AFF Goes to Cannes

Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) has partnered with the Marché du Film, the world’s largest film market, at the prestigious Festival de Cannes, 13–21 May 2025.

In 2025, AFF once again partnered with the Marché du Film to showcase Australian filmmaking as part of the Marché 'Goes to Cannes' platform. The initiative offers South Australian filmmakers and national AFFIF alumni the opportunity to attend a program of activities at the Marché du Film Festival de Cannes – the world’s largest film market.

The objective of this initiative is to connect local filmmaking talent with the global market. The five films selected are presented by the filmmakers to an audience of sales agents, investors, programmers and other market delegates.

The projects and filmmakers selected for Adelaide Film Festival Goes to Cannes showcase in 2025 were the feature film Rewilder, represented at Cannes by producer Madeleine Parry, the feature documentary Troublemaker, represented by co-director Jared Nicholson, the feature documentary Acts of Forgetting, represented by producer Philippa Campey, the feature film Diabolic, represented by producer and director Daniel J. Phillips, and the feature film The Run, represented by producer Chloe Gardner.

This Adelaide Film Festival initiative is funded by the South Australian Government, with in-kind support from the SAFC and Screen Australia.

“The Adelaide Film Festival has helped shape a generation of filmmakers’ careers by helping to enable the production of bold and daring screen works through the AFF Investment Fund that have been presented across the globe, many at acclaimed film festivals. Recent highlights include Lesbian Space Princess (Berlinale 2025 Teddy Award winner and 2024 Goes to Cannes participant) and Jimpa which screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

The Goes to Cannes initiative is part of AFFs broader suite of international engagement activities and is a festival bridge connecting Australian creative talent with the global market and other international festivals. An important professional development opportunity, AFF Goes to Cannes places Australian creatives at the centre of the world’s most important film market. Inaugural participants in 2024 benefited from the initiative by on boarding international sales agents and connecting with A-list festival programmers."

– Mat Kesting, Adelaide Film Festival CEO & Creative Director.

Films Premiering at AFF 2025

The Run

The near future. A plague has ravaged the land, anarchy reigns, everyone’s on the run. Mac does delivery runs for an unseen manipulator. Aliah seizes her baby and runs for sanctuary. This stylish thriller from local director Stephen de Villiers uses SA locations as an appropriately harsh backdrop for white-knuckle suspense.

Diabolic

Adelaide’s Daniel J. Phillips aims to make your blood curdle – a religious cult, a troubled young woman, hallucinogenic therapy, and an evil that refuses to die. Diabolic showcases the cream of local talent to produce what is sure to be a breakout horror success.

Iron Winter

For generations Mongolian herders have protected their horses from winter storms by amassing a herd and nominating young men to protect it. Now two young friends are handed the responsibility of reviving this tradition, battling the deadliest winter on record. In the Iron Winter, nothing can survive alone.

AFF Goes to Cannes 2025

Acts of Forgetting

Director: Rhys Graham
Australia AND Spain, Feature Documentary.
in post-production

As contemporary Spain experiences political upheaval, a group of formidable Australian and Spanish artists gather in Madrid over several years to resurrect painful stories of Franco’s dictatorship in pursuit of a new bold work of theatre.

Diabolic

Directors: Daniel J. Phillips
Australia, Feature fiction
seeking additional investment

A decade after her excommunication, Elise returns to a fundamentalist Mormon settlement at the behest of her psychiatrist. She undergoes a healing ceremony, which uncovers buried memories of her forbidden love, and invokes a 19th-century witch who resurfaces to unleash brutal revenge.

Rewilder

Director: Cameron Nelson
Australia, Feature fiction
Seeking additional investment

Sai Damon runs the sheep farm of the future. Drones hover over paddocks, herding tens of thousands of sheep to be sheared by migrant workers. Sai’s only respite from his work is long talks with his ex-wife, Tessa, the mother of his estranged daughter and a long-haul trucker who calls nightly to stave off the loneliness of the road. Sai reveals that the rural areas around him are falling apart. There are no jobs, so his neighbours have resorted to cooking meth and selling it to his workers to make ends meet. When a toddler trespasses and nearly drowns on Sai’s land, he’s had enough of the negligent behaviour. Sai arranges a meeting with the neighbours, but their surprising and aggressive attempt to buy him out puts him on the defensive. As he slowly unfolds the mystery of the little girl’s origins, he discovers that there are deeply hidden secrets in the land that surrounds him.

The Run

Director: Stephen de villiers
Australia, Feature Fiction
In post-production

The Run is a gripping action thriller set in the near-future, in a dystopian world that is crippled by global lockdowns and a mysterious infertility crisis. An aging smuggler, Mac, a man with secrets and a tragic past, lives in a remote region in the year 2036. To survive, Mac reluctantly runs contraband, dodging quarantine zones, abandoned towns, and lawless locals who live in the frigid landscape. En route to collect a mysterious package, Mac meets Aliah, a teenager on the run from ruthless captors. Aliah has the first baby born in Australia in over three years. Mac must grapple with his morality after he discovers that delivering Aliah’s baby to syndicate buyers is his actual mission.

Troublemaker

Director: Jared Nicholson & Ben Lawrence
Australia, Feature Documentary
seeking additional investment

Troublemaker is a true-crime psychological thriller that blurs the line between fact and fiction. It follows director Jared Nicholson and massacre survivor Wendy Scurr down the rabbit hole as they search for truth in the shadowy world of conspiracy groups. On April 28, 1996, Australia changed forever when 35 people were gunned down at Port Arthur. The massacre led to sweeping gun reforms, still considered the gold standard worldwide. Troublemaker is a timely and personal exploration of survival in a chaotic world – and how conspiracies take root in both individuals and society. Spanning 30 years, the film exposes how misinformation, fringe groups, and a breakdown of trust in authority have fueled a crisis of belief – threatening the foundations of society like never before.