Adelaide Film Festival

Coordinates: 34°56′41″S 138°35′58″E / 34.94481°S 138.59932°E / -34.94481; 138.59932

The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) is a biennial international film festival held over two weeks in mid October, in Adelaide, South Australia. The AFF has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content, with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) established to fund investment in Australian films, of $1,000,000 per festival.

The AFF featured in Variety Magazine's Top 50 unmissable film festivals^[1] around the world.^[2] They qualified their search by saying:

History

First established in May 2002, by South Australian Premier Hon. Mike Rann to stimulate the local film industry and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the South Australian Film Corporation, the festival showcases and explores contemporary screen culture with a program of screenings, special events and forum sessions.

The inaugural Adelaide Film Festival was held between 28 February to 3 March 2003. After 150 screenings, the festival was met with both critical acclaim and popular support, with a third of the ninety ticketed screenings sold out.

An earlier independently-financed Adelaide International Film Festival had been held from 1959 to 1980.^[3]

Since 2003, the Adelaide Film Festival has been held in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013.

Festival directors

Katrina Sedgwick was the Festival's founding director in 2002.^[4][5] 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 Festival.^[6] In 2007, Sedgwick introduced an international jury prize to the festival.^[5] 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.^[7]

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.^[8]

Board

The current Board of the Adelaide Film Festival consists of:

• Chair, Sandra Sdraulig AM,^[9] a lawyer with more than 20 years experience as a film and TV executive, in both the commercial and cultural sectors of the Australian film, TV and digital media industry.^[10][11]
• Deputy Chair, Greg Knagge,^[10][11] an award-winning art director, copywriter and creative director of advertising and marketing agency NATION Creative.
• Sam White,^[10][11] Managing Director of The People's Republic of Animation, producer of AFI nominated short films, and a producer of the first official Australian-Chinese animated co-production, Sweet & Sour (2007).
• Andrew Mackie,^[10] a film distributor, former managing director of Dendy Films, co-founder of the film distribution company Transmission Films, and an executive producer.
• Jamie Restas,^[10] lawyer with over twenty years experience in the area of mergers, acquisitions, capital raising and corporate governance.
• Maria Ravese,^[10][12] an accountant focused on the provision of taxation and HR related services associated with employment, and with extensive experience dealing with cross border regulatory compliance obligations in the entertainment and media industry.
• Martha Coleman,^[12] a producer of film and television, a former Head of Development at Screen Australia, and now a producer with Goalpost Pictures Australia.

Former Board members include Cheryl Bart,^[4][9] Andrew Bovell,^[11] Judith Crombie,^[4] Mojgan Khadem,^[4] Gabrielle Kelly,^[4] Wayne Lewis,^[11] Barry Loane,^[4] Sue Maslin,^[11] Jacinta Thomas,^[11] and Leanne Thomas.^[11]

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:

• 2013 - Scott Hicks^[13][14]
• 2011 - Judy Davis^[15][16]
• 2009 - Jan Chapman^[15][17]
• 2007 - Rolf de Heer^[15][18]
• 2005 - Dennis O'Rourke^[15][19]
• 2003 - David Gulpilil^[3][15]

INSITE Award

The Adelaide Film Festival teamed up with the Australian Writers' Guild to present the INSITE Award at the 2013 Festival.^[20]

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.^[20]

Past winners have included:

• 2013 Tigress, written by Jane Hampson.^[21]
• 2011 The Unlikeliest Hero, by Barbara Connell, is being filmed by New Zealand director James Cunningham in an official Australia/New Zealand co-production. The completion of the film is timed to coincide with the 100-year commemorations of ANZAC Day.^[22][23][24]
• 2009 Writing Rain, written by Ben Chessell.^[25]
• 2007 Salt, by Priscilla Cameron and Heather Phillips,^[26] was directed by Michael Angus in 2009. The film played at the Adelaide Film Festival that same year.
• 2005 Cut Snake, by Blake Ayshford, was filmed by director Tony Ayres.^[20]

References

External links

• Adelaide Film Festival on Facebook
• Official Twitter
• Official Site
• SandraSdrauling.com