The Armidale International Film Festival will open on Friday, 7 August with the French drama Colours of Time, as organisers bring another wide-ranging lineup of international cinema to the Belgrave Cinema.
Regional Cinemas Australia chief executive and managing director Kieren Dell said this year’s program again spans a broad range of countries and genres. “We always try to get a good spread of countries and genres,” Mr Dell said.
The festival features three French films, alongside titles from Spain, Scandinavia, Germany and Ireland. Among the more unexpected inclusions is a drama about a Sami reindeer herder, which Mr Dell said sat alongside crime, comedy and romance titles in this year’s selection. Re-Creation, he said, was closer to a documentary.
“I don’t think we’ve got a documentary on this year but otherwise we’ve got a broad range of genres,” Mr Dell said.
Opening night film Colours of Time follows a group of cousins in 19th century Paris who inherit a house and trace the lives of their ancestors. Mr Dell recommended the film to anyone unsure where to start.
“It’s French, it’s got some romance, some comedy, some drama. What more do you want?” he said.
He said the film had drawn strong attention since its national release a fortnight ago, and highlighted its young cast. “The French are pretty good at unveiling new, particularly female stars, there a couple of young female stars in this that look great,” Mr Dell said.
Also on the program is Case 137, which screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year, offering festival-goers a mix of lesser known titles alongside more high-profile releases.
Doors open with drinks from about 6.30 pm on opening night, ahead of a 7 pm screening. Rather than running as a single non-stop weekend as it has in the past, the festival will again be spread across two weeks, with one to three films screening most days and each title shown three times.
“That gives people the opportunity over two weeks to catch the films they want,” Mr Dell said. “No excuse for people to not catch the ones they want.”
Mr Dell said international film festivals played an important role in regional communities, where fewer cinema screens mean blockbuster releases often leave little room for smaller titles. “We don’t have the capacity to do all of those, but this gives us a chance to bring the highlights of the highlights, in a sense,” he said.
He said Armidale had a long history of strong support for the festival, even with just two screens at the Belgrave. Regional Cinemas Australia runs similar festivals at its Sawtell and Port Macquarie cinemas.
The festival comes as the Australian cinema industry records its strongest run in history, with Mr Dell saying takings had topped $100 million nationally for four consecutive months. He said cinema audiences, and Gen Z in particular, were returning in force as the industry recovered from the pandemic and production strikes.
Despite cost of living pressures, Mr Dell said cinema-going remained a resilient small luxury for many. “In this world that we’re living in, the ability to lose yourself in a movie on the big screen for a few hours,” he said.
Tickets for the Armidale International Film Festival are available now from belgravecinema.com.au
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