Kriv Stenders’ RED DOG: True Blue, his second instalment about a Western Australian canine, will feature as part of the kids programme at the Festival, which runs January 19-29. By then the film will have released here, but will have a crack at the American and international markets as buyers from around the world descend on the snow-covered Festival. The images of 11-year-old Mick (Levi Miller from Pan and the upcoming Jasper Jones) adapting to the harsh life on his Grandpa's (Bryan Brown’s) cattle station in the Pilbara, will surely warm local audiences’ hearts as will the one-of-a-kind pup that changes Mick’s life forever.
“It is a dream come true for director Kriv Stenders and I to see the film participate at Sundance,” says producer Nelson Woss. “Selection at such a prestigious festival will ensure that RED DOG: True Blue will roam far and wide, just like the real red dog.”
Likewise Damien Power’s Australian survival thriller Killing Ground starring Aaron Pedersen, Harriet Dyer, Ian Meadows, Aaron Glenane, Maya Strange, and Tiarnie Coupland, will make its international premiere in the Midnight section, after screening at festivals around Australia. The story follows a young couple whose camping trip turns into a nightmare when they stumble across the scene of a horrific crime. Power compares the film to and Straw Dogs.
Aaron Glenane and Aaron Pedersen in 'Killing Ground' Source: Mushroom Pictures
The big news of the day though is the announcement of world premieres in the starry Premieres section. Toni Collette makes a second appearance at the Festival (after competition contender The Yellow Birds) in the US entry Alethea Jones’s Fun Mom Dinner where four mums, whose kids attend the same preschool class, realise they have more in common than just marriage and motherhood.
Cate Blanchett is bound to impress in the world premiere of her virtual one-woman show, Manifesto, by German artist Julian Rosefeldt. Can history’s art manifestos apply to contemporary society? the blurb asks. Blanchett’s series of reenactments is an homage to the twentieth century’s most impassioned artistic statements and innovators, from Futurists and Dadaists to Pop Art, Fluxus, Lars von Trier and Jim Jarmusch. A multi-screen version of the project can be seen at Park Avenue Armory, beginning this week in New York.
Aussie Jason Clark, Carrey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund and Mary J. Blige star in Mudbound by US writer-director Dee Rees (Pariah). An epic pioneer story about friendship, heritage and the unending struggle for and against the land, the film follows two men who return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.
In a new section titled TV Pilot Showcase, Odessa Young (an AACTA nominee for ) will star in When The Street Lights Go On directed by Brett Morgen (Cobain: Montage of Heck). The series follows the residents of a small town as they grapple with the ruthless killing of a young girl and a teacher.
