Opening Night Brisbane International Film Festival

October 28, 2024

Palace Barracks Cinema was abuzz as She Society walked the red carpet for Opening Night of the Brisbane International Film Festival. This annual event highlights both local and international films in partnership with Screen Queensland. For three decades the festival has been wowing audiences, partnering with many local cinemas.

The evening began with a red-carpet welcome followed by cocktails and canapés in the spacious cinema foyer. We were all excited by the film to come ‘Saturday Night’ which highlighted the beginning of ‘SNL’. This groundbreaking program was the start of a fresh style of television and an incubator for some of our best comedic and acting talents.

The Brisbane International Film Festival shares a variety of feature films, short films, and documentaries with many conceived in our own backyard, stunning Queensland. Look out for the Queensland premiere of ‘Audrey’ a black comedy about a teen called Audrey who falls into a coma. It is then her families time to shine. This one was filmed on the Gold Coast.

Andamooka was filmed on location in the tiny Queensland opal town where a teen plans to spend her 30 th birthday with her best friend. Set amongst the beautiful Australian landscape Alex must learn to face herself and learn to be alone. We journey through her awakening to the magic and power of Indigenous culture.

Opening Night

Armed with delicious popcorn we received a welcome before an entertaining short film, which had us all laughing aloud, before our premiere feature film, the entertaining ‘Saturday Night’.

Director, Jason Reitman had written for SNL and always had a dream of making a film about it. In ‘Saturday Night’ he brings together all the frantic pace and motley crew that took over network TV to bring to life the first episode of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ the show that is still going strong today.

It an hilarious film which brings all the barely contained chaos leading up to the first broadcast of NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’. Taking place amidst the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War, and a rise in counterculture it was wild but truly iconic. This show was the home of talents such as John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase. Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon and so many of the comedic talents we know today.

In the film tensions run high as producer Lorne Michaels tries to corral his talent in time for the first SNL broadcast on October 11, 1975. Gabriel Labelle does an excellent job capturing all the frustration of Lorne in the lead up to this important event. You may remember Gabriel from Steven Speilberg’s ‘The Fabelmans.’

Cory Michael Smith embodies his role as Chevy Chase. Chevy was the breakout star in the first season of the show. He left SNL to pursue his successful movie career. His girlfriend is played by Cindy Crawford’s beautiful daughter, Kaia Gerber.

Another great piece of casting is Matt Wood as John Belushi and ‘Succesion’ star Nicholas Braun, who portrays a deadpan Jim Henson from Muppets fame. I loved watching English actor Ella Hunt playing the beloved Gilda Radner.

This film has 80 speaking roles, and the all-star cast do well to keep up with the frenetic pace and sense of urgency which builds throughout the movie. I was from this era so can recognise many of the characters, the show and the style of the time. Some of the younger audience members seemed a little bemused by it all.

To me it captures the essence of Saturday Night Live and the times in which it was made. This is the show that the network secretly wanted to fail and the fact it worked seems a miracle when you watch the comedy of errors as the cast and crew race towards showtime.

I found it an energetic romp with great performances from its talented ensemble cast. This comedy biopic was a fun look back at how groundbreaking and crazy SNL was and how we need shows like these for performers to get their start. Think of all the talent found on ‘Rove Live’ in Australia.

Other movies showing at the festival which caught my eye were the sister film ‘September Says’, ‘Daddio’ with Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson and New Zealand film ‘We Were Dangerous’.

The Brisbane International Film Festival runs from 24 October to 3 November 2024. It’s a great way to beat the heat and catch some wonderful films.

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