2024 CAPITAL FILM FESTIVAL: PREVIEW

Canberra’s premiere international film event, The Capital Film Festival returns Wednesday October 30 boasting a roster of Cannes and Toronto festival titles that strengthen its reputation as one of Australia’s prestige cinema gatherings.

Andrew Perkin, Festival Director, said: “While the program covers a diverse range of genres from first-time filmmakers to established auteurs, there is a recurring theme of isolation and its many forms. This may reflect the effects caused by the worldwide shutdowns of 2020 and the internal conflicts many artists looked to explore.”

Opening night honours have been bestowed upon French director Jacques Audiard’s EMILIA PÉREZ, a surrealistic meditation on gender and a bold hybrid of narratives, including but not limited to cartel thriller, latina-pop musical, Mexican melodrama and redemption parable. The film created history at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where it took the prestigious Grand Jury Prize and, in a festival first, split the Best Actress Prize amongst the female ensemble of Zoe Saldaña (pictured, top), Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Karla Sofía Gascón. 

A major coup for the programming team is the acquisition of MENUS-PLAISIRS – LES TROIGROS (pictured, right), the latest from 94-year-old iconic documentarian Frederick Wiseman. A breathtaking study of the inner-workings of a French restaurant that's held three Michelin stars for more than 50 years, the screening will be accompanied by a selection of fine cheeses and premium French wine.

An in-person Q&A with the Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei Shen will follow the screening of WELCOME TO BABEL, director James Bradley’s fascinating documentary that uncovers Jiawei's incredible journey from growing up in Mao’s China and surviving the Cultural Revolution to his resettlement in Australia and establishing his reputation as one of the most important figures in the art world.

Other must-see movies in the 2024 program include writer/director Jesse Eisenberg’s A REAL PAIN, in which he co-stars with Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland; Cannes Grand Prix prize winner, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, an intoxicatingly romantic drama from writer/director Payal Kapadia; and, Palme d’Or honouree ANORA (pictured, right), the latest from auteur Sean Baker, whose latest underdog story introduces the world to Mikey Madison as a sex worker who meets and marries the son of an oligarch.

The genre film community has much to celebrate in the line-up representing horror, manga and….Lego. Tilman Singer’s follow-up to his auspicious debut Luz stars Euphoria breakout Hunter Schaffer in CUCKOO, a sinister horror pic centred on the unsettling occurrences at a resort in the German Alps; Takashi Imashiro’s popular manga, GHOST CAT ANZU is an eccentric anime, shot live on location and rotoscoped to melt the real world into Japan’s fantastical kami realm; and, Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville’s exuberant PIECE BY PIECE utilises Lego animation to celebrate the life of music and cultural icon Pharrell Williams.

Closing the festival will be the critically acclaimed winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR. Directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Academy Award® winners Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, the Spanish great’s latest is a visually exquisite and intimate drama centred on the relationship between two fascinating, complex, and flawed women.

The full program, including session and ticket details, can be found at the 2024 Capital Film Festival official website.