Adelaide Film Festival

An independently financed Adelaide International Film Festival (AIFF) had been held from 1959 to 1980.[1] The idea of a new film festival to stimulate the local film industry and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the South Australian Film Corporation was raised by Premier Mike Rann in 2002, and a director and board were appointed.[2] The Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund was created to fund the Film Festival and other events.[1]

The inaugural Adelaide (International) Film Festival was held from 28 February to 3 March 2003. It ran a programme of screenings, special events and forums in a number of cinemas across Adelaide.[1] It was the first film festival in Australia to introduce an international competition, and also the first to create an investment fund specifically for film production.[3]

After its first edition, the festival ceased to use "International" in its title,[4] denoting a withdrawal from FIAPF membership. It was known as the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, or BAFF, for a period until 2011, as its main sponsor had been BigPond.[5]

As of July 2022 the festival had been held 11 times since, usually biennially but as an annual event from 2015 to 2018 (with occasional mini-events in intervening years[6][7]). In 2022 it was announced that the full festival would be presented each year, instead of biennially, after the Malinauskas government pledged A$500,000 annually for the following four years.[8][9]

Katrina Sedgwick was the Festival's founding director in 2002.[10][2] She had previously co-founded the 1995 Sydney Fringe Festival, was the Special Events Producer (1998, 2000) for the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and the artistic director for the 2002 Adelaide Fringe.[11] In 2007, Sedgwick introduced an international jury prize to the festival.[2] At the time of her stepping down from the role of Festival director in 2013, Sedgwick said that the festival was the first in Australia to introduce an international competition, and a production fund, and that ticket sales had grown by 20 per cent each year.[12]

2013 was Amanda Duthie's first year as Festival Director, after spending eight years at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and eight years at the Special Broadcasting Service during the 1990s.[13]

After running the Festival’s programming from 2015-2018, Mat Kesting was appointed as the new CEO in 2019. Named as one of Screen International’s Future Leaders in 2019, Mat’s passion for cinema and strong curatorial voice is well known in the Australian film industry. Prior to this he was Exhibition Manager at the Mercury Cinema, programming special events including Cinémathèque, Silent ReMasters, and Seniors on Screen. He programmed six editions of the On Screen strand of OzAsia Festival, and was previously Program Manager at the Brisbane International Film Festival.

Since the first event in 2003, the Festival has been held (originally in odd-numbered years) in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 (a one-off "Rogue" event), 2017, 2018, and a "pop-up" weekend festival in March 2019.[14]

Audiences have grown year on year, with an audience of more than 64,000 people in 2018, and estimated to have had an impact of A$26.5 million on the state's economy.[15] The 2022 festival's audience and box office broke all previous records.[16]

Locations

From 2017 to 2020, festival events took place mainly at the GU Filmhouse in Hindley Street (defunct as of 1 October 2020), with some sessions at the smaller Mercury Cinema in Morphett Street.[15]

In 2020, most screenings were hosted by Palace Nova at their Eastend and Prospect locations, with some showings at Mitcham Wallis Cinemas at Mitcham Square Shopping Centre, Odeon Star in Semaphore, Tandanya,[17] the Warriparinga Wetlands,[18] and at Alberton Oval.[19] In 2022, For the first time, screenings also took place at the Capri Theatre in Goodwood, Her Majesty's Theatre, and Event Cinemas Marion, in addition to the two Palace Nova locations, Wallis Mitcham, and Odeon Semaphore.[16]

2023: 18-29 October

The 2023 the festival will run from 18-29 October, at five cinemas across Adelaide with Palace Nova Eastend the main venue. Gala events will screen The Royal Hotel, directed and co-written by Kitty Green and filmed in South Australia, a true crime documentary Speedway, directed by Luke Rynderman and Adam Kamien, and the closing Gala will feature director Scott Hicks' symphonic concert documentary My Name's Ben Folds - I Play Piano.[20]

The 2022 edition of the festival is held from 19–30 October. Films selected for screening include Todd Field's TÁR (starring Cate Blanchett, who appeared in a Q&A session after its first showing[21]); My Policeman, with Harry Styles; South Australian horror thriller Carnifex, with Alexandra Park; Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness; Stolen Generations story The Last Daughter; and Aftersun, a debut from Scottish director Charlotte Wells.[22] RackaRacka's debut, Talk to Me closed the festival.[23] The Survival of Kindness by Rolf De Heer had red-carpet parties in the city. The new South Australian film Monolith had its world premiere at the festival[24] on 27 October 2022.[25] It was announced after the opening weekend that several films would get a second outing in the week following the festival, including TÁR, Monolith, Talk to Me, The Last Daughter, and Triangle of Sadness.[26][23]

In 2020 the Adelaide Film Festival was scheduled to run from 14 to 25 October, one of the few events of its type during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic,[27] but due to the success of the festival, an extended run of selected films was scheduled as part of the Best of the Fest programme, re-showing ten of the programmed films from 26 to 30 October.[28]

To open the festival, the locally filmed sci-fi thriller 2067 played in seven cinemas simultaneously, with extra screenings added due to demand.[29] One of the headlining films was I Am Woman, starring Adelaide actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey, who returned from Los Angeles in September. Other films included the documentary The Painter and the Thief, and High Ground, and the films include 22 world premieres, 27 Australian premieres and a total of 54 feature films from many countries.[27]

The competition jury comprises playwright and screenwriter Andrew Bovell, actor Natasha Wanganeen, filmmaker Khoa Do, producer Rebecca Summerton of Closer Productions and film critic Zak Hepburn.[30]

The earliest screening at the festival took place on 22 August, with several early showings of I Am Woman;[31] the final event, a documentary about Port Adelaide Football Club called This is Port Adelaide, premiered at Odeon Star Semaphore from 5–7 February 2021.[32]

In April 2019, a weekend "pop-up" event was held, to showcase Wayne Blair's romcom, Top End Wedding, and Adelaide filmmaker Sophie Hyde's Australian/Irish co-production Animals.[33]

In April 2017, the Premier Jay Weatherill announced that a full festival, including new funding of A$1m for the ADL Film Fest Fund, would run again in October 2018.[34]

Hotel Mumbai, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, rock documentary Bad Reputation (about Joan Jett) and The Nightingale (directed by Babadook director Jennifer Kent) were some of the films shown.[35]

At the 2017 festival, the theme "Vive le Punk" celebrated the punk movement's 40th anniversary. It featured A Fantastic Woman, Call Me By Your Name, a set by Adelaide punk band Exploding White Mice and Ai Weiwei's documentary about migration, Human Flow.[6]

Having previously been held biennially, the highlight of "AFF Goes Rogue" in October 2016 was a 4-day "mini-festival" in the in-between year. The first of the works commissioned by the Adelaide Film Festival Fund in that month was the Australian premiere season of Lynette Wallworth's Collisions[7] (5–30 October). Then there was a free talk by Greg Mackie at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas on 23 October, and the events culminated in a 4-day mini-festival (27–30 October) featuring world premiere screenings of two films – Australia's first Muslim rom-com Ali's Wedding, based on the life of actor, writer and comedian Osamah Sami, and a special "work in progress" screening of David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema, directed by Sally Aitken[36] (later released as David Stratton: A Cinematic Life[37]). Other films shown were Gimme Danger, a documentary film about the Stooges, and a retrospective screening of Lucky Miles (2007).[38]

The 7th Adelaide Film Festival was held from 15 to 25 October 2015. Amanda Duthie was again the Festival Director. On the opening night of the festival, director and screenwriter Andrew Bovell received the 2015 Don Dunstan Award for his contribution to the Australian film industry.

The festival opened with Scott Hicks's documentary film Highly Strung, and closed with Paolo Sorrentino's drama film Youth.

More than 180 feature films were screened at the festival, 40 of which were Australian films, 24 South Australian films and total of 51 countries were represented at the Festival.

As part of the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival, a public art installation was presented, incorporating a Laneway Cinema in Cinema Place, showing moving image artworks, and a 'Reactive Wall', where six artists created 2D visual artworks live in response to content within the festival.

The 6th Adelaide Film Festival took place from 10 to 20 October 2013. This was Amanda Duthie's first year as Festival Director (after eight years at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and eight years at the Special Broadcasting Service during the 1990s), having taken over from Katrina Sedgwick. Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton served as the festival's patrons.

Scott Hicks received the 2013 Don Dunstan Award for his contribution to the Australian film industry.

The poster in 2013 depicted Screen Worship, which celebrates work for all screens—cinema, television, phone and computer.

The Don Dunstan Award was established in honour of Don Dunstan, Premier of South Australia through most of the 1970s, and is presented in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the Australian film industry by an individual.[47]

Past recipients have included:[48]

• 2003 - David Gulpilil, actor[1][49]
• 2005 - Dennis O'Rourke, cinematographer and documentary filmmaker[49][50]
• 2007 – Rolf de Heer, director[49][51]
• 2009 – Jan Chapman, producer[49][52]
• 2011 – Judy Davis, actor[49][53]
• 2013 – Scott Hicks, director[54][55]
• 2015 – Andrew Bovell, screenwriter and playwright
• 2017 – Margaret Pomeranz & David Stratton, film critics
• 2018 – Freda Glynn, pioneering Indigenous filmmaker, and her family members involved in the film industry: offspring Erica Glynn and Warwick Thornton, and grandchildren Tanith Glynn-Maloney and Dylan River[56][57]
• 2020 – Bruna Papandrea, producer[47][58]
• 2022 – David Jowsey, producer, of Bunya Productions[59][60][61]

ADL Film Fest was the first Australian film festival to create a juried prize for best feature film.[62]

Winners have included:

• 2006 Still Life (Jia Zhangke, China)[62]
• 2009 Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim (USA/South Korea)[62]
• 2011 Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, Canada/France)[62]
• 2013 Jîn (Reha Erdem, Turkey)[62]
• 2015 Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil)[63][62]
• 2017 I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni, France/United Kingdom)[62]
• 2019 The Seen and Unseen (Kamila Andini, Indonesia/Netherlands/Australia)[64][62]
• 2020 Beginning (Déa Kulumbegashvili, Georgia)[65]
• 2022 Autobiography (Makbul Mubarak, Indonesia)[23]

The Feature Documentary Award, also known as the Flinders University International Documentary Award, was first awarded in 2013, with the inaugural prize going to Blush of Fruit (Australia, Vietnam), directed by Jakeb Anhvu.[66][67] Since then it has been won by:

• 2015 Speed Sisters (Amber Fares)[66][67]
• 2017 Taste of Cement (Ziad Kalthoum)[66][67]
• 2018 Island of the Hungry Ghosts (Gabrielle Brady)[64][67]
• 2020 Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra (Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair; about the Bangarra Dance Theatre)[65]
• 2022 The Hamlet Syndrome (set shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine)[23]

The Bettison & James Award, formerly Jim Bettison and Helen James Award, presented in collaboration with the Jim Bettison and Helen James Foundation, was established to recognise Australians who "have contributed exemplary and inspiring lifelong body of work of high achievement and benefit; and that the completion, extension, recording and/or dissemination of such work would have benefits for both the individual concerned and for the wider Australian community". The annual award of A$50,000 is made to an individual who has contributed significantly in whatever their area of expertise is,[68] be it arts, humanities, social justice, science, the environment or something else.[69] The foundation was established by the estates of the Jim Bettison and his partner Helen James. Bettison created the Developed Image Photographic Gallery, co-founded communications company Codan and served as Deputy Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, his alma mater (an honorary position[70]). Helen was an exhibiting studio artist, who served on a number of arts committees and was one of the founding members of the National Library of Australia’s Foundation Board.[71]

• 2015: Greg Mackie OAM, founder of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas[68]
• 2016: Meryl Tankard AO, dancer, choreographer and director; and

Tim Jarvis, adventurer and environmental scientist[68]

• 2017: Robert McFarlane, social documentary and arts photographer[68]
• 2018: Jackie Huggins AM FAHA, author, historian and Indigenous rights advocate, for researching the social impacts of Aboriginal soldiers going to fight in both World Wars.[72][68]
• 2019: John Long, paleontologist, academic and author of popular science non-fiction and fiction.[68]
• 2020: David Vaux, scientist and expert on cell death,[73] 2019 co-recipient of the Florey Medal for Lifetime Achievement[74]
• 2021: Bob Brown, environmentalist, human rights campaigner and former political leader of the Australian Greens party.[75]
• 2022: Pat Rix, artistic director[76]

The Change Award was established in 2020. Worth A$5,000 and sponsored by Zambrero, it is awarded "for positive social or environmental impact and cinema expressing new directions for humanity", selected by audience vote.[16]

• 2020: Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra (Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair; about the Bangarra Dance Theatre) [77]
• 2022: Luku Ngarra, directed by Sinem Saban and produced by Djiniyini Gondarra OAM and Saban, about the history and culture of Arnhem Land[16]

Established in 2022, this award is determined by audience vote.[16]

• 2022: Are You Really the Universe, directed by Tamara Hardman and starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey[16]

The Adelaide Film Festival teamed up with the Australian Writers' Guild to present the INSITE Award at the 2013 Festival. The Award celebrates and acknowledges outstanding work produced by AWG screenwriters and provides an important development opportunity for both writers and the industry. The winner gets to meet industry directors and producers, with a view to moving the project onto the screen.[78]

It has not been awarded since 2017 and is not mentioned on the 2020 list of awards. Past winners have included:

• 2003 Cut Snake, by Blake Ayshford,[79] was filmed by director Tony Ayres.[78]
• 2005 Moving South, by Cath Moore.[79]
• 2007 Salt, by Priscilla Cameron and Heather Phillips,[80] was directed by Michael Angus in 2009. The film played at the Adelaide Film Festival that same year.
• 2009 Writing Rain, written by Ben Chessell.[81]
• 2011 The Unlikeliest Hero, by Barbara Connell,[82] was planned to be filmed by New Zealand director James Cunningham in an official Australia/New Zealand co-production, with completion of the film timed to coincide with the 100-year commemorations of Anzac Day.[83][84][85] (However, as of September 2020 it was last reported as being pitched as an animated film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2015.[86])
• 2013 Tigress, written by Jane Hampson.[87]
• 2015 Martingale, written by Harry Aletras.[88]
• 2017 Petrova, written by Bec Peniston-Bird.[89]

In 2017, ADL Film Fest introduced the AFTRS ADL Film Fest International VR Award, the first competition of its kind in Australia, in collaboration with the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Nothing Happens, by Michelle and Uri Kranot, won the inaugural award, while The Other Dakar by Selly Raby, based on Senegalese mythology, received a Special Mention.[90]

In 2018, The Unknown Patient, by Australian director Michael Beets won the award.[91][64]

In partnership with Screen Australia, KOJO and the National Film and Sound Archive, this initiative, the first of its kind, was created in 2015 to support an "innovative, observational and/or social justice documentary" with a funding package of up to A$738,000. The award provided funding for an established Indigenous film-maker to make a feature-length documentary, providing funding for the director and a producer.[92]

Eualeyai/Kamillaroi writer and academic Larissa Behrendt, along with Michaela Perske, writer and producer,[93] were awarded the funding in 2016 to work on their feature documentary project, After the Apology.[94][95]

On 9 October 2017, AFF held the world première of the resulting film,[96] and it was sold out at the Winda Film Festival in Sydney in November of that year. The film focuses on a group of grandmothers (Grandmothers Against Removals) taking on the system over the increase in Indigenous child removal in the years following Kevin Rudd's Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples, in which he offered an apology on behalf of the Australian Government to the Stolen Generations resulting from historic child removal policies in Australia.[97] It won Best Direction of a Documentary Feature Film from the Australian Directors Guild in 2018, and was nominated in three categories in the 2018 AACTA Awards: Best Direction in Nonfiction Television (Larissa Behrendt); Best Documentary or Factual Program (Michaela Perske); and Best Original Music Score in A Documentary (Caitlin Yeo).[98][99]