By Travis Johnson
Romi Trower’s feature debut What If It Works? is the winner of the inaugural Best Australian Indie Film Award at the Gold Coast Film Festival.
The romantic comedy was selected from a field of five Australian films that screened at the 2017 festival, by a panel that included ABC TV News Breakfast critic Zak Hepburn, Screen Daily critic Sarah Ward, Sydney-based FIPRESCI critic Annette Willis, SBS Movies critic Simon Foster and critic/broadcaster/academic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.
Starring Anna Samson, Luke Ford and Brooke Satchwell, and filmed in Melbourne, What if it Works? tells the story of two people struggling to find love while battling their own mental illness. As Trower told us previously, “My interest in telling this story is born of my personal experiences. My older brother has a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and my aunt is a psychiatrist who specialises in Dissociative Identity Disorder, whose career sparked my fascination with this disorder. Over many years, this has deepened as I’ve had the privilege of getting to know individuals with DID and attending their therapy sessions. With What If It Works?, I wanted to share some of their stories, with kindness and honesty.”
Having had its world premiere at Cinequest in San Jose, California last month, What If It Works? will have its Australian premiere at the GCFF this Friday, April 28, with Trower in attendance.
The Best Australian Indie Film Award is presented in association with FilmInk.
