Adelaide Film Festival returns for 2024 with another programme of cinematic delights – and Flicks proud to be their 2024 media partner. Steve Newall previews some of the films to catch this year.
For the past twenty years, the Adelaide Film Festival has been treating South Australia to stunning lineups of cinema. 2024 is shaping up to be no exception, and now with the full programme released, we can make some suggestions about what to see at this year’s fest, taking place from 23 October to 3 November at a variety of Adelaide cinemas and venues.
As you expect, the lineup runs the gamut from drama to documentary, with serious musings sitting alongside genre oddities—and everything in between. Some big films from Cannes make an appearance (including this year’s Palme d’Or winner), with selections coming from all around the world. There’s plenty to see—let’s start with 11 recommendations for 2024.
Anora
Anora
A Brooklyn sex worker (Mikey Madison) and a Russian oligarch’s son fall for each other in this year’s Palme d’Or winner, Anora. This new pic from writer-director Sean Baker (Red Rocket, The Florida Project) owes its prize-winning success to how shrewdly Baker taps into the emotional extremes of labour and love, said Rory Doherty in his review from Cannes, in which he also notes: “So much of Anora moves like a rollercoaster—a heaving, powerful, and exhilarating progression through ecstasy and anxiety”.
The Correspondent
Adelaide Film Festival has the honour of hosting the world premiere of this new Australian drama. Based on the true story of Aussie war correspondent Peter Greste’s imprisonment by Egypt’s military rulers, The Correspondent follows the grim events that unfold after Greste (Richard Roxburgh) arrives in Cairo in 2013 to report for Al Jazeera. Arrested along with his crew, Greste was accused by Egypt’s interior ministry of holding illegal meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood—and matters just got worse from there…
Emilia Pérez
Emilia Pérez
Jacques Audiard’s latest premiered at Cannes, where its female cast (Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldaña) jointly won the Best Actress award and the film itself took out the Jury Prize. Filmmaker Audiard is no stranger to Cannes, having won the Palme d’Or with 2015’s Dheepan and the Grand Prix with A Prophet in 2009—but still proved he could surprise with this new Spanish-language French musical crime comedy film, which sees a fearsome cartel leader enlist help to fake his own death and live a more authentic life.
I Saw the TV Glow
I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up to We’re All Going to the World’s Fair sees Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bill & Ted Face the Music) forge a friendship over a late night TV show—but the latter’s disappearance unlocks a tale of personal revelation and roads not taken. There’s plenty more to discover that we won’t spoil here, suffice to say there’s good reason this topped our New Zealand writers’ rankings of their fave films at NZ International Film Festival, and for Rory Doherty’s review to label it “the best kind of personal film”.
Nightbitch
Amy Adams stars in this adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s bestselling novel, the surreal tale of a stay-at-home-mum whose day-to-day monotony sees her begin to (sometimes) transform into a dog. We were thrilled to hear of Adams’ casting by director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and even happier to see Nightbitch in the lineup for Adelaide Film Festival—who describe the film in their programme as “a comedy for women, a horror for men”.
No Other Land
No Other Land
Also featuring on our list of NZ International Film Festival faves, this incredibly timely doco captures the reality of Israel’s land grabs in the West Bank and other Palestinian territories. This documentary, on a Palestinian village subjected to eviction and forced displacement by Israeli authorities, would be confronting enough without the urgent pulse of current events in the region—daily horrors inflicted on Palestinians mean No Other Land has taken on an increased sense of importance since production wrapped in October of last year, just as all hell broke loose.
Piece by Piece
Piece By Piece
This unconventional biopic, brighter and more colourful than your typical fest fare, sees the life story of hugely influential music producer and singer Pharrell Williams told… in LEGO form. Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) directs, charting Williams’ musical journey as one half of The Neptunes (producing the likes of Clipse, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kelis, Robin Thicke, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg and more—many of whom voice themselves here), and then as founder of the band N.E.R.D and pop star in his own right.
The Pool
The Pool
Apparently the world’s most photographed pool, Bondi Icebergs gets the doco treatment courtesy of filmmaker Ian Darling. The director explores both the common experiences and diverse personal lives of the pool’s swimmers, capturing the power of community and shared experiences that make this landmark more than just a picture postcard snap of Sydney (though yes, it remains bloody gorgeous).
Sasquatch Sunset
Sasquatch Sunset
Beneath the furry costumes, Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keogh are among the human actors playing a bigfoot family in dialogue-free oddity Sasquatch Sunset. As the directors told Rory Doherty: “It’s not a joke, we want you to feel for these creatures, we want you to struggle with them.” The results? As Callum Devlin shared: “Maybe the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a cinema. It is also among the most disgusting.”
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
A hit at Cannes this year, one of Iran’s most daringly political dramas seizes on the waves of protests that followed killings by the country’s “morality police”. Iman is an inspector of the Revolutionary Court, expected to rubber-stamp the execution of protestors—while his more progressive daughters are horrified by the events they’re following on social media. Soon, schisms within their family mirror the chaos outside, carrying their own threat of harm.
Teaches of Peaches
Teaches of Peaches
Teaches of Peaches is the best music doco this year. Those who’ve seen the one-of-a-kind Peaches won’t want to miss this—particularly anyone who went to 2022’s 20th Anniversary Tour of earth-shattering debut album The Teaches of Peaches. Preparations for that tour, and footage from it, provide the skeleton upon which Peaches’ breakthrough and 20-year career are revisited—with Peaches’ participation, interviews, archival footage, and plenty of recent performance clips. Speaking of interviews, Peaches chatted with me about the film when it played MIFF.
