AFF Expand Lab 2024 Applications Open

Adelaide Film Festival Calls for Applications for AFF Expand Lab 2024 and $100,000 Expand Moving Image Commission.

Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) has announced the return of its award winning AFF Expand Lab - the leading opportunity in Australia for established creative practitioners to meet and develop new ideas for moving image projects.

AFF Expand Lab 2024 will bring together Australian visual artists, filmmakers, writers, and other creatives working with screen, performance, media arts and XR to learn from renowned mentors to develop new project ideas. The lab will be held at Lot Fourteen and run alongside the Adelaide Film Festival closing weekend and encore screenings from November 1 – 8 2024.

One project developed in the lab will be awarded the $100,000 Expand Moving Image Commission, made possible through The Balnaves Foundation, Arts South Australia and Adelaide Film Festival. This is one of Australia’s most significant Moving Image Commissions, as it ensures that artists can advance their careers and create impactful moving image works. In addition, two projects will be selected for mentoring by Art Gallery of South Australia and Illuminate Adelaide.

Hamish Balnaves, CEO of The Balnaves Foundation said: “The Balnaves Foundation is delighted to continue our support as Principal Partner of AFF Expand Lab and the $100,000 Expand Moving Image Commission in 2024 - a major opportunity to bring inspiring creative ideas to life. AFF Expand Lab highlights South Australia as a leading destination for artists to develop new work and expand their horizons to create new opportunities for collaboration, ideas, and exhibition.”

The mentors for AFF Expand Lab 2024 are Iranian-born, Melbourne-based artist HODA AFSHAR who examines the politics of image-making through her photographs and moving image works; BEN JOSEPH ANDREWS whose mixed reality work, Turbulence: Jamais Vu, will screen in the Venice 2024 Best Of Immersive program; AMRITA HEPI (Bundjulung/Ngapuhi Territories) whose award winning practice is concerned with dance as social function performed within galleries, performance spaces, video art and digital technologies and EMMA ROBERTS a passionate storyteller, producer and community builder creating public-facing interactive technology installations, her VR work Gondwana created with Ben Joseph Andrews has recently been exhibited at SA Museum as a multi-sensory experience.

Adelaide Film Festival’s CEO and Creative Director Mat Kesting said: “We are delighted to present the third edition of AFF Expand Lab which will bring together practitioners from a range of backgrounds to test and try out ideas and concepts with visionary mentors. A major outcome from AFF Expand Lab is the ongoing mentoring and commissioning of new projects developed in the week-long lab.”

“The inaugural 2022 Expand Lab Moving Image Commission was awarded to Susan Norrie (NSW), Emmaline Zanelli (SA) and Matthew Thorne (SA) and will premiere at Samstag Museum of Art at AFF2024.  Followed by the 2023 Expand Lab Commission awarded to Anna Lindner (SA), Nisa East (NSW) and Yasemin Sabuncu (SA) premiering at Samstag during AFF2025.”

AFF Expand Lab is open to Australia-based participants, with up to 15 places available for South Australian practitioners and 15 places for practitioners from across Australia. It is free to attend AFF Expand Lab and each participant will receive a basic stipend to cover daily costs. National participants will receive financial support towards travel and accommodation.

Expressions of interest are now open and close at midnight on Sunday 8 September.

AFF Expand Lab is an initiative of Adelaide Film Festival with Principal Partner The Balnaves Foundation, and the Government of South Australia, Samstag Museum of Art, Art Gallery of South Australia and Illuminate Adelaide. With support from Lot Fourteen.

Media enquiries: Tracey Mair l TM Publicity l Ph: 0419 221 493 E: traceym@tmpublicity.com