In an exciting week for the South Australian screen sector, three out of four of the South Australian Film Corporation’s (SAFC) funded feature films have enjoyed their world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

I Am Mother, Animals and Top End Wedding screened at the festival early in the week. Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale had its North American premiere at Sundance after its award-winning run at Venice.

I Am Mother

Top End Wedding, directed by Wayne Blair, follows successful Sydney lawyer Lauren (Miranda Tapsell, The Sapphires) and her fiancée Ned (Gwilym Lee, Bohemian Rhapsody) who have just ten days to find Lauren’s mother who has gone AWOL, reunite her parents and pull off their dream wedding.

I Am Mother, from first-time feature director Grant Sputore, is the story of a teenage girl (Clara Rugaard, Still Star Crossed) raised by a robot (voiced by Rose Byrne). Their unique bond is threatened when a stranger (Oscar® winner Hilary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby) arrives. I Am Mother was shot at Adelaide Studios.

Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, set in 1820s Tasmania, follows a young female convict (Aisling Franciosi, Game of Thrones) as she chases a British officer (Sam Claflin, The Hunger Games) through the Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge. On the way, she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), who is also marked by trauma from his own violent past.

Animals, directed by Sophie Hyde (Sundance and Berlin winner 52 Tuesdays), follows Laura (Holliday Grainger, Cinderella) and Tyler (Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development, Whip It), best friends and drinking buddies whose hedonistic existence is challenged when Laura gets engaged to Jim (Fra Free, Les Miserables).

Animals

Animals was recently touted by Women in Hollywood as one of ’24 Most Anticipated Films By and About Women of 2019’

In more news, Closer Productions reveals that its four-part original drama series The Hunting begins production in Adelaide:

The Hunting

Asher Keddie (Offspring, The Cry) and Richard Roxburgh (Rake, Hacksaw Ridge, Moulin Rouge!) lead the ensemble in The Hunting, with production based at Adelaide Studios.

Produced by Closer Productions for SBS, The Hunting intimately and dramatically imagines the lives of four teenagers, their teachers and families throughout the lead-up, revelation and aftermath of a nude teen photo scandal.