KinoTopia 063: Fantastic Film Festival Australia
KT's resident award-winning filmmaker Jasper Caverly chats to FFFA Artistic Director Hudson Sowada about the fifth iteration of the festival.
Our listings person took the day off yesterday.
Fantastic Film Festival Australia
Running at the Lido and Thornbury Picture House from April 18 to May 10.
Jasper Caverly interviews FFFA Artistic Director Hudson Sowada.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“The festival’s designed for risk-taking audiences and filmmakers.” - Hudson Sowada - Artistic Director of the Fantastic Film Festival Australia
A port of call for any dedicated lover of the weird or trashy, every Fantastic Film Festival Australia (FFFA) session I’ve been to over the last 3-4 years has certainly been memorable. For one reason or another.
I recall Hudson’s nude appearance on a national morning news program where an infamous Channel 7 presenter congratulated Hudson for his ‘lateral thinking’. I wonder if Kochie would attend one of FFFA’s nude screenings if he wasn’t too busy shining his Logies at home (he has two, Wikipedia tells me).
Hudson’s interpretation of ‘exhibition at the cinema’ is pretty open-minded. I personally can’t think of anything worse than taking my clothes off in public but the festival has plenty on offer for the clothed viewer too. With the programming spanning the cinematic fringes, this year’s festival offers everything from the arachnophobic nightmare of Sting, to Gaspar Noé’s out-of-body exercise in experiential filmmaking with Enter The Void and even a people-eating-people romantic comedy by the way of Cannibal Mukbang.
And of course, a nude screening of Leslie Neilson starrer, The Naked Gun.
The following excerpts are from my conversation with Hudson Sowada ahead of opening night last week. We talk about film festival culture and cinema-going as well as current tendencies of Australian genre cinema and championing filmmakers through programming.
For those who haven’t attended before, how would you describe the festival for first-time attendees?
Fantastic Film Festival Australia is an event dedicated to a cross-section of cult, genre, arthouse, underground, alternative film and experimental cinema. Films that are trying to do something new, pushing the medium forward in an exciting way, have a distinct voice or personality. Or really just damn fun films.
The calendar year is already stacked with festivals that cater to really wide audiences. How do you find your audience in a saturated market?
That was a big question in the beginning: where do we fit into a circuit that already has a genre festival? Where we landed was: there isn’t a festival (particularly in Melbourne) where there’s a space for trash and underground or loose-wire filmmaking that can sit alongside ‘high-prestige’ arthouse and elevated cinema.
The ethos of the festival is really of an anti highbrow vs. lowbrow mindset and just about the joy of making cinema fun. The festival caters to audiences who are up for that kind of experience, and by its nature that means there’s a lot of horror in there as well as science fiction and fantasy films.
We pride ourselves that we can put that alongside a wide gamut of films that don’t neatly fall into the traditional categories.
FFFA is almost a spiritual successor to Richard Sowada’s ‘Mondo to Mars’ or ‘Cinema Tabu’. A tendency for transgressive cinema evidently runs in the family. Why is that?
My old man runs a film festival in Perth called Revelations. He started that festival, along with those events you mentioned, because he didn’t have a job and needed some money. The same festival he ran out of jazz and nightclubs and underground bars, has now become a key part of the national film circuit.
I have so many distinct memories spending all day at the cinema watching the most outrageous and un-child-friendly cinema that I could. I would spend all week watching these movies at the festival and I guess that's where my taste was kind of built from, as well as that approach to programming in the cross-section of different voices from prestige or true underground, razor-wire filmmakers.
That’s just what’s always excited me: seeing something fresh and vibrant and exciting. That’s what I hope to capture with each program at Fantastic Film Fest as well.
Are you seeing any trends amongst our national filmmakers, particularly in genre?
As much as The Babadook is such an important piece of Australian film history, we’re kind of living in a post-Babadook world where you can't get away with just having a spooky house and people acting weird unless the production and the performances are immaculate. Since Talk to Me there’s this massive enthusiasm for that really pedal-to-the-metal, high-octane, propulsive filmmaking which is finding really strong audiences.
The trends are interesting. I'm seeing the influence of Ozploitation and exploitation cinema coming back in certain ways and I think Letterboxd is a big influence on audiences as well, younger audiences in particular who are finding things and sharing them. It’s a really interesting time to be a filmmaker in Australia.
How does Letterboxd tie into the culture surrounding film festivals?
The people who use Letterboxd are the people who show up to cinema screenings. They’re the ones who are out there talking about films, buying tickets and being amongst the community.
Those are exactly the kinds of people we wanna connect with for the festival. They value discovery and sharing with their network (the people they talk to and watch movies with) so the festival tries to really lean into that experience as much as possible.
I love seeing a 1-star review with the most ruthless sentence ever put into a computer or people writing full essays as if they were paid to do it. Either way, it’s a really fun community.
What are some of your personal highlights across the festival’s history?
The Lighthouse was absolutely one of the top sessions, we sold out every cinema in the entire building [at the Lido]. We also had the Australian premiere of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once which was really special as a program launch. Along with a midnight premiere of The Northman and screening The People’s Joker with Vera Drew in attendance.
Those are some really exciting moments that I look back really proudly on. But all that being said, I really don’t like it when programmers have this sense of discovering talent or ‘creating success’ for the filmmakers. The filmmakers are the ones out there struggling to make the work and the festival is the place to celebrate and host the result of that.
If there were a way that people can fall in love with a filmmaker by coming to our party then that’s something I'm thrilled with but at the end of the day: the makers are the star of the show.
Are there any new screening formats we can expect to see from FFFA in the future?
I’m always looking for inspiration to find new contexts to present films in. The nude screenings were influenced by a film that was set on a nudist colony and we thought it’d be fun to watch naked - and it just stuck. Scratch ‘n’ Sniff [or Stink-O-Vision] was something I had been researching for several years before I found a partner with Umbrella Entertainment to get that up and running.
The Thornbury Picture House, which we’re thrilled to be screening at this year, is our way of getting a community-minded and tight-knit crew together in a theatre with a single screen.
I’ve always wanted to do a screening with pyrotechnics or cap guns and little props or toys that involve audience interaction. It’s one thing to have an idea but you also have to get people to buy a ticket and come down.
Some must-see picks:
Enter the Void - dir. Gaspar Noé with live score from Corin (Closing Night)
One of the most outrageous, outlaw, extremity filmmakers around. The live score is going to be quite a memorable experience.
Metal Skin - dir. Geoffery Wright (with director Q&A)
Wright’s follow-up to Romper Stomper, starring a teenage Ben Mendelsohn as a streetcar racer in Melbourne’s western suburbs. 2K restoration premiere of an unsung Australian gem.
Last Stop in Yuma County - dir. Francis Galluppi
Set in a diner. Bank robbers show up. The gas station next door runs out of gas. Everyones stuck together and things spiral out of control. FFO: early Tarantino and Coen Brothers.
WEEKLY FILM LISTINGS
April 25 - May 01
ACMI
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero (Co-presented with the MQFF)
Carlos López Estrada, Zac Manuel, 2023
Screening Sat 27 April
Indonesian Film Festival 2024
Sehidup Semati
Upi Avianto, 2023
Screening Fri 26 Apri
Sijjin
Hadrah Daeng Ratu, 2023
Screening Sat 27 April
13 Bom di Jakarta
Angga Dwimas Sasongko, 2023
Screening Sun 28 April
Focus on Ryuichi Sakamoto (Encores)
The Last Emperor
Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987
Screening Sat 27 April
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence
Nagisa Ōshima, 1983
Screening Sun 28 April
Matinees
Showing Up
Kelly Reichardt, 2022
Screening Fri - Sun
No screening this week
ASTOR CINEMA
Alien
Ridley Scott, 1979
+
Aliens
James Cameron, 1986
Double screening Fri 26 April
It Happened One Night
Frank Capra, 1934
Screening Sun 28 April
Alien - 45 Year Anniversary
Ridley Scott, 1979
Screening Sun - Tues
BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)
Coming soon (May / June)
No screening this week
CHINATOWN CINEMA
In Broad Daylight
Lawrence Kan, 2023
Limited Screenings
Spy X Family Code White
Takashi Katagiri, 2024
Limited Screenings
Viva La Viva
Yan Han, 2024
Limited Screenings
A Guilty Conscience
Jack Ng, 2023
Screening Sun 28 April
Closed for winter
No screening this week
New Release
Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story
Barnaby Thompson, 2023
Screening Daily
The Teacher’s Lounge
Ilker Çatak, 2023
Screening Daily
General Release
Jeanne Du Berry
Maïwenn, 2023
Screening Daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2023
Screening Daily
Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, 2023
Screening Daily
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Civil War
Alex Garland, 2023
Screening Daily
DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: @ Miscellania
Les Scotcheuses - Zone to Defend
* Anomalies (2013 - 19’)
* Sème Ton Western (2014 - 24’)
* Après les Nuages (2021 - 40’)
_____________
Wednesday, May 1st @miscellania_
DOORS @ 7pm
FILM @ 8pm
Tickets on door $10
The Murderer Lives at No. 21
Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1942
Screening Monday 29 May
ArtsWest Building 353 - Melbourne Uni Parkville Campus
GAY24 (Bar Flippy’s)
No screening this week
HITLIST (9 Gertrude St, Fitzroy)
No screenings this week
Fantastic Film Festival Australia
Program Here
New Release
The Teacher’s Lounge
Ilker Çatak, 2023
Screening Daily
General Release
Spy X Family Code White
Takashi Katagiri, 2024
Screening daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2023
Screening Daily
Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Civil War
Alex Garland, 2023
Screening Daily
Monkey Man
Dev Patel, 2024
Screening Daily
Origin
Ava DuVernay, 2024
Screening Daily
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders, 2023
Screening Daily
Immaculate
Michael Mohan, 2024
Screening Daily
OVA CLUB
No screening this week
THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)
KEEP ROLLING: ANN HUI’S COUNTER-CINEMA
Elegies
Ann Hui, 2023
Screening from 7pm
+
Visible Secret
Ann Hui, 2021
Screening from 8:55pm
TOP OF THE HEAP (Tramway Hotel)
No screening this week
Black Sunday
Mario Bava, 1960
Screening Tues 30 April at True North Coburg
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY: SCREENING IDEAS
No screening this week
PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON / COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / MOONEE PONDS / WESTGARTH
New Releases
Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story
Barnaby Thompson, 2023
Screening Daily
The Teacher’s Lounge
Ilker Çatak, 2023
Screening Daily
General Release
Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2023
Screening Daily
Jeanne Du Berry
Maïwenn, 2023
Screening Daily
Spy X Family Code White
Takashi Katagiri, 2024
Screening daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, 2023
Screening Daily
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Civil War
Alex Garland, 2023
Screening Daily
Monkey Man
Dev Patel, 2024
Screening Daily
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders, 2023
Screening Daily
No screening this week
New Releases
The Teacher’s Lounge
Ilker Çatak, 2023
Screening Daily
General Release
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, 2023
Screening Daily
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Civil War
Alex Garland, 2023
Screening Daily
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders, 2023
Screening Daily
Fantastic Film Festival Australia
FFFA films playing at TPH here
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening almost daily
Alien - 45 Year Anniversary
Ridley Scott, 1979
Screening Fri 26 April
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Sat, Sun, wed
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders, 2023
Screening Sat, Sun and Wed
Wicked Little Letters
Thea Sharrock, 2023
Screening Wed 1 May
Monkey Man
Dev Patel, 2024
Screening Wed 1 May
UNKNOWN PLEASURES @ TPH
No screening this week