Sydney Film Festival Has Expanded Its 2024 Program with Eight New Movies Straight From Cannes

It's the question that Sydney Film Festival asks every year: how can you make this massive cinema celebration even bigger once the full lineup has dropped and closing night's pick has been unveiled? Add a heap of flicks that'll be making their Australian debuts straight from world-premiering at Cannes.

In 2024, eight such titles have just been added to the SFF bill — and if you can't wait any longer to see Megalopolis, which iconic filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola first conceived back in 1977, you won't have to. Starring Adam Driver (Ferrari), it's one of the big newcomers to this year's SFF selection.

Also set to play from Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16: Black Dog, a tale of a stunt motorcyclist from Guan Hu (The Sacrifice) that won Cannes' Un Certain Regard award for 2024; Rumours, which gives the fest a dose of Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson behind the lens (reteaming after Accidence, The Rabbit Hunters and Stump the Guesser), plus Cate Blanchett (The New Boy) on-screen; and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the latest film from 2021 SFF winner Mohammad Rasoulf (There Is No Evil). The latter is particularly significant, given that its place on the Cannes lineup saw Rasoulof forced to flee Iran after being sentenced to flogging and imprisonment.

SFF has also added Best Documentary-winner Ernest Cole: Lost and Found from I Am Not Your Negro's Raoul Peck, Caught by the Tides from Jia Zhangke (Ash Is the Purest White), the post-World War One-set adoption drama The Girl with the Needle and revenge-thriller Ghost Trail.

And, after body-horror The Substance sold out its closing night slot, the also straight-from-Cannes flick has scored extra screenings.

"We're thrilled to unveil an extraordinary selection of eight new films, direct from Cannes, to complete the final lineup of the 71st Sydney Film Festival," said Festival Director Nashen Moodley about the expansion to the 2024 program.

If you weren't already thinking "normal life can wait, there's movies to watch", then you should be now. Also on the bill already: hundreds of movies, spanning everything from a Midnight Oil documentary to open this year's fest, a Bondi Icebergs doco, Hellraiser with a new live score and a retrospective that pays tribute to Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène through to Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness, Hunter Schafer (Euphoria)-starring thriller Cuckoo, Sundance hit I Saw the TV Glow from We're All Going to the World's Fair's Jane Schoenbrun and Indigenous Aussie horror via The Moogai.

Sydney Film Festival 2024 takes place from Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16 at various cinemas and venues around Sydney. For more information — and for tickets — head to the festival's website.