Sydney Film Festival Reveals First Films for 2014 Program

Are you getting a little tired of watching Liam Neeson sneer at bad guys and battle repressed emotional problems? Maybe you've had enough of George Clooney's attempts to reignite the magic of Ocean's Eleven while butchering modern history in the process? Your average trip to Hoyts or Village can be a bit of a let down, and it's not all to do with the fact they charge $11 for a small popcorn. Enter Sydney Film Festival, saviour of all cinephiles.

SFF has today revealed the first 32 films on its 180-strong program, and so far it's looking pretty damn excellent. Most films will be taking their Australian premiere at the festival and a few come straight from the screens of this year's SXSW. The most of exciting of these is Frank — an offbeat comedy based on real events in which Michael Fassbender plays the lead singer of an indie-pop group who always wears a giant papier mache mask on his head. The film also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and the guy who played Bill Weasley in Harry Potter. Do we have your attention yet?

Other incoming SXSW treasures named after men include Joe — a Nic Cage film that doesn't look outrageously awful. By all accounts Cage takes the form of a nuanced and realistic human being and doesn't suck at it! Even stranger than that is the fact that this "Southern Gothic drama" comes from director David Gordon Green (Prince Avalanche, Pineapple Express). Is this the most impressive April Fools' joke ever? Time will tell.

As always, the SFF documentaries are looking strong too. Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy? details maybe the most impressive tete-a-tete ever recorded, between much-loved dreamer and director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and arts-student deity Noam Chomsky. Music docos stand on their own with the inclusion of Pulp — a loving portrait of the beloved Britpop band and its frontman, Jarvis Cocker. And sociopolitical issues get their showing with Ukraine is Not a Brothel — a work from Australian director Kitty Green that investigates the Ukrainian feminist organisation FEMEN and their "naked war against patriarchy".

As less than a quarter of the full program, the films released so far are an indication of very good times to come. So please, stop enabling George Clooney's midlife crisis and save your ticket money for the good stuff.

Sydney Film Festival will run from June 4-15. The full program will be announced on Wednesday, May 7.