The Sydney Film Festival, which this year will celebrate its 70th edition, has unveiled its first dozen selections. Seven are feature films, five are documentaries.
“The 2023 program will expand on this legacy, promising to ignite stimulating dialogues and present powerful ideas that will broaden audience perspectives,” said festival director Nashen Moodley. He noted that over the previous 69 editions the Sydney festival has showcased more than 10,000 films.
Highlights among the documentaries are two Australian titles. “Rachel’s Farm” follows actor-director Rachel Ward as she revitalizes her beef farm using sustainable farming practices. In “The Last Daughter” Wiradjuri woman Brenda Matthews documents her search to uncover the truth about her government-ordered abduction as a child and to find her white foster family. Both Matthews and Ward will attend the festival in person.
“Red, White and Brass” – presented as a feature, rather than a documentary – is a fact-based tale of a group of rugby fans from Tonga who trick their way to the Rugby World Cup by pretending to be musicians in a brass band. The film is executive produced by Taika Waititi and directed by Damon Fepulea’i.
Other early picks include a selection from other international festivals. They include Jafar Panahi’s “No Bears,” which premiered in Venice, and Christian Petzold’s “Afire,” which showed recently in Berlin.
The other documentary selections are: “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “Subject” and Vinay Shukla’s “While We Watched,” which chronicles a reporter attempting to stand up to misinformation despite powerful government forces, populism and declining advertising.
The feature selections include “A Couple,” a narrative examination of the relationship between Leo and Sophia Tolstoy by noted documentarian Frederick Wiseman, animation “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” Emmanuele Crialese’s “L’Immensita” and Lav Diaz’s “When the Waves are Gone.”
The 2023 festival will run June 7-18. The bulk of its 200-title selection will be announced on May 10.
