The full program for the Adelaide Film Festival has been announced, featuring featuring 23 World Premieres and 40 Australian Premieres among 142 films between 5 – 15 October 2017. That’s a lot of content. So we made this easy on you.
Here’s a list of 11 films we reckon you should see while visiting, living in, or passing by the ADLFF.
If you doubt our festival planning prowess, need we remind you we saw 51 films at the Sydney Film Festival this year and 52 film at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Follow along with our ADLFF 2017 coverage as we go along too!
Cargo
Starring Martin Freeman, and based on a short film by Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling, the duo will mark the world premiere of there film at the Festival. Set in the aftermath of a global pandemic, a man and his infant daughter travel across the outback while he looks for a new guardian for his baby following an infection. Also starring Natasha Wanganeen and David Gulpilil, this is bound to have massive buzz about it.
Sweet Country
Recently announced as debuting at the Venice International Film Festival this year, and its next stop will be Adelaide. The new narrative feature form Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah, We Don’t Need a Map), Bryan Brown, Ewen Leslie, Thomas M. Wright, Natassia Gorey-Furber, Anni Finsterer, Matt Day, and Sam Neill lead the phenomenal cast.
Outrage Coda
‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano’s third film in the Outrage series, following Outrage Beyond, sees the yakuza war escalating with honour filled violence. What the Festival calls “neo-noir” is sure to be a hell of a conclusion to the saga.
A Fantastic Woman
The basic premise, that a waitress/singer is struggling to recover from the death of her boyfriend, comes with the added dramatic powerhouse of tackling grief and prejudice in one of the most accomplished turns in a serious drama film. Fantastic performances. Fantastic script. Fantastic.
Goodbye Christopher Robin
Winnie the Pooh has appeared in countless Disney cartoons over the years, but purists will always go back to the works of A.A. Milne. Here the creator (played by Domhnall Gleeson) finds inspiration for his tales through his interactions with his young son Christopher Robin Milne. Also starring Margot Robbie and Kelly Macdonald, you’ll get bragging rights of seeing it well before its November release in Australia.
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
The combination of Neil Gaiman and John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus) is already enough to get out hearts racing, so this film is well and truly on our radar. It’s about a romance between aliens and punks in 1977, and how all of those things make total sense when thrown into the same world.
The Florida Project
Sean Baker (Tangerine) delivers what Variety called “a near-perfect film.” The tale of a community on the fringes of a Floridian theme park, it stars Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Kimberley Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, and Caleb Landry Jones.
The Square
“If you put something in a museum, does it make it art?” Ruben Östlund’s film is sharp, satirical, and hyper aware of itself. A true gem and worth the accolades, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Some may struggle with the back half of the film, where the narrative takes a darker and more somber turn. The ‘ape’ scene is both hilarious and uncomfortable, which is probably the best description of the film in its totality.
On Body and Soul
A beautiful and deeply contemplative study on the meaning of connection, and those two things that are up there in the title. Alexandra Borbély’s amazingly restrained performance plays off against the visible anguish of Géza Morcsányi. Such a powerful ending, a
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Film fans will go nuts for Yorgos Lanthimos reteaming with co-writer Efthymis Filippou (The Lobster, Alps) for their latest film that comes straight from Cannes, bringing The Beguiled‘s Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman together in a darkly comic modern rendering of an ancient Greek morality play.
Call Me By Your Name
Adapted from the novel that “never apricates” by André Aciman, this one achieved cult status before it was even screened at SFF and MIFF this year. Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash) follows a passionate summer romance, featuring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. Film Twitter adores it, which means you should see it before they make you.
