Looking for Alibrandi

Looking for Alibrandi is a 2000 Australian coming-of-age film directed by Kate Woods and written by Melina Marchetta (which she adapted from her 1992 novel of the same name). The film is set in 1990s Sydney, New South Wales and features a cast of Australian actors, including Pia Miranda as Josephine Alibrandi, the film's main character; Anthony LaPaglia as her father, Michael Andretti, who left her and her mother before her birth; and Kick Gurry as Josie's love interest, Jacob Coote. The film won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film in 2000. Plot Josephine (nicknamed "Josie") Alibrandi (Pia Miranda) is an ambitious and outspoken 17-year-old Italian-Australian teenager who lives in Glebe, an inner-western suburb in Sydney, and is in her final year of high school. Josie is a scholarship student (also vice-captain) at the prestigious Catholic girls school St Martha’s (which is located in the eastern suburbs of Sydney), where she is completing her HSC. Most of the students are Anglo-Australian and from elite socio-economic backgrounds, and she experiences xenophobia and discrimination due to her Italian and working-class background (and also due to growing up in a single parent household). Josie attends St. Martha’s with her two best friends, Sera (Leanne Carlow) and Anna (Diane Viduka). She is friends with John Barton (Matthew Newton), who attends St Anthony’s College, the brother school of St Martha’s. She has romantic feelings for him, but has not explicitly disclosed them. He is the son of an influential politician, and feels pressure to follow in his father’s footsteps. Josie meets Jacob Coote (Kick Gurry), a rebellious and charismatic public school student, at an inter school debate. They dance together at Josie’s Year 12 formal, and even go on a date, but their personalities clash and they mutually decide to not pursue things further. Josie’s mother, Christina Alibrandi (Greta Scacchi), gave birth to Josie out of wedlock when she was 17. Christina was disowned by her father, Francesco Alibrandi, and banished from the family home until his death. Josie has a rocky relationship with her grandmother/nonna, Katia Alibrandi (Elena Cotta), and they frequently argue. Christina never told Josie’s father, Michael Andretti (Anthony LaPaglia), that she had his baby. He moved to Adelaide to study law, and has since been working as a lawyer there.