During Cannes 2023, Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed Mathew Kesting, the Chief Executive and the Creative Director of the Adelaide Film Festival. What follows is that interview.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you introduce yourself and tell me about your role in your organization?
Mathew Kesting (MK): My name is Mathew Kesting, and I’m the Chief Executive and the Creative Director of the Adelaide Film Festival. The Adelaide Film Festival was established 20 years ago (in 2003). Established as a biennial eventas of last year the festival will be presented annually, every October. AFF is really distinguished by the fact that it invests equity investment in new productions. We’ve supported around 150 projects so far. Last year there were 15 projects and we’ll unveil another 10 projects this year. Of last year’s investments, you might have heard of Talk to Me, it had its international premiere at Sundance, and was one of the projects that we supported last yearHello Dankness and Marungka Tjalatjunu/ Dipped in Black were other projects from the slate that had international premieres at Berlin earlier this year alongside The Survival of Kindness which was in competition there. .
The festival also has several competitions. I’ll talk more about our programming in a second.
(UM): Now, I saw that in Berlin.
(MK): In Berlin?
(UM): Yes.
(MK): In the Competition? Yeah.
Watandar, My Countryman is one you might find interesting. It’s a beautiful story about a photographer, Muzafar Ali. He came from Afghanistan to Australia. Then he goes on a pilgrimage into the desert to find the connection between Afghanis and Australians. And what he actually ends up doing is uncovering all of these amazing stories, including stories of the stolen generation and linkages with Aboriginal people. A beautiful film.
(UM): And what is the selection process for your festival? Do you have a programmer who makes the final decision? Can you explain this process a bit?
(MK): So, we receive films in several different ways. We do a call for submissions, which closes in about a week. But we also actively work with sales agents, distributors, and filmmakers. And we invest in films. So, we have our own commissions as well. Between all of that, we gather around, 80 feature films, 130 films in the program in total. We’ve made the program bigger in the past, but that’s a good number for us. And then about half of those are Australian and half international.
(UM): And are you the one making the final decision?
(MK): Myself and our Head of Programming. I work very closely with my Head of Programming, Gail Kovatseff. And between her and I, we make the final decision. But we work with a panel of people. We have a programming panel that is made up of filmmakers, academics, and artists. They work really hard to view all the submissions and provide their advice on the films. And then they support us with the Festival through the Q&As and filmmaker hosting, etc.
(UM): You mentioned you provide funds for financial support for the films. How is the festival funded?
(MK): Approximately athird from sponsorship, [a third from] sponsorship philanthropy, [and a third from the government]. I think that sort of configuration is pretty common for festivals. We are very fortunate that the South Australian government provides us with the funds for the Adelaide Film Festival Investment fund.
(UM): Do you have a definition for what constitutes a good movie?
(MK): I have a very open mind to cinema. The films that really excite me are the ones that push the art form in some way or that I know will speak to our audience. We have a really diverse audience so it’s hard to define what a good film is. It can mean so many different things.
(UM): In your selection process, do you have any kind of red flags? For example, will you accept Woody Allen or Polanski? Or are there other kinds of red flags for your Festival?
(MK): I’d probably steer away from a Polanski retrospective now, although I have previously presented retrospectives of his work in the cinematheque I used to program. Of course, anything that’s offensive we’ll stay away from but we don’t shy away from controversy or challenging material at the same time.
(UM): In terms of diversity and inclusion, these are becoming very important right now. And Australia, I know, from the beginning was very diverse. So, I’m just curious if you have any kind of quotas for your Festival.
(MK): No, I think diversity and inclusion is throughout our program in everything that we do. I’ll point to last year’s program as a good example. We had queer films throughout the whole program, for example bute don’t partition these into a seperate queer section. We had Indigenous films throughout the whole program. We had films by women throughout the whole program. So, I think that sometimes it is useful to draw a spotlight on a particular theme, issue or segment of the community, and then other times it’s better just to include them as part of the broader program.
(UM): And getting back to this question of diversity, does it make film programming more difficult or not? Because I’ve had a conversation with programmers, and they told me, sometimes they pick a movie, but after doing research or later, they realize they made a bad choice or the film brings controversy because of the different political or funding issues related to the project. So, I’m just curious if this causes any kind of concern or problem.
(MK): Not a problem per se, but I can think of some examples where it has been problematic for other festivals and we’ve learned from those issues. But diversity per se is not an issue at all. It actually strengthens and enhances everything.
(UM): No, I mean by making it more complex. Because sometimes we pick a movie and it requires lots of research. For example, if the representation is authentic.
(MK): Are you talking about authorship then?
(UM): Yes.
(MK): And the sort of inherent right to tell a story? This is something we’re very mindful of. However, I think there is a conversation to be had around this. I know that we’re talking about The Survival of Kindness. There was some discussion around whether there was a —
(UM): White.
(MK): Yes, because [Rolf de Heer, the writer/director,] was white, whether he had the right to tell this story about a black woman in a cage. And there were claims that it was offensive to some people. But I think if you watch the film, and then also listen to the director, and his lead cast member, I think some of those critics have missed the point.
[But] it leads to what I think is an interesting broader conversation about authorship It’s way more nuanced and sophisticated than having to be a member of a particular community. Certainly, in Australia, with Indigenous stories, above-the-line participation from indigenous people is essential.
(UM): How is your festival unique? What, for example, makes it different than Melbourne Film Festival?
(MK): Well, first of all, it’s tightly curated. Melbourne is a much larger festival with many more slots. Which is wonderful and a whole experience in itself. But, we have to make many tough choices between lots of really good films so that it’s more of a representation of what’s out there. So, the curation is harder. I think our festival also has always had a really close linkage with visual art. And people who come to our festival get to know each other and they’re close to the audience. So, it’s a festival where you can really experience quality cinema, meet lots of people and feel included. It’s very inclusive.
(UM): You mentioned that you have to make hard decisions because you’re not picking a great number of films. Some programmers told me because they receive too many films and don’t have time to watch all of them and check for quality, they trust the quality of films submitted by distributors more. Is that the case for your festival?
(MK): We keep an eye on that. Because, in some ways, it is easier to select from distributors because it’s been through a quality control process already. But I think the real excitement for programmers is discovering new talent. And you find that new talent through all sorts of means. Many of our competition winners have come from submissions. So, the unearthing of talent is really exciting – and also just relationships with filmmakers. Sometimes that takes time.
(UM): In terms of discovery, how important is it for you? Because some International distributors told me, if you can go to festivals, like Cannes, Venice, and Berlin, they’re usually picked up by other festivals. If not, the film will have a very short span. So, when they see the movies at Cannes or Venice, they usually go for those titles. And how important are ticket sales?
(MK): Well, I guess a big part of my job is balancing all of those elements. I think it’s really important for us to have films and sections within the program that are discovery-oriented. And giving a platform to new voices is really important. I’ll just mention that last year, the films that we invested in, of which there were fifteen, seven of them were first-time feature directors. So genuinely, we put our money where our mouth is. But we balance that against the financial imperative of generating box office. I’ll point to some of the highlights. We had a special presentations program where we presented to the Australian premiere of Tár and had a Q&A with Cate Blanchett, the Banshees of Inisherin, and My Policeman – these were all straight from Venice and/ or Toronto, so only a few weeks after their World Premieres and they attracted a lot of interest. These, among other films in the program, were very helpful in terms of generating box office and profile, enabling us to take more risks with other areas of the program.
(UM): When many films come to your festival, what are the ways or methods that are used to promote or help the films get known, especially World Premieres?
(MK): Promoting? We invest a lot into generating media and staging unique events to mark the occasion of premieres. I think our festival also uses all the conventional channels that every other festival uses. We invest quite a lot into marketing. This includesa macro campaign that’s around the festival itself with additional individual campaigns around each film and section. We use all sorts of tactics, like social media, dedicated publicity activity, and direct mail. But I’m a firm believer in relationships with audiences. People come to the festival and then as they start to trust your selections, they come back for more. I’ve experienced that time and again.
(UM): I imagine that you also invite the filmmaker for the films that you selected for Q&As?
(MK): We invite as many filmmakers as possible. With the support of our philanthropists last Festival, we were able to invite quite a few international filmmakers and national filmmakers. So yes, we’re raising more money to bring more filmmakers to the festival all the time. It really enhances the festival and we love supporting films and filmmakers in this way.
(UM): The films that you are supporting financially, are they Australian projects or are they international films?
(MK): A bit of both, primarily Australian. The criteria we have is that there needs to be a cultural or economic return to the state of South Australia. All of these projects will have some linkage to the state. Carmen, which premiered in Toronto last year,directed by Benjamin Millepied, is an example of an international project that received investment from AFFPrincipal photography and some of the post-production was done in South Australia.
(UM): But you don’t require the World Premiere to be at your festival?
(MK): It’s preferable. But with negotiation, we step aside. Of course, it’s beneficial for one of these films to premiere at an A-list fest such as TIFF, an international platform, and then screen with us a few weeks later. I also really recommend Monolith. It’s by a first-time feature director, Matt Vesley. It had its International Premiere at SXSW. A low-budget feature that is extraordinary.
(UM): In terms of Covid, and the online experience, did it change the structure of your festival?
(MK): Well, 2020 was my first year as Festival Director. I previously worked with the festival as the Program Manager. We developed/designed five different types of festivals. We were ready to deliver all sorts of different configurations of the festival. We were fortunate though; we were able to deliver an in-person event. But we were ready to screen online, hybrid, drive-in, etc. But in the end, we were able to do it in cinemas.
(UM): But do you have any kind of policy about online streaming platforms, that if they want to be in competition, the movie needs to be a theatrical screening?
(MK): Yes, we don’t present work that has been available on a streaming platform in South Australia. We require a South Australian Premiere. An Australian Premiere is even more preferable. If it’s been on the streaming platform, we don’t show it.
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