It’s the festival’s first annual event, following the South Australian Government’s announcement that AFF, established in 2003 as a biennial event, will now be held every year.
This year’s programme features 129 films, with 22 World Premieres and 32 Australian Premieres. There’s also a visual arts programme with cutting-edge installations presented with The Art Gallery of South Australia and Samstag Museum of Art.
Adelaide Film Festival has a queer film strand as well – with a selection of films with queer themes or talent involved.
‘Tár’ is set in the international world of classical music and centres on the first-ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. It’s a character study already generating major Oscars buzz for its lead Cate Blanchett.
Delicate, human three-hander ‘The Blue Caftan’ sees each shot unfolding with an almost tactile beauty. Master tailor and closeted gay man Halim runs a struggling dressmaking shop with his wife Mina. His skill and dedicating to a dying art are losing out to his machine-powered competitors. Halim develops a tender relationship with a newly-hired young assistant, Youssef. At the same time, Mina battles breast cancer and the two strengthen a bond tied by years of friendship and understanding.
‘Please Baby Please’ cements filmmaker Amanda Kramer as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary cinema. In the 1950s, young alternative couple Suze and Arthur witness a murder by a local greaser gang. Before long, the gang becomes obsessed with the couple and, in turn, a mutual obsession begins. Gang leader Teddy begins to trigger their contemplation on gender and sexual identities.
'Joyland'
‘The Giants’ is a poetic portrait of environmentalist Bob Brown, intertwined with the story of Australia’s giant trees. From a seedling to a forest elder, the film is a masterclass drawing on Bob’s 50 years of activism from the Franklin campaign for Tasmania’s last wild river to today’s battle for the Tarkine Forest.
The first Pakistani film to screen at Cannes, ‘Joyland’ is a visually layered, heartfelt hybrid family drama/romance gently honing in on the ways social taboos can restrict our true selves. The Rana family live in the metropolitan city of Lahore. As they eagerly anticipate the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line, youngest son Haider secretly takes up a job as a background dancer at an erotic theatre where he’s drawn to ambitious trans starlet Biba. Their impossible love story slowly illuminates the entire Rana family’s desire for a sexual rebellion.
Direct from Cannes comes ‘Will O The Wisp, a swirling, queer fantasy-musical flurrying together muscle-bound firemen, colonial guilt, explicit sex, and environmentalism. It’s the year 2069 and the dying King Alfredo remembers his youthful idealistic desire to shift from being a prince to becoming a firefighter. It’s a gloriously unpredictable, graphic love story between the young prince and a fellow fire cadet.
'Bros'
‘Sirens’ is an observational music documentary following all-female thrash metal band Slave To Sirens as they chase stardom. The road trips, gigs and destructive temptations that form the core of every band’s life all hit differently against the backdrop of the complex, fluctuating Lebanese society.
With plenty of great laugh-out-loud moment, ‘Bros’ is an insightful and celebratory tribute to the diversity within LGBTQIA+ culture. It’s bound to creep into even the most cynical heart and mind. Bobby (Billy Eichner) is living his best life and is unconcerned about finding ‘the one’. . . Until he meets Aaron. Despite their differences, each senses a spark beyond the lust.
Adelaide Film Festival runs from 19-30 October.
