Oz festival backs hits

"Look Both Ways" and "Ten Canoes," two of the most-talked about Oz films of the last year, were both partly financed by the fest.

The third Adelaide Film Fest (Feb. 22-March 4), will premiere seven narrative and docu features and screen approximately 100 other titles from around the world. Founded in 2002 by South Australia premier Mike Rann, the festival invests A$500,000 ($373,000) a year in a slate of new projects lensed, posted or developed in the state.

The idea of investing in films was hatched during Peter Sellars' truncated stint as director of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. "Otherwise the Adelaide Film Festival was going to be irrelevant, because there are already three very strongly established film festivals in Australia," fest director Katrina Sedgwick says of the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane events.

She is hopeful the 2007 event, despite being "at the bottom of Australia, at the edge of the world" will attract some key foreign buyers and festival scouts. Rotterdam and Gothenburg fests also invest in pics, but only Adelaide, Australia's fifth-biggest state, ensures the coin is spent locally.

"I'm never going to invest in a commercial film," Sedgwick explains. "I'm going to invest in interesting cultural products."

So far that decision is reaping dividends. "Ten Canoes," maverick director Rolf de Heer's Yolngu-language subtitled drama about a young bloke learning his place within the tribe -- which drew attention in Cannes -- is doing well in limited release.

"Look Both Ways" grossed almost $2.2 million in Oz and sold to nearly every foreign territory. Pic's producer, Bridget Ikin, says her $2.8 million film would not have been made without $186,000 from the fest. "Additional money really makes the difference," she says. "Especially with films that are innovative and with an untried director." The fest's support was particularly critical, since foreign presales are difficult on pics with tyro helmers, and Australia's commercial, public and pay television broadcasters have effectively ceased funding films.

"Boxing Day," "Lucky Miles," "Dr. Plonk," "Home Song Stories," "Forbidden Lie$," "Kalaupapa -- Heaven" and "Words from the City" will world premiere at the 2007 fest.