The Ten Best Things to See at the Sydney Film Festival

The annual Sydney Film Festival carves a cinema-going strip out of the city and makes us excited about seeing more than just the latest blockbusters. Under new festival director Nashen Moodley, the event looks bigger than ever, with an exciting array of boundary-pushing competition contenders, illuminating documentaries, a strand focusing on India and a chance to get thoroughly acquainted with the oeuvre of Bernardo Bertolucci. This year also introduces the Sydney Film Festival Hub, curated by the Festivalists (Jurassic Lounge), which hosts talks, performances, music, screenings and a discount ticket booth, and gives everyone a place to hang out that's cosier and more happening than a foyer.

The downside of such a massive program is that you might still find yourself picking your way through it while the festival is already hurrying to an end. To avoid such a disaster, we recommend you hightail it to these 10 fabulous, unusual, controversial or unanimously revered films and events.

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Friday, June 8, 6.30pm at the State Theatre or Saturday, June 9, noon at Event Cinemas George St.

Everyone's buzzing about this wondrous film that took out the top prize at Sundance. The debut feature from director Benh Zeitlin follows six-year-old Hushpuppy, a child of the isolated Bayou community known as 'the Bathtub'. Recent history, climate change concerns and magic realism combine when a storm comes and destructive prehistoric beasts emerge from melted ice caps.

2. Coming Sooner: The Art of the Movie Trailer

Thursday, June 14, 7.30pm at SFF Hub at Lower Town Hall

Feel like you've seen so much of Prometheus there's little more thrills a feature-length movie could bring? Yet you're busting to see it anyway? That's the art of the movie trailer, a big deal in a viral economy. Trailerphiles Marc Fennell, Nicholas Hayden, and Nicholas McDougall discuss what goes into these modern marketing marvels.

3. Dead Europe (in competition)

Thursday, June 14, 6.30pm at the State Theatre or Friday, June 15 at noon at Even Cinemas George St

We all loved The Slap, but fans say if you want to see writer Christos Tsiolkas at his best, Dead Europe is the book to read. The new film adaptation will make it even easier to soak up this story of a Sydney photographer (played by Ewen Leslie) whose journey to his European homeland unearths family secrets and some hard truths about the history of the 'civilised' continent. You can also catch the filmmakers in discussion at the Apple Store.

4. Moonrise Kingdom

Friday, June 8, 8.30pm at the State Theatre or Saturday, June 9 at 9pm at Event Cinemas George St

The latest film from Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited) will obviously be getting a general release later in the year, but this is your chance to see it in surrounds to match the cult director's prettily composed, pastel visuals, at the State Theatre.

5. Shut Up and Play the Hits

June 3, 8pm at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Presented together with the Vivid Festival, this film chronicles LCD Soundsystem's last-ever show, as well as the days on either side. The Sundance-selected documentary has been acclaimed for its energy and immediacy, which should play extra well in the Opera House setting.

6. Expert Talks: Fabrizio Maltese — Confessions of a Festival Photographer

Thursday, June 7, 6pm at the SFF Hub at Lower Town Hall

Paris-based photographer Fabrizio Maltese travels the world snapping intimate, telling portraits of iconic film stars and filmmakers. An exhibition of his work will be on display throughout the festival, and the best day to see it is at launch, when the man himself will talk about his work.

7. The Comedy

Thursday, June 14, 9pm and Saturday, June 16, 2pm, at the Dendy Opera Quays.

Looking for something that will divide opinion? The Comedy, probably better described as an anti-comedy, has a precedent of doing so at Sundance. It stars Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (of Tim and Eric), plus some prominent musicians, as Williamsburg hipsters whose recklessness and apathy becomes confronting to watch.

8. The Law in These Parts

Sunday, June 10, 11.30am and Wednesday, June 13, 6.30pm at the Dendy Opera Quays

This documentary sets a new standard in hard-hitting. It sits down with the architects of Israel's 45-year military 'rule of law' in the Occupied Territories and pushes the interviews into uncomfortable terrain as it gets them to examine the unforeseen consequences of their actions.

9. Mabo

Thursday, June 7, 8.35pm at the State Theatre

Before his High Court challenge, there was no such thing as Aboriginal land rights in Australian law. Twenty years later, relive this important moment in the country's history and get to know the man behind it in the new biopic by Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae).

10. The Warped Forest

Monday, June 11, 9pm and Sunday, June 17, 9.30pm at Event Cinemas George St

Want to see the weirdest thing in the festival that is guaranteed to never get a mainstream release in this country? That's this surreal sci-fi feature from Japanese cult figure Shunichiro Miki.

The festival is on from June 6-17, 2012. See the festival website for the full program.