Sydney Film Festival Is Hosting a Martin Scorsese Retrospective

Anything Melbourne can do, Sydney can do better — or, just as well, as Sydney Film Festival's first announcement for 2016 illustrates. If New South Wales-based movie buffs were feeling a bit of envy about the SCORSESE exhibition that's about the visit Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image, SFF has swooped in to offer up the next best thing.

In partnership with ACMI, and as curated by none other than David Stratton, SFF will present a showcase of Martin Scorsese's essential films. How they whittled down the iconic auteur's efforts to just ten, we don't know. But, as The Movie Show and At the Movies' audiences did for decades, we'll just have to place our faith in one of Australia's most famous movie critics.

Given that the selection includes the seminal gangster flick Mean Streets and often overlooked musical New York, New York, viewers are in for some Scorsese gold (and yes, Robert De Niro is as much of a feature as the director, with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino screening as well). For those after a slice of Scorsese's later-career flicks — and his collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio — then The Aviator well and truly ticks that box.

They'll all screen on specially imported 35mm prints, because Scorsese isn't just about making movies, but about preserving the format of celluloid in this increasingly digital age. To whet your excitement, we'll leave you with this clip of De Niro doing stand up in The King of Comedy. No, he's not talking to you.

Tickets to Essential Scorsese: Selected by David Stratton are on sale now. The 2016 Sydney Film Festival runs from June 8 – 19. For more information, visit the festival website.