Posted October 05, 2017 14:48:51

Photo: Brendan Maclean in a scene from F*!#ING Adelaide, which features at the festival. (Photo: DanielPurvis)

The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) will kick-off in the city tonight, featuring 13 original local works.

The festival began 14 years ago and has a strong charter to promote and give opportunities to the local movie industry.

It offers $1 million annually to ideas pitched by anyone from directors and actors to the general public.

Feature films, virtual reality and moving image works have this year been successful in winning critical funding.

They include Cargo, starring English actor Martin Freeman as well as noted Indigenous actor David Gupilil, and Susie Porter.

Another already attracting attention is F*!#ING Adelaide, starring rising star Tilda Cobham-Harvey, while Sweet Country, featuring Sam Neill and Bryan Brown, has already won awards internationally.

AFF Artistic Director Amanda Duthie said the Film Festival Fund was the jewel in the crown for the festival.

"It just means that we have this unique ability to be able to attract production to South Australia, but also support and commission work from the South Australian screen industry," she said.

The festival will run for eleven days and features 23 world and 40 Australian premieres.

While Australian film audiences often turn away from local movies, Ms Duthie said the opposite was the case this time with strong box office sales already recorded for local movies.

"People are so proud to see work that has been created in Australia and particularly in South Australia," she said.

"Most of my sessions are the first sessions to sell out, so we're sort of bucking the trend here."

Photo: Martin Freeman, who starred in The Hobbit, in a scene from Cargo. (Supplied: Cathy Gallagher (AFF))

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, film-movies, art-house, carnivals-and-festivals, adelaide-5000, sa