The Surfer starring Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage will make its premiere at the prestigious Festival de Cannes next month where WA’s pristine landscape will be on show to an international audience.
Screenwest announced on Friday that the psychological thriller will screen at the festival in May as part of the Midnight Sessions reserved for genre films.
Directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Thomas Martin, The Surfer is set to be an intensely unnerving film in which Cage’s character returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the US.
He is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood.
Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance.
As the conflict escalates he is brought right to the edge of his sanity and his entire identity is thrown into question.
Cage spent several weeks filming with a majority WA crew in the tiny South West town of Yallingup late last year.
A world premiere at Cannes will showcase the stunning coastline of the region as well as the talents of the WA crew to an international audience of screen industry professionals, journalists and festival goers.
Screenwest chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said the event is a huge achievement for filmmakers and the State.
“The Surfer is the first feature film produced in WA following the launch of the WA Production Attraction Incentive, and to see it selected for the most prestigious film festival in the world is an incredible outcome and achievement,” she said.
“Congratulations to WA producer James Grandison, Arenamedia, the cast, crew, creatives and the entire filmmaking team.”
Joining Cage is an impressive ensemble cast of Aussies including Miranda Tapsell (The Dry), Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck), Nicholas Cassim (Mr Inbetween), Alexander Bertrand (Australian Gangster), Justin Rosniak (Last King of the Cross), Rahel Romahn (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Finn Little (Yellowstone) and Charlotte Maggi (Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child on Fire).
The Surfer is a Stan Original Film, in partnership with CinemaPlus who will be releasing the film theatrically in Australia.
It was made possible thanks to the State Government’s WA Production Attraction Incentive—the nation’s most competitive incentive— designed to attract high-profile screen productions to the State.