Today the complete line-up of films that will be picking at our hearts and minds during the 62nd Sydney Film Festival has been announced. Once again, those responsible for curating this comprehensive line-up have reached all across the globe to bring us an incredibly diverse and intriguing line-up full of premieres, classics, future classics, and more.
It’s always an exciting time when SFF rolls around, delivering thought-provoking, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking, side-splitting cinema, and often all in the one film. Our city’s long-standing celebration of the great art that is film is filled with inspiration, giving something for pretty much anyone and everyone; this year will be no exception.
The 62nd Sydney Film Festival (June 3 – June 14, 2015) will deliver 251 films in total. 68 countries will be represented, there will be 33 World Premieres, and 135 Australian premieres.
First, let’s start with the opening and closing nights of the festival. The opening night will deliver the World Premiere of the film adaptation of Ruben Guthrie, adapted by Brendan Cowell from his iconic play. The closing night will feature a screening of Holding the Man, Neil Armfield’s anticipated love story starring Guy Pearce and Ryan Corr amongst others.
Arabian Nights, directed by Miguel Gomes, will make history as the longest film to ever be in the SFF competition; at a total of 383 minutes the ambitious new film will be screened in three volumes from 13-14 June. Other entrants in the official competition – for which the winner will receive $62,000 – are: Black Souls, a crime film directed by Francesco Munzi; The Daughter, Simon Stone’s auspicious feature film debut; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival; A Pigion Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, an absurdist Swedish vision from Roy Andersson; and Sherpa, one of the 33 World Premieres, which is a high altitude documentary about a real life summit triumph.
Continuing to round out the Official Competition will be:
• Strangerland: an indie thriller starring Nicole Kidman
• Tales: an Iranian film which won best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival
• Victoria: a one-shot film detailing a Berlin bank robbery
• Vincent: A minimalist superhero film and the directorial debut from Thomas Salvador
• Tangerine: An adventure with L.A with two transgender sex workers on Christmas Eve
• Tehran Taxi: Jafar Panahi’s upbeat follow-up to This Is Not A Film and Closed Curtain
The list of programs within this program is massive. You’ve got: Songlines on Screen, an initiative aimed at giving place to some of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander songlines; Pitch Black Stories, short film features highlighting Indigenous talent; the Documentary Australia Foundation Award, the best of new Australian documentaries tackling a wide range of subjects; The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films, SFF’s official short film competition; Special Presentations at the State, a selection of premieres and award-winning films at the iconic State Theatre; Sounds on Screen, a celebration of films about music and musicians; a HUGE line-up of talks and presentations; Freak Me Out, the festival’s horror selections, including a screening of the classic sci-fi horror Them!; and much, much more.
To see the full list of titles selected to play at the 62nd Sydney Festival Festival head to www.sff.org.au
Feature films at SFF 2015 include:
• 600 Miles
• Aferim!
• The Club
• Corn Island
• Court
• The Crow’s Egg
• Dearest
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl
• Eisenstein in Guanajuato
• Far From the Madding Crowd
• The Forbidden Room
• From What is Before
• The Goob
• Grandma
• Haemoo
• Hill of Freedom
• Ivy
• Kabukicho Love Hotel
• Madame Bovary
• Magical Girl
• Metamorphoses
• Murder in Pacot
• My Skinny Sister
• Nasty Baby
• Near Death Experience
• Pasolini
• The Postman’s White Nights
• The Price of Fame
• The Project of the Century
• Red Rose
• Results
• Riz
• Second Coming
• She’s Funny That Way
• The Smell of Us
• The Summer of Sangaile
• Sunrise
• Sworn Virgin
• Theeb
• These Are The Rules
• Things of the Aimless Wanderer
• Tigers
• The Tribe
• Unexpected
• Villa Touma
• The Volcano
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