Overview
Think you know what you're seeing at this year's Sydney Film Festival? Think again. Sure, the 2016 fest kicks off in just two days, but that doesn't mean they've finished tinkering with their program. In fact, the city's premier cinema celebration has added a whole host of Cannes titles to mess with your schedule.
It's enough to make #firstworldfilmfestivalproblems your new favourite hashtag, but once you see the flicks on offer, you'll be doing whatever you can to get these nine efforts in front of your eyeballs. For starters, who doesn't want to see Adam Driver play a bus driver named Paterson who lives in the New Jersey town of Paterson? Yep, Jim Jarmusch's latest feature basically sells itself. It's also called Paterson, of course, and won Cannes' coveted Palm Dog for best canine performance.
That's not the only high profile movie sliding into the lineup, with Personal Shopper — a French psychological thriller, and Kristen Stewart's second collaboration with director Olivier Assayas after Clouds of Sils Maria — on the bill as well, and screening alongside new South African short film The Beast. The rest of the fresh batch of features includes silent animation The Red Turtle, which was co-produced by Studio Ghibli, Park Chan-wook's sensual thriller The Handmaiden (which also showed at Cannes), and the FIPRESCI Prize-winning German comedy Toni Erdmann, which boasts an applauded performance by actress Sandra Hüller.
Plus, doco fans should flock to The Cinema Travellers, which delves into India's mobile tent theatres, and Hissien Habre, A Chadian Tragedy, which honours the victims of the titular dictator. And on the retrospective front, film buffs can take in the glory of Marlon Brando at his best in the brooding 1961 western One-Eyed Jacks.
That makes 18 films heading straight from the French Riviera to Sydney Film Festival this year, aka more than most cinephiles could've ever hoped for. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: if you're looking for us from June 8 to 19, head to a cinema.
The 2016 Sydney Film Festival runs from June 8 to 19. To check out the complete program and book tickets, visit the festival website.