The winners of Adelaide Film Festival’s (AFF) documentary award are to donate the prize money to their film’s Ukrainian subjects, who are fighting in the war against Russia.
Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski, the Polish co-directors of The Hamlet Syndrome, have pledged to send the $6,400 (A$10,000) cash prize to help support their Ukrainian colleagues.
Niewiera told Screen she has been helping with supplies such as protective vests, helmets, jeeps, drones, quad bikes, medicine for field hospitals and night vision devices.
The Hamlet Syndrome is about five young Ukrainians confronting trauma, suffered from their combat experiences before the more recent invasion, as part of staging a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The documentary, which previously won an award at Locarno and Krakow and has played at DOK Leipzig, is now in Polish cinemas and set for a theatrical release in Germany on January 19.
AFF’s fiction prize went to Makbul Mubarak’s Indonesian political thriller Autobiography, which premiered at Venice, while the Change Award went to Sinem Saban’s Luku Ngarra, and Australian documentary about the value of traditional Aboriginal law and culture to remote communities. Producer David Jowsey of Sydney-based Bunya Productions won the Don Dunstan Award, in recognition of an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture.
Writer/director Mubarak said: “[Autobiography] is a small film made by a first-time director in a country that is not a major producer of cinema that circulates internationally. This award means everything to us to elevate the reputation of the film and to make it known.” Alpha Violet is handling sales.
Mubarak is now writing a suspense drama inspired by a mysterious family who knocked on the door of his family home when he was a child to ask for help.
Record-breaking box office
The festival, which ran from October 19-30, managed to top its previous box office record, set in 2020, by the end of its fourth day, according to AFF CEO and creative director Mat Kesting.
Three days of “encore” screenings are now underway, but revenue will be up by at least 20% on 2020 and 56% on 2018. “It is a beacon of hope that people want to go to the cinema, at least in an event setting,” said Kesting.
The costliest tickets – the platinum and gold passes that include entry to most screenings – were not popular but there was a 24% increase in single ticket sales. “Our diversified venue strategy, which we tested in 2020 and expanded on this year, helped to broaden the audience,” he said. There are now many cinemas in the suburbs participating.
Kesting noted that tickets were often purchased at the last minute, to avoid having to cancel plans due to Covid, and observed that the median age of patrons had fallen, subject to confirmation.
Of the 130 films, 46 were Australian. The sold-out Australian titles were The Last Daughter, Monolith, Ride, Age of Rage – The Australian Punk Revolution, Ribspreader and Talk To Me. Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness and Todd Field’s Tar were the international titles that sold out, generating buzz at the festival alongside The Banshees of Inisherin, My Policeman and Bones And All.
Some 10 Australian features, made in part with money from the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, were selected as part of this year’s programme. They comprised The Angels: Kickin’ Down The Door and Talk To Me, which opened and closed the festival respectively, as well as world premieres of The Survival of Kindness, Watandar My Countryman, Monolith, The Giants, The Last Daughter and You Can Go Now. The other two titles were Carmen, which premiered at Toronto, and Carnifex, which debuted at Sitges.
Kesting said he plans to build on AFF’s relationships with its geographic neighbours and will be attending Film Bazaar in India next month before travelling on to the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. His interest in production collaborations could see the New Zealand International Film Festival and AFF collaborate on a filmmaking laboratory.
The South Australian Government has just announced supplementing AFF’s existing grant with $1.28m (A$2m) over four years, to help the transition to an annual event.
Kesting said the State Government provided the most money this year. Ticket sales revenue will add up about half and combining corporate sponsorship and philanthropy, would exceed the government contribution.
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