AdelaideNow
Andrew Fenton
December 4, 2008

FIVE new Australian features, five short films and a documentary will premiere at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival.

The festival’s innovative investment program, since copied interstate, has provided funding for a total of 11 new Australian works.

Announced this afternoon at a media launch at Adelaide Airport, the features include Sarah Watt’s follow up to her SA made, AFI award-winning Look Both Ways - called My Year Without Sex, and Iranian-born, Adelaide filmmaker Granaz Moussavi’s debut feature My Tehran For Sale. Shot in Iran earlier this year, the film details a HIV positive actress's escape to Australia and was produced by Julie Ryan (Ten Canoes).

Palm d’Or winning director Glendyn Ivin’s Flinders Ranges road movie Last Ride starring Hugo Weaving will also premiere along with Boxing Day director Kriv Stenders’s Home, a fast-paced period thriller starring Aden Young filmed near Clarendon.

The final feature in the Investment Program is Samson and Delilah, from filmmaker Warik Thornton. It’s a love story about an Aboriginal couple’s journey of survival in the outback.

“It’s thrilling to watch this diverse slate develop and for SA to be playing such a significant role in enabling these projects to find eager audiences both here and overseas,” said Festival Director Katrina Sedgwick.

The 2009 Adelaide Film Festival will be held February 19 to March 1 and feature more than 130 films from 50 countries and includes special events and forums, a program of new and classic romantic comedies and, for the first time, a moving image art installation called Duality Of Light from acclaimed Australian artist Lynette Wallworth