The 68th Sydney Film Festival program (3-21 November) has been officially launched by Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley, becoming the first major festival to be held in Sydney’s CBD as restrictions are lifted for the city.
Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley said, “This year’s 68th Sydney Film Festival arrives at a historic and celebratory time for the city, as we come together again with people we have desperately missed, and in the places, we yearn to return to – cinemas!”
“With major disruptions in cinema releases, the Festival selection brings together some of the best films of the last two years; extraordinary works from major award-winners to some of the most anticipated films of the year.”
“The Festival opens with Here Out West, stories from eight talented Western Sydney writers, directed by five powerhouse women directors, and closes with Wes Anderson’s comedy-drama The French Dispatch.”
“From Venice Best Director prize-winner Jane Campion with The Power of the Dog, to Denis Villeneuve’s star-studded reimagining of Dune, to the incendiary shock of 2021 Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane, this year’s program has one of the most diverse and exciting line-ups in SFF history.”
“It is extremely unusual and fantastic to have in a single Festival program the works of so many of the great, distinctive filmmakers of our time: Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Jacques Audiard, Jane Campion, Mark Cousins, Ildikó Enyedi, Asghar Farhadi, Miguel Gomes, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Mia Hansen-Løve, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Oliver Hermanus, Heddy Honigman, Avi Mograbi, Jafar Panahi, Rachel Perkins, Christian Petzold, Mohammad Rasoulof, Paul Schrader, Céline Sciamma, Paolo Sorrentino, Denis Villeneuve, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Frederick Wiseman, Jasmila Žbanić, Zhang Yimou and many more.”
“Following close to two years of extremely challenging times for the film industry, SFF is proud to be able to bring these superb films to cinemas. To make the program as accessible as possible, the Festival will also present a bespoke program online through SFF On Demand from 12-21 November,” he said.
In 2021 the Festival will present 233 films from 69 countries, bringing together hundreds of international and local stories. There are 111 feature films, including prize-winners from prestigious festivals around the world; 50 documentaries tackling crucial contemporary issues from established and upcoming documentarians; and 72 shorts. Of these films almost half are directed or co-directed by woman filmmakers.
The Festival will also present SFF On Demand, a virtual offering of 56 feature-length films and 13 shorts from the wider program available to stream nationally from 12-21 November.
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