Adelaide Film Festival Announces 2024 Program
The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) has today launched its full program for the 2024 Festival, to be held from 23 October – 03 November.
112 films from 46 countries will be presented at AFF 2024 with 15 World Premieres and 34 Australian Premieres at venues across Adelaide.
The World Premiere of Kangaroo Island, directed by South Australia’s Timothy David, is AFF’s 2024 Closing Night presentation. Starring Rebecca Breeds, Adelaide Clemens, Erik Thomson and Joel Jackson, Kangaroo Island tells of a struggling Hollywood actress who returns home to ruggedly beautiful Kangaroo Island and confronts the love triangle that tore her family apart. Kangaroo Island is an Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund film.
Director/Producer Timothy David will be a guest of Adelaide Film Festival, along with stars of the film, Rebecca Breeds, Erik Thomson and Joel Jackson, SA-based producers Peter Hanlon, Bettina Hamilton and writer Sally Gifford.
Galas
The previously announced Opening Night Gala is Kriv Stenders’ The Correspondent, starring Richard Roxburgh, based on the story of journalist Peter Greste’s imprisonment in Egypt. Kriv Stenders, Richard Roxburgh and Peter Greste will attend Opening Night. Hamish MacDonald will moderate a panel discussion with Stenders, Roxburgh and Greste on Thursday 24th October.
The Opening Weekend Gala is the previously announced Emilia Pérez, the latest film from Palme d’Or winning director Jacques Audiard and winner of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress prize awarded to the ensemble cast of Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. AFF has joined forces with La Bomba, bringing together Mexican dancers, live music, roving entertainers, Latin DJs, food and drinks for this special not to be missed occasion that will be the most memorable start to any weekend.
Official Competition
Established in 2007, the Feature Fiction Competition at AFF was the first of its kind in Australia. The Competition values bold storytelling, creative risk-taking with a preference for early career directors with idiosyncratic and diverse voices. The AFF Documentary Award, sponsored by Crumpler, celebrates distinctive factual filmmaking and celebrates original and distinctive documentary voices.
This year’s AFF Jury is Claudia Rodríguez Valencia, CEO of Preciosa Media, a company focused on film distribution, alliances, fundraising and media consulting in Latin America and Europe; Leena Khobragade, who was the Director of Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market, and leader of the Screenwriters’ Lab at NFDC Film Bazaar, which has nurtured acclaimed films; Matthew Bate, the co-director and founder of Adelaide-based Closer Productions, and an award-winning writer and director whose work spans feature documentaries, television drama, virtual reality, factual series and interactive television; Glasgow-born and Melbourne-based film journalist and critic Stephen A Russell; and Penny Smallacombe, who is a member of the Maramanindji people, from the Northern Territory, and formerly Head of the First Nations Department at Screen Australia where she oversaw a large slate of highly successful film and TV projects, before joining Bunya Productions and Netflix. Penny is currently Head of Scripted for Blackfella Films.
This year, AFF’s Feature Fiction Competition is a selection of debuts and second features capturing the comedy, drama and occasional terror at the heart of human relationships.
The five films in the Feature Fiction Competition are Good One, US filmmaker India Donaldson’s thoughtful and quietly confident portrait of the universal moment when the parental bond is forever broken; the Australian premiere of Ink Wash, from Romanian director Sarra Tsorakidis, about an artist facing a dark night of the soul; In The Belly of the Tiger, a poignant allegorical critique of capitalism from director Jatla Siddartha, part of India’s burgeoning arthouse movement; Dutch director Peter Hoogendoorn’s Three Days of Fish, an intimate snapshot of male vulnerability which captured attention at the recent Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; and the haunting and highly original ghost story Went Up the Hill from Australian director Samuel Van Grinsven, starring Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) and Vicky Krieps (The Dead Don’t Hurt, Corsage). This is Samuel’s follow up feature to Sequin in a Blue Room.
The five films in the Feature Documentary Competition explore lives on the brink of change – a generation of young Australians who make a festival to bring in a new age and create a progressive legacy for Australia; a Mongolian family who must swap the natural rhythms of herding for the uncertain ones of city and FIFO life; a young Czech, behind the Berlin wall and excluded from art school, who finds solace in photographing every aspect of her life, creating a body of work which will make her name 40 years later; a wife facing death who prepares to leave her loving husband behind; and three men, confronting Trump’s 2020 presidential defeat, who descend into extreme radicalism.
They are the Australian film Aquarius, directed by Wendy Champagne, a revelatory chronicle of the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin; the Australian premiere of Homegrown, directed by Michael Premo, about three alt-right men post Trump’s 2020 defeat; I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Director: Klára Tasovská) about the fascinating life of Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková; directors Pier-Luc Latulippe and Martin Fournier’s Simon and Marianne, about a couple’s final journey through terminal illness, love, and loss; and The Wolves Always Come at Night, directed by Gabrielle Brady, a hybrid film which uses observational documentary with scenes re-enacted and co-written with the protagonists to create an intimate portrayal of the effects of climate change, not only on livelihoods, but also on dreams.
Special Presentations
Films making a splash at the world’s most important film festivals can be found in AFF’s Special Presentations. Two works centred in biography, Piece by Piece (Director: Morgan Neville) and Nightbitch (Director: Marielle Heller), come to AFF direct from Toronto while Blitz (Director: Steve McQueen), a story of Britain at the brink told through the eyes of one family, is to open London and will close New York Film Festival. Rounding off the program is one of the best European films of the year, the Berlinale Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay winner, Dying, directed by Matthias Glasner and starring arguably Germany’s greatest living actor, Lars Eidinger. The previously announced pièce de résistance is this year’s Palme d’Or winner Anora, which cements indie darling Sean Baker as a master filmmaker.
Country Spotlight: India
Following last year’s focus on Indonesia, AFF’s Country Spotlight turns, in 2024, to India, with films selected from several corners of this culturally rich and diverse country. AFF is proud to present All We Imagine as Light, the first Indian film in competition at Cannes in 30 years - where it won the Grand Prix - and the first entry ever by an Indian woman director, Payal Kapadia. Other films in the program include the Australian premiere of Boong, directed by Lakshmipriya Devi. This rare cinematic treat from Manipur, India, will grip audiences from its opening scenes with is tender freshness and laugh out loud moments. Also in the Spotlight are director Anirban Dutta’s Sundance-winning Nocturnes, which takes audiences into the mesmerising world of Himalayan moths, and, also set in the Himalayas, director Subhadra Mahajan’s Second Chance, about a heartbroken girl who retreats to her family’s summer home in the mountains to heal. Director of the AFF Feature Film Competition selection In the Belly of the Tiger, Jatla Siddartha, from India, is a Festival guest.
Change Award
AFF’s influential Change Award, established in 2020 for cinema with a positive or environmental impact and which express new directions for humanity, sees five films competing for a $5000 cash prize. The Jury comprises three young women leaders in environmental, social and cultural change – campaigner Aira Firdaus, marine biologist Anita Thomas and AACTA-nominated producer Bonnie McBride. The films are Dust to Dust, directed by Kosai Sekine, about a renowned Japanese fashion designer who is creating a new material from fast fashion’s dumped cheap synthetics; Every Little Thing, by award-winning Australian director Sally Aitken, about a retired Los Angeles writer and teacher who finds solace and wonder in rehabilitating injured hummingbirds; I Am the River, the River Is Me, from director Petr Lom, a visually stunning documentary that follows a five-day canoe journey down the Whanganui River, Aotearoa/New Zealand’s first river to be recognised as a legal person; Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics directed by Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong; and Union, directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story, the ‘David and Goliath’ story of a fired Amazon worker daring to take on a multi-national. Dust to Dust is due to be premiere ahead of the festival on 11th October in partnership with Adelaide Fashion Week.
World Cinema
The World Cinema program of films, many of them award winners, come from local, national and international filmmakers from countries including Portugal, Georgia, Bulgaria, Poland, Denmark, the US, Taiwan, Iran and China. Amongst the many highlights of the World Cinema program are the winner at this year’s Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Black Dog, from Chinese director Guan Hu; acclaimed Iranian director Mohammad Rasloulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which he presented at Cannes only after fleeing Iran on foot; US filmmaker Theda Hammel’s Stress Positions, a biting, queer comedy on Brooklynites coping in the early days of the pandemic; winner of four awards at the Locarno Film Festival including Golden Leopard Award winner, Toxic, from Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė; Sasquatch Sunset, a description-defying creature feature starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough as you’ve never seen them – that is, in elaborate bigfoot character makeup – by directors David Zellner and Nathan Zellner; and a second Iranian film, My Favourite Cake, about one night, two lonely hearts, and endless possibilities, set in Tehran and directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha.
World Documentary
The World Documentary program sees the Australian film The Pool (Director: Ian Darling), which celebrates the iconic Bondi Icebergs pool and the community it nurtures, alongside the winner of the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema – Documentary, the Norwegian film A New Kind of Wilderness, directed by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen, and Black Box Diaries, about a young Japanese journalist who, after being sexually assaulted by an influential figure, investigates her own case, setting into motion a movement for change.
Other highlights include Berlinale Winner Dahomey which explores cultural restitution following the return of 26 cultural objects to Benin (Director: Mati Diop); The Contestant, the unbelievable true story of a Japanese game show contestant nicknamed ‘Nasubi’ (‘Eggplant’), who was left naked, alone and starving in a room for 15 months - unaware he was being broadcast to over 15 million TV viewers a week (Director: Clair Titley); Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, narrated by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Hinton; No Other Land, winner of Best Documentary at Berlinale, an affecting film from an Israeli–Palestinian collective that has won over audiences around the world; and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, one of the most acclaimed and original documentaries of the year, exploring the events leading to the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961, which intertwines political intrigue with the vibrant cultural backdrop, highlighting jazz legends like Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane (Director: Johan Grimonprez).
Music on Film & Horror
Continuing the musical theme is AFF’s beloved Music on Film program which this year sees films about trailblazers such as Devo, Peaches, The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. And it wouldn’t be AFF without some Horror in the program, which this year includes a screening of the newly restored, in breathtaking 4K, Australian classic Wake in Fright (Director: Ted Kotcheff) and a Halloween one-off presentation of Carnage for Christmas by 20-year-old Adelaide director Alice Maio Mackay.
AFFIF
The AFF Investment Fund (AFFIF) has supported over 150 projects since 2005, helping to represent South Australian culture on screen, taking it to the world. AFF 2024 sees eight feature projects premiere, including five films directed by women and four directorial debuts – Lesbian Space Princess (Directors: Leela Varghese & Emma Hough Hobbs), Make It Look Real (Director: Kate Blackmore), One Mind, One Heart (Director: Larissa Behrendt), Songs Inside (Director: Shalom Almond), We Bury The Dead (Director: Zak Hilditch) and With or Without You (Director: Kelly Schilling).
Awards
The Adelaide Film Festival Board presents the Don Dunstan Award in recognition of an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture.
Previous recipients include Andrew Bovell, Bruna Papandrea, Judy Davis, Freda Glynn, David Dalaithngu Gulpilil AM, Rolf de Heer, Scott Hicks, Dennis O’Rourke, David Jowsey, Sally Riley and the combined contributions of David Stratton AM and Margaret Pomeranz AM.
The 2024 Don Dunstan Award recipient is legendary cinematographer and director Don McAlpine. Don is known globally for his work in over 50 films, including Predator (1987), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Peter Pan (2003) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Born in Quandialla, New South Wales, Don still finds time to support local filmmakers as a freelance DOP in films such as The Dressmaker (2015), Ali’s Wedding (2017) and A Stitch in Time (2022). In 2001 Don was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for his service to Australian Society and Australian Film Production.
Newly announced AFF patron, director Sophie Hyde, will be In Conversation with Don McAlpine. Sophie Hyde is one of South Australia’s most celebrated filmmakers. Her films include Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Animals, The Hunting and 52 Tuesdays.
Screen Conversations
Further Screen Conversations not to be missed include Animation: Contextualising Australia’s mini-boom with speakers including Ken Anderson, co-founder Wild Child Animation, UK, and Lesbian Space Princess director Leela Varghese and Making debut films: Scripts, risks, joys and challenges, a deep dive into script and story through the prism of three of this year’s AFFIF films, which all feature a protagonist in a critical moment of transition. Panellists are Kelly Schilling (With or Without You), Sally Gifford (Kangaroo Island), Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese (Lesbian Space Princess).
Initiatives
In partnership with Samstag Museum of Art, AFF presents Archie Moore: The AFF & Samstag Art and Moving Image Commission and the 2024 Expand Moving Image Commission.
Archie Moore’s ambitious new moving image work is the thirteenth AFF & Samstag Art and the Moving Image Commission and is the fifth iteration of his installation series Dwelling, in which Moore imaginatively recreates the mise- en-scène of his childhood home. This ongoing investigation of memory and the effect of colonisation draws on visual, auditory, haptic and olfactory elements to create a powerful sense of verisimilitude.
The inaugural AFF/Samstag Expand Moving Image Commission is a series of experimental docu-fiction moving image works by artists Susan Norrie (NSW), Matthew Thorne (SA) and Emmaline Zanelli (SA), developed as a collaborative project at AFF Expand Lab 2022 and presented at Samstag Museum of Art. In three chapters, the artists follow the narrative threads of mining in Australia, focusing on fly-in-fly-out workers, their families, environmental impacts and the complex relationship experienced by First Nation custodians of the land on which resource extraction takes place. Together they offer counter perspectives to frequently cliched assumptions, excavating this underrepresented but critical sector of contemporary Australia.
The 2024 Bettison & James Award, administered by the Adelaide Film Festival on behalf of the Jim Bettison and Helen James Foundation, was tonight awarded – at AFF’s official program launch – to Angela Valamanesh, an independent visual artist based in Adelaide for over forty years. Angela works across a number of different mediums with a focus on the connections between art and science and an abiding fascination with nature and our connections to all life forms. Her art works are included in private and public collections including Art Gallery of South Australia and National Gallery of Australia.
Launched in 2020, the annual Hanlon Larsen Screen Fellowship funds an experimental film project in partnership with Flinders University, The Mercury and Adelaide Film Festival. The Fellow was established by Peter Hanlon in honour of his friend, collaborator and industry luminary, the late Cole Larsen. The 2024 recipient of the $45,000 cash and in-kind prize is Strega directed by Tiah Trimboli, a three-channel dance film inspired by the reframing of The Fates as The Three Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
In announcing the 2024 AFF program, Mat Kesting, AFF CEO & Creative Director, said:
“Cinema brings people together for a chance to meet and reflect on where humanity and the world is at, and AFF 2024 offers a selection of extraordinary films that reflect the interesting times in which we live. With over 110 films from more than 40 countries, AFF 2024 aims to inform, provoke and entertain. Have some fun and put your dancing shoes on for our three galas and be sure to buy a film pass so that you can see as many of these remarkable films as possible.”
Minister for Arts, Andrea Michaels, said:
“It’s fantastic to celebrate the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival program launch! The Adelaide Film Festival is now an annual celebration of our screen industry and the power of cinema following the Malinauskas Government’s additional $4 million investment. This year’s event launches with a remarkable film documenting the experience of Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, who spent 400 days behind bars in Egypt after being arrested on terrorism charges while covering the Arab Spring. There will be something for everyone so I encourage people to come out and enjoy incredible local and international films.”
Adelaide Film Festival
23 Oct – 03 Nov