A Note From The Premier: Hon. Mike Rann MP
The Hon. M.D. RANN (Premier of South Australia, and Minister for the Arts):
The Adelaide Film Festival 2007, after only its third event, has made stunning progress. It has more than fulfilled the promise as an event of both national and international standing, and it has achieved critical acclaim both nationally and internationally. The critics have been attentive, realising that, as a festival that not only shows films but also invests in them, the Adelaide Film Festival has a uniqueness worth celebrating.
The Melbourne Age headlined one of its reports with the words ‘Festival fastattaining classic status’. Garry Maddox of The Sydney Morning Herald described our film festival as one that ‘has clearly overtaken the Sydney Film Festival in just its third biennial outing’. In The Australian today, Noah Cowan, co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival (one of the biggest in the world, along with Cannes), was attributed as saying that the AFF has attracted the notice of international festival curators, not least for its investment in film production. He was also quoted as saying:
It [the AFF] has a robust way of intersecting with other cultural art forms and exploring the intellectual possibilities of cinema. What is more, and most importantly, audience response to the festival has been fantastic. The festival has realised the potential of the vision of nurturing the production of creative and challenging films rather than just screening them. There are 1 500 international film festivals around the world, and only a tiny number invest in films.
Our first baby was Look Both Ways, and was virtually a clean sweep of the AFI awards in 2005. Our second was Rolf de Heer’s 10 Canoes, with another virtual clean sweep of the AFI awards last December, including best film and best director. Of course, both those films were featured at the Cannes Film Festival, with 10 Canoes receiving a special jury award.
The investment through the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund has once again generated terrific rewards. This third festival included no fewer than 12 films made with the support of our own investment fund, many of which have also benefited from the assistance of the South Australian Film Corporation. The gritty family drama Boxing Day, the compelling story of Norma Khouri in the documentary Forbidden Lies, the short film What the Future Sounded Like, Rolf de Heer’s latest film, a black and white silent comedy, Dr Plonk (with perhaps the greatest Australian cast since Breaker Morant), Lucky Miles, the very sad Home Song Stories, produced in conjunction with Film Victoria, Kalaupapa—Heaven, Words from the City, Crocodile Dreaming, Spike Up, Sweet and Sour (which was the local company, the People’s Republic of Animation, in conjunction with the Shanghai Animation Film Studios), and Swing were all a tremendous success and were helped to fruition by our fund.
Our success in this area has clearly spurred Victoria, with Melbourne’s equivalent, the Melbourne International Film festival, recently announcing the creation of a similar fund. Apart from Australian success stories, the festival also included the latest and best movies from around the world.
The festival presented 17 world premieres, 54 Australian premieres, 65 feature films, 24 documentaries, 32 compilations and 29 short films from over 44 countries—films from China and Germany, from Chad and Paraguay—covering all manner of subjects and genres. The huge success and positive critical response is reflected in terrific patronage. Of course, we do not yet have the final figures for the festival, but I am delighted to announce to the house today that initial figures indicate that attendances were around 25 per cent up on the previous festival. In a crowded cultural calendar, the festival’s bold yet accessible programming, along with its choice of venues, ensured that one-third of all sessions had attendances of 80 per cent or more, with over 20 per cent being completely sold out. In total, the festival achieved attendances of over 46 000 over the 11-day period, I am advised.
There were so many stirring and very different elements of this festival. For example, there was the hugely successful Australian International Documentary Conference, with people from all around the world making pictures—people from South America and France, and even New Zealand—and the Fringe component of that conference. There was the Crossover event, which brought together the film and new media sectors to brainstorm new projects, there was the South Australian Short Screen Awards and there was the implicit promotion of the creative and technical ability of the South Australian film industry. There were 12 major forums, 17 free events, five free gallery exhibitions, 34 international and 130 Australian film industry guests who participated in illuminating discussions after the films as part of think tanks, laboratories and forums across the program, and the thoughtful judging of the inaugural NATUZZI International Award for Best Feature Film.
