We look back on BIFF 2005
2005 was a transition year for the 14 year old Festival, marked by the decision to move the primary venue to South Bank and the introduction of Cine Sparks, a festival for young people. Change is always a challenge and we anticipated that the Festival would be more challenging to stage in 2005 than in previous years.
One challenge we could never have foreseen was the loss of our Chief Technical Consultant, Geoff Bielefeld, who died suddenly the weekend before the Festival. Geoff has been with the Festival since the beginning. His loss was keenly felt at a personal level by the ‘old-timers’ at BIFF, and his expertise was and will be sorely missed. Geoff was a keen opera fan, and we were pleased to dedicate the Opening Night screening of U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, an adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen, to his memory.
The Venue Change
The historic Regent Cinemas have been home to BIFF since its third year and for many people BIFF and the Regent are intrinsically linked. But redevelopments to surrounding buildings, the Queen St Mall and the cinemas themselves, along with the growth of the Festival, had increasingly impacted on the suitability of the venue for staging the event. If there was any doubt, unresolvable air-conditioning problems in the building during the Festival brought home the realities.
We’ll be keenly watching the results of our Patron Survey to find out what the audience thinks: from anecdotal evidence so far, overall people seem more concerned about the challenge of moving between venues than about the choice of one venue over another!
The Guests
International guests this year travelled from as far afield as Israel, Russia, Argentina, India and Austria and we were pleased to host them all! Being a small Festival by international standards, BIFF tries to differentiate itself by being hospitable to guests. As well as hospitality at the Festival, we assisted them to organise whale-watching tours and visits to Lone Pine to cuddle koalas and feed kangaroos.
Alireza Ghanie (pictured left with the children of Bam, who collaborated on his film) was a member of the Interfaith Jury and also he had his short film Lesson from Bam screening in both the Cine Sparks programme and the main Festival which was very well received, making it into the Merchant Solutions Top Ten. Kais Nashef, star of Paradise Now, charmed everyone with his ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ looks and his willingness to work moments after getting off a 30 hour flight. Shin Jane, director of Shin-Sung-il is Lost, won our sympathy when she learned she faced 18 hours in transit on her way home due to an airport strike in Korea. Pearse Elliott, director of The Mighty Celt, proved to be the most dedicated party-animal.
Australian guests may not have to travel so far, but we appreciate their efforts no less. We were particularly impressed by the efforts some of the domestic filmmakers made to promote their own films. The Puppy team threw their own after-party at The Press Club and were lucky enough for the event to coincide with a gig by one of the bands who supplied music for the soundtrack.
Of course, the ‘guest of honour’ is always our esteemed Chauvel Award recipient. This year it was David Bradbury, and he and his family proved to be delightful guests. David didn’t miss an opportunity to promote his cause: the Lord Mayor will be receiving a personal copy of Blowin’ in the Wind from David as he continues to try and raise awareness of issues.
We’d like to extend hearfelt thanks to all our guests for their priceless contribution to this year’s Fest!
The Films
With more than 150 feature films screening this year, we can’t mention every session, but here’s a few stand-out moments.
Up and Down – for the strange thrill of seeing Brisbane depicted as a Utopian idyll
Blacktown and Coca: The Dove of Chechnya – for eliciting some of the most emotional audience responses we can remember seeing after a screening.
First screening of I am a Sex Addict – for one of the most fascinating Q&A sessions we can recall.
Peep ‘TV’ Show – for providing us with some of the most visually striking guests we’ve ever had. Pictured left are director Yutaka Tsuchiya and his wife (and star of the film), Shiori Gechov.
Nitaboh – for creating such demand we had to move it to a bigger cinema,
The short film Boris – Just for the laughs.
Phil the Alien – for finally making it onto our screens!
We had a number of sell-out sessions this year, including Magnifico, I Told You I was Ill: Spike Milligan, Mosaic, Dumplings, I Know I’m Not Alone, Kept and Dreamless, Nitaboh, Moolaadé, The Taste of Tea and Malabar Princess.
We extend sincere thanks to the distributors and filmmakers who made it possible for us to provide such a diverse and interesting selection of films.
And You…
And a final round of applause for you, our patrons. We know some of you had your patience tested this year with ticketing issues, hot cinemas at the Regent and some projection problems – we appreciate your good humour and perserverance in the face of difficulties. We’re heartened by the strong positive response you’ve given to the films overall and we look forward to seeing you all again next year – for BIFF 15!
Mad Hot Documentary
Nine weeks after its North American release, Mad Hot Ballroom is poised to cross $5m and has become the ninth highest grossing documentary of all time, according to the film site Box Office Mojo.
It is already the biggest documentary of 2005 in the United States, and has picked up a number of awards, including recent honours for both the audience award and the jury prize at the Sydney International Film Festival.
Distributor Paramount Classics’ specialty division has been fielding calls for prints from exhibitors that wouldn’t typically play arthouse pictures. The film is now playing in approximately 75 markets in the typical metropolitan circuits and far-flung corners of Louisiana and Montana and is shaping up to become one of the bigger crossover hits of the year, drawing children and families, adolescents, senior citizens, and the Latino community.
Mad Hot Ballroom screened at BIFF presented by Vision on Monday 1 August.
Akale Wins National Film Awards
Akale, one of the titles in our Malayalam Retrospective, has just won two awards at the Indian Film Awards – which, when you consider the size of the Indian film industry (which rivals Hollywood) – is no mean feat! Akale was judged best Regional Film and Best Supporting Actress for Sheela, who plays Anglo-Indian mother Margaret Evans. The film’s awards were predicted by Indian movie portal Galatta.com who describe the film as ‘a classic’.
