One of the films screening at this year’s Monster Fest is Steve Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman. This week Subculture spoke to Steve about his film.
Check out the interview below.
Category: Film Festivals
Australia’s premier genre film festival, MONSTER FEST, is excited to welcome the world’s premium genre film streaming service, SHUDDER, onboard as an official sponsor of 2020: MONSTER FEST.
MONSTER FEST is also pleased to reveal that this year’s festival will host the Australian Premieres of two exciting new features from the SHUDDER Original library, ahead of their 2021 release on the platform.
Fresh from its World Premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival where it was met with universal critical acclaim is THE DARK AND THE WICKED. This gravely unsettling and genuinely terrifying feature is the latest work of writer/director Bryan Bertino (THE STRANGERS) and follows two siblings who are at odds with an entity that is determined to end their bloodline.
Heralding from Belgium and having also premiered at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival is HUNTED, an unrelentingly brutal and throughly refreshing take on a classic fairytale. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Vincent Paronnaud (PERSEPOLIS), this wild reimagining subverts a childhood fable into a game of cat and mouse where the mouse proves to be far more agile and intelligent than the cats may have anticipated.
Once again in partnership with EVENT CINEMAS, MONSTER FEST returns to Sydney, Brisbane, Perth & Adelaide from Thursday 29th of October to Sunday 1st of November for 2020: MONSTER FEST – WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE.
Having launched in Australian in mid-August, SHUDDER is brought to you by AMC Networks and is an experience unlike any other. SHUDDER has the largest human-curated selection of high-quality, spine-tingling, and provocative films, TV series, and originals– there’s always something new and unexpected for Shudder members to explore.
THE DARK AND THE WICKED
Bryan Bertino | United States 2020 | Australian Premiere
On a secluded farm, a man is slowly dying. Bedridden and fighting through his final breaths, his wife is slowly succumbing to overwhelming grief. To help their mother and say goodbye to their father, siblings Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.) return to their family farm. It doesn’t take long for them to see that something’s wrong with mom, though—something more than her heavy sorrow. Gradually, as their own grief mounts, Louise and Michael begin suffering from a darkness similar to their mother’s, marked by waking nightmares and a growing sense that something evil is taking over their family.
HUNTED
Vincent Paronnaud | Belgium/France 2020 | Australian Premiere
Eve (Lucie Debay) meets what she thinks is a charming guy in a bar. Yet things go terribly wrong once she realizes she’s come across a psychopath and his puppet accomplice. They engage in a death chase until she decides to fight back. The forest will be her ally.
WHEN:
Thursday 29th of October – Sunday 1st of November, 2020
WHERE:
ADELAIDE: Event Cinemas Marion
BRISBANE:
Event Cinemas Myer Centre
PERTH: Event Cinemas Innaloo
SYDNEY: Event Cinemas George Street
TICKETS:
VIP Passes (14 films) $224
VIP Passes are strictly limited, with the initial allocation being 20 per location, with no guarantee of further VIP Passes being available at a later date. The VIP Pass gains all-access to all Monster Fest screenings and events from Thursday 29th of October to Sunday 1st of November.
5 Film Passes & Individual Session Tickets will go on sale upon final program launch.
Website: http://www.monsterfest.com.au
The World Premiere of Adelaide-filmed sci-fi thriller, 2067, will be the Opening Night of the 2020 Adelaide Film Festival.
The Opening Night Gala will be on Wednesday 14 October screening at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, the Festival’s city venue for 2020. Following the World Premiere screening, audiences will move to Vardon Avenue to hear from the filmmakers and other special guests and party like it’s 2020 (socially distanced and seated) alongside an A-list of industry in unique Adelaide style.
Written and directed by Seth Larney, the 2067’s star-studded cast is headed by Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road, X-Men: Apocalypse), Ryan Kwanten (Mystery Road, True Blood) and Deborah Mailman (The Sapphires). The film was produced by Lisa Shaunessy (Killing Ground) and Adelaide-based Kate Croser and supported by the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and the South Australian Film Corporation.
The film is set in 2067 when earth has been ravaged by climate change and people are forced to live on artificial oxygen. Humanity’s only solution is to build a quantum time machine to contact the future for answers from our descendants. A response sends Ethan (Smit-McPhee), a reclusive utility worker, barrelling into the future as the only hope for his species. He is thrust into a terrifying new world that threatens his mission to save his dying wife.
Adelaide Film Festival Opening Night
From 6pm Wednesday 14th October
Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas
Screening
2067
And after party at Vardon Avenue, Adelaide
Book tickets via www.adelaidefilmfestival.org
As a director, writer and visual effects supervisor, Seth Larney has worked on US productions including The Matrix Reloaded, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Fool’s Gold before transitioning to drama. Seth set up Chaotic Pictures with 2067 producer Lisa Shaunessy, together working on projects from TVCs and music videos to feature films and television, including music videos for Kate Miller-Heidke’s The Last Day on Earth and John Butler Trio’s One Way Road.
His feature film directorial debut was Tombiruo, the second highest-grossing Malaysian film of the year, and which was nominated for a 2018 AACTA Award for Best Asian Film. He received numerous Best Director and Best Film awards for his short films The Clearing and Roman’s Ark and also directed Foxtel’s Hipsters and co-directed Wild Ideas, a documentary about the impact of mining on Steve Irwin’s environmental reserve.
2067 received major production funding from Screen Australia, in association with South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFF) and Screen NSW and was financed with support from Elevate Production Finance, Grumpy Sailor, Spectrum Films and Cumulus VFX. Umbrella Entertainment will release the film in Australia and New Zealand.
Adelaide Film Festival CEO and Creative Director Mat Kesting said: “It’s particularly thrilling to open the Festival with a film shot here in Adelaide and supported by the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund. Seth Larney is a prodigious directing talent and his vision of a future world is a spectacular visual treat that will keep audiences enthralled.”
Writer and Director Seth Larney said: “Premiering our film on Opening Night at AFF is a real honour. Made only more meaningful by the opportunity to screen the movie in the city in which it was made and share the talented work of all of our Adelaide cast and crew for the first time, in their hometown. Topped off by the fact that so few festivals have been able to go ahead during the spread of COVID, it’s a really special moment for us as filmmakers. That the ideas explored in the film speak to the moment we find ourselves in as a species, is what I look forward to sharing with audiences on a whole new level than we had anticipated during the making of the movie. Thank you to Mat Kesting, the team and board of AFF for your generous invitation and support.”
Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said: “The Marshall Government is proud to be a major partner of the Adelaide Film Festival. Through the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund we support the development of local creative IP and it’s great to see this year’s festival will kick off with 2067 which was filmed right here in Adelaide.”
AFF is committed to ensuring our events are COVID-safe. As such, the night will begin at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas where there will be three staggered session times to enable socially distanced entry to the cinema from 6pm. Details on the available on the AFF website.
The East End of Adelaide will be the central location for the festival, with screenings at Palace Nova East End. Additional venues include Palace Nova Prospect, Wallis Mitcham and the Odeon Semaphore.
The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) – to be held from October 14 – 25 – has today announced the first five films in the Festival program.
The films announced today include the Australian Premiere of Another Round, from the team behind The Hunt: – director Thomas Vinterberg and Scandinavia’s biggest star Mads Mikkelsen. Another Round, a sobering comedy about dealing with the world through the bottom of a glass, will screen in Adelaide direct from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Also announced today, the World Premiere of the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) feature documentary, Phil Liggett: The Voice of Cycling. From the filmmakers behind AFF Audience prize winning Remembering the Man and MAMIL (Middle Aged Men in Lycra), Nickolas Bird and Eleanor Sharpe, comes this fascinating portrait of cycling royalty. Amateur racer turned broadcaster, Phil Liggett has covered forty-seven Tours de France and fifteen Olympic Games, calling every triumph, tragedy and scandal with his inimitable wit and poetry.
Bangarra means making fire, and for 30 years the Bangarra Dance Theatre has blazed fiercely. AFF will host the South Australian Premiere of Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra, about Australia’s most renowned arts company; it’s the story of three brothers—Stephen, Russell, and David Page—and it’s the story of the way that art can become a weapon that helps people to survive and a nation to heal. The film is co-directed by Wayne Blair (Top End Wedding, The Sapphires) and Nel Minchin (Matilda & Me, Making Muriel). The project received principal production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screen NSW and is financed with support from the ABC.
AFF will also feature the South Australian premiere of High Ground, the most powerful and engrossing Australian film of the year. The critical darling at this year’s Berlin film Festival, High Ground, directed by Stephen Johnson (Yolngu Boy) takes an unflinching look at the brutal facts of white settlement. This is a film with all the breathtaking beauty and savagery of this country, rich in dramatic tension driven by taut, understated performances by newcomer Jacob Junior Nayinggul, and also starring Simon Baker (Breathe) and screen legend Jack Thompson. The film received major production investment from Screen Australia, in association with Screen Territory and Film Victoria.
The Painter and the Thief is described by The Guardian as “the year’s most moving documentary”. This acclaimed Norwegian documentary, which won the world cinema documentary special jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is unflinching and delicate in its depiction of the growing emotional bond between an artist and the junkie thief who stole her paintings. Director is Benjamin Ree (Magnus).
“We are so very lucky it is safe to enjoy seeing films in cinemas here in South Australia and it is thrilling to announce that we are going ahead with a physical Festival in 2020. I am excited to share the first films that will be screening. These five films are representative of the program we will be presenting in October – inventive, absorbing, brilliant, provocative” said Mat Kesting, Adelaide Film Festival CEO and Creative Director.
Mr Kesting also announced that the 2020 Festival’s principal venue partner will be Palace Nova East End Cinemas.
Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said: “The 2020 Adelaide Film Festival will showcase the very best of Australian and international cinema while celebrating our city’s love of the creative industries. The local screen industry supports hundreds of local jobs, from screen writers and set designers and tradies to producers and directors. The AFF represents a wonderful opportunity for cinema audiences to enjoy an enriching cultural experience while supporting local businesses.”
Festival passes are now available. Passes can be purchased with the choice of a 3, 7 or 10 MultiPass. The true AFF fanatic can indulge in a full festival experience with a Gold or Platinum pass to squeeze in as many films as possible into their schedule. For AFF Members there is an amazing early bird deal of 20% off all passes and ticketing, doubling the regular AFF Member discount. This offer is strictly limited until 16 August. See the AFF website to see all the benefits of an AFF Membership including priority access at the Festival and a sneak peek at the full AFF 2020 Program with an invitation to the launch in September.
See all details of these first five films at www.adelaidefilmfestival.org
Australia’s premier genre film festival, MONSTER FEST, returns to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth & Adelaide from Thursday 29th of October to Sunday 1st of November for 2020: MONSTER FEST – WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE.
Once again in partnership with EVENT CINEMAS and CINEMA NOVA, 2020: MONSTER FEST will see all five cities play host to four days of diverse and highly imaginative film programming; a celebration of the latest and greatest genre cinema from around the world.
Following its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where it was met with universal praise, we are pleased to announce that the sci-fi/horror POSSESSOR will be our Opening Night Film of the festival, in its Australian Premiere. Abstract, immersive and unflinchingly brutal, POSSESSOR is the sophomore feature of Brandon Cronenberg (ANTIVIRAL) and is a truly remarkable work of cinema that reaffirms Brandon’s status as a visionary filmmaker. Christopher Abbott (IT COMES AT NIGHT) and Andrea Riseborough (MANDY) give exceptional performances in this sophisticated story of a corporate assassin who may have inhabited the wrong body in which to enact her next mission.
For the first-time in MONSTER FEST history, we are excited to announce that we will host the World Premiere of OCCUPATION: RAINFALL simultaneously across all five festivals. Filmmaker Luke Sparke‘s highly anticipated follow-up to the 2018 Aussie sci-fi blockbuster sees Ken Jeong (THE HANGOVER Trilogy) and Daniel Gillies (THE ORIGINALS) join a returning cast that includes Temuera Morrison (AQUAMAN), Dan Ewing (BEAST NO MORE) and Trystan Go (THE FAMILY LAW). Picking up two years after the events of OCCUPATION, the war for earth rages on, however the alien invaders are no longer our only threat as factions form between survivors and the race to save mankind is on.
Steven Kostanski, formerly of Canadian film collective Astron-6, follows up his acclaimed 2016 Lovecraftian love letter THE VOID with the light-hearted and ultra-violent slice of cosmic comedy/adventure, PSYCHO GOREMAN, making its Australian Premiere. This small-town tale of intergalactic proportions follows two kids who are in possession of a highly coveted magical amulet that allows them the ability to control an ancient alien overlord.
Modern takes on the works of William Shakespeare were all the rage in the nineties with films such as Baz Luhrmann’s highly-stylised ROMEO & JULIET, the Heath Ledger breakout hit 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU and of course the dirty granddaddy of them all Lloyd Kaufman‘s TROMEO & JULIET. If you thought that TROMEO & JULIET was the greatest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to celluloid (yes, even above Kenneth Branagh), prepare yourself for #SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM, as Lloyd and the Troma team go back to the Bard for their latest outing. #SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST but with the drier aspects removed and/or improved upon by the inclusion of excess bodily fluids, hyper-violence, gore and in fact anything that could potentially be deemed offensive, in fact we’ll be surprised if this film isn’t #cancelled before its Australian Premiere at MONSTER FEST.
Following up an instant cult classic like ROBOCOP is no mean feat but filmmaker Paul Verhoeven is no ordinary filmmaker, not only did he rise to the challenge, he crushed it with his fearless, subversive and visionary take on legendary author Phillip K. Dick’s classic tale of caveat emptor. Join Arnie and the gang as we go a vicarious vacay to Mars to celebrate Quaid’s divorce and of course the 30th Anniversary of this sci-fi/action classic with the Australian Premiere of an all-new 4K Restoration of TOTAL RECALL.
POSSESSOR
Brandon Cronenberg | Canada / UK 2020 | Australian Premiere
From the mind of writer/director Brandon Cronenberg, POSSESSOR is an arresting sci-fi/horror about elite, corporate assassin Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough). Using brain-implant technology, Vos takes control of other people’s bodies to execute high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment Vos becomes trapped inside a mind (Christopher Abbott) that threatens to obliterate her.
OCCUPATION: RAINFALL
Luke Sparke | Australia 2020 | World Premiere
OCCUPATION: RAINFALL occurs two years into an intergalactic invasion of earth, while survivors fight back in a desperate ground war. As casualties mount by the day, the resistance and their unexpected allies uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end. With the alien invaders hell-bent on making Earth their new home, the race is on to save mankind.
PSYCHO GOREMAN
Steven Kostanski | Canada 2020 | Australian Premiere
Siblings Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) unwittingly resurrect an ancient alien overlord (Matthew Ninaber). Using a magical amulet, they force the monster to obey their childish whims, and accidentally attract a rogues’ gallery of intergalactic assassins to small-town suburbia.
#SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM
Lloyd Kaufman | United States 2020 | Australian Premiere
Prospero (played by director/co-writer Lloyd Kaufman), a brilliant and generous pharma-scientist, has had his life and career ruined by blind, greedy, perverted pharmaceutical execs, causing him and his very hot daughter Miranda to flee from NYC to Tromaville, New Jersey. When the evil execs and their elite guests take a celebratory luxury cruise to North Korea, Prospero uses his science, magic, and a load of whale laxative to create the titular Shitstorm, wrecking the cruise ship and causing its execs to wash up on the shores of Tromaville. Prospero’s planned a brutal revenge – with all the sex, mutations, musical numbers, and violence that Shakespeare always wanted but never had!
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20 June.
Produced by the City of Port Phillip, the St Kilda Film Festival is Australia’s largest and longest running publicly owned short film festival. A highlight of Melbourne’s screen industry calendar, the annual Opening Night extravaganza will bring festival fans, patrons and talent online together for a preview of what’s to come.
Like each year, the Festival program will provide an insight into the nation’s short film industry, screening the Top Australian Shorts and a number of specially curated sessions. A jampacked filmmaker development program will return with live post session Q+As alongside live webinars covering the ins and outs of comedy, as well as short bites delivered by long time industry partners such as the Australian Cinematographers Society.
City of Port Phillip Mayor, Bernadene Voss said, “We are extremely excited to be able to present this year’s Festival online. Not only does this let us keep supporting local filmmakers during this time and showcasing the incredible talent we have on offer in Australia, but this year it is totally free for the whole of Australia to enjoy.”
Festival Director Richard Sowada says of the program, “If 2020 is paving the way for the future of Australian filmmaking then the future is breathtaking. The sheer diversity of work, the guts and glory ambition and those authentic voices are just great to bring to the screen – it makes me very proud to be part of the lives of these films and these filmmakers.”
This year the Festival features films starring Brett Climo, Gary Foley, Diana Glenn, Victoria Haralabidou, Damon Herriman, Claudia Karvan, Sean Keenan, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Aaron Pedersen and Gary Sweet plus Chinese-Australian dancer Chengwu Guo, Red Symons and Larry Emdur.
The Festival also looks back at the early career films of Jane Campion and Phillip Noyce including Campion’s Palme D’Or winner Peel and Noyce’s debut feature as a director Backroads starring Gary Foley and the late Bill Hunter, with Gary Foley himself hosting a special event.
Program highlights include:
– A program of new Australian animations, the Australian Animation Explosion, presented by Indomie will embrace all forms and showcase old friends and fresh new talent.
– Shifting the Gaze: Focus on Women Filmmakers presents new films from female filmmakers, including short documentaries, essays, experimental works, biographies and thrillers. Presented by WIFT Victoria.
– Damned if You Do… offers a selection of powerful dramas which examine the choices we make and their consequences.
– More relevant now than ever as the forces that shape our world become ever more dynamic and unpredictable – Age of Awareness, is a selection of coming of age films.
– A collection of clever and crowd-pleasing shorts from naïve documentary to Indigenous horror will be found in Australian Comedy Showcase.– Whether it’s deep space, ancient times, fairytales or the things of myth and legend it can be found in Tales of Mystery & Imagination, presented by Screen Producers Australia.
– The Dark Matter program includes horrors, thrillers, dystopian worlds and things that go bump in the night which goes hand in hand with a Q+A with APRA AMCOS exploring the program’s dark, memorable soundtrack.
– World Perspectives, a richly textured documentary program brings an Australian eye to offshore stories, issues and cultures in always surprising and big-screen ways.
– Headspace, a program which explores inner space and the worlds within emotion. Presented by Australian Writers’ Guild.
– Outsiders From The Inside is a program of inspiring short fictions of chance encounters and personal triumphs. Full of surprises and unusual twists.
– The films in Forbidden Fruit explore the world of gender, relationships, sexuality and society.
– Action & Reaction explores those sliding door moments that we all face and what happens if we choose the wrong door.
– A program of utterly unique films that signpost to tomorrow’s major screen artists can be found in One of These Things is Not Like the Other One – from urban essays, aliens visiting the outback, Indigenous justice, suburban impressions, personal stories.
– The Power of One looks at the power of the individual.
– Powerful stories about being and becoming an Indigenous Australian; Out of Range, Gods of Tiny Things and Home.
In addition to the above curated programs, there will be a number of live online Q&A sessions for filmmakers and film students including writing, storytelling, money and production.
A selection of films from Under the Radar, the annual youth short film competition will be showcased, as will shorts from Your Place, the new digital film competition aimed at encouraging filmmakers in regional Victoria to create short films about their experiences. Entries for Your Place are open until 29 May. Films can be documentary, fiction, animation or experimental and no longer than 3 minutes including credits.
Award-winning films from the St Kilda Film Festival are eligible for consideration in the OSCARS® Short Film and Documentary Short Awards.
The 2020 St Kilda Film Festival runs 12 June to 20 June. All films and programs will be available to watch FREE via the St Kilda Film Festival website. Content will only be accessible within Australia.
For full program information, visit www.stkildafilmfestival.com.au
The St Kilda Film Festival is proudly produced and presented by the City of Port Phillip and supported by Government Partners Screen Australia and Film Victoria.
The following announcement has just been made about the 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival.
It is with sadness that the Board and Management of the Melbourne International Film Festival have taken the difficult decision to cancel MIFF 2020 owing to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
For 68 years, MIFF has championed the power of film to educate, entertain and inspire humanity – and to document its experiences, especially during challenging times – so the unprecedented move to cancel the August 2020 festival, as well as 37ºSouth Market & Accelerator Lab, has not been taken lightly.
“The thought of a winter without MIFF in our city is a disorienting one; deeply disappointing to both our organisation and, I’m sure, our community,” said MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar. “It is a decision that was very hard but plainly necessary, responsible and required given what we all face together at this moment. Our thoughts rush to those who make MIFF what it is year after year, and what it will return to be. To our partners, funders, venues, staff, suppliers, filmmakers and artists, volunteers, prized collaborators of all kinds, and our own uniquely MIFF audiences, we wish you safety and support; we will continue, together.”
MIFF is committed to the longevity and sustainability of the festival and will continue to provide compelling and community-building experiences for our audience and stakeholders into the future. And, in the absence of the festival this year, MIFF is considering other means of maintaining its engagement with audiences. We will share details as they become available.
If you have already purchased a membership or a pass to MIFF 2020, it will now be valid for MIFF 2021, and any passes or memberships purchased from today will also be valid for MIFF 2021. If you would like to support MIFF and are in a position to do so, we encourage you to join us by becoming a member or making a tax-deductible donation.
We look forward to bringing you the 69th Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2021.
The 23rd Moro Spanish Film Festival presented by Palace returns in April with a flick of the flamenco heel and toothpicks for our pinchos to celebrate cinema from Spain and Latin America.
The following six titles are our first sneak peak into the curated programme which will screen nationally from 21 April exclusively at Palace Cinemas.
From Spain, the selection includes:
Oscar-winner Alejandro Amenábar’s exposé of the 1936 Spanish coup WHILE AT WAR (Mientras dure la Guerra). Filmed across Spain and Argentina, it reveals the personal side of politics through the eyes of writer Miguel de Unamuno.
Trapped inside a small apartment where hidden secrets slowly rise to the surface, THE PLAN (El plan) sees three friends forced to confront revealing truths in this biting comedy featuring Spanish stars Antonio de la Torre and Raúl Arévalo.
THE EUROPEANS (Los europeos) stars Award-winning actors Raúl Arévalo and Juan Diego Botto in an unforgettable romantic holiday adventure set in the wild world of 1950’s Ibiza, where dreams sometimes carry a sting in the tail.
And the dream of home ownership takes an unexpected turn in ONE CAREFUL OWNER (El inconveniente)
when a young woman must wait for a property’s current elderly owner to die in this offbeat tale of women’s friendship.
From Latin America comes:
HEROIC LOSERS (La Odisea de los Giles) the number one Argentinian film of 2019! Heroic Losers is a homespun Ocean’s 11 featuring superstar Ricardo Darín and his son Chino in a comedy heist rich in local colour and unforgettable characters.
And highlighting the Australian-Spanish connection is LATIGO in which Australian comic and filmmaker Simon Palomares visits Cuba to reveal the universal joy of laughter in a film heralded as “The Buena Vista Social Club of comedy!”
The festival will take place nationally from 21 April to 17 May in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Hobart and Byron Bay.
LISTING DETAILS:
Sydney 21 Apr – 10 May: Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona & Palace Central.
Canberra 22 Apr – 10 May: Palace Electric Cinema.
Melbourne 23 Apr – 10 May: The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Westgarth, The Kino and Palace Balwyn.
Adelaide 28 Apr – 17 May: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas.
Perth 29 Apr – 17 May: Palace Cinema Paradiso.
Brisbane 29 Apr – 17 May: Palace James Street and Palace Barracks.
Hobart 30 Apr – 6 May: State Cinema.
Byron Bay 30 Apr – 13 May: Palace Byron Bay.
For updates and more information, visit www.spanishfilmfestival.com and join the mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: #SPANISHFILMFEST
Cloudy River, a modern romantic drama about a couple, one of them pansexual, whose open relationship is put to the test when they move in together, will premiere at the Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival on February 19 before launching on SBS On Demand on February 20.
This visually sumptuous, bold film is of the moment, but differs from other films and series about open relationships because it focuses on young adults on the cusp of deciding who they are. Co-written and co-directed by acclaimed author Sophie Hardcastle (Breathing Under Water, Running Like China) and her former romantic partner and enduring creative collaborator, ARIA Award nominated filmmaker Charlie Ford, it is inspired by their own real-life experience of an open relationship, giving the show searing authenticity.
The film stars an upcoming cast including Rebecca Robertson and Rowan Davie (That’s Not Me) and was produced by Belinda Dean. Belinda produced the multi-award winning Create NSW & SBS funded short film Joy Boy, which had its international premiere at Palm Springs Shortfest and was shortlisted for the prestigious Iris Prize. She conceived and produced the documentary The Funny Ones for ABC ME celebrating aspiring young female comedians.
Charlie Ford has enjoyed success across his short films, commercial work and narrative-based music videos for acclaimed artists Courtney Barnett, Vance Joy and Dan Sultan among others. His videos have been viewed over 25 million times on YouTube. Charlie’s short films have been played on SBS, screened at various film festivals including The Melbourne International Film Festival and various music video festivals.
Sophie Hardcastle is an author, artist, screenwriter and scholar. In 2018, she was one of the first two Australians to be awarded a Provost’s Scholarship in English literature by Worcester College at the University of Oxford. Sophie’s forthcoming novel, Below Deck will be published in March in Australia and NZ, with the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and The Netherlands to follow.
“Cloudy River celebrates love in all forms and we made it because we wanted to show that love can be more diverse than what we were told growing up. This show defies traditional conceptions of what it means to love and be loved. Our protagonists are simply abandoning old ideals in search of a love that is multifaceted, dynamic and unapologetically honest,” Charlie and Sophie said.
Cloudy River’s soundtrack features independent artists from the UK, France, Mexico and Australia, and also features original music by co-creator Charlie Ford’s band PLANTS and indie songstress Indigo Sparke.
The film received principal production funding from Screen Australia in association with Queer Screen and will be distributed internationally by Escapade Media.