I felt a great responsibility in doing it justice on film,” Kotatko said. “But the film also has its own voice. Tess described the film as ‘a wonderful strange music box whose tune haunts you, and never misses a beat.’ She also loved Radha and Jean-Marc’s performances.”
Whoever Was Using This Bed is actually Kotatko’s second Carver adaptation, following his earlier short Everything Goes with Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton, based on Carver’s story Why Don’t You Dance? He is currently developing a mini-series and a comedy feature film.
