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.