Sydney Film Festival’s First Lineup Announcement Is Here
It's quite good; your eyes are gonna be so tired.
Film nerds, get your pens and schedules out, and maybe even start popping whatever pills people pop to keep their eyelids open: this morning, organisers of the 61st Sydney Film Festival — held this June 4 to 15 — revealed the first 32 films that’ll be featured on this year’s program, and it’s already pretty great.
Among the highlights are:
Frank: That new film where Michael Fassbender plays the lead singer of an indie-pop band and wears a giant fake head throughout the whole thing.
God Help The Girl: The directorial debut of Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, featuring Australia’s own Emily Browning, definitely in a beret and a stripey t-shirt.
Joe: The new tone shift from director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Prince Avalanche), featuring what’s been called “a remarkable performance” from your hero Nicolas Cage as a hard-drinking tough-guy (HOLY SHIT YES).
Tom At The Farm: A “Hitchcockian psychological thriller” from Canadian wunderkind and new queer cinema icon, Xavier Dolan.
Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?: Michel Gondry’s documentary on philosopher, linguist and activist Noam Chomsky.
The Unknown Known: Documentary legend Errol Morris’ probing new look at former US Secretary Of Defense and slimy slimeball, Donald Rumsfeld.
Additional awesome things include local premieres such as The Redfern Story, a documentary about the first all-Indigenous theatre company, the National Black Theatre; a Robert Altman retrospective, so you can crush on Elliott Gould and finally catch-up on film school classics like Nashville (1975), 3 Women (1977) and M*A*S*H (1970); and a special 40th anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at Blacktown’s appropriately atmospheric Skyline Drive-In.
Yep, nobody’s gonna be sleeping much come June.
Head here to check out the rest of the program preview. The full program will be released on May 7; flexipass and subscription tickets are on sale now from here.