The Australian Film Festival returns for a third year on 7-17 March 2012, bringing a little bit of glitz and glamour to Sydney’s beachside suburbs of Randwick and Coogee, as well as Metro Screen and Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS).
The festival will open at the iconic art deco Randwick Ritz cinema on March 7, followed by 10 days of films including the street fair day of the Spot Food & Film Festival (11 March), watch Red Dog as an outdoor movie under the stars on the sands at Clovelly Beach (10 March) and the Closing Night (17 March) back at the Ritz.
Two films have already been announced for the lineup, with more to come:
More4Me
More4Me takes writer and director Lincoln Fenner around the world amidst the global financial crisis, to find out if there really is any hope for us.
Through the discovery of Need Vs Greed, the film takes the audience on a journey through five continents including New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Perth Australia and contrasts them with Cambodia, a Kenyan orphanage and the slums of Nairobi.
This intriguing story questions the chase of getting more for oneself, as Lincoln interviews everyone from actors and models to orphans and street sweepers. The journey takes you to the home of Hollywood actor Vincent Jerosa (CROCODILE DUNDEE II, CARLITO’S WAY) and travels throughout remote villages with Australian Marina Prior (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, LES MISERABLES).
LBF is a ‘pop art film’ based on the novel Living Between Fucks by Cry Bloxsome from which it draws much of its wry narration. Paris-based writer Goodchild (Toby Schmitz) returns to Sydney for the funeral of his ex-girlfriend The Dead Girl (Gracie Otto) and steadily veers off the rails. He becomes entangled with The Beautiful Financial Backer (Bianca Chiminello) who works in advertising. She commissions him to write ‘The Love Enterprise’, a corporate commission of sorts. Charged with this new task, and loaded with a heady cocktail of booze and drugs, Goodchild lurches between parties, clubs and live bands, interviewing others along the way. LBF is a modern story of love, loss and desperation.
LBF is the highly stylised, pop-fuelled debut feature from Writer/Director Alex Munt. The film assembles a dynamic cast of next-generation Australian actors including Toby Schmitz, Bianca Chiminello, Gracie Otto, Septimus Caton and April Rose Pengilly. LBF is a music-inspired film that features a host of new Australian music with live songs performed by Teenagers in Tokyo, Tennis (now Tortoiseshell), Kids at Risk and Fergus Brown. The LBF soundtrack has songs by The Model School, Operator Please, Grand Salvo, Boy & Bear, Sir and Sparkadia. LBF had its World Premiere at SXSW (2011), Australian Premiere at Sydney Film Festival (2011) followed by screenings at Revelation Film Festival (2011) and Cine/B Film Festival (2011).
There will also be industry events, including. From the press release:
For the first time the Festival has teamed up with the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) to present the FutureFilm Screenplay Competition (March 13), a celebration of of Australian screenwriting and performance with a $1000 cash prize and inclusion in AWG’s Pathways program up for grabs. A competition for emerging writers from across Australia, five lucky talents will have their script picked and performed by actors of their choice in front of a live audience and judged by heavyweight filmmakers, Pip Karmel, Alice Bell and Blake Ayshford.
A must see for all film buffs will be the exclusive celebration of the Australian Directors Guild’s (AGD) 30th Birthday. Partnering up with the AFF on March 14, people of Sydney will be able to witness a panel of top Australian directors come together and discuss their life in film and direction.
