Green Room: Adelaide Festival Centre closure, new gig for Conservatorium director
South Australian arts and culture news in brief.
Adelaide Film Festival returns
An Adelaide-made 80s thriller and a documentary capturing the final journey of an Australian film legend are among the first titles confirmed for the 2025 Adelaide Film Festival program.
Journey Home, David Gulpilil by director Maggie Miles and Trisha Morton-Thomas will make its world premiere at the festival, continuing the festival’s long relationship with the legendary Yolŋu actor who passed away in 2021. The festival funded and premiered many of Gulpilil’s later films, including the Rolf de Heer-directed Charlie’s Country in 2013 and Molly Reynolds’ 2021 documentary My Name is Gulpilil which documented his final years.
Journey Home, David Gulpilil brings his story to a close, as it follows efforts to lay the actor to rest in his homeland in Arnhem Land in accordance with his final wishes, in a journay spanning over 4,500 kilometres.
Also making its world premiere is Penny Lane is Dead, the feature debut from writer and director Mia’Kate Russell. Filmed on location in South Australia, the 80s-set horror-thriller promises plenty to squirm about after being showcased at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Other highlights include The Colleano Heart by Pauline Clague, which follows the globetrotting story — and forgotten First Nations heritage – of the once-famous Colleano circus family; Edge of Life, which travels from Australia to the Amazon to explore the role of psilocybin as a tool for helping patients at the end of their lives; and Fwends, the debut feature from Australian filmmaker Sophie Somerville.
The program also includes the local debut of It Was Just An Accident, from Iranian director Jafar Panahi – who was controversially jailed after defying a 20-year ban from making films and speaking to the media. The full program is set to drop shortly.
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Adelaide Film Festival 2025 will run from October 15 – 26
Adelaide Festival Centre goes into hibernation
The Adelaide Festival Centre has called curtains for the next few months as its multimillion-dollar upgrades kick off across the Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse, and Space Theatre.
The $35 million upgrade, announced last year, will see the stage floor of the Dunstan playhouse and space theatre refurbished, along with brand new seating across all three theatres — the Festival Theatre and Space Theatre seats have been in place since 1997, while the Playhouse’s were last replaced in 2008.
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra helped give all that 90s upholstery one last hurrah over the weekend with Press Play, a concert of orchestrated video game themes that included music from Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a title released not long after the old seats were installed.
The show will go on at Her Majesty’s Theatre, with the Agatha Christie murder mystery And Then There Were None opening on Sunday night, while the upcoming Adelaide Guitar Festival and OzAsia Festival will also make use of Elder Hall at Adelaide University, Adelaide Town Hall, and the Odeon Theatre in Norwood.
All three theatres are slated to reopen in early 2026.
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New role for Anna Goldsworthy
Anna Goldsworthy has been named as the latest artistic director for the Australian National Academy of Music, taking over from current head Paavali Jumppanen in January 2027. Goldsworthy, a celebrated pianist, writer and festival director, has served as Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide since 2022, and will continue to lead the Con – albeit under the new title of Dean of the Elder Conservatorium of Music and the Performing Arts at the newly rebranded Adelaide University – until she begins her new appointment. Goldsworthy will stay on at the Conservatorium beyond in a research capacity as Professor of Music.
“It is an enormous privilege to be stepping into the position of Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), a powerful force for creativity and community, and a seminal part of my own musical journey,” Goldsworthy said of the news. “In this era of exponential change, ANAM’s mission is more vital than ever: shaping young musicians not only into expert practitioners but advocates for our shared humanity.”
Goldsworthy’s appointment makes her the first alumnus of the institution to eventually take the reins as artistic director.
New pod for Australian String Quartet
Move over Abbi Chatfield and Joe Rogan, The Australian String Quartet has entered the world of podcasting with its newly launched series Inner Voices. Each of the pilot seasons five episodes features the quartet’s current lineup – Dale Barltrop, Francesca Hiew, Chris Cartlidge and Michael Dahlenburg – riffing on a different work for strings, from Joseph Haydn to Benjamin Britten.
The series also includes an opening theme performed by local musician Adam Page, while each episode features an original soundtrack by a different contemporary composer (Jason Sweeney, Bob Jarvis, Belinda Gehlert, Jian Liew, and Coldhands) responding to the cuts from the classical canon being discussed.
Listen to Inner Voices your podcasting platform of choice
Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]