TRAVELLING FILM FESTIVAL

MURWILLUMBAH 8-10 SEPTEMBER 2023

Australian short flms, including some flmmaker guests, prepare to spend your weekend captivated by the big screen.

This year’s Opening Night flm is the acclaimed new Australian drama Shayda, the Sundance Audience Prize winning debut from director Noora Niasari and executive produced by Cate Blanchett.

Award-winning producer Vincent Sheehan (Fisk, Animal Kingdom) will be in attendance in Murwillumbah to introduce the flm and answer audience questions. Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Holy Spider) stars as Shayda in this stirring drama about an Iranian migrant battling the legal system to protect her 6-year-old daughter.

It’s not the only award-winning flm Murwillumbah flm fans will get to see before everyone else, with Anatomy of a Fall the Cannes 2023 Palm d’Or winner, and Sydney Film Festival Audience Award winner screening in the Festival. This tense psychological drama stars a brilliant Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann) as an author accused of murdering her husband. 2023 Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Dramatic) Scrapper will delight and charm audiences as it follows a 12 year old girl who happily lives alone avoiding social services by claiming to live with her uncle “Winston Churchill”. That is until her estranged party-boy father, Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), shows up and they’ll have to learn to grow up together.

Selected for the Offcial Competition at the 70th Sydney Film Festival is Past Lives, after winning acclaim at both Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, and “widely considered a likely best picture contender at the Oscars” (Sydney Morning Herald). This delicate, spellbinding, debut romance by Celine Song stars Greta Lee (Russian Doll) and Teo Yoo (Decision to Leave).

Winning over 20 international awards is semi-autobiographical drama Riceboy Sleeps, a shot-on-16mm treasure about a Korean mother and son’s migrant experience in Canada, it draws laudatory comparisons with Minari (SFF 2021).

Joining the TFF Murwillumbah program is Let the River Flow by Sámi flmmaker Ole Giæver. Set in 1979 Norway, recently graduated schoolteacher Ester conceals her Sámi heritage as she moves to the Norwegian town of Alta. The flm powerfully depicts the events that led to a turning point in the fght for Sámi Indigenous rights.

Legendary German flmmaker Wim Wenders latest Tokyo-set Perfect Days has been earning smiles and swelling hearts since its award-winning Cannes debut earlier this year, including at multiple sell-out screenings at Sydney Film Festival in June. Classic rock tunes from the likes of Van Morrison and Prince permeate this poetic refection on the beauty to be found in everyday. Murwillumbah audience will be transported to the smoky warmth of an Estonian log-cabin sauna in the unique and awardwinning documentary Smoke, Sauna, Sisterhood. Beautifully captured, women continue an ancient tradition of communing to share naked truths and heal. Intimate and inviting, this visually stunning and soul enriching documentary is not to be missed.

The Travelling Film Festival is also proud to present three Australian short flms from this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Screening with Past Lives is Katele, by Torres Strait Islander flmmaker John Harvey. Spoken in English and Kala Kawa Ya, the flm was also selected for the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films and features Bangarra alumni Elma Kris and Waangenga Blanco Screen NSW’s Screenability Filmmakers Fund has delivered two brilliant short flms including Director Jason King’s short Chum, written by Eliza South who also stars as a blind woman who bonds with a stranger, but all is not as it seems. 14 in February by Victoria Singh-Thompson follows a hard of hearing student who fnds her resolve when confronted by a teacher. Victoria will also be in Murwillumbah to present her awardwinning flm!

Tickets to TFF Murwillumbah are now on sale! With a Flexipass5 and Full Subscription, patrons can watch the whole program and save up to 30%!

For more information and bookings, please visit: https://www.sff. org.au/tff/program/ murwillumbah