Overview
He's responsible not just for a big Australian movie franchise, but for the big Australian movie franchise. He's also followed a pig in the city, made penguins dance, gotten witchy and granted wishes, too. He's Australian filmmaking icon George Miller, and he has just joined the Sydney Film Festival lineup for 2024 to talk about his career, and of course Mad Max and Furiosa.
Mere weeks after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hit cinemas — starring Anya Taylor-Joy (The Super Mario Bros Movie) as Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Love and Thunder) as wasteland warlord Dementus — Miller now has a date with Sydney's annual cinema showcase to chat about on-screen storytelling. For company, he'll have someone else who knows a thing or two about action cinema, and just filmmaking in general: stuntman and filmmaker Nash Edgerton, brother of Joel (Dark Matter), and director of episodes of Bodkin, plus Mr Inbetween, Gringo and The Square.
The Road to Furiosa — George Miller with Nash Edgerton will take place at 3pm on Saturday, June 15 in the Sydney Film Festival Hub at Town Hall, on the second-last day of the fest. SFF's full dates: Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16.
Miller won't just be stepping through his work in a general sense, either. The director that started the Mad Max franchise 45 years ago and has helmed four more films in the saga — and has Babe: Pig in the City, The Witches of Eastwick, the two Happy Feet movies, Lorenzo's Oil and Three Thousand Years of Longing on his resume as well — will dig into a specific action sequence, if you want to find out how it was executed.
After also adding a visit from Elvis star Austin Butler for his new picture The Bikeriders and straight-from-Cannes body-horror flick The Substance as closing night's flick since announcing its 2024 program, Sydney Film Festival has now popped something for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon fans on the bill, too. Ahead of season two's arrival, the Iron Throne spend time at Martin Place from Wednesday, June 5–Friday, June 7. Yes, you can sit in it.
Other talks and events on the program also include a queer cinema night, going all in on the 80s to tie in with opening night's Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line, K-pop fun as part of a Korean cinema celebration and a session on the impact of AI.
Belinda Rolland © 2023/SFF
Sydney Film Festival 2024 takes place from Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16 at various cinemas and venues around Sydney. For more information and tickets, head to the festival's website.
Read our interview with George Miller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and our review of the film.
Top image: Sonna Studios.