Below are a couple of new articles about ‘The Wedding Party‘ – no real new details, but in the 2nd article the festival director confirms that all members of the cast will be present at Opening Night, so we can look forward to new photos of Isabel on the red carpet on July 22nd!

Isabel Lucas Gets Married At Melbourne Film Fest
Isabel Lucas will be gliding down the aisle wearing white for the opening of this years Melbourne International Film Festival. Australian director, Amanda Jane, is opening the Festival with her debut feature film ‘The Wedding Party’, starring Lucas and a fantastic Australian cast including Josh Lawson, Steve Bisley, Kestie Morassi and Bill Hunter.

‘The Wedding Party’ is your classic tale of boy-meets-girl: The boy is Steve (Lawson) who makes a deal to wed a beautiful Russian immigrant seeking residency (Lucas) in exchange for a considerable sum of money. When his family get wind of the wedding plans, shit gets festive and he gets sucked into a wedding extravaganza. Cue wedding dress gags, inevitable cross-cultural misunderstandings and classic comedic slapstickery. It sounds like a fun romp – which will be a nice foil to the recent slate of brilliant but bleak Australian cinematic efforts (‘Animal Kingdom’, ‘Beautiful Kate’, etc). The film was made and shot in Melbourne, and the soundtrack also keeps it local with tunes by Melbourne-based musicians J. Walker of Machine Translations and Clare Bowditch.

Offering up a tantalising selection of 240 films from over 50 countries, this years MIFF is sure to satisfy the craving of any film junkies out there. For the old school connoisseurs there will also be a screening of Hitchcock’s classic mystery ‘Psycho’ screening in the Regent Theatre, with Bernard Herrmann’s famous score performed live onstage by The Bates Motel Orchestra. Amazing.

Make sure to check out the full program release on the 9th of July at http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/

– pedestrian.tv

Wedding Party to open MIFF
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has selected local romantic drama The Wedding Party to open the festival, which will screen 240 films this year.

The opening night film (previously titled Kin) is the debut feature from director Amanda Jane and was partly funded via the MIFF Premiere Fund film. It tells the story of financially-strapped Steve, who agrees to marry a Russian girl seeking residency in exchange for a large sum of cash. What looked like the perfect plan goes badly awry when his family catch wind of his marriage plans, and he finds himself caught up in an extravagant sham wedding.

“We can confirm the entire cast will be present on opening night,” outgoing festival director Richard Moore told INSIDEFILM. The film stars Josh Lawson, Isabel Lucas, Steve Bisley, Nadine Garner and Bill Hunter.

With 185,000 tickets sold at last year’s MIFF, organisers are expecting the 2010 event to be even bigger, with the recent launch of a new interactive website and MIFF iPhone application.

“Melbourne audiences love it,” Moore also said, who makes the move to Brisbane International Film Festival this year, after four years with MIFF.

“With only 300 films released cinematically in Australia each year, and 240 in this year’s MIFF program, we’re giving audiences almost a year’s worth of films over only 17 days.”

MIFF also confirmed the world premiere of five films that were partly funded by the MIFF Premiere Fund, including Perth shot revenge thriller Blame.

In its fourth year this year, the youth-oriented NextGen program includes the movie adaptation of Waris Dirie’s autobiography Desert Flower, which tells her true story of her escape from Somalia to her successful career as a supermodel.

– if.com.au

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And a synopsis from the Melbourne Film Festival site:

The Wedding Party

Australia (115 mins)

Family, Vodka and Tears.

First time feature director Amanda Jane takes her camera into the heart of Melbourne and creates a fun-filled farce about family, love and the choices we make. From the sacred turf of the MCG to the city’s kinky underground, The Wedding Party explores everything that can go wrong (and right) in the search for love.

New secrets trip over old lies, as the misadventures of an average suburban family prove you can choose your illegal immigrant bride but you can’t choose your own kin.

This vodka-sodden comedy of errors features an impressive ensemble of Australian talent, including Josh Lawson, Isabel Lucas, Steve Bisley, Heather Mitchell, Essie Davis, Geoff Paine, Nadine Garner, Adam Zwar, Kestie Morassi, Rhonda Burchmore, Nikita Leigh-Pritchard and Bill Hunter. The soundtrack includes the work of Melbourne-based musicians J. Walker (Machine Translations) and Clare Bowditch.