The 68th Sydney Film Festival (SFF) will lead Sydneysiders back to cinemas as the first major post-lockdown festival as CBD restrictions are lifted. Running from 3-13 November, the festival will present 233 films from 69 countries.
The fest opens with HERE OUT WEST, an anthology of stories from eight talented Western Sydney writers and directors Leah Purcell (The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, also playing at the festival), Fadia Abboud (Les Norton), Lucy Gaffy (The Spa), Julie Kalceff (First Day) and Ana Kokkinos (Blessed).
Bookending the Festival is the highly anticipated new Wes Anderson film THE FRENCH DISPATCH, starring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet and Jeffrey Wright.
Official Competition
The $60,000 cash Sydney Film Prize is one of the strongest Official Competition selections we’ve seen in quite some time. Leah Purcell’s excellent THE DROVER’S WIFE: THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON competes alongside the guaranteed walk-outs of BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s exciting project MEMORIA also stars Tilda Swinton, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s DRIVE MY CAR adapts a Haruki Murakami short story. Paolo Sorrentino’s Venice Grand Jury Prize winner THE HAND OF GOD, Sundance Grand Jury winner FLEE, Cannes debuting THE STORY OF MY WIFE and Oscar nominated QUO VADIS, AIDA? are some of the heavy hitters on the bill.
Rounding out the competition are Paula Beer’ UNDINE, BAFTA nominee LIMBO and the always welcome Céline Sciamma’s beautiful PETITE MAMAN.
Featured highlights
Outside of the competition, there’s a massive slate too. DUNE finally comes to Australian cinemas ahead of its delayed Australian theatrical release.
Jane Campion’s THE POWER OF THE DOG, coming hot on the heels of its acclaimed debut in Toronto, arrives to wow local audiences too. Pedro Almodóvar PARALLEL MOTHERS, Mia Hansen-Løve’s BERGMAN ISLAND, Joachim Trier’s THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD and the infamous tweet-based ZOLA all come to Sydney screens.
As we take a deep breath, we can also look forward to musical adaptation DEAR EVAN HANSEN, the very intriguing THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE — with the Oscar-tipped Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield — and Will Smith in KING RICHARD, the biopic of the father/coach of Venus and Serena Williams.
Of course, it would be hard to look past TITANE, from director Julia Ducournau (Raw), a film that’s been called the “most shocking film of 2021” by the BBC. Get your tickets for this one quickly.
Asia in Focus
As you can probably tell from the big banner at the top of the page, we have a big focus on Asian cinema here at The Reel Bits.
From Japan, there’s a Ryusuke Hamaguchi double-feature of DRIVE MY CAR and WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY. We can also highly recommend Naomi Kawase’s TRUE MOTHERS and the wonderful love-letter to film that is the animated POMPO: THE CINÉPHILE.
THE SWORDSMAN, also screening at KOFFIA, is one of the South Korean entries on this year’s program.
Thailand will feature COME HERE from Anocha Suwichakornpong’s ethereal black and white narrative.
Zhang Yimou’s ONE SECOND, which recently closed TIFF to high acclaim, will also screen at SFF.
From Hong Kong, there’s the timely documentary WHEN A CITY RISES.
In person and online
SFF will run in person, with any relevant government restrictions, across Sydney in November. All films will screen in-cinema at the festival, with a number of titles also screening in SFF On Demand’s online program (12-21 November).
Tickets are now available on their website.
