PREVIEW: 2024 SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

The 71st Sydney Film Festival program has launched with a blockbuster roster of talent and international titles - Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, starring Emma Stone, fresh from the Cannes Competition; the World Premiere of Aussie boxing drama Kid Snow; the first Indian film to appear in the Cannes Competition in 30 years, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light; Lee Tamahori’s intense drama The Convert with Guy Pearce; The Bikeriders (pictured, below) starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy; and, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Sujo.

In 2024, the Festival will present 197 films from 69 countries including 28 World Premieres and 133 Australian Premieres, bringing together hundreds of new international and local stories, with more to be announced. The program is made up of 92 narrative feature films, including prestigious international festival prize-winners and 54 documentaries tackling crucial contemporary issues, from established and upcoming documentarians.

Opening the festivities will be the World Premiere of Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line (pictured, right). Featuring unheard interviews with every band member, unseen live and studio footage, alongside signature moments like the outback tour with Warumpi Band, their Exxon protest gig in New York and those famous “Sorry” suits at the Sydney Olympics, this film traces the singular journey of Australia’s quintessential rock band across their 45-year career.

Direct from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival will be Grand Tour, the latest from Miguel Gomes, about a romantic pursuit across Asia; Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio, featuring an all-star French cast playing themselves in a meta comedy paying homage to the great Marcello Mastroianni; acclaimed actor Ariane Labed’s directorial debut September Says, a Gothic psychological drama in which the closeness of two sisters becomes increasingly disruptive; and Cannes Un Certain Regard contender Việt And Nam, which tells the love story of two gay mineworkers.

Internationally awarded films in competition include Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear honouree Dying, a multi-generational epic about a conductor and his turbulent family and Rich Peppiatt’s raucous and rude comedy Kneecap stars three real-life Belfast rappers, Audience Award winner in the Sundance NEXT strand.

Italian box office juggernaut There’s Still Tomorrow (trailer, above) is a melodrama directed and starring Paola Cortellesi about an industrious woman in post-WWII Rome. It screens in competition at SFF alongside Puan, an incisive comedy about a philosophy professor at a Buenos Aires university who is threatened by a charismatic rival.

Ten documentaries (including seven World Premieres) will contest the 2024 Documentary Australia Prize, amongst them Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie, an intimate portrait of artist Dale Frank; Aquarius, documenting a 1973 gathering embraced by activists, hippies, and radicals that changed the town of Nimbin forever; The Blind Sea (pictured, right), following professional athlete Matt Formston as he takes on the challenge of surfing the biggest wave ever tackled by a blind surfer; and, Sally Aitken’s Sundance Selected Every Little Thing, a story of a woman finding herself as she cares for injured hummingbirds.

Special Presentations at the iconic State Theatre include Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy in The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichols’ take on the rise and menacing transformation of an iconic American motorcycle club; Lee, featuring Oscar winner Kate Winslet alongside Alexander Skarsgård in the true story of model turned WWII correspondent Lee Miller; My Old Ass, a comedy-love story starring Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella, produced by Margot Robbie; and, Viggo Mortensen opposite Vicky Krieps in The Dead Don’t Hurt, a feminist western about a romance in a time of corruption and war.

Two presentations are set to leave audiences reeling with their visual inventiveness. Choi Dong-hoon's Alienoid (trailer, above) and its sequel Alienoid: Return to the Future are mind-bending sci-fi thrillers that masterfully intertwine the fates of alien prisoners trapped in human bodies with 15th-century magicians, brought to life by an all-star Korean cast. And Skywalkers: A Love Story follows two hardcore daredevils as they scale the world’s highest buildings to capture footage for social media and ignite passion in the process - which audiences can also experience at a stomach-dropping screening at IMAX.

Always a stand-out is the Freak Me Out Program, curated by Richard Kuipers, which returns with six features, six shorts and a special live event. These include Cuckoo (pictured, right), starring Hunter Schafer as a troubled teen working at a holiday resort where very strange goings-on start to take place; Annick Blanc’s debut, Hunting Daze (Jour de Chasse), a SXSW Midnighters hit centred on a woman stranded at a buck’s party in the Quebec wilderness; Yannis Veslemes’ She Loved Blossoms More, a Greek Weird Wave fever dream about time travel and family ties; and, Michael Duignan’s The Paragon, the story of a tennis coach who team up with a mysterious psychic tutor to seek revenge on a hit-and-run driver.

A special film and live music event not to be missed is Hear My Eyes: Hellraiser which will give audiences the opportunity to experience Clive Barker’s 1987 extra-dimensional horror classic, re-scored live by EBM explorers Hieroglyphic Being and Robin Fox, and a synched laser-art show at City Recital Hall.

Sydney Film Festival runs from 5-16 June 2024. Tickets and Flexipasses to Sydney Film Festival 2024 are on sale now. Please call 1300 733 733 or visit sff.org.au for more information or to book.

PREVIEW: 2024 SOUTH AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL

April marks 30 years since the first democratic election in South Africa when for the first time in the country’s history, all citizens could vote for their future. To mark this auspicious anniversary, the 2024 South African Film Festival will feature some of the nation's most iconic films from the past 30 years when it unfolds from May 2-30 for audiences in Australia and New Zealand.

These include the classic documentaries 1994: The Bloody Miracle, co-directors Bert Haitsma and Meg Rickards chilling account of a nation’s democracy under siege; and The 16th Man, the story of how South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup win galvanised and united the nation (pictured, top; Tumelo Lekena's Father's Day)

A highlight of this year’s festival is the 4K restoration of Oliver Schmitz’s masterpiece, Mapantsula (pictured, right), the gritty gangster film set against the backdrop of apartheid rebellion. Upon its release in 1987, the film was banned after just one screening for inciting violence, but would be honoured by a screening in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in 1988. Mapantsula is recognised as having a seminal influence on public opinion against apartheid.

Festival Co-Director Programming & Events, Ricky Human, said, “This year is truly special as we reflect on [this] anniversary of the first democratic elections in South Africa, and honour exceptional filmmakers like Oliver Schmitz, and heroic figures like George Bizos. We’re excited to be joined by George Bizos’ son, Alexi, and the Producer of the film, George Georgiou, who will be attending select screenings in Australia and New Zealand and participating in panel discussions.”

The South African Film Festival opens with John Barker’s The Umbrella Men, a rollicking crowdpleaser that follows  a ragtag bunch of musicians forced to rob a bank during the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival.

Feature documentaries include George Bizos Icon, a fascinating juxtaposition of the personal and political sides of the iconic anti-apartheid human rights lawyer; The Radical, an intimate portrait of the world’s first openly gay Imam from filmmaker Richard Finn Gregory; and, Gareth Whittaker’s Down: A Comrades Story, a chronicle of the pain and the glory that is the gruelling Comrades Ultra Marathon, a 90 km race between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

There are five exceptional feature films on offer, including Seconds, a gripping tale of crime, deceit, and betrayal set in the dark world of underground boxing; Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor (Hans Crosses the Rubicon; pictured, above), a light-hearted comedy that tackles the subject of aging and stars luminaries of South African screen and stage, including Tobie Cronje and Sandra Prinsloo; and, Soccer Season: Playmaker, starring the beloved entertainer Desmond Dube.

PREVIEW: 2024 ANTENNA DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

ANTENNA, Australia’s leading international non-fiction film festival, has unveiled the 52 creative, thought-provoking documentaries from around the globe that will screen over the course of 11 days, from 9–19 February 2024.

“I am very proud of this lineup as a whole,” said Festival Director Dudi Rokach. “Each documentary is imaginative, cinematic and provocative and I believe together they demonstrate the endless potential of documentary cinema in the hands of a great filmmaker”. 

Opening the festival is the Tribeca Film Festival winner The Gullspång Miracle (pictured, above), from director Maria Fredriksson. The stranger-than-fiction mystery-drama follows two pious sisters who buy an apartment after having witnessed a divine sign – only to realise that the seller looks identical to their other sister, who committed suicide some thirty years before.

Antenna will close the festival with the highly anticipated Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (pictured, right), a concert film announces an exciting new partnership with the Sydney Opera House. In capturing Sakamoto's last performance, filmmaker Neo Sora’s celebration of an artist's life is the definitive swan song of the beloved maestro.

Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan will attend the festival as a special guest to present his film The World is Family, an exploration of social and political life in which he paints a portrait of his parents, whose families were intertwined with Gandhi and India’s independence movement. Other Australian Premieres by celebrated directors include Wang Bing’s Youth (Spring), Werner Herzog’s Theatre of Thought, Claire Simon’s Our Body and Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new film In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias takes us on an intimate journey through Palestine, where actress Hiam Abbass navigates the fragmented memories of generations of resilient Palestinian women. Oscar-frontrunner 20 Days in Mariupol by Mstyslav Chernov presents a firsthand account of the siege in Ukraine, capturing the unyielding spirit of those caught in the crossfire. Complementing these narratives, Vanessa Hope’s Invisible Nation (pictured, below) investigates the election and tenure of Tsai Ing-wen, the first female president of Taiwan.

Three Australian feature documentaries and 12 Australian shorts will also screen at the festival, including Rosie Jones’ Abebe - Butterfly Song, about the musical legacy and enduring friendship between celebrated Papuan musician George Telek and Australian musician David Bridie and Annette Basile's Isla's Way, a tender, richly humorous portrait of an 87-year-old horse carriage driving champion. 

In a major coup, Antenna will host John Wilson, the young filmmaker behind the hit HBO show How To With John Wilson, one of the most genuinely inspired, oddball, and sneakily affecting works in contemporary television. In 2023, Wilson was invited by the prestigious Anthology Film Archives in New York to guest-curate a special series of films that have influenced or inspired him and he will present a version of this series at Antenna, as well as hosting a masterclass discussing his unique approach to filmmaking. 

The 12th edition of the Antenna Documentary Film Festival opens Friday February 9th in Sydney and runs until Monday February 19th. For complete program information and to purchase tickets and festival passes, go to www.antennafestival.org

R.I.P. JOHN BAILEY, A.S.C.

Veteran cinematographer John Bailey, whose skill in finding the most beautiful, evocative shot composition in often everyday settings made him a much sought-after studio ally, passed away on Friday November 9. He was 81.

Amassing 86 credits as D.O.P./Cinematographer since his debut in 1972 on Alan Rudolph’s hippy-horror indie Premonition, Bailey very quickly found himself in demand. Lensing Michael Pressman’s Boulevard Nights in 1979 opened the door for Bailey, who next entered into a creative partnership with Paul Schrader on American Gigolo (1980), followed by Cat People (1982); Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, for which he earned a ‘Best Artistic Contribution’ honour at the Cannes Film Festival); and, the Michael J. Fox starrer, Light of Day (1987).

ORDINARY PEOPLE (Dir: Robert Redford; Paramount Pictures, 1980)

Bailey earned his stripes as camera assistant and operator on such iconic works as Pierre Aldridge’s concert-doc Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1971),  Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and, later, Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977) and Terence Malick’s masterpiece Days of Heaven (1978).

GROUNDHOG DAY (Dir: Harold Ramis; Columbia Pictures 1993)

It would be Robert Redford’s Oscar-winner Ordinary People (1980) - only Bailey’s 10th credit as D.O.P. - that solidified his status as one of Hollywood’s elite artisans. Over the next four decades, he would shoot alongside such names as Walter Hill (Crossroads, 1986); Robert Benton (Nobody’s Fool, 1994); James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets, 1997); Wolfgang Peterson (In The Line of Fire, 1993); and Ken Kwapis (Vibes, 1988; The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, 2005; A Walk in the Woods, 2015).

THE LAWRENCE KASDAN FILMS - CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, 1981; THE BIG CHILL, 1983; SILVERADO, 1985; THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, 1988.

In the latter stage of his career, his lightness of touch visually and experience on set made him the go-to cameraman for romance and comedy. His buoyant colours and composition enlivened such hits as The Out-of-Towners (1999), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), How to Lose a Guy in 10 days (2003), Must Love Dogs (2005), The Producers (2005); He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), Romona and Beezus (2010), The Way Way Back (2013) and How to Be  a Latin Lover (2017). His final film was Richard Pagano’s Ten Tricks in 2022, a two-hander drama starring Lea Thompson shot in evocative black-&-white.

CYNDI LAUPER: TRUE COLOURS (Dir: Patricia Birch, 1986)

His vast body-of-work earned him unparalleled respect amongst his peers, a following that led to him being elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 2017 to 2019 (the organisation that, ironically, never nominated him for an Oscar). Bailey is survived by his wife, Oscar-nominated editor and former Academy governor Carol Littleton.

THE DOCUMENTARIES - SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (Dir: Jonathan Demme, 1987); THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (which he also directed, in 1991); A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME (Dir: Errol Morris, 1991); THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE (Dirs: Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen; 2002)

ONCE UPON IN THE FUTURE: 2121, LOST IN THE SKY, ECHO PINES EARN TOP HONOURS AT SCIENCE FICTION FESTIVAL AWARDS NIGHT

A darkly comic dystopian vision of family dynamics in an underground society has taken out The Ron Cobb Best Film Award at the 2023 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival.

Hailing from Turkiye, Once Upon a Time in the Future: 2121 (Bir Zamanlar Gelecek: 2121), which previously won Best Film at Sci-Fi London, can now add Australia’s leading sci-fi trophy to its award cabinet. The bracingly original concept was brought to life by Serpil Altin, the first Turkish woman to direct a genre feature in her homeland.

The award love was spread across several country’s genre sectors, exemplifying the global reach of the festival, now in its fourth year. Niamh Carolan took Best Actress honours for her angst-ridden turn in John Barnard’s Canadian thriller, Wintertide; Seann Walsh just pipped his co-star Scott Haran in the Best Actor category for his charismatic bad-guy turn in The Bystanders; and, Bulgarian auteur Theodore Ushev took directing honours for his wildly-inventive, Gilliam-esque vision, Φ1.618.

Two Special Festival awards were bestowed for features of unique originality and artistry. Iranian actor/director Shahab Hosseini’s Residents of Nowhere, an adaptation of the afterlife text Hote des deux mondes by Eric Emmanuel Schmitt, and Takayuki Ohashi’s Distant Thunder, the story of three sisters reuniting during Earth’s final hours, were both recognised for profoundly representing mortality and humanity within the fantasy genre.  

Simon Öster’s Lost in the Sky took home the Best International Short Film, with several patrons commenting post-screening on the emotional impact of the Swedish film; Stephanie Begg’s well-travelled detective story Echo Pines finally found some hometown love, with the X-Files-like thriller taking Best Australian Short; Julia Vyshnevska (Best Actress for The Orb), Blair Redford (Best Actor for The Many Worlds of George Goodwin) and Lia Tsalta (Best Director for Magma) rounded out the short narrative categories.

Best Animated Film was won by Sydney-based FX maestro Christian Debney for his moving space travel drama, Starship. Best Student Film went to the Chinese sector, for Jiamin Jiao’s The Deep Love, shot as part of her studies at the Communication University of China.    

FULL LIST OF WINNERS, RUNNERS-UP AND NOMINEES:

2023 RON COBB BEST FILM AWARD: Named in honour of the late Ron Cobb, an adopted son of Sydney and iconic conceptual artist on such films as Dark Star, Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Conan the Barbarian and The Abyss.
RESIDENTS OF NOWHERE (D: Shahab Hosseini; Iran)
DISTANT THUNDER (D: Takayuki Ohashi; Japan)
**WINNER** ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE FUTURE: 2121 (D: Serpil Altin; Turkiye)
WINTERTIDE (D: John Barnard)
*Runner-Up* MEMORY OF WATER (D: Saara Saarela; Finland)
PHI 1.618 (D: Theodore Ushev; Bulgaria)
THE BYSTANDERS (D: Gabriel Foster Prior; UK)

SPECIAL MENTIONS: FOR PROFOUNDLY REPRESENTING MORTALITY AND HUMANITY WITHIN THE FANTASY GENRE
RESIDENTS OF NOWHERE (D: Shahab Hosseini; Iran)
DISTANT THUNDER (D: Takayuki Ohashi; Japan) 

BEST SHORT FILM (International)
*Runner-Up* MAGMA (D: Lia Tsalta; Greece)
THE DRAFT (D: Raphaela Wagner; UK)
**WINNER** LOST IN THE SKY (D: Simon Öster; Sweden)
THE WISE OLD OWL (D: Quentin Porte; France)
ASSIMILATED (D: Vance Crofoot; USA)
THE BALLAD OF MADDOG QUINN (D: Matt Inns; New Zealand)

2023 BEST SHORT FILM (Australian)
WHITE NOISE (D: Bryce McLellan)
SALVATION (D: Kitty Moroney)
**WINNER** ECHO PINES (D: Stephanie Begg)
EXO-226 (D: Denai Grace)
FIRST-ISH CONTACT (D: Kai Smythe)
*Runner-Up* RETURN CHUTE: SURVIVAL OF A SMALL TOWN VIDEO STORE (D: Simone Attallah)

2023 BEST ACTRESS (Short Film)
DANIELLE KING (Echo Pines; Australia)
**WINNER** JULIA VYSHNEVSKA (The Orb; Ireland)
ANN WILSON (White Noise; Australia)
*Runner-Up* MAGGIE PIRIE (The Ballad of Maddog Quinn; New Zealand)
ANKE SABRINA BEERMAN (The Draft; UK)
CASSIE STIRIES (Pinwheel Horizon; USA)

2023 BEST ACTOR (Short Film)
HERMAN GABHIR (The Traveler; USA)
**WINNER** BLAIR REDFORD (The Many Worlds of George Goodman; USA)
YEONGPYO KIM (Sentence; Republic of Korea)
KAI SMYTHE (First-ish Contact; Australia)
**Runner-Up** ROERD TOCE (Erik; Albania)
GRADY ROSEVEAR-FERRICKS (Beam Me Up; Australia)

2023 BEST ACTRESS (Feature Film)
SELEN OZTURK (Once Upon a Time in the Future; Turkiye)
**WINNER** NIAMH CAROLAN (Wintertide; Canada)
*Runner-Up* SAGA SARKOLA (Memory of Water; Finland)
ANDREA TRAPET (The Antares Paradox; Spain)
MARTINA APOSTOLOVA (Phi 1.618; Bulgaria)
ZOSIA MAMET (Molli and Max in the Future; USA)

2023 BEST ACTOR (Feature Film) 
**WINNER** SEANN WALSH (The Bystanders; UK)
SCOTT HARAN (The Bystanders; UK)
BEN KINGSLEY (Jules; USA)
*Runner-Up* ABE GOLDFARB (First Time Caller; USA)
DEYAN DONKOV (Phi 1.618 Bulgaria)
ARISTOTLE ATHARI (Molli and Max in the Future; USA)

2023 BEST DIRECTOR (Feature Film)
*Runner-Up* SAARA SAARELA (Memory of Water; Finland)
JOHN BARNARD (Wintertide; Canada)
**WINNER** THEODORE USHEV (Phi 1.618; Bulgaria)
TAKAYUKI OHASHI (Distant Thunder; Japan)
SERPIL ALTIN (Once Upon a Time in the Future; Turkiye)
MICHAEL LUKK LITWAK (Molli and Max in the Future; USA)

2023 BEST DIRECTOR (Short Film) 
**WINNER** LIA TSALTA (Magma; Greece)
DENAI GRACE (EXO-226; Australia)
SIMON ÖSTER (Lost in the Sky; Sweden)
IAN SWEENEY (Time Tourists; New Zealand)
KITTY MORONEY (Salvation; Australia)
*Runner-Up* FRANCESCO PABLO CORDARO and ANDREA CORDARO (Awake; USA)

2023 BEST STUDENT FILM
RECORD. PLAY. STOP (D: Neeraj Bhattacharjee; India)
*Runner-Up* OBELISK (D: Sida Xie; Australia)
**WINNER** THE DEEP LOVE (D: Jiamin Jiao; China)
ECHO PINES (D: Stephanie Begg; Australia)
PROTOTYPE (D: Abril Ruzmed; Germany)
THE STAR TO EVERY WANDERING BARK (D: Patrick Traynor; Australia)

2023 BEST ANIMATED FILM
A ROBOT'S DREAM (D: Morteza Halimi; Australia)
*Runner-Up* SILEO (D: Demeter Lorent; Hungary)
INNERMOST (D: Maing Caochong; China)
**WINNER** STARSHIP (D: Christian Debney; Australia)
FLITE (D: Tim Webber; UK)
MIRA (D: Francesca Armstrong; New Zealand)