Following the success of the inaugural Adelaide Film Festival Goes to Cannes initiative last year, the Festival is partnering again in 2025 with the world’s largest film market, the Marché du film de Cannes, presented at the prestigious Festival de Cannes.

The partnership will this year see Adelaide Film Festival lead a delegation of five South Australian filmmakers to Cannes who will present their films to the global film market.

AFF Goes to Cannes was open to South Australian filmmakers or AFF Investment Fund alumi with a work in progress seeking market investment. The five films selected will be presented by the filmmakers to an audience of sales agents, investors, programmers and other market delegates on Friday 16 May.

The projects and filmmakers selected for Adelaide Film Festival Goes to Cannes showcase are the feature film Rewilder, to be represented at Cannes by producer Madeleine Parry, the feature documentary Troublemaker, to be represented by co-director Jared Nicholson, the feature documentary Acts of Forgetting, to be represented by producer Philippa Campey, the feature film Diabolic, to be represented by producer and director Daniel J Phillips, and the feature film The Run, to be represented by producer Chloe Gardner.

Rewilder, from writer/director Cameron Bruce Nelson, is about a sheep farmer who uncovers a life-altering secret after a mysterious toddler nearly drowns on his land.

Troublemaker, to be co-directed by Jared Nicholson and Ben Lawrence, is about a gun massacre survivor and a filmmaker who form an unlikely bond as they slip down the rabbit hole of paranoia and conspiracy, in a desperate search for solace and truth.

As contemporary Spain experiences political upheaval, in Acts of Forgetting, directed by Rhys Graham, a group of formidable Australian and Spanish artists gather in Madrid over several years to resurrect painful stories of Franco’s dictatorship in pursuit of a new and bold work of theatre directed by Andrew Bovell.

Diabolic is a horror film about an excommunicated fundamentalist Mormon who undergoes a healing ceremony, which uncovers buried memories of her forbidden love, and invokes a 19th-century witch who resurfaces to unleash brutal revenge.

The Run is a thriller to be directed by Stephen de Villiers about a near-future dystopian world crippled by a global fertility crisis, where an ageing smuggler and his teenage foster son must fight to protect a runaway teenager and her newborn baby from ruthless criminals.

Last years’ projects included Lesbian Space Princess (Directors Emma Hough-Hobbs & Leela Varghese) which went on to win the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival and The Iron Winter (Director Kasimir Burgess) which as been selected for the International Feature Film Competition at the renowned Visions du Réel International Film Festival in Nyon, Switzerland next month.

“AFF's establishment of international festival “bridges” and market connection to support filmmakers has demonstrated success for Australian projects. Lesbian Space Princess and Iron Winter, for example, participated as part of this initiative last year where the team formed direct connection with sales agents and numerous festival programmers. AFF is excited by this year’s lineup and anticipates participants will be well placed to secure market investment for future projects too." said Mat Kesting, CEO & Creative Director.

The Adelaide Film Festival will co-ordinate a series of round tables and facilitated introductions for each of the filmmakers and they will also present their projects to the international marketplace at a special showcase at Cannes’ Palais Theatre.

The AFF x Cannes initiative is funded by the Government of South Australia and the Department for Premier and Cabinet. Screen Australia and South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) have provided in-kind support.

Minister for the Arts, Andrea Michaels, said: “Congratulations to the teams behind these five remarkable South Australian films selected to go to Cannes this year. Last year was the first time South Australian films have been exhibited at Cannes with the support of the Malinauskas Government. Those films have gone on to further success at home and overseas off the back of that exposure including Lesbian Space Princess, which won the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival. I wish this year’s participants every success. “

Since 2003, the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund has premiered and seeded over 150 projects, launched careers, and supported some of the most significant Australian films of the 21st Century.

Major AFF Investment Fund titles include Lesbian Space Princess (Directors Emma Hough-Hobbs & Leela Varghese) Talk To Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, 2022), Hotel Mumbai (Anthony Maras, 2018), 52 Tuesdays (Sophie Hyde, 2013), Tracks (John Curran, 2013), Snowtown (Justin Kurzel, 2011), Samson and Delilah (Warwick Thornton, 2009), Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer and Peter Djiggirr, 2005) and many more acclaimed films and moving image works.

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