from the director's desk
wow... it's been such a long time between drinks!
Welcome to our first post-festival e-newsletter, and a big welcome to all of the new subscribers who signed up during the festival! Hopefully you’ve had a chance to catch your breath and clear your head after a jam-packed event that had brilliant responses from audiences, media and filmmakers.
After only our third event, the biennial Adelaide Film Festival has made stunning progress. Achieving critical acclaim, industry intrest and establishing a place in the competitive festival calendar both nationally and internationally, it has been described by Variety Magazine as "Australia's only must attend film festival".
The huge success and positive critical response is reflected in terrific patronage. We are delighted that attendances were around 25 per cent up on the previous festival, with an increase of 44 per cent in daily attendance rates. In a crowded cultural calendar, the festival’s bold yet accessible programming, along with its choice of venues, ensured that one-third of all sessions had attendances of 80 per cent or more, with over 20 per cent being completely sold out. In total, the festival achieved attendances of over 46,000 over the 11-day period.
There were 12 major forums, 17 free events, five free gallery exhibitions, 34 international and 130 Australian film industry guests who participated in Q&As after their screenings, as part of ground breaking laboratories and forums, or as jury members of the inaugural NATUZZI International Award for Best Feature Film and FIPRESCI prize for best first or second feature film.subscriber offer: free tickets!!
now i remember why i signed up to this thing...
On offer to our subscribers this month are in-season passes for three new release films and three double passes to Chunky Move’s latest program Tense Dave at the Adelaide Festival Centre. To win tickets simply email rsvp@adelaidefilmfestival.org with your name, postal address and which ticket you would like, and if you're lucky we'll post them out to you! Tickets are strictly limited, so make sure you get in quick!
FILM 1: NOISE
Courtesy of Madman Films we have 30 double in-season passes to the exciting debut feature Noise, written & directed by Adelaide-born Matthew Saville, whose short drama Roy HÖlsdotter Live screened in AFF 2003.
Graham McGahan is a cop - almost by default he thinks. Self centred, beset with doubt and afflicted with tinnitus, a few days before Christmas he is sent by his boss to man a police van in a suburban shopping strip, after violent murders rock the local community. Noise deals with the response of an ordinary young man to the challenge posed when a community is affected by tragic events. The film shows we are at our best when the worst occurs. Starring Brendan Cowell. www.noisethefilm.com Opens May 3
FILM 2: THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
Thanks to Rialto Entertainment we are pleased to offer 30 double in-season passes to the new film by Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Science of Sleep. "Close your eyes ....open your heart!".The Science of Sleep is a playful romantic fantasy set inside the topsy-turvy brain of an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade is waking life. Opens May 3
FILM 3: GEORGIA RULE
Courtesy of Hoyts Distribution we have 30 in-season doubles for Georgia Rule starring Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, Lindsay Lohan and directed by Garry Marshall.
"Sometimes you have to lose your way to find your family..." Georgia Rule follows a rebellious teenager (Lohan) who is hauled off by her mother (Huffman) to spend the summer with her grandmother (Fonda). Her journey will lead all three women to revelations of buried family secrets and an understanding that - regardless what happens - the ties that bind can never be broken. www.georgiarulemovie.net Opens May 10
ADELAIDE FESTIVAL CENTRE: TENSE DAVE
Adelaide Festival Centre’s INSPACE Program is presenting Chunky Move’s Tense Dave, a wild display of the human psyche created by three of Melbourne’s most continually surprising theatrical visionaries: Lucy Guerin, Michael Cantor and Gideon Obarzanek. Tense Dave is often described as "one man's moment of crisis blown apart" as it takes its audience through the lives of five weird and wonderful strangers..
After collecting a Bessie award (the equivalent of a Tony in Dance) for Outstanding Choreography/Creation following its New York season, this acclaimed production arrives at the Adelaide Festival Centre 2-5 May . "The show is a miracle of production design and performance. Don't miss it." The Sun, New York. First three emails receive a double pass to opening night May 2.
AFF awards wrap-up
We've certainly raised the Australian festival stakes with the establishment of an international competition in 2007 with the presentation of the NATUZZI International Award for Best Feature Film with a cash prize of $25,000. The first of its kind in Australia, the award places the Adelaide Film Festival alongside Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Pusan, Tribeca and Tokyo Festivals.
The inaugural jury was lead by jury president Noah Cowan [co-director Toronto International Film Festival] with film critic Margaret Pomeranz, directors Ana Kokkinos and Clara Law, composer and musician Mick Harvey, author Georgia Blain and AFI CEO James Hewison, each bringing a breadth of experience and a distinctive and bold sense of aesthetic to the table.
Amongst a stunning and diverse line-up from every inhabited continent, the winner of the inaugural Award was Still Life (China / Hong Kong) by Jia Zhang-Ke, with special mention to Syndromes and a Century (Thailand / Austria / France) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Daratt (France / Belgium / Chad / Austria) by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, was winner of the AFF’s inaugural FIPRESCI International Critics Award for Best first or second feature film with the jurors being film critics Peter Krausz [Australia], Kirill Razlogov [Russia], Barbara Lorey de Lacharrière [France]. Daratt and Syndromes and a Century were commissioned for the New Crowned Hope Festival and screened at AFF as part of the Australian premiere of this entire prestigious slate of projects.
Finally the audience voted throughout the festival for the Carbon Planet Audience Award - with honours going to the Academy Award winner for best foreign film THE LIVES OF OTHERS by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, for Best Feature, AIR GUITAR NATION by Alexandra Lipsitz, for Best Documentary, and SWING by Christopher Houghton for Best Short Film. A lucky voter won a fabulous prize for participating in the voting - a year long subscription to AFF presenting sponsor Internode's fabulously fast ADSL+2 broadband connection, a Natuzzi leather lounge, an Apple Mini Mac computer and a 32" plasma screen.
Ten Canoes wins NatFilm
Following in the footsteps of another AFF Investment Fund Film, Look Both Ways, which won the Critics Award at NatFilm 2006, Denmark's largest film festival, Ten Canoes, Rolf de Heer’s feature film recently won their the Audience Award. Critics at the festival described Ten Canoes as "nearly magical" and exceptional in its use of Australian Aborignals to tell the story in their own language.
Syndromes and a Century censored in Thailand
Syndromes and a Century, one of the New Crowned Hope festival films in the AFF program has had "sensitive'' scenes banned by local censors. The director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul cancelled the local release of the much-anticipated movie after the censors insisted that four scenes be cut.
The film tells the story of doctors at a rural hospital and is based on the story of the director’s parents. The scenes the board found objectionable show a young monk playing a guitar, a group of doctors drinking whisky in a hospital basement, a doctor kissing his girlfriend in a hospital locker room, and two monks playing with a radio-controlled flying saucer.
Following this news Apichatpong Weerasethakul sent the email below to colleagues and festivals around the world urging them to sign a petition against the move try and influence Government policy:
"I am saddened by what has happened to my film. However, this is not the venue to try to make SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY shown in Thai theaters. It is not my intention to use this opportunity to promote my work.
But, it is time to seriously think about what is going on with our censorship laws, so that the next generation of filmmakers will not face the same problems as us, and so that the Thai audiences can truly achieve a freedom of choice.
It is time we discuss whether all films, before being released, should be seen by the Buddhist council, doctors council, teachers council, labor council, the army, pet lovers group, taxi union, representatives from other foreign countries etc? Or, is it easier to turn our nation into a Fascist state so that we can live in harmony and don¹t have to waste time talking about democracy?
The system of the Thai Board of Censors needs to be evaluated. Their members' relevancy and efficiency needs to be questioned, and we should decide whether the laws should be changed. I would like to ask you to reflect on the censorship practices in our country and to provide us with advice at
http://www.petitiononline.com/nocut/petition.html
Later on, this Petition will be submitted to the Thai government. Your support will be a great contribution to our fight for one of our most basic rights - that of freedom. I am grateful for your time and your participation. Thank you very much.
Warmest Regards,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul"2007 AFI Awards
CALL FOR Entries & Jurors
The Australian Film Institute presents the AFI Awards each year to recognise and celebrate excellence in Australian film and television production. Entries are now open for the 2007 AFI Awards in the categories of Feature Film, Television, Documentary, Short Fiction and Short Animation. For deadlines, eligibility and all other entry details, log onto the AFI website www.afi.org.au.
The AFI is also seeking jurors with professional film or television credits for this year’s AFI Awards. Jurors will be selected by the AFI CEO and Awards Manager and are required to be members of the AFI.
Prospective jurors should be familiar with the 2007 AFI Awards Rule Book and entry guidelines, available online now. Expressions of interest and a current CV should be e-mailed to the AFI Awards Manager, Justine Beltrame at awards@afi.org.au by 5pm, Friday 4 May.
