Sydney Film Festival launches its 63rd program

THE 63rd Sydney Film Festival has added 26 new films to this year’s event and a Martin Scorsese retrospective curated by David Stratton. The festival will also feature 150 special guests.

“These 26 films may just be a taste of what’s coming, but they already make for a compelling selection of the best in features and documentaries. These are films that can change your mind, change your mood and change the way you look at the world. From big stars and big ideas to small but perfectly formed stories of truth and imagination, there’s something for all kinds of film lovers here,” said Festival Director Nashen Moodley.

 Some of the titles announced  in the Festival’s sneak peek are Demolition from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée, starring Naomi Watts and Jake Gyllenhaal which was described by Variety as “his best performance since Brokeback Mountain”.

Other films include the off-beat romantic comedy Maggie’s Plan, starring Ethan Hawke, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha, SFF 2016) and Australian Travis Fimmel; and cultural giant of European cinema Alexander Sokurov’s love letter to the Louvre, Francofonia, a follow up to Russian Ark.

Some more Festival highlights include two films that pay homage to the 1980s:  Irish comedy Sing Street, a film that bursts with ‘80s sounds and a stellar Irish cast including Aidan Gillen (GOT) from John Carney (Begin Again, SFF 2014); and acclaimed Boyhood director Richard Linklater’s ode to the decade Everybody Wants Some!!, a “spiritual sequel” to his high school-set 1993 film Dazed and Confused.

True stories on offer include Sundance 2016 Grand Jury Prize for US Documentary winner Weiner, an explosive film following former congressman Anthony Weiner, the subject of two sexting scandals, and his wife Huma Abedin (long-time aide to Hillary Clinton); A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers, by Festival guest and two time Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and co-director Geeta Gandbhir, following 160 predominantly Muslim Bangladeshi policewomen on a difficult mission overseas; the eye-opening Janis Joplin biopic Janis: Little Girl in Blue; and American experimental artist Laurie Anderson’s avant-garde journey though love and loss in Heart of a Dog.

Of the 36 films announced in the preview, 17 are new features and nine are new documentaries including 22 Australian Premieres, and 10 are iconic works of cinema to be screened on 35mm prints – the retrospective program Essential Scorsese: Selected by David Stratton. The selection features Taxi Driver (40 years on), Goodfellas, Raging Bull and The Age of Innocence amongst others. Stratton, who was SFF’sFestival Director from 1966 to 1983, will introduce selected screenings.

Edgy features include renowned Indonesian director Joko Anwar’s (Joni’s Promise,  SFF 2005) A Copy of My Mind, a romantic, political and sexy new drama providing comment on Indonesia’s political climate and insight into the lives of everyday Jakarta residents; striking black and white film Tharlo, winner of the 2015 Tokyo Filmex Grand Prize by Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden; and Chad Hartigan’s multi-Sundance 2016 award winner Morris from America, a hip-hop infused portrait of an African-American teenager in a new land.

Outstanding documentaries remain essential to the Festival, and this year’s Festival has a strong focus on entertaining and enlightening films from factual filmmakers around the world. Sonita follows filmmaker Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami and her subject, rapping Afghani refugee Sonita Alizadeh – activist and social media sensation, as their stories intersect and entwine in unexpected ways.