Green Room: Local premiere for Olivia Colman’s Adelaide film, tributes for Writers’ Week director
South Australian arts and culture news in brief.
Jimpa to headline Adelaide Film Festival
Adelaide director Sophie Hyde’s latest film, the semi-autobiographical Jimpa, has confirmed a local premiere date after screening at Sundance earlier this year. The film stars Academy Award winner Olivia Colman, who was spotted around Adelaide in March 2024 — visiting a Burnside Lululemon and grabbing lunch at Exchange, as comprehensively reported in InDaily’s InSider column.
Perhaps she’ll be back in town in October for Jimpa’s Adelaide debut as Adelaide Film Festival’s opening night headliner, with a gala screening at the Capri Theatre and after-party at Queen’s Theatre on Wednesday October 15.
The follow-up to Hyde’s critically acclaimed Emma Thompson vehicle Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Jimpa also stars John Lithgow, and Hyde’s own child Aud Mason-Hyde, in an intergenerational queer family drama that hops between Adelaide and Europe.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to be opening the Adelaide Film Festival and celebrating the brilliant filmmaking community here, with a story that has such strong Adelaide ties,” Hyde said of the news.”AFF has been a partner with us on the making of this film and I’m very grateful to Mat and team for their support and belief in this project. We made Jimpa in Adelaide, Amsterdam and Helsinki and I am really excited to screen on home ground.”
Jimpa joins other previously announced festival titles including Journey Home, David Gulpilil, The Colleano Heart, and Penny Lane is Dead.
Tickets for Jimpa’s opening night gala are on sale now.
The Mill expands as redevelopment postponed
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The Mill has just announced an expansion of its Angus St studio facilities. The long-running multi-arts hub, which is currently home to over 70 artist studios, will also take over a loft space in the rear of its existing premises that has sat vacant for over a decade. The extra floor space will allow The Mill to open 15 new warehouse studios from 11 square metres to 28 square metres in size (the expansion has boosted The Mill’s overall footprint to 2000 square metres).
“We are thrilled to be expanding our studio offering to welcome more artists to be part of our thriving community,” CEO and artistic director Katrina Lazaroff said of the news. “At The Mill, we have built a community where artists and creatives truly belong. A place where artists and creatives of all disciplines connect, inspiring each other and the audiences who visit,” she says.
It’s a promising sign for The Mill’s future at its home of 12 years, despite the prospect of demolition to make way for a long-mooted 18-story apartment complex. InReview understands that Best Life, the developer behind the proposed tower, is currently focused on another major development at Victor Harbor and other projects in its pipeline, with no program currently in place for the Angas Street site.
Expressions of interest for the new studio spaces are open now, find out more or book a studio tour here.
Tributes for former Adelaide Writers’ Week head
This week Adelaide’s arts community has commemorated the passing of Rose Wight OAM, a longtime Adelaide Festival stalwart from 1982 to 2010, culminating in an 18-year stint as director of Adelaide Writers’ Week.
Tributes included Greg Mackie, who worked alongside Wight on the Adelaide Festival of Ideas for many years, and had lunch with her shortly before she passed.
“Her commitment to both writer and audience were incredibly strong,” Mackie wrote in an online tribute shared with InReview. “Fiercely loyal to friends and family and an intellect most commonly expressed in restraint and reserve, Rose was utterly dependable, funny and honest (occasionally brutally so!) – one of the defenders of what some consider the best of Adelaide’s Dunstan legacy virtues.”
Author and broadcasting legend Phillip Adams said, “A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet! Our Rose was smart, funny and adorable. Vale old friend.”
Current Writers’ Week director Louise Adelaide said Wight was a “passionate advocate for writing and reading and her festivals were unmissable for everyone in the book business”.
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Entries open for Waterhouse art prize
The South Australian Museum has opened entries for the latest round of its biennial science-inspired art competition, the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize. Running since 2002, the competition invites emerging and established artists across any discipline to respond to the natural world.
Recent winners include Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri Salterwater artist Jenna Lee, for her sculpture Grass Tree – Growing Together.
This year’s judging panel includes Professor Craig T Simmons, Chief Scientist for South Australia, Gulumoerrigin (Larrakia)/Jingili/Filipino/Chinese/Irish/Scottish/English curator Coby Edgar, and Art Gallery of South Australia director Jason Smith.
Entries close December 4, with the shortlist to be announced in February 2025 before the winner is announced in July, coinciding with the opening of an exhibition of all finalists.
Find out more and enter here.
State Theatre Company on hunt for executive director
State Theatre Company South Australia is on the hunt for a new executive director after its previous ED Julian Hobba jumped ship for Adelaide Festival in June. It’s an interesting moment to join the company, with newish artistic director Petra Kalive on the cusp of unveiling her first full program since taking over from Mitchell Butel.
Whoever takes over will be responsible for “the achievement of the Company’s artistic mission, building brand and profile, increasing financial viability, developing audiences, overseeing the Company’s productions, and developing and sustaining the talents of the Company’s staff and artists with which it works”.
“Our future lies in expanding how we make and share theatre — inventive programming, creative collaboration, and helping the company shape its next chapter,” reads the job ad. “Flexibility, creativity and innovation are central to this evolution.”
Find out more here.
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]