Documentary Jury Announced

Adelaide Film Festival today announced its Documentary Jury for 2015, ahead of its return to Adelaide cinemas October 15-25.

Festival Director Amanda Duthie is thrilled to welcome to Adelaide:

BECK COLE, Filmmaker and screenwriter
Beck hails from Alice Springs and her work includes the feature film Here I Am and the short dramas Plains Empty and Flat. Her documentary work includes Making Samson & Delilah, First Australians: The Untold Story of Australia, Lore of Love and Wirriya: Small Boy. Most recently Beck co-directed the award winning Black Comedy series. Beck is particularly interested in creating strong roles for Aboriginal women. 

MICHAEL LOEBENSTEIN, National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) CEO
Michael, born and raised in Vienna has worked as a curator, researcher and cultural entrepreneur since the 1990s. He was appointed CEO of the NFSA after holding senior manager positions at the Austrian Film Museum. He is the Secretary-General of FIAF - The International Federation of Film Archives - and a board member of the Centre For Media History at Macquarie University and the Jewish Film Foundation of Australia.

JANE SCHOETTLE, International Programmer, Toronto International Film Festival
Jane is responsible for programming films from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Israel, as well as American independent cinema. She has served on numerous film festival juries and in film development projects around the world, most recently at SXSW and the Jerusalem Film Lab.

The work that will feature in the Flinders University Best Documentary Award Competition will be announced at the Festival’s full program launch on Wednesday 9 September.

Finalists will compete for a $10,000 cash prize, sponsored by Flinders University.

“This superstar Jury joins the stellar International feature Jury,” Amanda Duthie said today. “The line up of films for the Flinders University Best Documentary Competition is dazzling – expect everything from love stories to car racing, teenagers who change the world, ice and more ice and a philosophical musical woofer. Have I given too much away? All will be revealed soon.”

Adelaide Film Festival again promises to highlight the best of local, Australian and internationally produced films, with an eclectic mix of cinema, television, art and the moving image.

For further information contact: Mark McGowan / 0419 695 487