Lesbian Space Princess (Berlinale 2025 Teddy Award winner and 2024 Goes to Cannes participant)

In 2025, for the second time, the Adelaide Film Festival is offering South Australian filmmakers and national Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund alumni the opportunity to attend the Marché du Film Festival de Cannes, the world’s largest film market.

The Adelaide Film Festival Goes to Cannes initiative connects Australian filmmaking talent with the global market. Selected filmmakers will be introduced to the Cannes film market, and to sales agents, distributors, programmers and other industry participants.

“The Adelaide Film Festival has helped shape a generation of filmmakers’ careers by helping to enable the production of bold and daring screen works through the AFF Investment Fund that have been presented across the globe, many at acclaimed film festivals. Recent highlights include Lesbian Space Princess (Berlinale 2025 Teddy Award winner and 2024 Goes to Cannes participant) and Jimpa which screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

The Goes to Cannes initiative is part of AFFs broader suite of international engagement activities and is a festival bridge connecting Australian creative talent with the global market and other international festivals. An important professional development opportunity, AFF Goes to Cannes places Australian creatives at the centre of the world’s most important film market. Inaugural participants in 2024 benefited from the initiative by on boarding international sales agents and connecting with A-list festival programmers.”

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Feature filmmakers with projects suitable to this initiative are invited to submit Expressions of Interest by midday 17 March 2025. All filmmakers, both South Australian and national AFFIF alumni, must have a completed project seeking market investment or near complete project (in post) that can contribute to South Australia economically, culturally or creatively.

Adelaide Film Festival is particularly looking for completed or near completed films that are seeking an international sales agent, market-ready projects with a finance plan attached, which could include confirmed investors and other confirmations such as cast, and creatives with a track record of feature film production leading to festival selection and/or theatrical release.

Expressions from First Nations filmmakers are strongly encouraged.

Minister for the Arts, Andrea Michaels, said: “Showcasing a film at Festival de Cannes is a life changing opportunity.  It is an opportunity for our local filmmakers to show their films at the biggest film market in the world and make global industry connections.

The Malinauskas Government is so proud of our state’s thriving film industry and to support our filmmakers to shine internationally on the biggest of big screens.”

Expression of Interest requirements and registration here: https://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/initiatives/aff-goes-to-cannes

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