Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) is South Australia’s premier screen event and one of Australia’s leading film festivals. It’s an annual celebration of courageous cinema where filmmakers and audiences come together for two weeks of local and international film premieres, parties and experiences each October.
The Balnaves Foundation is the principal partner of Adelaide Film Festival Expand Lab, a collaborative development initiative where filmmakers, artists and screen-based practitioners come together to expand their practices and create bold new moving image works.
In 2022, the inaugural AFF Expand Lab saw 30 of Australia’s most daring creative thinkers come together for the development lab and commissioning process. The 2022 Expand Lab commission was awarded to Susan Norrie (NSW), Emmaline Zanelli (SA) and Matthew Thorne (SA) for a new moving image work to be presented at Samstag Museum of Art during Adelaide Film Festival 2024.
In 2023, a further 30 emerging and established creative practitioners convened in Adelaide for the second AFF Expand Lab. The 2023 commission was awarded to Anna Lindner (SA), Nisa East (NSW) and Yasemin Sabuncu (SA), whose project will premiere at Samstag Museum of Art during Adelaide Film Festival 2025.
AFF Expand Lab is an initiative of Adelaide Film Festival with Principal Partner The Balnaves Foundation, and the Government of South Australia and support from Samstag Museum of Art, Art Gallery of South Australia and Illuminate Adelaide.
The Balnaves Foundation is once again supporting the Expand Lab for the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival, which will take place from 1 – 8 November 2024. Excitingly, this will be the first Lab at which a commissioned project (from the 2022 Lab) will be presented in the same year.