Sydney Film Festival (June 5-16) has unveiled the 12 titles that will play in competition at its 71st edition, including six features that are set to premiere at Cannes this month.
Fresh from playing in Competition at Cannes will be Kinds of Kindness, starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who won the Sydney Film Prize in 2012 with Alps. Further Palme d’Or contenders selected for Sydney include Grand Tour from Portugal’s Miguel Gomes, whose Arabian Nights won the Sydney Film Prize in 2015; Christophe Honoré’s French-Italian comedy Marcello Mio; and Payal Kapadia’s Indian romantic drama All We Imagine As Light.
Also competing for the A$60,000 ($39,500) Sydney Film Prize are Ariane Labed’s psychological drama September Says and Truong Minh Quý’s Viet And Nam, both of which are set to play in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.
Several titles already recognised by other festivals also feature in Sydney’s competition. They include Matthias Glasner’s German drama Dying, which won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlinale in February; Mexican cartel drama Sujo, directed by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize; and Rich Peppiatt’s Irish comedy Kneecap, which won an audience award at this year’s Sundance.
Rounding out the selection is Paola Cortellesi’s Italian box office hit There’s Still Tomorrow; Argentinian comedy dram Puan, directed by María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat, which won two prizes at San Sebastian; and Australian music documentary Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line, which will receive its world premiere as the opening film of this year’s Sydney Film Festival.
The competition jury will be presided over by Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic and will award the prize to a feature “that demonstrates audacious, cutting-edge and courageous cinema”.
In total, the festival has selected 197 films from 69 countries, of which 28 are world premieres.
Additional highlights include the world premiere of Australian boxing drama Kid Snow, directed by Paul Goodman; Lee Tamahori’s historical drama The Convert, starring Guy Pearce; and Jeff Nichols The Bikeriders, starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.
This year’s edition will also feature the festival’s inaugural First Nations Awards, which organisers say is the “world’s largest cash prize in global Indigenous filmmaking”, rewarding A$35,000 ($23,000) to the winning filmmaker.
Titles competing for the prize include Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s We Were Dangerous and Rachel House’s The Mountain, both New Zealand features executive produced by Taika Waititi. Further titles include historical epic Ka Whawhai Tonu, starring Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis, which will world premiere at the festival; Tamahori’s The Convert; Jon Bell’s psychological horror The Moogai, which screened at SXSW and Sundance; and Sara Margrethe Oskal’s documentary Ellogierdu – The Tundra Within Me, which debuted at Toronto.
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