Adelaide film festival: Adelaide, thinking outside the square

Adelaide goes beyond the traditional limits of festivals to fund films and promote cross-platform development. Tracey Prisk spoke to the minds behind the event.

The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) endeavours to remain true to its roots of being “a celebration of contemporary screen culture”. Apart from the event’s film screening program, festival director Katrina Sedgwick says she didn’t want to ignore the impact that other types of screens – including television and mobiles – are having on the future direction of the industry.

“We’re very excited about Crossover Australia; it’s a creative think tank to crack the opportunities for those working genuinely across platforms. We want to push what those platforms can be; not in a digital context, but going into live and non-digital media platforms as well.” According to Sedgwick, one of the most exciting platforms yet to fully be exploited is gaming, which is why they’re working with the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and the Adelaide Fringe Festival to present a program called Playground. Sedgwick believes that AFF differs in many ways to the traditional film festival.

“We’re a festival of the moving image. A part of that is your traditional film festival, including 180 films to be screened over 10 days. And through our Investment Fund we also have a very big focus on investing, supporting and world-premiering a range of new Australian works. Around all that, we’re pushing the definition of a film festival. “It’s unique because the practitioners working in more conventional works are excited to explore other areas of creative practice, and that’s a very good thing.” Pushing creative people outside of their comfort zones is what inspired Sedgwick to introduce events such as Crossover. The inclusion of innovative filmmakers such as Sandi DuBowski also helps to push filmmakers to think outside the square when it comes to how they make their films and distribute them.