60th Sydney Film Festival launched with more films, more venues!

The 60^th Sydney Film Festival program was officially launched today by NSW Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Hospitality and Racing and Minister for the Arts, The Hon. George Souris.

“The New South Wales Government, through Screen NSW and Destination NSW, is proud to support Sydney Film Festival, a much-loved part of the city’s arts and events calendar. Sydney Film Festival continues to provide filmmakers a wonderful opportunity to showcase their work, as well as boosting the State’s economy,” Minister Souris said.

SFF Festival Director Nashen Moodley said, “Opening with the World Premiere of a landmark Australian film, Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road, is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate just how far both the festival and the Australian film industry have come since 1954. Confident, mature, word-class and compelling – these are words that describe both this wonderful film and this extraordinary festival.

“Our 2013 program has more screenings of more films from more countries in more venues than even our record-breaking 2012 festival. We cover all tastes in film, with the peak best represented by our Official Competition films, made by some exciting new talents as well as masters of the form. Beyond the competition, feature and documentary programs, the 60^th Sydney Film Festival features a focus on Austrian cinema, the best of British Noir, a good splattering of horror and some downright weird works that are bound to become future cult classics.”

This year SFF is proud to announce the 2013 festival is expanding its program, audience reach and accessibility to Sydneysiders. 38,000 additional seats will go on sale for festivalgoers to experience the best films from across Australia and around the world. Sydney’s North Shore residents can now more easily share the excitement with the addition of 23 screenings at the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Cremorne.

The program features 190 titles (19 world premieres, 5 international premieres, and 122 Australian premieres) from 55 countries at the State Theatre, Event Cinemas George Street, Dendy Opera Quays, the new screening location at the Hayden Orpheum Cremorne and Art Gallery of NSW. The Apple Store Sydney hosts a selection of free public talks; Grasshopper continues as the official festival lounge, open late for drinks and dinner; and SFFTV@Martin Place returns with a free giant outdoor screen showing a selection of SFF highlights plus fascinating shorts from Film Australia collection at the National Film and Sound Archive.

A few minutes’ walk from the Festival’s major venues, the Sydney Film Festival Hub at Lower Town Hall will return for a second year, celebrating the theme of Cinema, Reconstructed. Now open until midnight, the Hub offers an expanded line-up of FREE exhibitions, inspiring talks and panels, parties, performances, DJs and screenings throughout the Festival. It is the only place to buy $10 discount tickets for selected screenings, or take part in the new Film Club, daily from 5pm to 6pm, to share your festival experiences.

For the first time ever SFF screens films from Angola (Death Metal Angola, screening in our Sounds on Screen program); Bangladesh (Television, directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and awarded a Muhr AsiaAfrica special mention at the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival); North Korea (Comrade Kim Goes Flying); Malawi (William and the Windmill) winner of the Grand Jury Award for Documentary at SXSW; and Saudi Arabia (Wadjda directed by Saudi Arabia’s first-ever female filmmaker).

Among the 19 World Premieres at this year’s festival are two major Australian feature productions. Opening Night’s Mystery Road is an Outback-set murder mystery written, directed and edited by Ivan Sven (Beneath Clouds, Toomelah) and starring Aaron Pedersen, Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson, Ryan Kwanten, Damian Walshe-Howling, Tasma Walton, Zoe Carides and Samara Weaving. Then we welcome the psychological drama Nerve, a Sydney-based production directed by Sebastien Guy, starring a stellar cast of well-known and upcoming Australian actors including Gary Sweet, Christian Clark, Georgina Haig, Craig Hall, Andrea Demetriades, Denise Roberts and Cameron Daddo.

Eight new documentaries and one important restoration will also make their World Premieres at the festival including:

·         The World Premiere of William Yang: My Generation, screening in partnership with ABC TV Arts and Vivid Ideas. Yang’s trademark candid narration leads us through the wildly creative and decadent era of Sydney in the ’70s and ’80s, capturing personalities such as Brett Whiteley, Patrick White, Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee.

·         In collaboration with Vivid LIVE, SFF will screen The Sunnyboy, which follows Australian musician Jeremy Oxley’s 30-year struggle with schizophrenia as he faces up to returning to the stage with his band The Sunnyboys. The screening concludes with the band playing a live gig in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

·         Award-winning Australian photographer Murray Frederick’s (Salt) journey to capture some of the most elusive and beautiful sights of Greenland’s icecaps will captivate you in Nothing on Earth.  

·         Renowned filmmaker and artist George Gittoes is at the centre of Love City Jalalabad, which charts his journey against all odds to create an artists’ collective in western Afghanistan, and to produce films there for the local community with an international cast and crew.

·         Big Name No Blanket examines the legacy of Indigenous Australian music legend George Rrurrambu Burarrawanga – the frontman of the groundbreaking Warumpi Band.

·         The Unlikely Pilgrims, directed by Kristen Mallyon and John Cherry, follows a group of recovering addicts and a drug counsellor from a New South Wales rehab centre along their journey on the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrims’ trail through northern Spain.

·         The Crossing, directed by Julian Harvey, follows two young Australians, Clark Carter and Chris Bray, as they attempt the difficult crossing of a remote island in the Arctic.

 

·         Buckskin is directed by Indigenous filmmaker Dylan McDonald. It follows Jack Buckskin’s mission to renew a once-extinct language and inspire a new generation to connect with the land and culture of his ancestors.

The digital restoration of the groundbreaking 1981 film Wrong Side of the Road, directed by Ned Lander, is based on the real lives of seminal Australian bands Us Mob and No Fixed Address, and is presented in partnership with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. It returns an important story to our cultural history – looking and sounding even better than it did when it was released 30 years ago.

Festival Highlights:

On the Public Holiday Monday, 13 June, families and children will enjoy Disney•Pixar’s Monsters University, welcoming Mike and Sulley back to the big screen to find out how the monster pals from the Oscar®-winning Monsters, Inc. met and became friends.

SFF is delighted to present the Australian Premiere of Before Midnight, the latest instalment of director Richard Linklater’s (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock) popular, romantic films that began with Before Sunrise (1995) and then Before Sunset (2004), all starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. This is the first time all three films will be screened together in Australia.

This year’s national highlight is entitled Focus on Austria, featuring the award-winning Paradise trilogy by acclaimed director Ulrich Seidl, who achieved the rare feat of playing in competition at the three major festivals in 2012/2013 – Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

The Box Set brings the latest and best cinematic television productions from around the world. The HBO Europe historical-drama TV series Burning Bush, based on real events and directed by world-renowned Polish filmmaker, Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, A Lonely Woman, Angry Harvest, The Wire) is a highlight. Also presented in this section is the gripping Japanese drama series Penance directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Bright Future, Tokyo Sonata).

Continuing SFF’s commitment to presenting the best work by Indigenous filmmakers, SFF has partnered with Screen Australia’s Indigenous department to present Screen: Black, showcasing the latest from across Australia: Mystery Road (opening night), Buckskin (Foxtel), Big Name No Blanket (Foxtel) and The Chuck In (Short Films).

SFF will be screening nine films direct from the 2013 Cannes Official Selection, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week, including: Only God Forgives, a Bangkok-set crime thriller and the latest from director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, 2009 Sydney Film Prize winner Bronson), starring Ryan Gosling and Kristen Scott-Thomas; the wickedly funny and strange Dutch film Borgman, directed by Alex Van Warmerdam; Grigris from the great African filmmaker (and SFF 2012 jury member) Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (A Screaming Man); the French drama The Past, from acclaimed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (whose A Separation won the 2011 Sydney Film Prize and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012); the gripping Indian thriller Monsoon Shootout, directed by Amit Kumar; and one of the scariest films of the year We Are What We Are directed by acclaimed genre filmmaker Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street; Stake Land, SFF 2011). The Scottish drama For Those in Peril, directed by Paul Wright, will screen at Critics’ Week and then in SFF’s Official Competition. Two short films in the Cannes Competition will also screen at SFF: Whale Valley, directed by Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson; and the Australian-Indian co-production Tau Seru, directed by Rodd Rathjen. 

And now for the 2013 SFF Program:

Opening Night

The star-studded Opening Night Gala will be made even more special by the World Premiere of the Australian film Mystery Road. Directed by AFI award-winning director Ivan Sen (Beneath Clouds, Toomelah) this gripping murder mystery stars Aaron Pedersen, Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson, Ryan Kwanten, Damian Walshe-Howling, Tasma Walton, Zoe Carides, and Samara Weaving. The festival opens at the State Theatre on Wednesday 5 June at 7:30pm, followed by an afterparty at Bungalow 8 in Darling Harbour. Opening Night is presented by Audi.

Closing Night:

The Australian Premiere of the documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom, directed by award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville and featuring Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Sting, Claudia Lennear and Tata Vega, screens at the State Theatre on Sunday 16 June at 8pm. Closing Night also includes the announcements of all the SFF awards for 2013, including the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize (see below).

Official Competition

SFF is delighted to announce Hugo Weaving will be the 2013 Jury President for the FIAPF-accredited SFF Official Competition.

The internationally recognised SFF Official Competition, now in its sixth year, awards a $60,000 cash prize, Australia’s richest cash award for film, in recognition of courageous, audacious and cutting-edge cinema.
The previous Sydney Film Prize winners are: Alps (2012); A Separation (2011), which went on to win an Academy Award®; Heartbeats (2010); Bronson (2009); and Hunger (2008).

This year’s Official Competition titles are:

The Act of Killing (Australian Premiere) | Denmark-Norway-UK | Director: Joshua Oppenheimer | Co-directors: Christine Cynn, Anonymous

Borgman (Australian Premiere) | Netherlands| Director: Alex van Warmerdam | Cast: Jan Bijvoet, Hadewich Minis, Jeroen Perceval

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Australian Premiere) | Belgium, Netherlands | Director: Felix van Groeningen | Cast: Veerle Baetens, Johan Heldenbergh, Nell Cattrysse

Child’s Pose (Australian Premiere) | Romania | Director: Călin Peter Netzer | Cast: Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Nataşa Raab

For Those in Peril (Australian Premiere) | UK | Director: Paul Wright | Cast: Kate Dickie, Michael Smiley, Nichola Burley

Grigris (Australian Premiere) | France| Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | Cast: Souléymane Démé, Anaïs Monory, Cyril Guei

Monsoon Shootout (Australian Premiere) | India | Director: Amit Kumar | Cast: Neeraj Kabi, Vijay Verma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tannishtha Chatterjee

Oh Boy (Australian Premiere) | German| Director: Jan Ole Gerster | Cast: Tom Schilling, Friederike Kempter, Marc Hosemann           

Only God Forgives (Australian Premiere) |France, Denmark| Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Yayaying Rhatha Phongam

The Rocket (Australian Premiere)| Australia | Director: Kim Mordaunt | Cast: Sitthiphon Disamoe, Loungnam Kaosainam, Thep Po-ngam

Stories We Tell (Australian Premiere) | Canada | Director: Sarah Polley
Wadjda (Australian Premiere) | Saudi Arabia-Germany |Director: Haifaa Al Mansour| Cast: Reem Abdullah, Waad Mohammed, Abdullrahman Al Gohani

Confirmed guests for the Official Competition include:

Saudi Arabia’s first woman filmmaker, director Haifaa Al Mansour (a University of Sydney graduate) will be in Sydney to present the Australian Premiere of Wadjda, the first-ever feature film shot in her country. Winner of the Best Arab Feature Film at the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival, this is Al Mansour’s debut feature film.

Award-winning Romanian director Călin Peter Netzer will be in Sydney to present the Australian Premiere of Child’s Pose. This the third feature from Netzer, an influential filmmaker in Romanian New Wave cinema. Child’s Pose won the Golden Bear at the 2013 Berlinale.

Canadian actor and director Sarah Polley will present her first feature-length documentary at the Australian premiere of Stories We Tell. Polley made her feature-directorial debut in 2006 with Away from Her, for which she won a Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction, followed up her second feature film Take This Waltz.

Director Joshua Oppenheimer and producer Signe Byrge Sørensen will be here to introduce the Australian Premiere of The Act of Killing, winner of the Documentary Audience Award at the 2013 Berlinale. Oppenheimer’s films are known to push the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Influenced by the experimental montage of his mentor, Dusan Makavejev, his first feature film The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1997) won a Gold Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival (1998). Sørensen also produced the documentaries The Human Scale and TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard, both of which screen at the festival this year.

Australian director Kim Mordaunt and producer Sylvia Wilczynski will attend the Australian Premiere of their award-winning Australian film The Rocket. This charming film just screened at Tribeca, where it won the Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor prizes; and was earlier awarded three prizes at the 2013 Berlinale, including the Crystal Bear. Mordaunt and Wilczynski’s feature-length documentary Bomb Harvest (which world premiered at SFF 2007) was nominated for best documentary in the IF Awards, ATOM Awards and Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards; was nominated for Best Director at the ADG Awards; was nominated for Best Cinematography at the AFI Awards; and won Best Feature – Children’s Rights at Hollywood’s Activist Awards.

German director, Jan Ole Gerster will be here to present his hit Oh Boy. This black-and-white comedy, Jan’s feature-film debut, won most of the major prizes at the German Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Tom Schilling), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Gwisdek) and Best Score; and won Best Feature Film Debut at the 2013 German Film Critics Association awards. Gerster started as a production assistant on the box office hit Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), the comedy about German reunification directed by Wolfgang Becker, and studied directing and screenwriting at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin.

Indian Director Amit Kumar will attend the Australian Premiere of his feature-film debut Monsoon Shootout, direct from Cannes. His student films, including Judgment Day and The Bypass, screened at festivals including Edinburgh and Cannes and won him a number of international awards and artists residencies. He worked as an associate director with BAFTA-winning UK director Asif Kapadia on The Warrior, and Oscar-winning German director Florian Gallenberger on Shadows of Time.

Director Paul Wright will attend the Australian Premiere of his first feature film For Those in Peril, direct from Cannes. Wright studied film at the RSAMD in Glasgow, where he made his first short Hikikomori (2007), which won the Scottish BAFTA for Best New Work and the Best Drama Award at the Royal Television Society awards. In the same year he made Believe, which won the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film at Locarno as well as major awards at Winterthur and Leeds International Film Festival. His next short, Photos of God, was selected for the 2010 Berlinale. Paul’s graduation film, Until the River Runs Red, won the BAFTA for Best Short Fiction Film in 2011.

Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize

Now in its fifth year at SFF, the Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize winner will be awarded a generous cash prize of $10,000, sponsored by Foxtel, and announced at the SFF Closing Night ceremony on Sunday 16 June.

The 10 Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize Finalists for 2013 are:

Audrey of the Alps | Director: Grace McKenzie
Big Name No Blanket (World Premiere) | Director: Steven McGregor
Buckskin (World Premiere) | Director: Dylan McDonald

The Crossing (World Premiere) | Director: Julian Harvey

Love City Jalalabad (World Premiere) | Director: George Gittoes
Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls (Australian Premiere)| Director: Juliet Lamont

Nothing on Earth (World Premiere) | Director: Michael Angus

Red Obsession (Australian Premiere) | Directors: David Roach and Warwick Ross

The Sunnyboy (World Premiere) | Director: Kaye Harrison
The Unlikely Pilgrims (World Premiere) | Directors: Kirsten Mallyon and John Cherry

The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films

The Dendy Awards celebrate the vibrancy of the short form and the talent of Australian short-film creatives. Sponsored by Dendy Cinemas for 25 years, these awards have launched the careers of many of Australia’s most respected filmmakers. The 10 films are competing for three prizes: the Dendy Live Action Short Award, the Yoram Gross Animation Award and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director. The finalists in this year’s awards will screen together in one session on Saturday 15 June at 4pm and Sunday 16 June at 11am at Event Cinemas George Street.

The 10 finalists for the SFF 2012 Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films are:

All God’s Creatures (World Premiere) | Director: Brendon McDonall

A Cautionary Tail (Sydney Premiere) |Director: Simon Rippingale
Butterflies (Sydney Premiere) | Director: Isabel Peppard
Heaven (World Premiere) | Director: Maziar Lahooti
I Have Your Heart (World Premiere) | Director: Jim Batt

The Last Time I Saw Richard (World Premiere) | Director: Nicholas Verso

Ngurrumbang (World Premiere) | Director: Alex Ryan
Perception (World Premiere) | Director: Miranda Nation
Ravage (World Premiere) | Director: Jaime Lewis
Record (Sydney Premiere) | Director: David Lyons

2013 Foxtel Movie Channels Audience Award
The Foxtel Movie Channels Audience Award is the People’s Choice Awards and the winners reflect the most popular feature-length films at the Festival. After each screening, the audience is invited to rate the film they’ve just seen via the SFF2013 App or SMS. Two audience awards are presented: one to the best narrative feature, and one to the best documentary.

Special Presentations at the State

From award winners to films gathering a global buzz, Special Presentations at the State are highlights of the SFF 2013 evening program.

The SFF 2013 Special Presentations are:

Blancanieves | Spain | Director: Pablo Berger | Cast: Maribel Verdú, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Ángela Molina

Before Midnight | USA | Director: Richard Linklater | Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick

Frances Ha | USA | Director: Noah Baumbach | Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver

Gloria | Chile | Director: Sebastian Lelio | Cast: Paulina García, Sergio Hernández, Diego Fontecilla

The Look of Love | Australia | Director: Michael Winterbottom| Cast: Steve Coogan, Ana Friel, Imogen Poots

Lovelace | USA | Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman| Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, Sharon Stone

Mood Indigo | France-Belgium | Director: Michel Gondry | Cast: Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh

The Past | France | Director: Asghar Farhadi | Cast: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa
Prince Avalanche | USA | Director: David Gordon Green  | Cast: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch

Stoker | UK/USA| Director: Park Chan-wook | Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Mathew Goode, Dermot Mulroney, Jacki Weaver, Nicole Kidman  

The Way, Way Back | USA | Directors: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash | Cast: Liam James, Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Steve Carell

Before Trilogy:

With Before Midnight, Richard Linklater finishes a memorable conversation begun nearly 20 years ago, a dialogue across cultures, values and gender. Sydney Film Festival offers audiences the chance to view the first two films, Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) at the Art Gallery of NSW before the Australian Premiere of Before Midnight at 9:30pm on Sunday 8 June at the State Theatre on Market Street.

Before Sunrise | USA | Director: Richard Linklater | Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Andrea Eckert

Before Sunset | USA | Director: Richard Linklater | Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff

Before Midnight | USA | Director: Richard Linklater | Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick

Features

There are 39 features in the 2013 Sydney Film Festival Program. This selection brings together the best examples of this artform, showcasing prize-winners from the world’s most prestigious festivals alongside new works that deserve to be better known.

The SFF 2013 Features are:

The Attack | Lebanon-France-Qatar-Belgium | Director: Ziad Doueiri | Cast: Ali Suliman, Reymond Amsallem, Evgenia Dodena
Betrayal | Russia | Director: Kirill Serebrennikov| Cast: Franziska Petri, Dejan Lilic, Albina Dzhanabaeva

Beyond The Hills | Romania-France-Belgium | Director: Cristian Mungiu | Cast:  Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andruita
Breathe In | USA | Director: Drake Doremus | Cast: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan
Camille Claudel 1915 | France | Director: Bruno Dumont  | Cast: Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent
Closed Curtain | Iran | Directors: Jafar Panahi, Kamboziya Partovi | Cast: Kamboziya Partovi, Maryam Moqadam, Jafar Panahi
Computer Chess | USA | Director: Andrew Bujalski | Cast: Patrick Riester, Wylie Wiggins, Myles Paige,
The East | UK-USA | Director: Zal Batmanglij | Cast: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Jason Ritter

Eat Sleep Die | Sweden | Director: Gabriela Pichler | Cast: Nermina Lukač, Milan Dragišić, Jonathan Lampinen
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker| Bosnia-Herzegovina | Director: Danis Tanović | Cast: Senada Alimanović, Nazif Mujić, Sandra Mujić

Everyday | UK | Director: Michael Winterbottom | Cast: Shirley Henderson, John Simm, Shaun Kirk, Katrina Kirk, Stephanie Kirk, Robert Kirk

A Few Hours of Spring | France | Director: Stéphanie Brizé | Cast:  Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier

Ginger and Rosa | UK | Director: Sally Potter |Cast: Alice Englert, Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, Jodhi May, Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Annette Bening
A Hijacking| Denmark | Director: Tobias Lindholm | Cast:  Søren Malling, Pilou Asbæk, Dar Salim

The Iceman | USA | Director: Ariel Vromen| Cast: Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, Winona Ryder, David Schwimmer, James Franco

In Bloom |Georgia-Germany-France | Directors:  Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Gross | Cast: Lika Babluani, Mariam Bokeria, Zurab Gogaladze
It’s About to Rain| Iraq-Italy-Kuwait-UAE | Director: Haider Rashid | Cast: Lorenzo Baglioni, Mohamed Hanifi, Giulia Rupi

It’s All So Quiet | Netherlands, Germany | Director: Nanouk Leopold | Cast: Jeroen Willems, Henri Garcin, Wim Opbrouck

The Land of Hope | Japan | Director: Sion Sono | Cast: Isao Natsuyagi, Naoko Otani, Jun Murakami

Lasting | Poland-Spain | Director: Jacek Borcuch | Cast: Jakub Gierszal, Magdalena Berus, Ángela Molina
Layla Fourie | South Africa-Germany, France, Netherlands | Director: Pia Marais | Cast: Rayna Campbell, August Diehl, Rapule Hendricks

Longing for the Rain | Hong Kong-China | Director: Yang Lina | Cast: Zhao Siyuan, Fu Jia, Dej Pongpazroj
Midnight’s Children | Canada | Director: Deepa Mehta | Cast: Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor

Nerve (World Premiere) | Australia | Director: Sebastien Guy | Cast: Christian Clark, Georgina Haig, Craig Hall, Gary Sweet, Andrea Demetriades, Cameron Daddo
Outrage Beyond | Japan | Director: Takeshi Kitano | Cast: Beat Takeshi, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tomokazu Miura
The Patience Stone | France | Director: Atiq Rahimi | Cast: Golshifteh Farahani, Massi Mowrat, Hamid Djavadan

Pieta | South Korea | Director: Kim Ki-duk | Cast: Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin

Pluto | South Korea | Director: Su-won Shin | Cast: David Lee, Sung June, Cho Sung-ha

Ship of Theseus |India | Director: Anand Gandhi | Cast: Aida El Kashef, Neeraj Kabi, Sohum Shah

Shopping |New Zealand| Directors: Mark Albiston, Louis Sutherland | Cast: Kevin Paulo, Julian Dennison, Jacek Koman

Television | Bangladesh | Director: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki| Cast: Chanchal Chowdhury, Shahir Kazi Huda, Mosharraf Karim
Tenderness | France, Beligum, Germany | Director: Marion Hansel | Cast: Olivier Gourmet, Marilyne Canto, Adrien Jolivet

Thanks for Sharing | USA | Director: Stuart Blumberg | Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Pink                                                                                                                                              

Touch of the Light | Taiwan-Hong Kong-China | Director: Chang Jung-chi | Cast: Huang Yu-siang, Lee Lieh, Hsieh Kan-chun
Upstream Color | USA |Directors: Shane Carruth | Cast: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig  

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear | Canada | Director: Denis Côté | Cast: Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marc-André Grondin
What Maisie Knew | USA  |Directors: Scott McGehee and David Siegel | Cast: Onata Aprile, Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Steve Coogan
What Richard Did | Ireland | Director: Lenny Abrahamson | Cast: Jack Reynor, Roisin Murphy, Sam Keeley
White Elephant | Argentina-Spain-France | Director: Pablo Trapero | Cast: Ricardo Darín, Jérémie Renier, Martina Gusman

Sounds on Screen

This year’s selection includes: BAFTA-winning director film Shane Meadows’ (This Is England, Dead Man's Shoes) highly anticipated film The Stone Roses: Made of Stone, about the legendary ’90s Manchester band; the first SFF film from Angola, tracing the hardcore scene in this troubled country, Death Metal Angola; while Becoming Traviata gives an insight into creative process of staging Verdi’s masterwork at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, and featuring opera star Natalie Dessay.  

Chris Strachwitz is the guiding force behind Arhoolie Records, on a quest to find the deep roots of American popular music, in This Ain't No Mouse Music. Muscle Shoals (winner of the Audience Award at Hot Docs) pays homage to a small-town studio in Alabama which, since the 1950s, has been the scene for the recording of some of the greatest musical hits and of all time. A hilarious documentary, Mistaken for Strangers, chronicling life on the road with indie band The National, will surprise and delight. The feature Greetings from Tim Buckley follows the journey of the ’60s singer/songwriter’s equally iconic son Jeff as he grapples with his father’s legacy, culminating in his legendary 1991 performance of the elder Buckley’s songs.

The full SFF 2013 Sounds On Screen program:
Becoming Traviata | France | Director: Philippe Beziat
Death Metal Angola |USA-Angola | Director: Jeremy Xido
Greetings from Tim Buckley | USA  | Director: Daniel Algrant

Mistaken For Strangers |USA | Director: Tom Berninger
Muscle Shoals |USA | Director: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier
The Stone Roses: Made of Stone |UK | Director: Shane Meadows

This Ain’t No Mouse Music |USA | Directors: Chris Simon & Maureen Gosling

International Documentaries

Documentaries continue to increase in popularity all around the world each year. This selection is an excellent survey of the best examples of the factual-film form being created internationally.

Here is the full list of the 32 International Documentaries:

Algorithms | India | Director: Ian McDonald
Approved for Adoption | Belgium-France-South Korea-Switzerland | Director: Laurent Boileau, Jung
Blackfish | USA | Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Char…The No Man’s Land | India-Japan-Italy-Denmark-Norway | Director: Sourav Sarangi
The Crash Reel | USA | Director: Lucy Walker

Cutie and the Boxer | USA | Director: Zachary Heinzerling
Dancing in Jaffa | USA | Director: Hilla Medalia

Dirty Wars | USA | Director: Richard Rowley
Downloaded | USA | Director: Alex Winter

Dragon Girls | Germany-China | Director: Inigo Westmeier

Exposed | USA | Director: Beth B
F*ck For Forest | Poland, Germany | Director: Michal Marczak

Fallen City | China | Director: Zhao Qi

Fatal Assistance | France-Haiti-USA-Belgium | Director: Raoul Peck
The Human Scale | Denmark | Director: Andreas Dalsgaard

I Am Divine | USA | Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Kink | USA | Director: Christina Voros
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear | Georgia-Germany | Director: Tinatin Gurchiani

La Maison de la Radio | France, Japan | Director: Nicholas Philibert

The Moo Man | UK, Germany | Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier

Narco Cultura | USA | Director: Shaul Schwarz
The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology | UK-Ireland | Director: Sophie Fiennes

Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer | Russian Federation-UK | Directors: Mike Learner, Maxim Pozdorovkin

A River Changes Course | USA, Cambodia | Director: Kalyanee Mam
Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s | USA | Director: Mathew Miele
The Search for Emak Bakia | Spain | Director: Oskar Alegria
The Spirit of ’45 | UK | Director: Ken Loach
The Summit | Ireland-UK-Switzerland | Director: Nick Ryan

We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks | USA | Director: Alex Gibney
Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington | USA | Director: Sebastian Junger
William and the Windmill | USA-Malawi-South Africa | Director: Ben Nabors
William Yang: My Generation | Australia | Director: Martin Fox

Retrospective

The SFF 2013 Retrospective includes a restored Australian classic, an iconic Hitchcock thriller and a specially curated program of British noir.

Rear Window | 1954 | USA | Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wrong Side of the Road | 1981 | Australia | Director: Ned Lander

Brit Noir: Rainy Sundays, Stormy Mondays

Presented in collaboration with the National Film and Sound Archives of Australia, this collection rewrites the rulebook of British cinema history. There are also many fascinating Australian connections to be unearthed from this subterranean collection. A slow-burning social revolt against the conservative routines of the British way of life, these gritty, dark and compelling films are a very different kind of noir, featuring famous faces like Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough and Diana Dors playing completely against type. The results are shocking, engrossing and totally unexpected. 

Here is the full list of Brit Noir films:

Brighton Rock (screens with the short Sunday by the Sea)

Brighton Rock | Director: John Boulting | Cast: Richard Attenborough, Hermoine Baddeley, William Hartnell

Sunday by the Sea | Director: Anthony Simmons | Screenwriter: Anthony Simmons | Producer: Leon Clore

Daybreak (screens with the short Cine Gazette no. 12: The Elephant Will Never Forget)

Daybreak | Director: Compton Bennett | Cast: Ann Todd, Eric Portman, Maxwell Reed

Cine Gazette no. 12: The Elephant Will Never Forget | Director, Screenwriter: John Krish | Producer: Edgar Anstey | Cast: Brewster Mason

Hell Drivers (screens with the short Pedestrian Crossing)

Hell Drivers| Director: Cy Endfield | Cast: Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins

Pedestrian Crossing| Director: Michael Law | Producer: Richard Massingham | Cast: Richard Massingham

Hell Is a City (screens with the short Tomorrow’s Saturday)

Hell is a City | Director, Screenwriter: Val Guest | Cast: Stanley Baker, John Crowford, Donald Pleasence Tomorrow's Saturday | Director: Michael Grigsby

It Always Rains on Sunday (screens with the shorts What A Life! and The People at No. 19)

It Always Rains on Sunday | Director: Robert Hamer | Producer: Michael Balcon | Cast: Googie Withers, Jack Warner, John McCallum

What A Life! | Director: Michael Law | Cast: Michael Law, Russell Waters

The People at No. 19 | Director: J. B. Holmes | Cast: Tilsa Page, Desmond Carrington, Margery Fleeson

Never Let Go (screens with the short Coughs and Sneezes)

Never Let Go |Director: John Guillermin| Cast: Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Sellars

Coughs and Sneezes | Director: Richard Massingham | Cast: Richard Massingham

Noose (screens with the short The Dark Stairway)

Noose |Director: Edmond T. Gréville | Cast: Carole Landis, Derek Farr, Joseph Calleia

The Dark Stairway | Director, Screenwriter: Ken Hughes | Cast: Edgar Lustgarten, Russell Napier, Vincent Ball

Odd Man Out | Director, Producer: Carol Reed| Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack

Robbery (screens with the short A Warning to Travellers)

Robbery Director: Peter Yates | Cast: Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, James Booth

A Warning to Travellers| Director: John Waterhouse | Cast: Richard Massingham

The Siege of Pinchgut | Director: Harry Watt | Cast: Aldo Ray, Heather Sears, Neil McCallum

They Made Me A Fugitive | Director: Alberto Cavalcanti | Cast: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Griffith Jones

Time without Pity (screens with the short Watch Your Meters)

Time without Pity | Director: Joseph Losey | Cast: Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, Leo McKern, Peter Cushing

Watch Your Meters | TBC

Yield to the Night (screens with the short Nice Time)

Yield to the Night | Director: J. Lee Thompson | Cast: Diana Dors, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig

Nice Time | Director: AlaIn Tanner and Claude Goretta

Focus on Austria

It has been a big year for Austrian film. Michael Haneke’s Amour (SFF 2012) won both the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film. Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy achieved the rare feat of playing in competition at the three major festivals: Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Through this Focus on Austria, we pay tribute to these masters and their colleagues, their films and their methods, to the beautiful city of Vienna, and to the next generation of filmmakers.

The titles in Focus on Austria are:

Michael H: Profession Director | Austria-France | Director: Yves Montmayeur
Museum Hours | Austria-USA | Director: Jem Cohen

Soldate Jeannette | USA | Director: Daniel Hoesl

Paradise Trilogy:

Paradise Faith | Austria-Germany-France | Director: Ulrich Seidl

Paradise: Hope | Austria-Germany-France | Director: Ulrich Seidl
Paradise: Love | Austria-Germany-France | Director: Ulrich Seidl

Freak Me Out

Selected by Guest Programmer Richard Kuipers, and now in its sixth year at SFF, Freak Me Out showcases Cheap Thrills, the winner of the Audience Award at the SXSW;Comrade Kim Goes Flying, the first North Korean movie ever to screen at SFF; Frankenstein’s Army, a gruesomely comic found-footage mockumentary about a crazed Nazi scientist and his half-human killing machines; You're Next, one of the most terrifying films of the year and winner of SCI FI Jury Award at the Gérardmer Film Festival 2012; the bizarre American road movie The Rambler; and We Are What We Are (selected for Cannes), a slow-burn study of a strange backwoods family directed by acclaimed genre filmmaker Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street and Stake Land), which was reviewed by Indiewire as ‘poetic, creepy and satisfyingly gross.’

The Freak Me Out films are:

Cheap Thrills | USA | Director: E. L. Katz

Comrade Kim Goes Flying | Belgium-UK-North-Korea | Directors: Nicholas Bonner, Kim Gwang Hun and Anja Daelemans
Frankenstein’s Army | Netherlands-USA |Director: Richard Raaphorst
The Rambler | USA | Director: Calvin Lee Reeder

We Are What We Are | USA | Director: Jim Mickle
You’re Next | USA | Director: Adam Wingard

The Box Set

SFF audiences have the real treat of watching two of the world’s greatest TV productions in the cinema. These works have brought feature-film production values and screenplays into the home. Now their true qualities are revealed on the big screen for the first time.

The Box Set features:

Burning Bush (Czech Republic, HBO Europe) | Director: Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, A Lonely Woman, Angry Harvest, The Wire)

Penance (Japan) | Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Bright Future, Tokyo Sonata)

Short Films

The 60^th Sydney Film Festival presents the following shorts: The Amber Amulet (Director: Matthew Moore; Australia), Captive Radio (Director: Lauren Rosenfield; USA-Colombia), Children Playing (Director: Kai Raisbeck; Australia), The Chuck In (Director: Jon Bell; Australia), Crooked Lines (Director: Lucy Walker; USA), December 25 (Director: Went Dent; Australia), Ellen is Leaving (Director: Michelle Savill; New Zealand), Fighting Spirit (Director: Linda Hambäck; Sweden), Home (Director: Thomas Gleeson; New Zealand), Irish Folk Furniture (Director: Tony Donoghue; Ireland), km (Director: Christos Nikou; Greece), La Pionnière (Director: Daniela Abke; Germany), Notes on Blindness: Rainfall (Directors: James Spinney, Peter Middleton; UK – prizewinner at Hot Docs), Out of Frame (Director:  Yorgos Zois; Greece), Pablo’s Villa (Director: Matthew Salleh; Australia), Paper Run (Director: Malcolm Otton, Australia; 1956). Recollections (Director: Nathanael Carton; Japan), Tau Seru, (Director: Rodd Rathjen; India, Australia – selected for Cannes), The Village (Director: Liliana Sulzbach; Brazil), Whale Valley (Director: Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson; Denmark-Iceland – selected for Cannes).

Talks Program:

Meet the Filmmakers: SFF Talks at the Apple Store

To celebrate the 2013 Sydney Film Festival and the spirit of filmmaking, the Apple Store once again hosts its free Meet the Filmmakers series, where you can hear esteemed writers, directors, producers and actors discuss their latest project and answer your questions.

Haifaa Al Mansour (Wadjda)
Saturday 8 June, 2-3pm
Pioneering Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour returns to Sydney, where she earned a Masters in Film Studies at the University of Sydney, to talk about her debut feature Wadjda, the first feature shot entirely in her country. The film screens in SFF’s Official Competition. This talk will be hosted by Dr Richard Smith, Director of Film Studies at the University of Sydney.

Ivan Sen and David Jowsey (Mystery Road)

Sunday, 9 June, 12-1pm

On the vanguard of Australian filmmaking since his acclaimed debut feature Beneath Clouds, Ivan Sen is no stranger to the festival; his previous film Toomelah screened in SFF’s 2011 Official Competition. His highly anticipated Mystery Road is SFF’s Opening Night film this year. In this session Sen, together with producer David Jowsey, will discuss the making of Mystery Road, which he directed, wrote, shot, edited and scored. The talk will hosted by Sydney Morning Herald film writer Garry Maddox.

Kim Mordaunt and Sylvia Wilczynski (The Rocket)

Sunday 9 June, 2-3pm
The Australian filmmaking duo of writer-director Kim Mordaunt and producer Sylvia Wilczynski (Bomb Harvest) discuss their Lao-language debut feature The Rocket, which won the Crystal Bear and Best First Feature at the Berlinale and the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor at Tribeca. The film’s Australian Premiere will be at SFF. The talk will hosted by Sydney Morning Herald film writer Garry Maddox.

Sarah Polley (Stories We Tell)

Saturday 15 June, 2:30-3:15pm
Oscar nominated actor-director Sarah Polley (Away from Her, Take This Waltz) discusses her highly personal first venture into documentary, the award-winning Stories We Tell. The film screens in SFF’s Official Competition.  The talk will be hosted by Margaret Pomeranz from ABC’s At the Movies.

Visit sff.org.au or http:/apple.com/au/sydney for more information on Meet the Filmmaker events and session times.

Vivid Ideas also hosts free creative industry talks at the Apple Store. Visit vividsydney.com/ideas or http:/apple.com/au/sydney for more information.

Festival Hub at Lower Town Hall

The 60^th Sydney Film Festival presents the Sydney Film Festival Hub at Lower Town Hall, offering the public a free venue to relax and mingle before or after screenings, see local and international acts, hear filmmaker talks and grab a drink at the Keystone Bar. The Festival Hub will be the only place where $10 discount tickets for select next day screenings will be available. 

Awarding winning Luxembourgian artist and music-video director Jeff Desom will open the Festival Hub with a free video projection exhibition Rear Window Loop, celebrating Alfred Hitchcock’s 60-year-old masterpiece Rear Window. In a stunning 20-minute panoramic three-channel video projection audiences, can see the view out the rear window of the central character’s (James Stewart’s) New York apartment and experience the intrigue and mystery of this classic film. Hear about Desom’s inspiration for creating this work and his successful background in music-video directing on Sunday 9 June from 6-7pm.

The full up-to-date schedule of events at Festival Hub is now available as a PDF or at www.sff.org.au   

Hub Expert Talks: SFF Talks Festival Hub at Lower Town Hall

TALK: Friday on My Mind, Hosted by AFTRS

Friday 7 June, 6-7:30pm

AFTRS brings its popular Friday on My Mind conversation to the Hub, in which acclaimed filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing) discusses his work with Radio National’s Jason Di Rosso.

TALK: Short Cuts 1: Quick Talks by Film Addicts

Friday 7 June, 8-10pm

A series of five engaging and quirky 15-minute talks by obsessive film buffs, curated by The Yeah Sessions. Topics include ‘Re-Queering Australian Cinema’ and ‘A Vodka Martini... or a Heineken? The Glorious Role of Product Placement in Films’.

WORKSHOP: Basement Sound Studio: Live Foley Demo

Saturday 8 June, 3:30-5pm

Local legend Les Fiddess, the man behind the sound effects for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Samson and Delilah, creates live sound effects for cult films in this entertaining hands-on workshop.

WORKSHOP: Show and Tell: Hack Your Smartphone Camera!

Saturday 8 June, 5-6:30pm

Meet and learn from geeks and DIY artists who’ve made surprising use of their smartphone cameras to create innovative and striking work, in partnership with Lomography Australia and Kino Sydney.

TALK: Download This Show: Cinema in the Year 2074

Saturday 8 June, 6:30-8pm

Radio National host Marc Fennell brings cinema kicking and screaming 60 years into the future. Do cinemas still exist? Are all screens holographic? Find out in this mind-expanding panel.

TALK: Julie and the Directors

Sunday 9 June, 12:30-2:30pm

In celebration of SFF’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julie Rigg moderates a panel of Sydney Film Festival programmers past and present, from David Donaldson (1954-57) to David Stratton (1966-1983) to Nashen Moodley (2012 to now). It’s an insightful look at six decades of world-cinema trends, festival challenges and juicy celebrity anecdotes.

TALK: 2SER IN CONVERSATION WITH JEFF DESOM

Sunday 9 June, 6-7pm

Paris Pompor (Groovescooter) chats with European filmmaker and artist Jeff Desom (Rear Window Loop) about remixing Hitchcock, going viral and shooting music videos with zombie babies.

TALK: STILLS PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CONVERSATION: ROBERT MCFARLANE AND MARK ROGERS

Monday 10 June, 4-5pm

Two of Australia’s best still photographers share striking images and juicy anecdotes about their work on the sets of iconic homegrown films, from Heatwave (1982) to Wolf Creek 2 (2013). A co-presentation with Head On Photo Festival

TALK: SHORT CUTS 2: QUICK TALKS BY FILM EXPERTS

Monday 10 June, 6-7:30pm

A series of four entertaining and fascinating 15-minute talks by film experts and academics including Dr Jane Park on ‘Representing Race in Film’ and ‘Sex on Screen’ by Prof. Annamarie Jagose. The talks are curated and presented by the University of Sydney.

TALK: FIVE FILMS FOR AN ALIEN – HOSTED BY AFTRS

Tuesday 11 June, 6:30-8pm

If you had to tell the story of cinema to an alien visiting our planet, which five films would you choose? Acclaimed filmmakers and practitioners share their picks. Intergalactic peace hangs in the balance!

TALK: DIRECTOR IN CONVERSATION: CĂLIN PETER NETZER

Wednesday 12 June, 6:30-8pm

Călin Peter Netzer talks about his creative process and the challenges he overcame to make Berlinale Golden Bear-winner Child’s Pose. A co-presentation with the Australian Directors Guild.

TALK: CROWDFUND YOUR DREAMS

Thursday 13 June, 6:30-8pm

Screen-content creators including Kirsty Stark (web series Wastelander Panda), Craig Boreham (Teenage Kicks) and Jiao Chen (Ngurrumbang) share their successes and disasters crowdfunding their work online. Presented in association with Pozible.com.

SCREEN AUSTRALIA MASTERCLASSES

Screen Australia in partnership with SFF brings leading documentary filmmakers to Sydney for a series of intimate industry masterclasses at the Festival Hub. Participants include: Sarah Polley, Oscar-nominated director of Stories We Tell; Joshua Oppenheimer, director of The Act of Killing; and Danish filmmakers Signe Byrge Sørensen (The Act of Killing, The Human Scale) and Andreas Dalsgaard (The Human Scale). The talks are hosted by SBS’s Sandy George.

Special Events

Ian McPherson Memorial Lecture 2013

11AM MONDAY 10 JUNE, EVENT CINEMAS GEORGE STREET (EV3)

ABC-TV’s David Stratton brings his consummate interviewing skills to bear as host of a special discussion featuring a surprise guest! Stratton is a former director of Sydney Film Festival and is currently film critic for The Australian and host of ABC TV’s At the Movies. A recipient of the Australian Film Institute’s Raymond Longford Award, David has also served as a former President of the International Critics Jury for both the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals, authored three books and lectures in Film History at the University of Sydney. Stratton and co-host Margaret Pomeranz recently celebrated 25 years of their onscreen partnership on Australian TV.

Sydney Film Festival celebrates its 60th anniversary this 5-16 June bringing a packed program of screenings and special events to even more venues across Sydney. For tickets and full up-to-date program information please visit www.sff.org.au.

 

 ABOUT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

Sydney Film Festival screens feature films, documentaries, short films and animations across the city at the State Theatre, Event Cinemas George Street, Dendy Opera Quays, the Art Gallery of NSW, Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Cremorne, the Apple Store, Grasshopper Lounge and SFFTV@Martin Place.

The Festival is a major event on the New South Wales cultural calendar and is one of the world’s longest-running film festivals. For more information visit www.sff.org.au 

Sydney Film Festival also presents twelve films that vie for the ‘Official Competition’; a highly respected international honour that awards a $60,000 cash prize based on the decision of a jury of international and Australian filmmakers and industry professionals. Previous Sydney Film Festival Official Competition winners include: Alps (2012), A Separation (2011) – which went on to win an Academy Award®, Heartbeats (2010), Bronson (2009) and Hunger (2008).

The 60th Sydney Film Festival is supported by the NSW Government through Screen NSW, the Federal Government through Screen Australia, and the City of Sydney. The Festival’s Strategic partner is the NSW Government through Destination NSW.

What: Sydney Film Festival

When: 5-16 June, 2013

Tickets & Info: 1300 733 733 www.sff.org