The Sydney Film Festival turns 65 in 2018, and it’s set to celebrate this landmark anniversary in spectacular style.
Kicking off on 6 June at venues across Sydney, 2018’s program will present a blockbusting season of 326 films, including 21 world premieres, sourced from 65 countries.
“Sydney’s strength as a centre for filmmaking, and our passion for film culture, is what drives our city's status as one of only 13 UNESCO Cities of Film in the world,” said NSW Minister for the Arts Don Harwin. Festival Director Nashen Moodley added, “Since 1945, the Sydney Film Festival has brought over 9,000 of the best films from around the globe to Australian audiences; a canon we are proud to expand on 65 years later.”
Kicking off 2018’s proceedings will be New Zealand-made comedy The Breaker Upperers, written, directed and starring Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami and produced by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waitiki. It follows two cynical misfits earning a living by breaking up unhappy couples for cash via a madcap repertoire of swindles, from faking deaths to impersonating cops and even feigning pregnancies. It also features Rosehaven star Celia Pacquola and MICF Barry Award-nominated Kiwi comic Rose Matafeo.
Closing the fest is heart-warming indie comedy Hearts Beat Loud, starring Golden Globe-winning Australian actress Toni Colette and Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman. About an ageing hipster dad forming an unlikely band with his reluctant, talented daughter, it also stars Kiersey Clemons.
The main program boasts 120 feature films including some of the top prize-winners from major international festivals, as well as 57 documentaries exploring a range of contemporary issues. Of the world premieres on offer, there are two new Australian feature films: Benjamin Gilmour’s Jirga and Chocolate Oyster, an experimental observational comedy about young people in Sydney, made by Steve Jaggi. The feature film program will, for the first time, acknowledge the contribution to film of streaming TV by presenting the Stan Original film The Second, a risqué psycho-thriller directed by Mairi Comeron and starring Rachael Blake and Susie Porter.
Other major feature presentations include spy drama Beirut starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike, legal thriller The Children Act, starring Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci, and black comedy The Kindergarten Teacher, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gael Garcia Bernal.
There are also a number of thematic programs to help festivalgoers navigate 2018’s diverse program. These include a new platform for 2018, FLUX: Art+Film, which will present eight films on the bleeding edge of film craft, including the controversial Terror Nullius, which infamously made headlines recently when the Ian Potter Cultural Trust withdrew promotional support for the premiere screening of the “political revenge fable.”
This year, the European program will celebrate women in film – an important acknowledgement in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that has rocked the film industry in recent months. In addition to presentations from the likes of Swedish Filmmaker Isabella Eklof, Dutch director Nanouk Leopold and Swedish actress-director Fanni Metelius, will also host In Conversation with European Women Filmmakers, examining the gender pay gap in the film industry.
The Sounds On Screen program, a series of films about music, returns in 2018. Features include Bad Reputation, the fascinating life story of rock icon Joan Jett, RocKabul, a documentary about the cultural risks faced by Afghanistan’s first metal band, and Steve Loveridge’s portrait of Brit hip hop iconoclast Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.
There will also be programs celebrating First Nations filmmakers, films about disability in the Screenability program, a series of international documentaries, an Animation Showcase, restored classic films, a horror focus in the Freak Me out program, and a focus on Italian film.
There will also be a curated program of VR films available at the SFF Hub at Sydney Town Hall. Compiled by artist Shaun Gladwell, 17 fully immersive VR films, available in seven packages, will offer a glimpse of how contemporary filmmaking is embracing new technologies. Amongst the films on offer, visitors will meet music-making robots, see a ceremonial bush-punk performance in the outback, and journey through space alongside NASA astronauts.
Full details and ticketing for the 2018 Sydney Film Festival are available at the fest’s website.
Note: This story was updated at 10:51am on 10 May. The original story incorrectly stated that the Ian Potter Cultural Trust "withdrew funding," for Soda_Jerk's Terra Nullius for being "un-Australian."
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