Thriller ‘The Royal Hotel’ to open 2023 Adelaide Film Festival
SA-filmed thriller The Royal Hotel – directed by award-winning filmmaker Kitty Green and starring Hugo Weaving – will open the Adelaide Film Festival on October 18.
Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick as Hanna and Liv in 'The Royal Hotel'. Photo: See-Saw Films
The Royal Hotel will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month and is Green’s second feature film following her acclaimed sexual harassment drama The Assistant.
Said to be inspired by true events, the new film stars Julia Garner (who was also in The Assistant) and Jessica Henwick as young backpackers who take a temporary live-in job at a pub called The Royal Hotel in a remote outback mining town. Weaving plays the owner of the bar, where things get out of control when the locals’ jokes and behaviour cross a line and the young friends find themselves trapped in “an unnerving situation”.
Produced by See-Saw Films (The Power of the Dog, Ammonite, Heartstopper), the movie is described as a “social thriller” – a genre of films that use suspense or horror to highlight issues such as social inequity or oppression.
Adelaide Film Festival CEO and creative director Mat Kesting says The Royal Hotel is “a fitting salute” to the films made in South Australia.
“Kitty Green has established herself as one of the world’s most exciting directors and it’s thrilling to see her collaborate again with actress Julia Garner in another tension-filled story that will have audiences on the edge of their seats,” he says.
“Kitty is a master of building suspense and exploring male/female dynamics.”
The festival’s opening-night gala screening, to be attended by both Green and Weaving, will be held at the recently renovated Piccadilly Cinema in North Adelaide.
It will also feature the world premiere of short film Blame the Rabbit, the screen debut of Adelaide writer, actor and director Elena Carapetis, who is well known for her theatre work. The short is inspired by the Medusa myth, with Carapetis saying the story is “a wicked exploration of what happens when you disrespect and suppress the Divine Feminine”.
The 2023 Adelaide Film Festival will run from October 18-29, with the full program to be revealed on September 13. The first films in the line-up were announced last week.
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