Here I Am and Shut Up Little Man up for Adelaide fest award
This year’s BigPond Adelaide Film Festival will present 20 world premieres of new Australian works, and a total of 48 local features and shorts.
The 12 films competing for the International Award for Best Feature Film have also been announced: Four Times (Italy, dir: Michelangelo Frammartino); Here I Am (Australia, dir: Beck Cole); Tuesday After Christmas (Romania, dir: Radu Muntean); Incendies (Canada,dir:: Denis Villeneuve); Meek’s Cutoff (USA, dir: Kelly Reichardt); Mysteries of Lisbon (Portugal, dir: Raoul Ruiz); Nostalgia For the Light (Chile, dir: Patricio Guzman); October (Peru, dir: Daniel Vega Vidal and Diego Vega Vidal); Piano in a Factory (China, dir: Zhang Meng); Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (Australia, dir: Matt Bate); Whisper with the Wind (Iraq, dir: Shahram Alidi); and Year Without a Summer (Malaysia, dir: Tan Chui Mui).
The films will be judged by Julietta Sichel (jury president/Karlovy Vary Film Festival), Pierre Rissient (Cannes), Hossein Valamanesh (Iranian/Australian contemporary artist), Trevor Groth (Sundance) and Robin Gutch (Warp X).
In terms of local projects, in addition to Here I Am and Shut Up Little Man, and the opening (Bob Connolly/Sophie Raymond’s doco Mrs. Carey’s Concert) and closing films (Brendan Fletcher’s Mad Bastards), BAFF will present Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown, Amiel Courtin-Wiilson’s Hail, and the documentaries The Tall Man (Tony Krawitz), Life in Movement (Bryan Mason/Sophie Hyde) and Stunt Love (Matt Bate).
The program includes the first episode of Dario Russo/David Ashby’s upcoming SBS series Danger 5, as well as the shorts The Moment (Shane McNeil/Troy Bellchambers), The Palace (Anthony Maras) and Magic Harvest (Jeni Lee).
Other local premieres include Murandak: Songs of Freedom, the Australian premiere of Griff the Invisible (Leon Ford), Orchids: My Intersex Adventure (Phoebe Hart), Strange Birds in Paradise: A West Papuan Story (Charlie Hill-Smith), Miss South Sudan Australia (Shannon Owen) and Bikes and Broken Bones (Ben Heidrich).
In conjunction with the Australian International Documentary Conference, F4 (First Factual Films Festival) will present the New Talent Showcase, with the first films of Maya Newell (Two), Vessal Safei (Streets of My Childhood), Pete Gleeson (Something to Tell You) and Sieh Mchawala (Barefoot in Ethiopia). Also as part of F4, Bob Connolly will present a masterclass, and a free screening of his 2001 film Facing the Music.
The Made in SA short film strand includes The Kiss (Ashlee Page), Toot Toot (Simon Williams/Brendon Skinner), Sometimes the Stars (Ari Gibson/Jason Pamment) and The Thing About Dolphins (Matt Vasely).
The full program is available at www.adelaidefilmfestival.org
