Top Five Picks from the 2022 Adelaide Film Festival by AFF Creative Director Mat Kesting
Taking place over twelve days from October 19 – 30, the 2022 Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) provides festival goers with the chance to explore a wide range of films that bring the world to South Australia, while also celebrating our local grown talent.
Square Holes have worked alongside AFF since 2008 to track community engagement with the festival and test the market around new offerings like the AFF Youth Program.
In an interview conducted with Mat Kesting, AFF Creative Director, about our partnership, Mat said that the festival is an opportunity for movie-lovers to engage with stories not found on streaming sites like Netflix.
“It’s an opportunity to come into contact with things you wouldn’t have thought of seeing before, or work that is made by contemporary filmmakers and from all over the place that is outside of that algorithm,” says Kesting.
To help you narrow down your selections, we asked Mat to give us his top five picks for the festival:
Watandar, My Countryman is a beautiful story about identity, family and home. This AFF-supported documentary follows former Afghan refugee and human rights activist Muzafar Ali as he photographs the descendants of the famous Afghan Cameleers, but his project is interrupted by the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and he must race to help friends and family left behind. It is a deeply touching story of finding your place in the world, and I hope everyone will come along to see it during this year’s Adelaide Film Festival.
We’re very proud to be presenting the Australian Premiere of Carmen with a very special screening at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Carmen will set Her Majesty alight with passion and dance as this retelling of the iconic opera comes to life on the big screen, in one of Adelaide’s most beloved venues. We’re also very excited to be hosting a special Q&A session after the screening with the film’s director and Spanish superstar Rossy de Palma, who also features in the film.
In the running for our prestigious Feature Fiction Award is Metronom, competing in a field of excellent films.
Under the oppressive cloud of communist Romania, Ana and her partner are spending their last few days together before he attempts to flee the country. It’s an ode to teenage love, against the backdrop of oppression and rebellion in 1972 authoritarianism.
One of the key roles of the Adelaide Film Festival is to highlight the immense talent we have in our state and giving it a platform. On the second Monday of our Festival, we are holding our Made in SA shorts program and Awards Night, where we will celebrate the successes of our brilliant local filmmakers. I encourage everyone to come along and celebrate the next generation of South Australian filmmaking talent!
An outrageous, hilarious Queer tale direct from Cannes Film Festival, combining eco-consciousness with brilliant music and whimsical frank fireman fetishism. It’s a tongue-in-cheek fairytale about the idealistic Prince Alfredo, who finds his love story with fellow cadet Alfonso while they train to become firefighters. The Guardian has called it “an intoxicating feast for the senses” – and is certainly not to be missed!
The Adelaide Film Festival runs from October 19 – 30 2022 across a number of venues. You can find the full program here.
