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This year’s Sydney Film Festival will spotlight a strong showing of debut features from Australian filmmakers, with the festival unveiling its full program last night at the State Library of NSW.
Among the homegrown highlights is previously announced festival opener Together, the Sundance hit from Michael Shanks. Last night the festival revealed it will also screen in official competition, vying for the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize alongside 10 other features from around the world.
Other Australian-authored debuts bound for Sydney include SXSW-winning satire Slanted, from Amy Wang; Zoe Pepper’s Birthright, arriving in Sydney straight from Tribeca; Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs Lesbian Space Princess, winner of Berlin’s Teddy Award; Sophie Somerville’s Fwends, winner of Berlin’s Caligari Film Prize, and actor-turned-director Christian Byers’ Death of an Undertaker, a dark comedy-documentary set in Leichhardt, which will make its world premiere.
For festival director Nashen Moodley, Together is one of the most anticipated films of the year – Australian or otherwise.
Sydney Film Festival almost always opens with a local film, and for the programming team it was immediately clear after watching it that should launch the event.
“When we saw the film, it was just obvious, and that’s the best way, right?” he says.
“It’s clever, it’s funny, it’s slightly scary, it’s really profound. It makes you think quite deeply about relationships and how they work. It does so many things, so effectively, so cleverly.
“And what a great opportunity to highlight the work of this brilliant new filmmaker, Michael Shanks.”
The festival will also showcase Samuel Van Grinsven’s anticipated follow-up to Sequin in a Blue Room – winner of the SFF audience award in 2019 – Went Up the Hill, which screened in Toronto, and Dangerous Animals, the first film from Sean Byrne since 2015’s The Devil’s Candy, which arrives direct from Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Sydney Film Festival will this year include 201 films from 70 countries, with 17 world premieres, six international premieres, and 137 Australian premieres.
While the festival’s opening night film has been locked in for some time, the closing night title is still to be confirmed. Moodley, who heads to Cannes next week, says the team is eyeing several late contenders.
The Sydney Opera House has stepped on board as a venue partner this year, while the festival has also partnered with Vivid Sydney for the first time.
The Vivid partnership will include a spotlight on Ellis Park, the first documentary from Justin Kurzel, which is competing for the $20,000 Documentary Australia Award. A screening of the film will be paired with a live event at City Recital Hall, where subject Warren Ellis will appear in conversation and perform.
Kurzel’s doc is part of a particularly competitive documentary field, with 10 titles in contention for the award. World premieres include Jordan Giusti’s Floodland, Kriv Stenders’ Joh: Last King of Queensland, and Journey Home, David Gulpilil from Trisha Morton-Thomas and Maggie Miles., Chadden Hunter’s The Raftsmen and Yaara Bou Melhem’s Yurlu | Country.
Australian premieres include Peedom and Alex Barry’s Deeper, which comes from SXSW, and Constantine Costi’s The Golden Spurtle, a portrait of the World Porridge Making Championship in the Scottish Highlands that screened at CPH:DOX.
Also in the running are Gabrielle Brady’s The Wolves Always Come at Night and Shalom Almond’s Songs Inside, which won the audience award at Adelaide Film Festival.
Kurzel, the head of this year’s main competition jury, will also deliver the festival’s annual Ian McPherson Memorial Lecture, where he will appear in conversation with Moodley. Other industry talks will include sessions audience development, the journey to making a first feature and streaming services’ investment in documentaries.
Danielle Maclean’s Emily: I Am Kam, a portrait of artist Emily Kam Kngwarray, will vie for the First Nations Award, which at $35,000 is the world’s largest cash prize for Indigenous filmmaking, while the previously announced intimacy coordinator doc Make It Look Real, from Kate Blackmore, will screen in the international documentaries strand.
Aussie classics restored for special retrospective screenings include PJ Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding, Cate Shortland’s Somersault, and David Caesar’s Mullet, with members of the teams to attend.
Contending Australia’s longest running short film comp, The Dendy Awards, are Lucy Davidson’s Baggage; Miski Omar’s Button Pusher; Tony Gardiner’s DIY; Rebecca Metcalf’s The Eviction; Fraser Pemberton and William Jaka’s Faceless; Jemma Cotter’s The Fling, Andy ‘Celeste’ Diep’s Interview with a Hero, Berni Jiang’s Mango Seed; Rory Pearson’s Mates and Andrew Kimberley’s Moment.
Other local shorts to screen alongside feature films include Varghese’s SXSW-winner I’m the Most Racist Person I Know and David Robinson-Smith’s The Shirt Off Your Back, as well as Freak Me Out shorts Belloe from Jayden Hua and Daniel Duque’s Ferryman, and Screenability shorts Dark Matter, from Leo Berkeley, Where the World is Quiet from Ben Strum and Lily Drummond’s With Love, Lottie.
Flux: Art+Film, which explores the ground between art and cinema, features three Australian projects this year, including the world premiere of Nikki Lam trilogy The Unshakeable Destiny, and shorts Piggy, from Julian Hammon and Rain Falls Still from Bach Dang Tung.
Screening in the competition direct from Cannes are Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (Panahi will also be subject to a broader retrospective); Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, starring Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim, Carla Simón’s Romería, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Hlynur Pálmason’s The Love That Remains, Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3 and Akinola Davies Jr.’s debut My Father’s Shadow (the first Nigerian film to screen in the festival’s competition, which Moodley calls “one of the most striking, unforgettable debuts of the year”.)
Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, Gabriel Mascaro’s Berlinale Grand Jury Prize-winning The Blue Trail, and Sundance Audience Award-winner DJ Ahmet, round out the competition films.
Other international highlights include Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley and
Andrew Scott; Michel Franco’s Dreams, featuring Jessica Chastain; The Ballad of Wallis Island, starring Carey Mulligan; Jodie Foster-starrer Vie Privée; The Life of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston; Sundance comedy hit Twinless;
queer romance On Swift Horses,s tarring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi; and Dreams (Sex Love), winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear.
And while the festival this year has a strong contingent of first-time Australian features, Moodley has some concerns about a shrinking number of local films with higher budgets in the pipeline.
“[There are] still lots of great independent films, lots of films by young filmmakers, and first time filmmakers, which are very exciting and exhibit a great deal of talent. But are we seeing second, third, thought films in enough quantity? I would say not.”
Sydney Film Festival runs June 4-15.
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