Saturday, January 27 sees the kick off of the second year of the Cottesloe Film Festival. The festival was established in 2017 with the aim of bringing world-class cinema to The Town of Cottesloe, with $2 from every ticket purchased donated to the Cottesloe Coastal Care Association. This year’s program sees a collection of quality films from Australia and around the globe.
I Am Heath Ledger: A detailed and loving documentary of the talented actor and film maker. With access to Ledger’s personal film archives and note books, this gives a stunning insight into the process of the young talent as it goes through his short, but illustrious career. It also contains an impressive array of interviews from friends and co-workers to give a some understanding of the demons that haunted him, and what drove his broad exploration in the arts.
Paper Planes: Heart-warming Australian drama about 12-year-old Dylan (Ed Oxenbould) and his father (Sam Worthington), who recently lost his wife and remains inconsolable. Dylan finds himself a passion for creating and flying paper planes, which is going to take him all the way to the World Paper Plane Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
The Odyssey: A look back at the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Lambert Wilson), and the forces that shaped him into the legend we know him as today. This bio-pic shows him as more than aquatic-adventurer and film maker that we would come to know him as, but looks at the professional and personal challenges he faced. Filled with stunning under-water photography, this really is a big screen event that pays appropriate tribute to the man and legend.
Swinging Safari: A big, brightly coloured Australian comedy from the director of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliot). Swinging Safari has you wondering how any child survived the 70s.
Perfect Strangers: This Italian comedy-drama starts with a simple and terrifying premise for the era of the mobile phone, could you survive one dinner with your friends with every message you received becoming known at the table. What ensues is comically apocalyptic, as secrets tumble out, and friendships and marriages are put to the test.
Three Summers: Ben Elton’s WA made crowd pleasing comedy about the behind the scenes of a folk music festival. Two star-crossed lovers (think Romeo and Juliet, but Romeo is a Theremin player, and Juliet is a folk-rock violinist) try to come to terms with their feelings for each other amongst the everyday chaos of 3 years of an annual Folk Music Festival. With a plethora of Australian film stalwarts (including Magda Szubanski, Michael Canton, Jacqueline MacKenzie, and John Waters), this light romantic comedy actually manages to have a surprising amount of heart.
The Cottesloe Film Festival will be running every weekend from January 27. Tickets are on sale now.
