The first slate of films for the 73rd Sydney Film Festival has been unveiled, offering an early look at the titles set to anchor this year’s event.
Returning from 3–14 June, the festival will showcase a program of more than 200 films. While the full line-up is slated for release in May, organisers have confirmed an initial selection of 13 films, positioning the early reveal as a preview of the breadth and ambition of this year’s program.
Australian stories lead the charge with urgent and intimate perspectives.
Selina Miles’ Silenced follows Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson and survivors, including Brittany Higgins and Amber Heard, as it examines defamation law in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
Ian Darling’s (“The Final Quarter, SFF 2019) The Valley crafts a quietly immersive portrait of life in Kangaroo Valley, capturing the rhythms, labour and traditions that sustain a rural community.
A still from Selina Miles’ Silenced.
Star-led international features include Dead Man’s Wire, directed by Gus Van Sant (“Milk”), featuring Bill Skarsgård, Australia’s own Dacre Montgomery and Al Pacino. It recounts the infamous 1977 hostage standoff broadcast live across America.
Meanwhile, the documentary Broken English reflects on the life and legacy of Marianne Faithfull, starring Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, from the makers of 20,000 Days on Earth (SFF 2014).
Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, will also screen, starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Léa Seydoux in a story spanning three generations connected by a mighty ginkgo tree.
As will Ulrike Ottinger’s The Blood Countess, starring Isabelle Huppert and written by Elfriede Jelinek (“The Piano Teacher”), reimagines vampire mythology in a visually opulent tale, and Erupcja, in which Pete Ohs follows a couple’s getaway to Warsaw that begins to unravel, starring musician Charli XCX in a lead role.
İlker Çatak’s Yellow Letters, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, will also screen at the festival. It follows a family’s descent into turmoil after a simple act of disobedience triggers authoritarian persecution in Türkiye.
Rafael Manuel’s Sundance award-winning debut feature Filipiñana, which follows a teenage tee-girl at an elite Manila golf course, unveiling the class divisions and violence beneath its pristine surface, is also on the program.
As is Marwan Hamed’s El Sett, which brings the life of legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum to the screen in a lavish, epic telling that traces her rise to become one of the most influential voices in the Arab world.
The festival will also feature innovative approaches to storytelling that explore memory, technology and speculative futures, including Damien Hauser’s Memory of Princess Mumbi, an indie that dazzled audiences across the festival circuit. It imagines a future African kingdom shaped by the tension between artificial intelligence and tradition.
Meanwhile, Firouzeh Khosrovani’s Past Future Continuous, an International Documentary Festival Amsterdam award-winner, follows a woman who fled Iran decades ago and reconnects by watching her ageing parents via cameras in their Tehran home.
Finally, Tamra Davis’ The Best Summer, a Sundance world premiere built from archival footage shot on Australia’s 1995 Summersault tour, captures backstage moments and performances from bands including Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and Foo Fighters.
Nashen Moodley, Sydney Film Festival Director, said: “Prize winners from Berlinale and Sundance, an immersive World Premiere from Australia, Isabelle Huppert as a vampire who’s as fabulous as they come, and more – we wanted to offer a glimpse of the distinctive voices from across the globe coming to SFF.”
The full Sydney Film Festival program will be announced on Wednesday, May 6th. Tickets to specific sessions will go on sale at the same time. For now, flexipasses and subscriptions are on sale – see here for details.
Main image: A still from The Blood Countess