Tag: Sydney Film Festival

Review: The Golden Spurtle

Growing up in Australia, there was an Uncle Toby’s instant oats ad where a young Scottish lad emphatically told us: “That’s no how you make porridge.” Turns out he was right all along, and the World Porridge Making Championships in the Scottish village of Carrbridge have been certifying that fact for over three decades.

Australian director Constantine Costi, a theatre librettist and director known for Siegfried and Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, became fascinated with the contest after stumbling across its story while travelling. Following Toby Wilson, an Australian taco chef and two-time Carrbridge finalist, Costi introduces us to a delightful ensemble of regulars, locals, and newcomers, each one adding texture to this surprisingly heartfelt culinary showdown.

The townsfolk and competitors often feel like they’ve stepped out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary. With stagey to-camera intros and locked-off shots of Carrbridge, Costi and cinematographer Dimitri Zaunders shoot with all the whimsy of a Wes Anderson film. Yet he never loses sight of the fact that these are real people with real ambitions, and more than a little emotion invested in the battle for the titular Golden Spurtle.

Take honorary Golden Spurtle Chieftain Charlie Miller, who fled the rat race for a quieter life in Carrbridge. His health may be faltering and he’s no longer young, but his love for the town and its weird little tradition is undiminished. There’s reigning champ Lisa Williams, and the legendary Ian Bishop, described as “mad” and doing little to dissuade us from the label. Health store owner Nick Barnard might be the most Guest-like of all: a repeated finalist, baffled that his oats still haven’t reached the top of the podium.

Costi’s steady hand is a perfect counterbalance to the barely contained chaos of the competition itself. As the day arrives and a torrential Scottish downpour sets in, the only constants are the revered dishwashers backstage and Miller, scrambling to hold it all together. Yet, like Costi’s film, it somehow works: beautifully, eccentrically, and against all odds.

THE GOLDEN SPURTLE may join the ranks of offbeat documentaries like Scott Gawlik’s Set! or Slavko Martinov’s Pecking Order, but it stands apart thanks to Costi’s warm and generous approach to the material. Here’s hoping Carrbridge’s Golden Spurtle runs another 30 years, and that someone’s there to capture it when it does.

2025 | Australia, UK | DIRECTOR: Constantine Costi | WRITERS: Constantine Costi | CAST: Charlie Miller, Toby Wilson, Ian Bishop, Nick Barnard, Lisa Williams | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, Umbrella Entertainment | RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)

June 9, 2025
Review: The Mastermind

Kelly Reichardt’s minimalist, observational style—refined across films like Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, and First Cow—might not seem an obvious fit for a 1970s heist film. Yet in her inimitable way, Reichardt quietly reworks the genre into a laser-focused character study of a family man coming undone.

After several visits to the local Framingham Museum of Art, J.B. (Josh O’Connor) begins to spot holes in their security and concocts a plan to steal four paintings in broad daylight. While his wife Terri (Alana Haim) works and cares for their two children, J.B. assembles a crew of semi-inept accomplices and sets the plan in motion.

As the theft makes headlines and the police begin closing in, J.B.’s lack of foresight starts to show, and his world slowly unravels. At this point, Reichardt pivots gently into her own kind of road movie, shifting the mood from suburban malaise to a broader sense of dislocation. This is how a heist film becomes wholly a Reichardt entity.

Her pacing is typically restrained. A standout sequence sees J.B. hiding the stolen works in a barn loft. With cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt—her regular collaborator since Meek’s Cutoff—Reichardt holds the camera on O’Connor as he methodically climbs a ladder, hoists the paintings into a box, and then scrambles to recover when he knocks the ladder down. Once he’s on the road, those long, meditative bus rides draw out the character’s interiority.

The backdrop is an America deep in the Vietnam War, with mounting public dissent and an increasing number of people opting out or dropping out. (By coincidence, my screening of this film directly followed Kevin Macdonald’s One to One: John & Yoko, which also captures fragments of the same cultural moment). Rob Mazurek’s jazzy score adds momentum while nailing the period detail further.

As J.B. brushes up against these larger shifts, it becomes clear he’s been living in a bubble, his mediocrity long subsidised by his mother (Hope Davis). Reichardt’s final note is winkingly wry, a reminder of how much dry humour has been simmering beneath the surface all along. As she pulls back just enough to let the absurdity register, we realise the film wasn’t about a man in trouble: it was a joke at his expense all along. After all, it’s right there in the title.

2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Kelly Reichardt | WRITERS: Kelly Reichardt | CAST: Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, John Magaro, Hope Davis, Bill Camp, Gaby Hoffman | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, The Match Factory | RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)

June 8, 2025
Review: Blue Moon

Before Rodgers and Hammerstein became Broadway legends, there was Rodgers and Hart, the duo behind classics like “Blue Moon,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon zeroes in on the pivotal moment when that first great partnership conclusively dissolved, and a new era in American musical theatre began.

The film opens with Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) collapsing drunk in a rainy alley. From there, Robert Kaplow’s screenplay unfolds with the intimacy of a stage production, nowhere more so than in the first half hour, which plays out as a freewheeling monologue. Hart holds court with Sardi’s bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) and pianist Morty (Jonah Lees), bitterly riffing opinions on the debut of Oklahoma! and the virtues of his ‘irreplaceable’ Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley).

Yet this theatricality is precisely how Kaplow and Hawke draw you into Hart’s solipsistic world. It’s 31 March 1943 and the opening night of his longtime collaborator’s hit. He riffs with other luminaries – writer E.B. White (played with low-key excellence by Patrick Kennedy) sits quietly in the corner for a time – and anxiously claws his ideas for a new musical onto the celebratory Rodgers (Andrew Scott).

In an award-worthy performance, Hawke gives the semi-closeted Hart just the right amount of desperation, humour and pathos. Hart, who died of pneumonia just seven months later, battled alcoholism and depression: struggles that ultimately fractured his partnership with Rodgers. Hawke disappears into the role, his physicality emphasised by a thinning combover and a hunched posture that renders him physically smaller than everyone around him.

What’s remarkable is that Linklater stages almost the entire film in a single location, anchoring the drama on Hart while the world of Broadway, a world war, and shifting cultural tides remain mere footnotes to his singular focus. And Hart wouldn’t have it any other way. While the lyricist’s story has been told before—most notably in the heavily romanticised MGM musical Words and Music, with Mickey Rooney as Hart—few biopics get to the beating heart of a character at a specific moment in time quite as precisely as this.

2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater | WRITERS: Robert Kaplow | CAST: Ethan Hawke Margaret Qualley Bobby Cannavale Andrew Scott | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025), 17 October 2025 (USA)

June 8, 2025
Review: Olmo

Fernando Eimbcke’s early films, including Temporada de patos and Club Sandwich, established his knack for capturing the quiet, awkward moments of adolescence. After a detour with anthology Berlin, I Love You, Eimbcke returns to familiar territory with OLMO, a tender, understated coming-of-age story.

It’s 1979, and 14-year-old Olmo (Aivan Uttapa) is stuck at home caring for his bedridden father (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), who is living with multiple sclerosis. While his mother works multiple shifts to cover overdue rent and his sister Ana (Rosa Armendáriz) tries to fit in with her peers, Olmo dreams of impressing his neighbour Nina (Melanie Frometa).

He gets his chance when Nina asks to borrow his stereo (actually his dad’s) for a party. So begins a modest odyssey, as Olmo and his newly cowboy-booted friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) embark on a series of misadventures in a bid to deliver the music.

On paper, this US-Mexican co-production might sound like it fits neatly into the well-worn tropes of adolescent urgency and summer quests. And to some extent, it does. But even at a lean 84 minutes, Eimbcke is in no rush to get anywhere, if there’s even a destination at all. The film opens with a minor catastrophe involving a urine-soaked mattress, played for laughs, but quietly underscores the family’s precarious financial state. From there, OLMO hovers in a liminal space between humour and hardship. The boys accidentally showing up to a funeral instead of a party is a prime example of how easily the tone pivots from comic to poignant.

Despite regularly trying to shirk his caregiving responsibilities, Uttapa’s Olmo never comes across as bratty or entitled. His performance is grounded in quiet yearning and genuine awkwardness. Veteran actor Sánchez Parra, whose resume spans over 90 films since Amores perros (2000), conveys volumes—of rage, regret and helplessness from a bed. There’s a lovely moment where he briefly lights up over a stereo repair, and for a fleeting instant, the whole room erupts in joy.

Neither Olmo nor the film receives a grand resolution, and that feels entirely right. Eimbcke instead offers a hazy, affectionate snapshot of youth, where sadness and comedy coexist and nothing quite goes as planned. OLMO may be about the past, but it understands how formative those uncertain, in-between moments can be.

2025 | USA, Mexico | DIRECTOR: Fernando Eimbcke | WRITERS: Fernando Eimbcke, Vanesa Garnica | CAST: Aivan Uttapa, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Diego Olmedo | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, The Festival Agency | RUNNING TIME: 84 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)

June 5, 2025
Review: It Ends

Filmmaker Alexander Ullom, who has transitioned from online shorts to this debut feature, has said in interviews that he’s trying to coin the phrase ‘hangout horror.’ If he wanted a visual companion to that phrase, it would be IT ENDS, a film that begins as an unnerving mystery in the woods and gradually drifts toward existential dread.

A late-night drive down a wooded road turns otherworldly when old friends James (Phinehas Yoon), Tyler (Mitchell Cole), Day (Akira Jackson), and Fisher (Noah Toth) find they’re unable to leave. After driving for days, the road never turns, never ends. Stranger still, they don’t feel tired or hungry. When they finally stop, desperate people emerge from the trees, pleading for access to the car. It’s in these moments that Ullom’s film is at its most traditionally unsettling, delivering scares through bursts of action after long stretches of stillness.

As curiosity gives way to despair and resentment, the group begins to question what they’ve done to deserve this—and whether it will go on forever. Eventually, even the fear dulls. Hypotheticals, road games, and minor puzzles become the only way to pass the time. On the surface, you could read Ullom’s tight screenplay any number of ways: a metaphor for Gen Z’s uncertain transition into adulthood in a relentlessly bleak world, perhaps.

What’s remarkable about IT ENDS is how little actually happens—and that’s kind of the point. Just like in real life, there are no mile markers to tell you that you’ve reached the next stage. The group can take short breaks from the car and occasionally stumble upon other abandoned vehicles, but there’s a limit to how long they can stray. They come to realise the way forward is the only way, and that way is uncertain.

Ullom plays with some great ideas here, and elicits strong performances, particularly from Yoon and the taciturn Cole. Still, for all the time we spend in the car, we learn surprisingly little about these characters. If this is a hangout movie, it’s one in which ennui is baked in from the beginning, and there’s no obvious way to shake it. For more than one generation, that might be the most terrifying thing of all.

IT ENDS is a clever debut, one that deliberately skirts around tropes like time loops and postmodern horror to avoid being pinned down. That said, you could argue Ullom doesn’t quite know what to do with his setup once he’s set things in motion—and the final act may frustrate some as a result. Just like real life.

2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Alexander Ullom | WRITERS: Alexander Ullom | CAST: Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, Snoot Entertainment | RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)

June 5, 2025
SFF 2025: 9 Cannes standouts join Sydney Film Festival lineup

Sydney Film Festival 2025 has unveiled nine new titles fresh from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, sending us all scrambling to update our watchlists. From major award winners to buzzy headliners, this annual late announcement brings some of the Croisette’s most talked-about titles to Sydney.

Highlights include Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, likely to sell out fast thanks to his reunion with The Worst Person in the World star Renate Reinsve; Cannes Jury Prize winner Sirât, produced by Pedro Almodóvar; the Dardenne brothers’ Young Mothers, which took out Best Screenplay; and Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, winner of both the Queer Palme and Best Actress.

Also in the mix are Sergei Loznitsa’s historical drama Two Prosecutors, Tarik Saleh’s political thriller Eagles of the Republic, Joel Edgerton-led pandemic drama The Plague, Amy Berg’s music doc It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, and Lav Diaz’s 160-minute biopic Magellan.

These new additions join the recently announced closing night film Splitsville, as well as Ari Aster’s nearly sold-out contemporary western Eddington.

With these nine Cannes selections now part of the SFF 2025 lineup, there’s even more for film lovers to dig into.

Sydney Film Festival 2025 kicks off Wednesday 4 June across the city. Tickets are on sale now at sff.org.au. Check back here for all our festival coverage.

June 2, 2025
SFF 2025: 9 must-sees at the Sydney Film Festival

Festival season is upon us and soon Sydney will be battling a combination of cold and rain, the sniffles and overwhelming choice of things to do on a night out. As the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) returns for another year, we can help you out with at least one of those.

At the SFF launch of the full program in Sydney, Festival Director Nashen Moodley said that if there was a common thread throughout the 201 films (and counting), it’s that they were about disruption, resistance and reinvention.

SFF 2025 runs from 7-15 June this year. Keep coming back to our festival portal for full coverage. You can check the festival website. The full program and tickets are now available.

The Blue Trail

Fresh from winning the 2025 Berlinale Grand Jury Prize, Gabriel Mascaro’s (Neon Bull) lush, near-future fable follows a 77-year-old woman who flees a sinister government order and sets off on a hallucinatory journey through the Amazon. This one looks truly remarkable.

The Mastermind

Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff, First Cow) is one of the great filmmakers of our time, and it’s a delight to see her latest film come straight to Sydney from Cannes. Set in the 1970s, it’s described as an “art heist drama” starring Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, John Magaro and Gaby Hoffman.

Blue Moon

Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley star in Richard Linklater’s latest. Set in the world of musical theatre in 1943, on the opening night of Oklahoma! no less, this continues Linklater’s experimentation with chronology by unfolding in real time.

The Golden Spurtle

This might be the surprise gem of the year. It’s a documentary about the World Porridge Making Championships in the Scottish village of Carrbridge. From the makers of Siegfried and Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, this seems to have all the quirk of Christopher Guest and Wes Anderson combined in the real world.

Dreams

Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco casts Jessica Chastain, Isaac Hernández and Rupert Friend in this erotic thriller that might also be a metaphor for the relationship between Mexico and the United States. A timely and fascinating approach!

The Life of Chuck

This might have won the Peoples’ Choice Award when it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, but the reason I’m excited is because it’s Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep) directing Stephen King. Based on the master’s 2020 novella (from the collection If It Bleeds), and starring Tom Hiddleston in the title role, it’s about a life told in reverse.

Somebody

Filmmakers Kim Yeo-jung and Lee Jeong-chan follow Young-eun as a single mom raising her 7-year-old daughter, until a shocking series of events jump us 20 years forward for what the festival is calling “a twisted psychological thriller.” Starring K-pop icon Kwon Yuri (of Girls’ Generation), this is sure to attract a solid fanbase.

One to One: John & Yoko

It’s a bit of a tradition that my partner and I see a music documentary together at the festival each year. This year it’s most likely Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald’s portrait of Lennon and Ono in 1970s New York, blending rare home footage with their only full post-Beatles concert. It will be interesting to see how this distinguishes itself from the many other documentaries on the same subject matter.

What Does That Nature Say to You

The immutable law of all film festivals is: there will be a Hong Sang-soo film, you will see the Hong Sang-soo film. His 33rd film in 30 years, this one is about Dongwha (Ha Seong-guk), a poet who has rejected his family wealth who brings his girlfriend home. Expect conversations, food, drinks and conversations over food and drinks.

The 72nd edition of the Sydney Film Festival runs from 4 – 15 June 2025 at various locations around Sydney. Check out their website for a full program and tickets.

May 7, 2025
SFF 2025: Sydney Film Festival announces Jafar Panahi retrospective

The 72nd edition of the Sydney Film Festival will present JAFAR PANAHI: CINEMA IN REBELLION, a retrospective of the Iranian filmmaker’s body of work.

Curated by Anke Leweke, the retrospective will include all 10 of Panahi’s feature films. Panahi is known for his socially conscious films that often blur the line between fiction and reality. Before 2023, he had both a travel and official filmmaking censure, but he continued to make works such as This Is Not a Film and Taxi, both direct critiques of the censorship and Iranian government.

Films in the retrospective include The White Balloon (1995), The Mirror (1997), The Circle (2000), Crimson Gold (2003), Offside (2006), This Is Not a Film (2011), Closed Curtain (2013), Tehran Taxi (2015), Three Faces (2018) and No Bears (2022).

SFF 2025 also announced its first 18 films earlier this month, including Gabriel Mascaro’s Berlinale winning The Blue Trail and Joshua Oppenheimer’s feature narrative debut, In the End. The full program is expected to drop on 7 May.

SFF 2025 runs from 7-15 June this year. Keep coming back to our festival portal for full coverage. You can check the festival website. The full program and tickets will be available from 7 May 2025.

April 16, 2025
SFF 2025: first films announced for Sydney Film Festival

The cooler weather has brought an autumnal treat for Sydneysiders, as the first taste of the 72nd Sydney Film Festival is served up. SFF 2025 runs from 4 to 15 June.

Fresh from Berlinale, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, Gabriel Mascaro’s dystopian The Blue Trail leads a strong selection of at least a dozen Australian premieres.

In the End sees director Joshua Oppenheimer make his narrative debut with a post-apocalyptic musical set in an underground compound, starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon.

Among the documentary highlights are Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao e Rua – Two Worlds, a brand-new First Nations feature, and the Sundance-selected Speak. Other standouts include One to One: John & Yoko, Make It Look Real—which explores the work of intimacy coordinators—and the previously announced evening with Warren Ellis, coinciding with Ellis Park.

Australian features include Fwends, the debut feature from Sophie Somerville, and the award-winning animated Lesbian Space Princess, both set to premiere at this year’s festival.

A list of the announced films so far is below, or you can check the festival website. The full program and tickets will be available from 7 May 2025.

FEATURES

THE BLUE TRAIL
Dir. Gabriel Mascaro | Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands, Chile | 86 mins | In Portuguese with English subtitles | Australian premiere

BRING THEM DOWN
Dir. Christopher Andrews | Ireland | 105 mins | In English and Irish Gaelic with English subtitles | Australian premiere

DJ AHMET
Dir. Georgi M. Unkovski | North Macedonia | 99 mins | In Turkish and Macedonian with English subtitles | Australian premiere

THE END
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, UK, Sweden, USA | 148 mins | In English | Australian premiere

FWENDS
Dir. Sophie Somerville | Australia | 92 mins | In English and French with English subtitles | Australian premiere

LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS
Dir. Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs | Australia | 86 mins | In English | Australian premiere

OBEX
Dir. Albert Birney | United States | 90 mins | In English | Australian premiere

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL
Dir. Rungano Nyoni | Zambia, United Kingdom, Ireland | 99 mins | In Bemba and English with English subtitles | NSW premiere

STRANGER EYES
Dir. Yeo Siew Hua | Singapore, Taiwan, France, United States | 126 mins | In Mandarin with English subtitles | Australian premiere

DOCUMENTARIES

EXERGUE – ON DOCUMENTA 14
Dir. Dimitris Athiridis | Greece | 848 mins | In English | Australian premiere

FARMING THE REVOLUTION
Dir. Nishtha Jain | India, France, Norway | 100 mins | In Punjabi and Hindi with English subtitles | NSW premiere

MAKE IT LOOK REAL
Dir. Kate Blackmore | Australia | 78 mins | In English | NSW premiere

MARLON WILLIAMS NGĀ AO E RUA – TWO WORLDS
Dir. Ursula Grace Williams | New Zealand | 92 mins | In English and Māori with English subtitles | Australian premiere

MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN
Dir. David Borenstein | Denmark, Czech Republic | 90 mins | In Russian with English subtitles | Australian premiere

ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO
Dir. Kevin Macdonald | United Kingdom | 100 mins | In English | Australian premiere

SPEAK.
Dir. Guy Mossman and Jennifer Tiexiera | United States | 103 mins | In English | Premiere status TBD

April 2, 2025
SFF 2025: 72nd Sydney Film Festival announces dates

Summer’s lease has ended, and as the cooler months set in, the announcement of the 72nd Sydney Film Festival (SFF) reminds us that winter is coming.

SFF 2025 runs from Wednesday 4 June to Sunday 15 June, bringing world-class cinema to venues across Sydney, including the State Theatre, Event Cinemas George Street, Dendy Newtown, The Ritz Randwick, the Hayden Orpheum, Palace Cinemas, the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Town Hall, and more—including SFFTV in Martin Place.

“As we look ahead to the 72nd Sydney Film Festival, we are thrilled to once again offer dynamic big-screen experiences that showcase the very best in contemporary cinema, both from Australia and across the globe,” said Festival Director Nashen Moodley via a press release. “Our aim is to present films that captivate, inspire, and resonate deeply with audiences here in Sydney.”

It’s too early for film announcements, but the first titles drop in April, with the full program revealed on Wednesday 7 May.

Last year, we caught 35 films across various venues, including I Saw the TV Glow, All We Imagine As Light, the divisive Megalopolis, and the underrated gem Eephus—all among our top picks of the year. What discoveries await us in 2025?

For details and passes, visit sff.org.au.

March 6, 2025