GIRL ASLEEP Attracts Awards and International Sales

By: Caryn Robbins Apr. 19, 2016

Six months since its world premiere at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival Windmill Theatre's debut feature GIRL ASLEEP is storming the cinema world with screenings at seven prestigious festivals and international sales including in the USA, UK and France.

The South Australian made film by director Rosemary Myers has attracted considerable buzz internationally, with critically acclaimed screenings at the Stockholm Film Festival, Festivales de Buenos Aires and the Berlin Film Festival, one of the world's "big three" alongside Venice and Cannes, where it was nominated for Best Feature Film in the youth category.

The film has also this month been nominated for Best Feature at the 2016 South Australian Screen Awards to be held in May, doubling down on its success at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Most Popular Feature.

This month has also seen Girl Asleep delight Australian audiences at the Gold Coast Film Festival and the Stranger With My Face International Film Festival in Hobart.

Following festival buzz and rave reviews from industry bibles Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and ScreenDaily, Girl Asleep has secured international sales in 18 countries including the USA, UK, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Taiwan and throughout eastern Europe, including on premiere cable TV channel HBO.

Based on South Australian theatre company Windmill's critically acclaimed stage work for teenagers that premiered at the 2014 Adelaide Festival of Arts, Girl Asleep is a funny and darkly beautiful coming-of-age story with a uniquely Australian twist.

Set in the cream-brick heart of 1970s Aussie suburbia the film follows Greta Driscoll (Bethany Whitmore - THE STARTER WIFE; WINNERS & LOSERS; MENTAL), a shy girl on the cusp of turning 15 and, she worries, of losing herself. Confronted with the confusing realities of high school, bitchy friends and boys Greta clings to her childhood and her only friend, resident nerd Elliott (Harrison Feldman - UPPER MIDDLE BOGAN), hoping it will all go away. But when her parents throw her a surprise birthday party Greta is magically flung into a strange parallel world, one that's weirdly erotic, a little bit dangerous and thoroughly ludicrous - and one where she can find her true identity.

Written by Matthew Whittet and boasting an array of captivating performances from its talented Australian cast, including Whittet (THE GREAT GATSBY; MOULIN ROUGE), Eamon Farren (CARLOTTA; LOVE IS NOW; RED DOG), Amber McMahon (NORTH BY NORTHWEST), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (52 TUESDAYS; ONE-EYED GIRL) and Danielle Catanzariti (HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER), Girl Asleep is a journey into the absurd, sometimes scary and often beautiful heart of the teenage mind.

Girl Asleep will be released in Australia in September with distribution by KOJO and Umbrella Entertainment.