The 2016 line-up includes the Australian premiere of Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Evolution; the Australian premiere of Bernard Rose’s Frankenstein;
the international premiere of Ginanti Rona Tembang Asri’s Midnight Show
The 4th edition of Stranger With My Face International Film Festival will take place in Hobart from 14-17 April, with a line-up of eight feature films, a shorts program, a symposium, workshops, panels and social events.
Stranger With My Face focuses on diverse perspectives in genre filmmaking and primarily screens horror films directed by women.
The 2016 program includes the Australian premiere of Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Evolution and the international premiere of Midnight Show, by up-and-coming Indonesian director Ginanti Rona Tembang Asri.
Ginanti Rona Tembang Asri, who will be a guest at Stranger With My Face, previously worked as an assistant director and 2nd unit director on films including Killers, The Raid and The Raid 2.
French director Hadžihalilović, whose previous full-length feature film is the acclaimed Innocence (2004), has cited influences from Narciso Ibañez Serrador’s Who Can Kill a Child? to Lovecraft to Philip K. Dick in inventing the strange and compelling world of Evolution. She will take part in a Skype Q&A after the SWMF screening.
Festival Director Briony Kidd says, “These two films sum up what Stranger With My Face is about. Evolution is a poetic and provocative meditation on themes around motherhood and the body. It comes to us from a highly regarded art house filmmaker at the top of her game.”
“Midnight Show, meanwhile, is a hardcore horror film made by a first-time director who’s having a big impact at the Indonesian box office.”
“They represent filmmakers at different stages and with very different approaches, and yet both are working within a genre framework to explore humanity’s deepest fears.”
The other feature films screening are:
The Australian premiere of Bernard Rose’s stunning modern take on Mary Shelley’s classic tale, Frankenstein, starring Xavier Samuel, Tony Todd, Carrie Ann Moss and Danny Huston;
The Australian premiere of Anna Biller’s stylish retro thriller, The Love Witch, which is particularly notable for its lush 35 mm cinematography despite a modest budget;
The Australian premiere of Yolanda Torres’s The Forsaken, an intense contained location thriller from Spain about a group of criminals trapped together in a house;
The Invitation, Karyn Kusama’s chilling look at group dynamics and gas-lighting, winner of Best Film at Sitges in 2015;
Australian filmmakar Megan Riakos’s debut feature film, Crushed, a thriller set in picturesque wine country;
and the dark yet charming coming of age story Girl Asleep, directed by Rosemary Myers and adapted from an acclaimed play produced by South Australia’s Windmill Theatre Company.
Also screening is a line-up of outstanding short films from around the world:
- Nasty, directed by Prano Bailey-Bond (UK)
- Blame, directed by Kellee Terrell (USA)
- Thorn, directed by Soichi Umezawa and produced by Mai Nakanashi (Japan)
- Can You See Them? directed by Polly Staniford and Mike Staniford (Australia)
- The Betrayal directed by Susan Young (UK)
- ReStart directed by Olga Osorio (Spain)
- The Goblin Baby directed by Shoshana Rosenbuam (USA)
- Measure directed by Shelagh Rowan-Legg (Canada/UK)
- Abaddon directed by Samantha Ferguson (Australia)
- Vintage Blood directed by Abigail Blackmore (UK)
- Innsmouth directed by Izzy Lee (USA)
- The Things You Take (Australia) winner of SWMF’S 48-Hour Tasploitation Challenge in January 2016 and made by The Dying Arts (Matt Burton, Melanie Irons, Katie Robertson, Hannah Herrmann-Payn, Finegan Kruckemeyer, Shaun Wilson)
Festival passes as well as individual tickets to events are available to purchase online now.
Stranger With My Face International Film Festival is supported by the Tasmanian Government through Screen Tasmania.
Contact the festival for more information.