Adelaide Film Festival Announces International Film Award And Twelve New Australian Films To Premiere At The 2007 Festival
Once again setting exciting new precedents, The Adelaide Film Festival is proud to announce the establishment of an international competition in 2007 with the presentation of the NATUZZI INTERNATIONAL AWARD for BEST FEATURE FILM, with a cash prize of $AUD25,000. This will be the first of its kind in Australia and places the Adelaide Film Festival alongside a small number of International Film Festivals offering substantial cash awards including Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Pusan, Tribeca and Tokyo Festivals.
Taking place from February 22 to March 4, The 2007 Adelaide Film Festival will present a dynamic program of screenings, special events, workshops and forums, attracting over 45,000 film lovers and film makers across its eleven day program and building its status as the ‘hot young thing’ in the film festival calendar. Director Katrina Sedgwick has once again put together a sharp edged, unique festival with strong political undercurrents, a sense of joie de vivre, and appeal to a wide range of audiences
The Adelaide Film Festival not only showcases the best of international screen culture but also invests in new and innovative Australian works through its investment arm, the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (Look Both Ways, Ten Canoes). The 2007 festival will world premiere an amazing 12 new Australian works from established and emerging filmmakers.
“Each of these films offer its creative team the chance to be bold and innovative in their storytelling for the screen”, said Katrina Sedgwick. “ It’s thrilling to watch this diverse slate develop and unfold and for South Australia to be playing such a significant role in enabling these projects to find what will no doubt be eager audiences both here and overseas.”
Highlights will include Boxing Day (Dir. Kriv Stenders),the story filmed in real time, of a father’s impassioned struggle to reunite his estranged family over the course of a single afternoon; Lucky Miles (Dir Michael James Rowland),a dramatic comedy about the journey of three refugees from Iraq and Cambodia abandoned in a remote corner of Western Australia; Dr Plonk, a black and white silent comedy feature from acclaimed director Rolf de Heer; Home Song Stories (Dir Tony Ayres), the semi autobiographical story of Rose, a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer, and her struggle to survive in Australia with her two young children; Forbidden Lie$ (dir. Anna Broinowski),– a real life thriller spinning murder, politics, greed and literary scandal that examines the story of Norma Khouri, best-selling author of Forbidden Love who was exposed as a fake; Words From The City (Dir Natasha Gadd & Rhys Graham), a celebration of the best of contemporary Australian Hip Hop; and the short film, Crocodile Dreaming (Dir Darlene Johnson) which sees David Gulpilil and Tom E Lewis starring together on screen for the first time.
Another exclusive will be the World Premiere of Passio – Paolo Cherchi Usai’s experimental silent film. The film will visually accompany a live performance by the internationally acclaimed Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices with organist Christopher Bowers Broadbent, of Arvo Pärt’s Passio, the masterpiece of 20th-century music based on the Gospel of John. Passio explores the impending crisis of visual culture and its reflection in politics and society. Its unsettling images, drawn from a century of filmmaking, are woven into a tapestry of mysterious beauty and violence. This very special event is presented in association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
The Adelaide Film Festival is delighted to screen five commissioned films from Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival. Inspired by three of the great works of the last year of Mozart’s life: The Magic Flute, La clemenza di Tito and the Requiem, the curators commissioned 6 extraordinary films from different corners of the globe, including films by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun from Chad, Tsai Ming-Liang from Taiwan and Malaysia, Garin Nugroho from Indonesia, Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand and, with her feature debut, Paz Encina from Paraguay. As Mozart did with music, these film-makers are seeking new ways in which to describe the world, ways that explore new possibilities for cinema and for life.
The concept of commissioning films within arts festivals was devised by Sellars for the 2002 Adelaide Festival of Arts (and included de Heer’s Tracker and Ayres’ Walking on Water). Sellars has developed this model further with New Crowned Hope, and in South Australia it inspired the AFF’s Investment Fund, so it is particularly fitting to have this exciting program screen within the 2007 Festival.
For those who reminisce about the golden days when cinemas were swathed in red velvet and luxurious fittings, the festival has a treat in store. Projectionist and film buff John Thiele has lovingly created The Mini Regent Cinema, an exquisite 24 seat cinema (housed in a suburban corrugated iron back shed) that recreates the Regent Cinemas that existed throughout Australia in the 30’s. The festival is delighted to present two very special screenings of archival and classical films at the Mini Regent. Daffy Duck will of course feature and Jaffas will roll down the aisles.
The 2007 Adelaide Film Festival will again coincide with the Australian International Documentary Conference (February 23 – 26). The AIDC is Australia’s key event in the International documentary film calendar and a must-attend event for anyone working in factual film and television.
Crossover Australia, a 5-day interactive, residential workshop bringing together national and international practitioners from film and new media sectors will take place in the week leading into the Adelaide Film Festival and the Australian International Documentary Conference, followed by, The Broadcast Summit, a one day symposium, featuring national and international speakers from BBC, ABC, SBS, Yahoo!7, Internode, Telstra and many more that will explore, discuss and debate the interface between television and digital delivery that will be the reality for broadcasters and the consumer over the next decade.,
The AFF will be Australia’s first triple platform festival celebrating the screen in all its forms – cinema, internet and mobile devices. National and international audiences across will be able to remotely engage with the festival with a number of films available for download via the website, and shorts and trailers will be available as mobile content through a network of Bluetooth sites across the city.
So although Adelaide will be absolutely the best place to be in February, films buffs across Australia can console themselves by settling back into their couches, switching the popcorn machine on and enjoying a sample of the world’s most exciting new films. www.adelaidefilmfestival.org
