By Alice Tynan
It’s that time of year again. Winter is upon us and with that the Sydney Film Festival will be rolling out the red carpet from June 3rd to June 14th. Despite showcasing a streamlined programme this year (down from 19 days to 12), the festival is packed to the rafters with premiere films and general cinematic goodness.
While the festival assuredly displays the cinephile scene for world cinema, and even brings down Terry Hatcher to walk the red carpet to lend a little Hollywood glam, the Sydney Film Festival is – most importantly – a celebration of our local industry.
There are a plethora of Australian films gracing the silver screen this June, so may this preview help you discover some local cinematic talent.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Three Australian films are premiering as part of the festival’s official competition.
Beautiful Kate is Rachel Ward’s feature directorial debut. Featuring home-grown stars Brian Brown, Rachel Griffiths and Ben Mendelson, the film reveals family secrets of adolescent sexuality and loss.
Disgrace is the hugely anticipated adaptation of JM Coetzee’s Booker Prize winning novel. Directed by Steve Jacobs and starring John Malcovich, this harrowing tale of post-Apartheid South Africa is compelling viewing.
Missing Water is a very personal film by Khoa Do. Highlighting the desperate realities of Vietnamese refugees travelling to Australia in the 1970s and 80s, Do weaves a narrative and puts faces to the forgotten or ignored stories.
Khoa Do’s Missing Water
DOCUMENTARIES
2009 sees the festival launching an inaugural prize for Australian documentaries. FOXTEL has put $10,000 up for grabs and ten docos have been selected for competition. Ranging from Indigenous tales, to African refugees and the story of India’s first elite police woman, the diversity of these documentaries is a tribute to the worldly scope of our documentary filmmakers.
See the full line-up here.
Murray Fredericks’ sublime looking Salt.
DOCUMENTARIES (Out of Competition)
The Burning Season – Narrated by Hugh Jackman, Cathy Henkel’s climate change documentary is a trio of stories that centre around Indonesia’s ‘burning season’ – a time when farmers burn forests to make room for crops.
Shadow Play – The world premiere of Josh Whiteman’s music documentary puts the spotlight on celebrated photographer, music video director and feature filmmaker Anton Corbijn.
SHORTS
More cash is on the cards for Australia’s short filmmakers. Headlined by Dendy, these short films are vying for $19,000 worth prizes as well as a funky looking award by Dinosaur Designs. One of the great things about short films are their delightfully brief synopses. For example (and speaking of funky) the synopsis for The Funk is as follows:
Jack woke up in a funk one day. No one really knows how it started.
Cris Jones’ The Funk
FEATURE FUN
$9.99 – This first Australian-Israeli co-production boasts the crème-de-la-crème of local talent…as clay characters. Geoffrey Rush heads a cast that includes Anthony Lapaglia and Barry Otto in a film he describes as “a claymation of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts.”
Accidents Happen – With Geena Davis taking top billing, this film may look American, but director and Sydneysider Andrew Lancaster developed the feature in Australia and even transformed leafy Sydney suburb St. Ives into 1980s New England. US born Australian resident Brian Carbee penned this semi-autobiographical tale of a family trip to the drive-in gone wrong.
Serhat Caradee’s Cedar Boys
Cedar Boys – After the divisive film that was The Combination, Lebanese-Australians are again in the spotlight with Serhat Caradee’s debut feature Cedar Boys. The festival will stage the film’s world premiere, launching the story of a trio of friends lured from West to East and eventually to Sydney’s criminal subculture.
Last Ride – Glendyn Ivin’s superbly shot film about the journey of a father and son, one into darkness and the other, perhaps, into the light. Read my review here.
Prime Mover – Another world premiere comes from local director David Caesar (of Dirty Deeds and fame). An upwardly mobile mechanic (Michael Dorman) falls for a local roadhouse girl (Emily Barclay) in this romance that positively floats on diesel fumes.
Van Diemen’s Land – A dark and dangerous looking debut from Jonathan auf der Heide about Alexander Pearce, Australia’s most infamous convict.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Wake in Fright – As the programme proclaims, “Decades of dust have been blown off one of the greatest Australian films ever made.” Fresh from the Cannes Classics World Premiere, the film will have a Q&A screening with director Ted Kotcheff.
***In breaking news, Kotcheff will also take part in the jury for the festival’s Official Competition. Other jury members are Rolf de Heer (as President), actress Miranda Otto, Danish director Lone Scherfig and German director Oliver Hirschbiegel.
There really is a wonderful line-up of Australian films on offer this year, so Sydneysiders, do yourself a favour and take the festival’s word for it: don’t try this at home.
For more information and a unique perspective on the Festival from a band of local film journalists, check out the brand new, home-grown film podcast: Worse Addictions
