By David Russell
More than 40 international and Australian premieres featuring some of the world’s biggest stars will light up screens across Adelaide for the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival.
The Festival, which opens tonight (Thursday 15 October) with the world premiere of Scott Hicks’ Highly Strung, features 180 films starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Jane Fonda, Michael Keaton, Anthony LaPaglia and Rachel McAdams.
Anthony LaPaglia in A Month of Sundays.
Festival Director Amanda Duthie told Inside South Australia the Festival had attracted an incredible range of high-calibre films.
“This year we’ve really scored big time in terms of Australian and international premieres,” she said.
“And we’re not just presenting films, we’re opening up new ways of experiencing the Festival, like listening to a live performance from music legends Lisa Gerrard, Brian Ritchie and Gabriella Smart, and through our quiz night with Margaret and David.
“The Adelaide Film Festival has already established a fantastic reputation. We’re hoping to build on that reputation.”
According to Amanda that reputation has been growing steadily since the inception of the Festival in 2003, driven in large part by the Investment Fund that sits at its heart.
Harrison Feldman and Bethany Whitmore in Girl Asleep. Photo: Shane Reid.
“The Fund is rare in the world… it commissions projects including features, documentaries and short films,” she said. “Applicants need to put a finance plan together and then can approach the Film Festival for funding… the condition is they have to premiere their film and the Adelaide Film Festival.
“We had Charlie’s Country commissioned by the Fund, which David Gulpilil won Best Actor for at Cannes.
“When I’m at international festivals people ask ‘what has come out of the fund this year?’. It (the Fund) definitely makes us the one to watch… we have programmers from the three biggest film festivals in the world – Toronto, Berlin and Cannes – in Adelaide this year.”
“The Film Festival has a reputation of delivering new work, which is a testament to our relationship with Australian and International distributors.”
In addition to an unprecedented number of premieres, this year’s Film Festival includes other new initiatives that set it apart from competitor festivals around the world.
The Film You Wrote has been taking shape over the past few weeks, with audiences themselves writing the script. South Australians were invited to write the film by submitting dialogue and choosing plot points through Twitter, Facebook and typewriters left in pubs. The film was shot in Port Adelaide and features an entirely South Australian music score. Writers lucky enough to have already secured their tickets can see the work come to life at the sold out world premiere of The Film You Wrote on Monday October 19 at Palace Cinemas.
Another initiative new to the festival is pay it forward, where corporates are able to buy tickets to films for charities and individuals are able to ‘pay forward’ an additional ticket when they purchase one for themselves.
“People are loving this initiative,” said Amanda. “We approached 10 charities and 10 corporates… if they give $600 we can release 400 tickets to charity.
“Individuals can also pay it forward when they buy a ticket, giving a ticket to someone holding a concession card… It’s about sharing the love of cinema.”
Women in Vanuatu collecting shells in Tanna.
Amanda is reluctant to choose favourites from the program, but has one hot tip for Festival goers: “I’m really excited about Tanna, which is the first film ever out of Vanuatu… it will wow audiences.”