The 4th edition of Stranger With My Face International Film Festival begins in Tasmania, Australia this week and includes a new feature this year, The Attic Lab. The inaugural program is an intensive mentoring program for women genre filmmakers, run by the festival in collaboration with guest mentors.
Featuring nine filmmakers, the lab is designed for filmmakers developing dark stories into feature film format. It takes its name from the archetype of the ‘Madwoman in the Attic’, suggesting a place where violent and disruptive female impulses are hidden away… and yet grow stronger, to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world!
“One of the main aims of the lab this year is to encourage the filmmakers to pitch their projects to the international marketplace,” said Stranger With My Face Festival Director Briony Kidd. “We believe in these filmmakers, we believe they each have a unique vision and are developing commercially viable, exciting genre projects. There’s an audience out there for these concepts.”
The Attic Lab filmmakers will be supported to pitch their new feature film projects to the marketplace by Snowfort Pictures’ Head of Development Stephanie Trepanier (who will also be attending the festival as guest speaker) and Tasmanian-born horror director Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones, The Devi’s Candy).
The filmmakers will also hear from Mai Nakanishi (festival director of Scream Queen Filmfest Tokyo) and Heidi Honeycutt (festival director of Etheria Film Night, Los Angeles), who, along with Stranger With My Face, are co-founders of the Alliance of Women’s Fantastic Film Festivals. The AWFFF is developing new strategies to collectively promote its filmmakers and raise their profile worldwide.
The Attic Lab 2016 projects are:
GERAHAM BES (Indonesia)
Dir/Co-Wri: Ginanti Rona Tembang Asri
THE GOBLIN CHILD (USA)
Dir/Wri: Shoshana Rosenbaum
MY HUSBAND SWALLOWED A TREE (Tasmania/Australia)
Dir/Wri: Rebecca Thomson
KATE KELLY (Victoria, Australia)
Dir/Wri: Donna McRae
MORGANA (Victoria, Australia)
Dir/Wri: Isabel Peppard
QUEEN OF HEARTS (Tasmania, Australia)
Wri: Carrie McLean
RAESITA GREY (Queensland, Australia)
Dir/Wri: Katriana Irawati Graham
RELIC (Victoria, Australia)
Dir/Co-Wri: Natalie James
TRACELESS (New South Wales, Australia)
Dir/Wri: Megan Riakos
The Attic Lab filmmakers will work privately with mentors, culminating in a public pitch session to invited members of the film industry on 15 April.
Please visit www.strangerwithmyface.com/the-attic-lab/ for more information on The Attic Lab projects and events.
The full festival program, including the Mary Shelley Symposium and industry events can be found at www.strangerwithmyface.com. Festival passes as well as individual tickets to events are available to purchase online.
Stranger With My Face International Film Festival is supported by the Tasmanian Government through Screen Tasmania.
