Adelaide Now
Andrew Fenton
December 4, 2008 

THE 11 film-makers funded by the 2009 Adelaide Film Festival are hoping the event's enviable reputation for picking winners holds true again

Previous recipients include AFI and Cannes Film Festival winning movies such as Ten Canoes and Look Both Ways.

The current crop comprises five new Australian features, five short films and a documentary, which all premiere at the February event.

They'll join more than 130 films from 50 countries in the screening program.

"We invest in films simply because we want to see them in our festival," explained festival director Katrina Sedgwick, at yesterday's launch at Adelaide Airport.

"It's not about business, it's about art."

Eagerly anticipated films supported by the festival include Sarah Watt's follow up to Look Both Ways,  called My Year Without Sex.

Iranian-born Adelaide film-maker Granaz Moussavi's debut feature My Tehran For Sale is based on her own experience as well as stories she heard while volunteering at Woomera Detention Centre.

The BigPond 2009 Adelaide Film Festival will also be the first chance for audiences to see Glendyn Ivin's Flinders Ranges-shot road movie Last Ride, starring Hugo Weaving and SA schoolboy Tom Russell.

"It's looking fantastic," grinned the 10-year-old from Beaumont.

The Festival will be held from February 19 to March 1.