Australian film Samson & Delilah is a hit at the box office and will also be talked about at the 62nd Cannes International Film Festival this month.
It will screen at the Cannes International Film Festival in Un Certain Regard, which is reserved for films that express a personal vision, with an emphasis on special cultural expression and cinematic innovation.
The festival will run from May 13-24, 2009.
According to the distributors, Samson & Delilah has had the highest per screen average for any Australian film released nationally since Lantana in 2001.
Samson muscled up $199,163 on just 12 screens for an enormous screen average of $17,170.
The result is even more impressive given it does not include any Thursday figures for Sydney cinemas, as the film opened one day later in that city than the rest of the country.
In response to the news of the weekend box office results, Warwick Thornton said: “This is very, very cool – we’re all so buzzing. It is a great feeling to know that as I fly off to France, the Australian public is looking after our baby Samson & Delilah”. Cinemas right across the country reported sold out sessions over the weekend.
“I can’t tell you how great it is to see queues like this for an Australian film,” Natalie Miller said from the Nova cinema in Melbourne.
“Nova Carlton is so proud that an outstanding film has been so well received by our audience. You can just feel the sense of excitement from the audiences who are seeing the film – that wow, this is an incredible film and it’s an Australian film. It’s really captured the imagination of film-goers.”
The box office news this week caps off an extraordinary week for Samson & Delilah following its Sydney Premiere last Thursday as opening night film of the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival at the Sydney Opera House, where it received a standing ovation.
Director-writer-cinematographer Warwick Thornton, producer Kath Shelper, and the film’s two 15-year-old leads, Rowan McNamara (Samson) and Marissa Gibson (Delilah) have flown to Cannes for the festival.
Samson & Delilah tells the love story of two Aboriginal teenagers in a remote community in the Central Australian Desert.
First-rate filmmaking tells a largely untold story that’s soaked in history and simply transcribed.
Director and screenwriter of Samson & Delilah is Warwick Thornton. The cast includes Rowan McNamara, Marissa Gibson, Mitjili Napanangka Gibson, Scott Thornton, Matthew Gibson, Steven Brown, Gregwyn Gibson and Noreen Robertson Nampijinpa.
