What’s locked in and what’s looking for a date in this year’s cinematic calendar? Stephen A Russell looks at a big year coming up for Australian film.
Australian cinema wasted no time getting going this year, with Paper Planes director Robert Connolly’s gorgeous adaptation of Alison Lester’s beloved kids’ book Magic Beach wowing kids this summer holiday. You can also stream Larissa Behrendt’s stirring First Nations land rights documentary One Mind, One Heart at SBS/NITV.
While there are a bunch of films that aren’t dated yet, here’s what we know to look forward to so far.
The Lost Tiger
Chantelle Murray (Bardi) makes Australian film history as the first Indigenous woman filmmaker to helm an animated movie. Assembling a cross-ditch cast that includes locals Nakkiah Lui, Jimi Bani and Celeste Barber with Kiwi Rhys Darby, it spins a beautiful story of belonging when a family of ring-wrestling kangaroos take in Teo, the lost tiger of the title, and help him find his place in the world.
Inside
When career-best performances from The Brutalist star Guy Pearce and Golden Globe champion Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis are outshone by the quiet power of newcomer Vincent Miller, you know you’re in for a spectacular prison-set drama from short film Palme d’Or-winner Charles Williams. Exploring the consequences when a young offender is torn between two competing father figures inside, will he opt for redemption or doom?
Hindi Vindi
Diving into the power of language and its illuminating ability to connect us, this Sydney set story imports Bollywood star Mihir Ahuja as a young man who takes it upon himself to learn Hindi when his grandmother visits, then winds up in hospital. An Indian-Australian co-production featuring pop star Guy Sebastian, it’s sure to be well worth making a song and dancing about.
Spit
Lond-delayed sequels are a thing right now, driven by Micheals Keaton gone wild again in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but the welcome return of this larrikin Aussie crime caper is a touch more surprising. Starring Fake baddie David Wenham as the trying-to-stay-ex-con from The Railway Man director Jonathan Teplitzky’s cult classic Gettin’ Square, it finds him banged up in a detention centre when he touches down in Oz some 20 years after scarpering.
Sahela
We’re spoiled for choice this year with films that celebrate Australia’s Indian diaspora community. Slow Horses actor Antonio Aakeel stars alongside Anula Navlekar as a newly married couple in Sydney who have to face up to long-buried feelings in this delicately queer and beautifully realised story. Directed by Monkey Man producer Raghuvir Joshi, it’s executive produced by none other than Dev Patel.
The Correspondent
Shortly after Christmas 2013, Latvian-Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested alongside two Al Jazeera colleagues while reporting on the tumult that followed a military coup against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Prosper star Richard Roxburgh depicts Greste in this gripping thriller loosely adapted from the memoir The First Casualty and helmed by Red Dog director Kriv Stenders.
Lesbian Space Princess
Richard Roxburgh’s voice also pops up in this riotous fun, queer women of colour-led animated film headed to Berlinale that’s not suitable for kids. Debut feature directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s space-faring adventure casts Birdeater actor Shabana Azeez as a sheltered princess who has to rescue her kidnapped bounty hunter ex, voiced by The Breaker Upperers and Deadloch’s Madeleine Sami, from Straight White Maliens.
The Surfer
This one’s been lost in the surf (pardon the pun) since last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but will finally wash ashore at some stage this year. Good, because from the moment it was announced that freaking Nic Cage would play a long-absent Aussie returning to the beach town of his birth, we were sold. Of course, the homecoming won’t run smoothly, with mayhem sure to follow in this tall tale told by Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium).
Jimpa
South Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) is taking this beautiful family drama to Sundance before it berths here sometime later this year. Supported by the Adelaide Film Festival, it features The Favourite star Olivia Colman as Hannah, who takes their non-binary teenager Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde, marking their big screen debut) from Adelaide to Amsterdam to meet their gay grandad of the title, played by Conclave actor John Lithgow.
We Bury the Dead
Previewing at last year’s Adelaide Film Festival, These Final Hours director Zak Hilditch’s apocalyptic zombie story is sure to be the movie that lets Daisy Ridley step out of the shadow of Star Wars. She plays Ava, a Yank desperate to ascertain if her husband survived a devastating American military accident that has wiped out most of the population of Tasmania. Only the dead are pretty lively in this outstanding adventure, co-starring Titans lead Brenton Thwaites, that’s scary, funny, sad and exhilarating in equal measure.
In Vitro
This slow-burn sci-fi thriller from co-directors Tom McKeith and Will Howarth casts Succession actor Ashley Zuckerman as a strung-out farmer from a not-too-distant future where Australia’s ecosystem is collapsing who starts messing around with cloned cows. Debuting at last year’s Sydney Film Festival and co-starring Lake Mungo lead Talia Zucker, it’s an intriguing offering that doesn’t go where you think.
Ellis Park
Enjoying a gala premiere at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, Snowtown director Justin Kurzel’s documentary shows another side of Bad Seed musician and film score composer Warren Ellis, as we visit his animal sanctuary in the heart of Sumatra.
Kangaroo
Directed by Kate Woods (Looking for Alibrandi) and marking the first local production from French outfit Studiocanal, this Alice Springs-set family adventure is loosely based on The Kangaroo Sanctuary founder Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns. Holding the Man lead Ryan Corr plays a former TV star who discovers a new calling after an outback breakdown pairs him up with First Nations teenager Charlie (Lily Whiteley) and an orphan joey.
R.U.R.
Australian music video director-turned filmmaker Alex Proyas delivered a magnificent one-two punch of ‘90s cult hits in The Crow and Dark City, but went pretty quiet after the ignominious outing of Gods of Egypt. Consider our interest piqued by his crowd-funded comeback, a sci-fi musical adapted from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play. Also featuring Roxburgh – are his services contractually obligatory to get an Aussie movie up? – and Lantana’s Anthony LaPaglia, it’s giving vibes of Coppola’s kookily grand folly, Megalopolis.
