Two backpackers take on outback culture.
You’re invited to the Opening Night Gala of Adelaide Film Festival 2023, South Australia’s premier screen event! Come together with filmmakers and film lovers from far and wide to kick off your festival experience with Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel, a fitting salute to the courageous cinema that is created in South Australia.
Dress up and join us on the red carpet from 6pm to be a part of this glamorous night. Director and co-writer Kitty Green will attend the Opening Night Gala and walk the red carpet with Australian acting icon, and Adelaide Film Festival Board member, Hugo Weaving.
Uncompromising auteur Kitty Green (Casting JonBenet, The Assistant) explodes the conventions of the outback thriller in this captivating new work. Having the time of their lives, Americans Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are best friends backpacking in Australia. After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called ‘The Royal Hotel’ in a remote Outback mining town. Bar owner Billy (Hugo Weaving) and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Down Under drinking culture but soon Hanna and Liv find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control. Green subverts the genre by taking a female gaze towards toxic masculinity and outback culture, while giving audiences an exceptional cinematic experience.
Coming to Adelaide Film Festival via its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Royal Hotel was produced by some of Australia’s foremost producers: Emile Sherman and Iain Canning (The Power of the Dog, Lion, The King’s Speech), Liz Watts (Animal Kingdom, The King) and Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah, The New Boy). The Royal Hotel is a Transmission Films’ release. Filmed in South Australia, The Royal Hotel is a testament to the extraordinary films made in our state.
It’s sure to be a remarkable night, that won’t wrap up at the end of the screening. Your ticket will also include access to the Gala After Party at Hindley Street Music Hall, with entertainment, drinks and, of course, some dancing.
So join us, take a seat, and see the world in a totally new light.
The Piccadilly
Red Carpet – 6pm
Screening – 6.45pm
Hindley Street Music Hall
After Party – 9pm