With the theme ‘A Celebration of Imagination’, the Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) has launched its full program for the 2022 festival, to be held from October 19 – 30.

This year’s Festival is the first annual event, following the South Australian Government’s announcement earlier this year that AFF, established in 2003 as a biennial event, will now be held every year.

The AFF program features 129 films – with 22 World Premieres and 32 Australian Premieres. Renowned for innovation, the 2022 AFF also sees an enhanced visual arts program, with cutting edge screen installations presented with AFF partners The Art Gallery of South Australia and Samstag Museum of Art.

Bookended by local South Australian talent, AFF will open with a celebration of one of Australia’s great bands – The Angels – in a documentary directed by Adelaide’s Madeleine Parry, and will close with the feature debut Talk to Me, by the RackaRacka brothers, Daniel and Michael Philippou.

The Opening Night Gala sees AFF present the World Premiere of The Angels: Kickin’ Down The Door, screening at AFF’s principal partner venue, Palace Nova Eastend, with an after-party for the ages where The Angels will perform live.  Opening Night also features the World Premiere of Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black), a multi- disciplinary artwork created by Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch and Australian artist Matthew Thorne.

After racking up a billion views on their RackaRacka YouTube channel, the internationally renowned Philippou brothers make it to the big screen with the Closing Night film, Talk to Me, the story of a lonely teenager, Mia, who gets hooked on conjuring spirits using a ceramic hand.  Talk to Me, an Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund film, screens at Adelaide’s iconic Her Majesty’s Theatre.

Also at Her Majesty’s, AFF is proud to announce that it will host the Australian premiere of Carmen, direct from its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. A visual and aural feast, Carmen is the directorial debut of Benjamin Millepied, celebrated choreographer (Black Swan) and one of the world’s acclaimed dancers (former principal soloist New York City Ballet). This dazzling modern-day retelling of one of history’s most famous love stories and operas, features a new music score by Nicholas Britell (Moonlight) and stars Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Paul Mescal (Lost Daughter) and Rossy de Palma (Parallel Mothers) in an explosion of dance and passion. Carmen, a French/Australian co-production, was partially filmed on location in South Australia and supported by the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and produced by the intimable Rosemary Blight (The Sapphires, Top End Wedding).

Established in 2007, the Feature Fiction Competition at the AFF was the first of its kind in Australia. The Competition celebrates bold storytelling, innovative filmmaking and overall fabulous films.

This year’s Competition Jury is Ali Gumillya Baker, a visual artist, performer, filmmaker and academic, South Australian producer Lisa Scott (The Tourist, A Sunburnt Christmas), Samoan-born New Zealand director Tusi Tamasese (The Oratorm 2011 Venice Orizzonti;  One Thousand Ropes 2017 Berlinale – Panorama), film critic and author Luke Buckmaster, and Jim Kolmar, who programs for SXSW, Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, and was a founding committee member of Festival Internacional de Cine Tulum (FICTU).

Films In Competition include the Australian premiere of Heusera, a deeply unsettling, psychological horror that plays on the unspoken loss of identity that comes with motherhood by Mexican director Michelle Garza Cervera; Riley Keough’s War Pony, made in collaboration with South Dakota’s Oglala Lakota community; the Romanian/French film Metronom, winner of the Best Direction prize at Cannes (Alexandru Belc); Whina, the sweeping biopic of iconic Maori elder and activist, Whina Cooper, directed by James Napier Robertson and Paula Whetu Jones; and the genre-defying Mexican feature Sansón and Me by award-winning filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes whose films push the boundaries of documentary and fiction.

AFF warmly welcomes new venue partner the Capri Theatre for a weekend of special presentations of the very best films from the international film festival circuit, including the Australian premieres of  Tár, fresh from the Venice Film Festival and the film that has critics speculating about the awards to be won by its star Cate Blanchett and director Todd Field, and the Irish drama The Banshees of Inisherin, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson; as well as the previously announced films My Policeman, with Harry Styles in his first major film role, which has its Australian premiere in Adelaide, fresh from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival; and Aftersun, the breakout hit if this year’s Cannes International Film Festival with rising star Paul Mescal (Normal People).

Competing for AFF’s annual Change Award, established in 2020, include the films EO, from veteran Polish master Jerzy Skolimowsky who dares us to imagine how animals see the world in this utterly unconventional story; Into the Ice, filmed in a glacier in Greenland, an enviro-doc that turns data collection into a compelling action-adventure epic (directed by Denmark’s Lars Ostenfeld; and Fashion Reimagined, about a remarkable global quest to produce a sustainable collection by 2017 Vogue Designer of the Year Amy Powney (directed by Becky Huntner). Also competing for the Change Award is Luku Ngarra, an Indigenous funded documentary on the history and culture of Arnehm Land through the eyes of traditional lawmen and elders including Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM who will be a guest of the festival.

AFF continues its tradition of presenting the best of world cinema with Australian premieres of films from more than 40 countries, including, from Hong Kong, A New Old Play, in which one of China’s most innovative, critically acclaimed and entertaining artists/filmmakers, Qiu Jiong-jiong,  gives us an insight into China from the 1920s to the 1980s through the eyes of Qiu Yu, a Sichuan opera clown based on the director’s own famous grandfather; La Jauría, winner, Grand Prize, Critics’ Week, Cannes, from Colombia’s Andrés Ramírez Pulido; the Australian premiere of Japan’s Baby Assassins, about two graduating schoolgirls who moonlight as assassins (director Hugo Sakamoto) and the first Pakistani film to premiere at Cannes, Joyland, a visually layered, heartfelt transgender romantic drama that gently hones in on the ways social taboos can restrict our true selves, from director Saim Sadiq.

The Australian premiere of The Hamlet Syndrome, Locarno Film Festival Grand Prix winner, will be presented by director Elwira Niewiera in attendance from Poland. This documentary theatre project created by a group of young people combines the themes of Hamlet with their experiences of combat in the lead up to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. Niewiera will join acclaimed Adelaide theatre director Chris Drummond for an expanded discussion open to schools.

Also screening in the World Cinema program is Lone Wolf, starring Adelaide favourite, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, in which director Jonathan Ogilvie updates Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent to contemporary Australia where the surveillance state and digital technology have turned us all into subjects of the camera; as well as Sweet As, winner of the recent CinefestOz best film prize and Melbourne International Film Festival’s Innovation award, from Australian First Nations director Jub Clerc, one of Australia’s most exciting new cinema talents; and the Sydney Film Festival opening night film We Are Still Here, a stunning anthology that is a deafening, defiant roar in response to 250 years of colonialism, made by ten Indigenous directors from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

The October program will see 15 much anticipated AFF Investment Fund (AFFIF) works unveiled and celebrated with a series of parties and gala events. In addition to Carmen, Talk to Me and the previously announced Carnifex (the debut feature from South Australian director Sean Lahiff) and the documentary The Last Daughter, directed by Brenda Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt, they include, legendary Australian director and AFF favourite Rolf de Heer’s new feature The Survival of Kindness, Watandar, My Countryman about Afghani/Australian photographer Muzafar Al’s exploration of his identity through the history of Afghani’s in Australia and, in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Larissa Behrendt’s You Can Go Now, about First Nations artist and activist, Richard Bell, in parallel with Bell’s visual art installation Embassy forming part of AFF’s exciting moving image art program.   Presented as part of Tarnanthi, AGSA’s acclaimed continuous celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Embassy is inspired by the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the protest camp set up 50 years ago on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra. This installation will be exhibited on the AGSA forecourt from Sat 22 – Sun 23 October.

AFF is proud to present the World Premiere of another AFFIF documentary feature The Giants, directed by Laurence Billet’s, about Bob Brown and the life of trees.   Bob Brown, last year’s recipient of The Bettison & James Award, will be a guest of the Festival.  In a presentation at AFF, the former Federal Greens Senator will offer insights into the majesty of Tasmania’s Tarkine, sharing his firsthand encounters of frontline resistance and why action to protect Adelaide’s nearest great rainforest is urgently required.

The 2022 Bettison & James Award, administered by the Adelaide Film Festival on behalf of the Jim Bettison and Helen James Foundation, was tonight awarded – at AFF’s official program launch – to Pat Rix, a respected artistic director with significant experience creating collaborative community and mainstage productions in Australia, the US and South East Asia. For over 30 years, Pat has worked with people from diverse backgrounds and organisations to build inclusive, respectful relationships across social, geographical and cultural divides. As an artist, her belief is that in order to have a voice, people need a place to speak from. Such a place must be a force for social change and allow new spaces for thinking and knowing to emerge. Pat’s unshakeable belief led to the development of a unique organisation where artists make amazing work across all art forms, celebrating the power of disability culture and complexity of human life.

Pat Rix will also speak at AFF, in an in-depth interview about her lifetime journey building an artistic community based on trust and respect.

The Adelaide Film Festival Board presents the Don Dunstan Award in recognition of an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture.

Previous recipients include Andrew Bovell, Bruna Papandrea, Judy Davis, Freda Glynn, David Dalaithngu Gulpilil AM, Rolf de Heer, Scott Hicks, Dennis O’Rourke and the combined contributions of David Stratton AM and Margaret Pomeranz AM.

The 2022 Don Dunstan Award recipient is David Jowsey. David is one of Australia’s major screen industry figures. Establishing BUNYA Productions with frequent collaborator Ivan Sen, and working closely with co- managing director and head of television Greer Simpkin, David has been instrumental in developing many of the most memorable film and television projects of recent years, including the Mystery Road film and television series. David’s films have been awarded at major international film festivals, where he is renowned for his commitment to bringing the work of Indigenous storytellers to the screen. The Adelaide Film Festival is proud to recognise David Jowsey’s achievements and showcase his storied career and collaborators.

In announcing the 2022 AFF program, Mat Kesting, AFF CEO and Creative Director, said: “Adelaide Film Festival is a home for the courageous creatives at the frontier of film art and those who help to forge our national identity through the exploration (and creation) of ideas and culture.

“The Festival is proud to present the directorial debuts of directors, Australian and international, alongside a diverse array of extraordinary and award-winning films from around the globe, and welcome a growing Australian guest list including AFF patron Margaret Pomeranz, Dr Bob Brown, David Jowsey, the Angels, the RackaRacka Brothers, Brenda Matthews, Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM, Richard Bell, Soda Jerk and Lynette Wallworth, in addition to international guests we look forward to announcing soon.”

“Our program showcases an incredible cross-section of remarkable screen talent and we can’t wait to welcome audiences and filmmakers to this, our first annual AFF, for 12 days of cinema immersion.”

Here’s a full list of Australian feature films and documentaries screening during the festival. You can find more details about each film here. 

The Angels: Kickin’ Down The Door

Directed by Madeleine Parry
Produced by Peter Hanlon, Rick Davies, Martin Fabinyi, Mikael Borglund, Madeleine Parry
Written by Madeleine Parry

The Angels came hurtling out of Adelaide with the searing guitars of the Brewster brothers and Doc Neeson, a frontman who was beyond intense. Their songs are etched in the DNA of this city: Take a Long Line, Am I Ever Goin’ to See Your Face Again. They were on the path to international success… until they just missed out. Yet they revolutionised Aussie music with gritty guitar rock and ferociously theatrical live shows. Adelaide’s Madeleine Parry has made an intimate documentary exploring the tensions that tore relationships apart while producing unforgettable rock’n’roll.

Audrey Napanangka

Directed by Penelope McDonald
Produced by Penelope McDonald, Trisha Morton-Thomas, Rachel Clements
Written by Dylan River

Read our interview with director Penelope McDonald here

An insightful and loving observational documentary filmed over a decade, Audrey Napanangka celebrates the life of an indomitable Walpiri woman, mother, artist and actor. Audrey lives in Alice Springs with her Sicilian partner Santo and their large brood of children and grandchildren – a close unit that live on the unique nexus of Walpiri, Anglo- Australian and Italian culture. “I look after a lot of people,” admits Audrey, as she selflessly uses her vast knowledge of culture, language and Law to lift up all those around her. It’s an enriching privilege to be granted access to her experiences.

Senses of Cinema

Directed by John Hughes, Tom Zubrycki
Produced by John Hughes, Tom Zubrycki
Written by Sansón Noe Andrade, Rodrigo Reyes, Su Kim

This history of the co-op film movements of Sydney and Melbourne comes from two of the major figures in Australian documentary, who were intimately involved in the filmmaking groundswell that emerged in the 1960s. The Ubu group in Sydney, born from the influence of avant-garde filmmaking mingled with a rich range of social movements including unionism, feminism, Indigenous self-expression, and queer theory. A few names should give you a sense of the main participants here: Philip Noyce, Gillian Armstrong, Albie Thoms, Martha Ansara, Essie Coffey, and many, many others.

Sweet As

Directed by Jub Clerc
Produced by Liz Kearney
Written by Jub Clerc, Steve Rodgers
Starring Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Tasma Walton, Mark Coles Smith, Carlos Sanson Jr

Fresh from the Melbourne Film Festival, where it won the Innovation award comes a film that truly is as sweet as. 15-year-old Murra’s dysfunctional home sees her packed off on a photo-safari through the Pilbara with three other at-risk kids. She has to learn about country, photography, friendship, but most importantly about herself. There is a lot of fresh Indigenous talent breaking out with Jub Clerc’s triumphant feature debut, and Shantae Barnes-Cowan is a ready-made star. Add Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origins) and Tasma Walton, and it only gets sweeter.

You Can Go Now

Directed by Larissa Behrendt
Produced by Nick Batzias, Josh Milani, Charlotte Wheaton
Featuring Richard Bell

First Nations artist Richard Bell proclaims himself an ‘activist masquerading as an artist.’ His confrontational work and attitudes have stirred the Australian art world while being lauded internationally. Schooled in Redfern’s rough and tumble politics, he defies the institutions of colonisation in Australia and asserts the rights of First Nations people everywhere. His scorching manifesto, Bell’s Theorem, has profoundly challenged the Australian art world, labelling the Aboriginal Art industry as ‘a white thing’ defined by colonial power structures. At a time when Australia is contemplating voice, truth and treaty, Bell’s ideas cannot be ignored.

Age of Rage – The Australian Punk Revolution

Directed and Produced by Jennifer Ross

This roaring chronicle of the Australian punk rock scene is told with the machine gun pace and unbridled power of a hardcore riff. Rasping voices from every state and many regional centres vividly recall the universal anger that connects the movement as well as the hyperlocal subcultures that sprang up around the nation. Comprehensive and unafraid to visit the squalid darker corners, this necessary retrospective honours brilliant, unsung and flawed individuals.

Carnifex

Directed by Sean Lahiff
Produced by Gena Helen Ashwell, Helen Leake
Written by Shanti Gudgeon
Starring Sisi Stringer, Harry Greenwood, Alexandra Park, Darren Gilshenan

As Australia recovers from unprecedented bushfires, Bailey an aspiring documentary maker joins conservationists Grace and Ben as they travel deep into the Australian outback to track and record animals in the aftermath of thefires. As night falls, the well-equipped trio discover a new terrifying species, which is now intent on tracking and hunting them.

Ribspreader

Directed by Dick Dale
Produced by Dick Dale, Carlo Petracarro, Jaan Ranniko, Jade Hefferan Clark, Tommy Darwin, David Dollard
Written by Gerard Dewhurst

Adelaide’s doyen of trash, Dick Dale, presents a gloriously unrepentant gore fest. Decades after his career as a tobacco advertising icon, Bryan Burns’ (Tommy Darwin) life is in ruins. After his mother dies of lung cancer, he is tormented by a talking cigarette on an anti-smoking billboard. He snaps and transforms into the Ribspreader, a killer stalking the city, extinguishing smokers and cutting out their lungs to make his macabre smoking jacket. Littered with excessive set pieces and moments of genuine hilarity, the precious gold is the brilliant cast of faces from Adelaide’s underground.

Greenhouse by Joost

Directed by Rhian Skirving, Bruce Permezel
Produced by Nick Batzias, Charlotte Wheaton
Written by Rhian Skirving

This inspiring feature documentary follows internationally renowned zero-waste campaigner Joost Bakker as he builds a self-sustaining home, an ecosystem that provides its occupants with food, water, shelter and energy. Filmed in beautiful central Melbourne, Greenhouse by Joost is an uplifting look at the teamwork and ingenuity behind a paradigm-shifting project that bursts with life.

Keep Stepping

Directed by Luke Cornish
Produced by Luke Cornish, Mick Elliott, Philip Busfield
Written by Patricia Carmen, Gabi Quinsacara, Jo Hyeon Yoon

Gabi and Patricia are hip hop dancers who specialise in popping and breaking, and they are laying it all on the line in Sydney’s Destructive Steps competition where the best face off against the best. Competitors like these dedicate their lives to pushing themselves to the brink, but those within the sub-culture of street dance understand that it promises empowerment and respect. Filmed over seven years with intimate access to a breathtaking, but largely misunderstood artform.

Luku Ngarra

Directed by Sinem Saban
Produced by Sinem Saban, Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra Oam
Written by Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra Oam

Luku Ngarra is an unflinching, Indigenous-funded documentary on the history and culture of Arnhem Land leading up to the present day, seen through the eyes of one of Australia’s most respected Indigenous elders and traditional lawmen, Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM. Set mainly in the remote community of Elcho Island, the film is a timely challenge to the dominant mainstream paradigm that has failed to recognise the true value and importance of traditional Aboriginal law and culture for the wellbeing of remote communities.

The Survival of Kindness

Directed by Rolf De Heer
Produced by Julie Byrne, Rolf De Heer
Written by Andrea Seigel, Marjorie Wallace

Adelaide Film Festival favourite Rolf de Heer returns with his latest, a poetic, scorching work on race, identity, and the strength of will. In a cage on a trailer in the middle of the desert, BlackWoman (Mwajemi Hussein) is abandoned, left to die. But BlackWoman seems not ready. She escapes, journeying through pestilence and persecution, from desert to mountain and finally to city, on a quest for an unknown beginning. But the city is more uncertain even than the desert, and recaptured, BlackWoman must find another escape. Or does she?

Watandar, My Countryman

Directed by Jolyon Hoff
Produced by Jolyon Hoff, Hamish Gibbs Ludbrook
Featuring Muzafar Ali

When the Taliban take over Afghanistan a former refugee finds a new home in the Australian desert. After former Afghan refugee, new Australian and photographer, Muzafar Ali, discovers that Afghans have been an integral part of Australia for over 160 years, he begins to photograph their descendants in a search to define his own new Afghan-Australian identity. Then the Taliban take over Afghanistan and his old country comes calling.

Lone Wolf

Directed by Jonathan Ogilvie
Produced by Mat Govoni, Adam White, Lee Hubber, Jonathan Ogilvie
Written by Jonathan Ogilvie
Starring Hugo Weaving, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Diana Glenn, Stephen Curry

Lone Wolf updates Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent to contemporary Australia where the surveillance state and digital technology have turned us all into subjects of the camera. Winnie, played by AFF legend Tilda Cobham-Hervey, runs a struggling bookshop with her boyfriend Conrad (Josh McConville, from The Infinite Man) while taking care of her brother. When Conrad becomes entangled in an act of terrorism, a sinister conspiracy emerges. A cast including Hugo Weaving and Laurence Mooney, along with cinematography by Geoffrey Simpson make for an intriguing thriller.

Carmen

Directed by Benjamin Millepied
Produced by Dimitri Rassam, Rosemary Blight
Written by Alex Dinelaris, Loïc Barrere
Starring Melissa Barrera, Paul Mescal, Rossy De Palma, Tracey “Doc” Curry, Benedict Hardie, Richard Brancatisano

Benjamin Millepied, celebrated choreographer (Black Swan) and one of the world’s acclaimed dancers (former principal soloist New City Ballet) makes his directorial debut with this dazzling modern-day retelling of one of history’s most famous love stories and operas, featuring a new music score by Nicholas Britell (Moonlight) and filmed in Australia. Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Paul Mescal (Lost Daughter) and Rossy de Palma (Parrallel Mothers) head a stellar cast in this explosion of dance and passion.

Paco

Directed by Tim Carlier
Produced by Tim Carlier, Tim Hodgson
Starring Manuel Ashman, Hebe Sayce, Lyn Pike, Yoz Mensch

There is one rule for a Sound Recordist: Never lose a microphone. When an actress runs away with one of Manny’s microphones he must retrieve it or face dire consequences. Hearing only the sound from Manny’s boom microphone, and the runaway actress’ radio mic, we follow Manny on a treacherous journey through Music Videos, Timetravellers, the dreaded Sound Council and more in the 30th most livable city in the world.

Ride

Directed by Serge Ou
Produced by Holly Trueman, William Ward

The inspiring journey of ability, disability, love and redemption. Ride is the most inspirational love story you will see this year. It tracks the lives and careers of Sam and Alise Willoughby, two champions who fall in love and conquer the world of BMX. Sam rises from the suburbs of Adelaide to become a world champion. When an accident takes away everything they have known, Sam and Alise must dig deep. Ride paints a bold picture of re-invention in the world of disability.

Monolith

Directed by Matt Vesely
Produced by Bettina Hamilton
Written by Lucy Campbell

This keenly anticipated debut feature from the South Australian creative team of director Matt Vesely, writer Lucy Campbell and producer Bettina Hamilton is a striking science fiction thriller. Through the clever containment of a single location and only one on-screen character, Monolith surveils disgraced journalist (rising star Lily Sullivan) as she turns to podcasting to salvage her career, before uncovering a strange artefact that she believes is evidence of an alien conspiracy. The teasing mystery is a product of the ground-breaking Film Lab: New Voices initiative, and uses its creative restraint to compelling advantage.

The Plains

Directed by David Easteal
Produced by David Easteal
Starring David Easteal, Andrew Rakowski, Cheri Lecornu, Inga Rakowski

In this highly praised Australian experimental film, skilfully created by David Easteal, The Plains takes the viewer on a revelatory journey exploring the power of the ordinary. You travel from the back seat on a daily commute learning about the ups and downs of lives which are anything but mundane. The two men are still while the world rushes past and the car becomes a theatrical stage where time is taken up with small talk that merges into personal confessions and talking about changing your life is as easy as changing lanes.

The Giants

Directed by Laurence Billiet, Rachael Antony
Produced by Laurence Billiet, Helen Panckhurst, Paul Wiegard, Rachael Antony
Featuring Bob Brown

“In 1982 the campaign to stop the Franklin River Dam galvanised Australia into action. The most successful environmental campaign in our history launched the political career of Bob Brown, a small-town GP turned environmental folk hero. Fast-forward to today and
Australia is sleepwalking into deforestation – we have the highest rate of land clearing in the developed world. THE GIANTS interweaves a portrait of Bob Brown with the story of the giant trees he has been fighting to save.
Combining beautiful cinematography, immersive forest-scapes created by 3D-scanning these ancient forests and a spinetingling soundtrack, The Giants aims to literally give a voice to the Forest revealing our deep connection to trees, and igniting a conversation about the right of the Forest to exist.”

The Last Daughter

Directed by Brenda Matthews, Nathaniel Schmidt
Produced by Simon Williams, Brendon Skinner, Kyle Slabb, Michael Tear, Taryn Brumfitt
Starring Brenda Matthews, Mark Matthews, Brenda (Nan) Simon, Connie Ockers, Mac Ockers

Brend a’s first memories were of growing up in a loving white foster family, before she was suddenly taken away and returned to her Aboriginal family. Decades later, she feels disconnected from both halves of her life, so she goes searching for the foster family with whom she had lost contact. Along the way she uncovers long-buried secrets, government lies, and the possibility of deeper connections to family and culture. The Last Daughter is a moving documentary about Brenda’s mission to unearth the truth about her past, and to reconcile the two sides of her family.

Talk to Me

Directed by Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Produced by Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings
Starring Miranda Otto, Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, Joe Bird, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio

After racking up over a billion views on their RackaRacka Youtube channel, the Philippou brothers, Danny and Michael, finally make it to the big screen with this story of a troubled teenager, Mia, and her group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using a ceramic embalmed hand. They become hooked on the new thrill, until Mia is confronted by a soul claiming to be her dead mother. She opens the door to the spirit world and becomes plagued by supernatural visions. Having prompted a devastating possession, the group must struggle to decide who to trust: the dead or the living. The Philippou brothers take their action skills to a new, cinematic level in this thrilling psychological horror that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.