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SAFC supported productions to watch at AFF 2022
19 October 2022
The 2022 Adelaide Film Festival opens tonight and this year’s program features an array of outstanding South Australian made productions, including 11 productions supported by the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC). With such a huge selection of SAFC-supported productions to choose from, we’ve put together a handy list if you’re wondering what to watch.
Monolith
Don’t miss exciting new sci-fi thriller Monolith from SA director Matthew Vesely, producer Bettina Hamilton and writer Lucy Campbell, featuring rising star Lily Sullivan on 27 October. Filmed in the Adelaide Hills, Monolith is the inaugural project made under the SAFC and Adelaide Film Festival’s Film Lab: New Voices initiative, with majority funding from SAFC. Through the clever containment of a single location and only one on-screen character, Monolith follows a disgraced journalist as she turns to podcasting to salvage her career before uncovering a strange artefact that she believes is evidence of an alien conspiracy.
Tickets for the Monolith world premiere on 27 October have sold out, but tickets for the second screening on October 29 are still available here.
The SAFC is proud to be sponsoring the world premiere gala screening of Monolith at Adelaide Film Festival.
Talk to Me
The highly anticipated feature film debut of Adelaide filmmaking twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, aka Youtube sensations RackaRacka, this exciting new South Australian made and SAFC-supported horror will have a special Australian preview screening at Adelaide Film Festival’s closing gala on 20 October.
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill until one goes too far and opens the door to the spirit world. Increasingly haunted by supernatural visions, the friends unwittingly prompt a devastating possession, forcing them to choose who to trust: the dead or the living.
Tickets here.
Carnifex
After its recent world premiere at Sitges International Film Festival, South Australian made horror Carnifex will see its Australian premiere gala at Adelaide Film Festival on 22 October. The debut feature film from South Australian director and editor Sean Lahiff, produced by South Australian producers Helen Leake and Gena Ashwell of Dancing Road Productions. Starring Alexandra Park, Sisi Stringer and Harry Greenwood, Carnifex follows an aspiring documentary maker who joins two conservationists as they travel deep into the Australian outback to track and record animals in the aftermath of the fires. As night falls, the well-equipped trio discovers a new terrifying species that is now intent on tracking and hunting them.
Tickets here.
The Survival of Kindness
The world premiere of Rolf de Heer‘s new feature film, The Survival of Kindness, is on 23 October and will be preceded by an alfresco afternoon picnic party on the green lawns of The Cloisters at The University of Adelaide. Join de Heer and South Australian producer Julie Byrne to celebrate the World Premiere event, including a complimentary drink and nibbles. An allegorical examination of race and power, The Survival of Kindness follows a nameless woman (South Australian actor Mwajemi Hussein) as she walks from the desert to the mountains in a nameless country, battling privilege and pestilence, perhaps to find those who once imprisoned her, abandoned her and left her to die.
Last tickets here.
The Angels: Kickin’ Down the Door
The Angels: Kickin’ Down The Door is an SA-made and SAFC-supported feature that will open the festival with a screening and special guest performance from SA rock band The Angels. A second screening and show will also show at the Odeon Star Semaphore on October 29.
From SA writer, director and producer Madeleine Parry with SA producers Peter Hanlon and Rick Davies, The Angels: Kickin’ Down The Door is an electrifying look at the iconic SA band who revolutionised Australian music with their gritty guitar rock and ferociously theatrical live shows. This intimate documentary explores the tensions in the band that tore relationships apart while producing unforgettable rock and roll.
Tickets here.
The Last Elephant on Earth
The Made in SA showcase on 24 October features a selection of South Australian shorts, highlighting the breadth of talent and deft creativity of local filmmakers and crew. Included in the line-up is the premiere of SAFC supported film The Last Elephant on Earth, directed by Johanis Lyons-Reid and written and produced by Piri Eddy. Funded under the SAFC, Adelaide Film Festival and Panavision Short Film Fund, the film won an AWGIE for Best Short Script in 2021. When 15-year-old Elle brings up the elephant in the room – a fiery meteor heading for Earth – her father denies the coming danger, preferring to follow the deranged advice of a child psychiatrist.
Tickets here.
The Last Daughter
The Last Daughter from directors Brenda Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt and produced by South Australian producers Simon Williams and Brendon Skinner is a feature-length documentary exploring Brenda’s journey to uncover the truth about her past and reconcile the two sides of her family. Brenda’s first memories were of growing up in a loving white foster family before she was suddenly taken away and returned to her Aboriginal family. Decades later, she feels disconnected from both halves of her life, so she goes searching for the foster family with whom she had lost contact. She uncovers long-buried secrets, government lies, and the possibility of deeper connections to family and culture.
The premiere gala is sold out, but tickets for the second screening on 30 October are available here.
Watandar My Countryman
SAFC-supported feature documentary Watandar My Countryman is the story of former Afghan refugee, new Australian and photographer Muzafar Ali, who discovers that Afghans have been an integral part of Australia for over 160 years. Searching to define his own Afghan-Australian identity, he begins to photograph their descendants – then the Taliban take over Afghanistan and his old country comes calling. Directed by South Australian director Jolyon Hoff, written by Muzafar Ali and produced by Hoff and Ali together with South Australian producer Hamish Gibbs Ludbrook, Watandar My Countryman has its world premiere screening on 23 October, followed by an alfresco afternoon picnic party where you can mingle with the filmmakers and other special guests.
Tickets here.
Hike
This charming animated short from Adelaide Studios based animation, game and experience studio Monkeystack explores grief and memory in the wake of a tragedy. A teenager honours the memory of their mother, following the same trail they hiked together and revisiting their relationship. Hike is directed by Justin Wight and Alexander Rodeghiego-Smith and was funded through the 2022 Unreal Engine Short Film Challenge, supported by the SAFC. Hike will show as part of the Animated Shorts event on 28 October – tickets here.
Thin Ice VR
This exciting new virtual reality project, also from Monkeystack, will play as part of the Virtual Reality component of the Festival. The award-winning South Australian made and SAFC-supported immersive production was directed by James Calvert and produced by Justin Wight and executive produced by Rhys Sandery and Troy Bellchambers. Follow in the footsteps of adventurer and environmental scientist Tim Jarvis AM as he recreates one of history’s greatest journeys and tales of survival – that of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Tickets here.
Wave
Also on the AFF program this year is an exciting new SAFC-supported visual art installation combining digital imagery, ceramics and sound at the Art Gallery of SA (AGSA). Wave will see South Australian artist Gerry Wedd’s iconic ceramics and drawings brought to life with an evocative soundscape composed by acclaimed South Australian pianist and artist Gabriella Smart in an immersive 360-degree installation in the Gallery’s Elder Wing. Find out more about Wave and other exciting events on the AFF Visual Arts program here.
Greeting to Country
Screening before all competition and special presentations in AFF is Greeting to Country shared by Kaurna Elders Karl Winda Telfer and Nganki Burka Mekauwe Georgina Williams, funded by the SA Film Corporation, the Adelaide Film Festival, Screen Australia and the City of Adelaide. The film is co-directed by Clem Newchurch and Karl Winda Telfer and produced by Alison Rogers.