Celebrating Australia on the big screen

STAR Cinema’s third annual Bendigo Festival of Australian Film will return on Friday next week.

Cinema manager Martin Myles said he is proud to present the event, which celebrates Australia’s cinematic history.

“As far as we know, this is still the only festival of Australian film in the world,” he said. “We are excited to host this event to complement Bendigo’s rich cultural calendar and hope to attract Victorians from all over the state.

“We are very excited to bring BFAF back for its third year, hopefully, much less affected by COVID than its first two outings.”

This year’s line-up of films includes seven titles, including the award-winning Feathers, with director John Ruane present to open the three-day festival.

“Feathers was shot in regional Victoria and is based on a Raymond Carver story,” Mr Myles said. “It features well known faces, Rebecca Gilling, Neil Melville and national treasure, John Flaus.

“It’s a story some of us will relate to, conflicts of interest arise when a country couple are visited by a couple from the city.”

The festival offers a range of genres, with films spanning four decades including iconic titles The Castle and Look Both Ways showing on Sunday afternoon.

Dramas from the 1990s, Head On and Country Life, make up the Saturday afternoon session, while music documentaries Sunbury and 2021 release Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow will screen on Saturday and Sunday night respectively.

“It’s a rare opportunity to see most of these titles on the big screen,” Mr Myles said.

“It’s a wonderful celebration of Australian film and it’s Greater Bendigo’s very own. We hope that Greater Bendigonians will come out in numbers to support and embrace their very own film festival at their very own boutique cinema.”

New to this year’s festival is the Friday-night-only Chambers Wine Bar, located at the old Eaglehawk Town Hall, which opened last month.

For tickets head to starcinema.org.au/bfaf.