Sydney Film Festival announces its first 26 films of its program
May 7,2018. The 65th Sydney Film Festival today announced a sneak peek of this year’s essential viewing: 26 new films to be featured in this year’s 6-17 June event, as well as a new Festival location: HOYTS Entertainment Quarter.
The announcement is in advance of the full program launch on Wednesday 9 May.
“65 years young, Sydney Film Festival celebrates a spectacular history of storytelling with another 200+ feature films and documentaries, beginning with these first 26 cinematic gems,”
Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley said. “Since 1954 Sydney Film Festival has presented over 9,000 films to Australian audiences. The Festival may have reached a stately age, but it continues every year to deliver the most cutting edge and provocative voices in international cinema.
“In 2018’s sneak peek of the program, there are features and documentaries from Argentina to the Arctic Circle. From the war zone of Kabul, where young men risk arrest for their love of rock music, to the revolutionary creativity of punk icon Vivienne Westwood, these unique and poignant films share stories of freedom, identity and passion from across the globe.
“The 2018 Sydney Film Festival is once again proud to kick-start exciting conversations and showcase powerful ideas and bold statements that open eyes, expand horizons and enrich the lives of our audiences and community,” he said.
This year David Stratton will present a program of 10 essential films directed by the great Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki. Entitled Essential Kaurismäki: Selected by David Stratton, the curated films will screen as a retrospective program at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Dendy Opera Quays cinema, as part of the 65th Sydney Film Festival (6-17 June).
The retrospective will also screen in Melbourne at ACMI (14-30 June) and in Canberra at NFSA’s Arc cinema (29 June – 10 July). This retrospective consists of ten of the finest films made by Kaurismäski, from Crime and Punishment (1983) to Le Havre (2011).
Since his debut, Aki Kaurismäki has become Finland’s most celebrated filmmaker. Known for his idiosyncratic, droll style, his films provide social criticism through the stories of ordinary people who overcome all the odds stacked against them to achieve modest successes.
Renowned critic and broadcaster, David Stratton, a former director of the Sydney Film Festival (1966 to 1983) will also introduce the Sydney screenings. David Stratton said, “Kaurismäki is the complete auteur, producing, directing, scripting and usually editing his films. A master of the deadpan, the dialogue in his films is laconic and laced with stoic humour, not including a streak of sentiment, despite the presence of a loveable dog in almost every movie. ” “This retrospective is a great showcase of his signature style and will be a revelation to those unfamiliar with the work of an exceptional director.”
The 10 films in the program are: Crime and Punishment (1983) La Vie de Boheme (1992) Shadows in Paradise (1986) Drifting Clouds (1996) Ariel (1988) The Man Without a Past (2002) Leningrad Cowboys go America (1989) Lights in the Dusk (2006) The Match Factory Girl (1990) Le Havre (2011).
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