Adelaide Film Festival


The Adelaide Film Festival is an international film festival held in odd-numbered years in mid-October for two weeks, in Adelaide, South Australia, and recently with briefer events in intervening years. The ADLFF has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content, with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund established to fund investment in Australian films.
Established in 2003, it was listed in Variety's "50 Unmissable Film Festivals" in 2007.

History

An independently financed Adelaide International Film Festival had been held from 1959 to 1980. 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 South Australian Premier Hon. Mike Rann in 2002, and a director and board were appointed. The Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund was created to fund the Film Festival and other events.
The inaugural Adelaide 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. Since then, the Festival has been held in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and a "pop-up" weekend festival in March 2019.
It was known as the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, or BAFF, until 2011, as its main sponsor was BigPond.
Since 2017, Festival events have taken place mainly at the GU Event Cinemas in Hindley Street, with some sessions at the smaller Mercury Cinema in Morphett Street.

Festival directors

was the Festival's founding director in 2002. She had previously co-founded the 1995 Sydney Fringe Festival, was the Special Events Producer for the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and the Artistic Director for the 2002 Adelaide Fringe. In 2007, Sedgwick introduced an international jury prize to the festival. 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.
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.

ADLFF events

2013: 10–20 October

The 6th Adelaide Film Festival took place from 10 to 20 October 2013. This was Amanda Duthie's first year as Festival Director, 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.

2015: 15–25 October

The 7th Adelaide Film Festival was held from 15–25 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.

2016: October – "AFF Goes Rogue"

Having previously been held biennially, the Adelaide Film Festival went "rogue" in October 2016 with a "mini-festival" in an in-between year. The first of the works commissioned by the Adelaide Film Festival Fund was the Australian premiere season of Collisions. 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 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. Other films shown were Gimme Danger, a documentary film about the Stooges, and a retrospective screening of Lucky Miles.

2017: 5–15 October

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.

2018: 10–21 October

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.
Hotel Mumbai, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, rock documentary Bad Reputation and The Nightingale were some of the films shown.

2019: 5–7 April Pop Up Event

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.

Board

The Board of the Adelaide Film Festival as of 2019 consisted of:
Former Board members include Cheryl Bart, Andrew Bovell, Judith Crombie, Mojgan Khadem, Gabrielle Kelly, Wayne Lewis, Barry Loane, Sue Maslin, Jacinta Thompson, Leanne Thomas Sam White, Greg Knagge and
Jamie Restas.

Awards

Don Dunstan Award

The Don Dunstan Award was established in honour of Don Dunstan, Premier of South Australia and is presented by the Board of the Adelaide Film Festival in recognition of the outstanding contribution by an individual to the Australian film industry who has "enriched Australian screen culture through their work".
Past recipients have included:
ADL Film Fest was the first Australian film festival to create a juried prize for best feature film.
2018
Awarded to Kamila Andini for The Seen and Unseen.
The films selected for competition:
2017
Awarded to Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch
The other films selected for competition:
2015
Awarded to Gabriel Mascaro for Neon Bull
The other films selected for competition:
· 316, dir. Payment Haghani
· Carol, dir. Todd Haynes
· Father, dir. Visar Morina
· Freeheld, dir. Peter Sollett
· Gold Coast, dir. Daniel Dencik
· Lamb, dir. Yared Zeleke
· Looking For Grace, dir. Sue Brooks
· Office, dir. Hong Won-Chan
· Tanna, dir Bentley Dean and Martin Butler
2013
Awarded to Reha Erdem for Jîn.
The other films selected for competition:
· Bastards, dir. Claire Denis
· Beatriz's War, dir. Luigi Acquisto & Bety Reis
· The Dance of Reality, dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky
· How I live Now, dir Kevin Macdonald
· The Notebook, dir. Janos Szasz
· Omar, dir. Hany Abu-Assad
· Only Lovers Left Alive, dir. Jim Jarmusch
· The Past, dir Asghar Farhadi
· The Selfish Giant, dir Clio Barnard
· Stranger by the Lake, dir. Alain Guiraudie
· These Final Hours, dir. Zak Hilditch
2011
Awarded to Denis Villeneuve for Incendies.
The other films selected for competition:
· Meek's Cutoff, dir. Kelly Reichardt
· Mysteries of Lisbon, dir. Raoul Ruiz
· Nostalgia For the Light, dir. Patricio Guzman
· October, dir. Daniel Vega & Diego Vega
· The Piano in a Factory, dir. Zhang Meng
· Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure, dir. Matthew Bate
· Tuesday, After Christmas. Dir. Radu Muntean
· Whisper With the Wind, dir. Shahram Alidi
· Year Without A Summer, dir Tan Chui Mui
2009
Awarded to So-yong Kim for Treeless Mountain.
The other films selected for competition:
· All Around Us, dir. Hashiguchi Ryosuke
· A Christmas Tale, dir. Arnaud Desplechins
· Dean Spanley, dir. Toa Fraser
· Gomorrah, dir. Matteo Garrone
· Jalainur, dir. Zhao Ye
· Kisses, dir. Lance Daly
· My Tehran For Sale dir. Granaz Moussavi
· My Year Without Sex dir. Sarah Watt
· Stella, dir. Sylvie Verheyde
· The Sky, The Earth and The Rain, dir. José Luis Torres Leiva
· Teza, dir. Haile Gerima
· Zift, dir. Javor Gardev
2007
Awarded to Jia Zhangke for Still Life.
The other films selected for competition:
· Bamako, dir. Abderrahmane Sissako
· Boxing Day, dir. Kriv Stenders
· Colossal Youth, dir. Pedro Costa
· Family Law, dir. Daniel Burman
· Grbavica, dir. Jasmila Zbanic
· Half Moon dir. Bahman Ghobadi
· The Home Song Stories dir. Tony Ayres
· The Lives of Others dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
· Madeinusa dir. Claudia Llosa
· Syndromes and a Century dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Flinders University International Documentary Prize

The Flinders University International Documentary Award celebrates distinctive factual filmmaking.
2018
Awarded to Gabrielle Brady for Island of the Hungry Ghosts.
2017
Awarded to Ziad Kalthoum for Taste of Cement
The other films selected for competition:
2015
Awarded to Amber Fares for Speed Sisters
The other films selected for competition:
· Brand: A Second Coming, dir. Ondi Timoner
· He Named Me Malala, dir. Davis Guggenheim
· I Am Belfast, dir. Mark Cousins
· Ice and the Sky, dir. Luc Jacquet
· The Pearl Button, dir. Patricio Guzman
· The Propaganda Game, dir. Alvaro Longoria
· Remembering the Man, dir. Nickolas Bird, Eleanor Sharpe
· Sherpa, dir. Jennifer Peedom
· Heart of a Dog, dir. Laurie Anderson
2013
Awarded to Jakeb Anhvu for Blush of Fruit.
The other films selected for competition:
· A World Not Ours, dir. Mahdi Fleifel
· Electro Moscow, dir. Elena Tikhonova
· Fire in the Blood, dir. Dylan Mohan Gray
· Here Be Dragons, dir. Mark Cousins
· Leviathan, dir. Véréna Paravel
· Once My Mother, dir. Sophia Turkiewicz
· Particle Fever, dir. Mark Levinson
· The Missing Picture, dir. Rithy Panh
· The Search for Emak Bakia,dir. Oskar Alegria

AFTRS International VR Award

In 2017 ADL Film Fest introduced the AFTRS ADL Film Fest International VR Award, the first competition of its kind in Australia, adding to the festival's reputation as a leader in screen culture, having been the first Australian festival to introduce an international competition, and the first to invest directly in film production with the ADL Film Fest Fund.
2018
Awarded to Michael Beets for The Unknown Patient.
2017
Awarded to Michelle and Uri Kranot for Nothing Happens
Special Mention to Selly Raby Kane for The Other Dakar'
The other VR works selected for competition:
The Jim Bettison and Helen James Award was established to recognise Australians who have contributed exemplary and inspiring lifelong work of high achievement and benefit, and whose work would have benefits for both the individual concerned and for the wider Australian community by extension, completion and/or dissemination of it. The annual award of is made to an individual who has contributed significantly in their area of expertise.
2017: Robert McFarlane, social documentary and arts photographer
2016: Meryl Tankard, dancer, choreographer and director; and Tim Jarvis, adventurer and environmental scientist
2015 Greg Mackie OAM, founder of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas

Indigenous Feature Documentary Initiative

In partnership with Screen Australia, KOJO and the National Film and Sound Archive, this initiative, the first of its kind, supports innovative, observational and/or social justice documentaries, with up $738,000 in funding. The award provides funding for an established Indigenous film-maker to make a feature-length documentary.
In 2017, ADLFF held the World Première of the resulting film – Larissa Behrendt's After the Apology. The film focuses on a group of grandmothers taking on the system over the increase in Indigenous child removal in the years following Kevin Rudd's apology to the “Stolen Generations”.

INSITE Award

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 writers and provides an important development opportunity. The winner gets to meet industry directors and producers, with a view to moving the project onto the screen. This is an opportunity to uncover first‐class unproduced screenplays by Australian writers, and provide industry opportunities for them.
Past winners have included:

International Feature Film Prize – Juries

2017
2015
· Christian Jeune – Jury President
· Annemarie Jacir
· Maggie Lee
· Sophie Hyde
· Tom Hajdu
2013
· Al Clark – Jury President
· Maryanne Redpath
· Wayne Blair
· Lawrence Weschler
· Liz Watts
2011
· Julietta Sichel – Jury President
· Trevor Groth
· Pierre Rissient
· Hossein Valamanesh
· Robin Gutch
2009
· Laurence Kardish – Jury President
· JM Coetzee
· Jo Dyer
· Bill Gosden
· Naomi Kawase
· Hannah McGill
· David Stratton
2007
· Noah Cowan
· J.M. Coetzee
· Mick Harvey
· Margaret Pomeranz
· Ana Kokkinos
· James Hewison
· Clara Law

Flinders University Documentary Prize – juries

2017
2015
· Jane Shoettle
· Michael Loebenstein
· Beck Cole
2013
· Joost Den Hartog
· Cherelle Zheng
· Kristy Matheson

AFTRS INTERNATIONAL VR AWARD – juries

2017
In 2007, the ADLFF featured in Variety Magazine's Top 50 unmissable film festivals around the world. They qualified their search by saying: