Granite Highway will have its Australian premiere at CinefestOZ 2025, screening on Monday, 1 September in both Margaret River (6:00pm) and Busselton (7:00pm).
Written and directed by Rhys Ellis, the film is an Outback Noir set in 90s regional Queensland. It follows Alice, a lonely motel receptionist who meets a strange guest during the disappearance of a local woman.
Granite Highway features the iconic Roy Billing lending his voice as an enigmatic presence that lingers just beyond the edges of the story. On set, working with actors Tori Webb and Joel Drabble was a truly rewarding experience, bringing depth and nuance to the intimate narrative.
Rather than aiming for strict period accuracy, we approached the setting as more of a dream of the ‘90s. It’s rooted in personal memory and atmosphere rather than historical detail. Cinematographer Danien Berends played a key role in creating this look, using vintage lenses from the 1990s along with carefully crafted lighting and camera work to evoke the era’s texture and mood.
Granite Highway also functions as a proof of concept for a feature-length project currently in development. This expanded version will delve deeper into themes of isolation and deception, exploring the rich, textured world of regional Australia while maintaining the film’s distinctive noir sensibility.
We’re grateful to CinefestOZ for premiering the film, and to the cast and crew who helped bring this vision to life.