For a long time, the question of which film festivals in Australia were the most important and prestigious could be answered simply: the big ones in Melbourne or Sydney. In recent years, however, under the tenure of Amanda Duthie, the Adelaide film festival has more than held its own – making the gong for Australia’s best film festival very much a three-way race.

Adelaide’s 2018 program is the most exciting of any festival this year for Australian content. A whopping 44% of the films are Australian, with 22 created in South Australia. From the new film by the director of The Babadook to a bizarre underwater live art performance, here are 10 events to attend at the festival, which runs from 10 until 21 October.

1. The Nightingale

Jennifer Kent’s highly anticipated follow-up to her brilliant (and fabulously appropriated) 2014 debut The Babadook is a revenge thriller set in Tasmania in 1825.

The Nightingale had its world premiere at the Venice film festival last week, where it was the only film in competition to be directed by a woman – not exactly a good look for one of the world’s most prestigious festivals. As if to emphasise that sexism is endemic at Venice, a local critic made international headlines by interrupting a screening of The Nightingale with sexist abuse directed at Kent, for which he apologised in a Facebook post.

The Italian journalist who screamed “whore” at Jennifer Kent’s name in the credits of THE NIGHTINGALE at #Venezia75 speaks out... seems like a full apology: until he claims it wasn’t sexist. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/wQ3mqnqRlx

— Whitlock and Pope (@WhitlockAndPope) September 6, 2018

“I think it’s of absolute importance to react with compassion and love for ignorance – there is no other option,” Kent said at a press conference afterwards.

2. Hotel Mumbai

Another of the year’s most anticipated Australian films is Anthony Maras’s account of the 2008 terrorist attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace in India, described by the Guardian’s Katie Goh as “an excellent, white-knuckle thriller”. Starring Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Tilda Cobham-Hervey, principal photography commenced all the way back in August 2016. Hotel Mumbai was delayed in part because of a legal stoush about distribution rights, flaring up in the aftermath of the downfall of the Weinstein Company (which was originally going to release the film in North America and the UK). Australians will finally get a chance to see it in Adelaide at the festival’s opening-night gala, before its nationwide release in January.

3. Creating the Spectacle

The British multimedia and installation artist Sue Austin will transform a swimming pool into a stage in a performance piece designed to reshape our perceptions of wheelchairs. She will perform underwater in her wheelchair while being filmed and projected in real time. For those determined to get the best possible seats, both the good and bad news (depending on your perspective) is that the premium spots are underwater. So forget your black-tie garb and don a scuba suit instead.

4. I am Mother

Shot at South Australia’s Adelaide Studios, this futuristic sci-fi thriller stars the two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank. That’s quite a casting coup for the Perth-born first-time feature film-maker Grant Sputore. His film is reportedly a mother-daughter drama based in a world where a new generation of humans are being raised by an apparently-benevolent-but-maybe-not-actually-benevolent robot called Mother. What could go wrong?

5. The Cleaners

The title of this already (in)famous documentary, which premiered at this year’s Sundance film festival and screened in Sydney in June, refers to digital janitors employed by Silicon Valley to determine what we see (and don’t see) online. These “cleaners” are tech workers who moderate online content, assessing potentially inappropriate images and footage. No prizes for guessing which companies they might work for.

6. Terror Nullius

The weird, kinetic and dizzyingly ambitious Terror Nullius – a sort-of installation project and sort-of documentary from the two-person collective Soda_Jerk – is one of the Australian film events of the year. After premiering at Melbourne’s Acmi cinemas, this rabble-rousing work of political satire has bounced across the country, playing festivals in Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales and now South Australia. It’s not the kind of film that’s going to secure a mainstream release, so Adelaide film buffs should catch it while they can.

7. Pine Gap

Pine Gap is a six-part thriller centred around the titular ultra-secretive spy base in the Northern Territory. Co-financed by Netflix and ABC TV, the show – filmed across multiple locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory, written and co-created by Greg Haddrick and Felicity Packard – is the latest in a run of Australian political thrillers, following The Code and Secret City.

8. At Eternity’s Gate

Willem Dafoe playing Vincent Van Gogh? Yes. Yes. Yes. Nothing more needs to be said.

9. Island of the Hungry Ghosts

The feature debut of the Australian film-maker Gabrielle Brady is a Germany/Australia/UK co-production that explores the plight of detainees on Christmas Island, in part from the perspective of a trauma counsellor. It is the job of Poh Lin, who lives on the island, to support asylum seekers trapped there. The film also takes a broader look at the island, incorporating a study of its inhabitants and its famous red crab migration. A quick glance at quotes from reviews suggests Brady has taken a lyrical approach, triggering an inundation of words such as “beautiful”, “haunting” and “poetic”.

10. Leave No Trace

Debra Granik’s previous narrative feature film was the intensely beautiful and chilling 2010 rural-set mystery-drama Winter’s Bone, featuring a breakthrough performance from Jennifer Lawrence. The words “critically acclaimed” barely begin to describe Leave No Trace, which tells the story of a father and daughter who have lived off the grid for years in Oregon bushland. The Guardian’s own Peter Bradshaw awarded it a five-star review, and at the time of publishing the film is sitting on a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating.

• Adelaide film festival runs from 10 until 21 October