Sydney Film Festival 2023: Back by Popular Demand

Overview

So many movies, so little time. That's film festival life, including across Sydney over the past 12 days. The 2023 Sydney Film Festival showcased hundreds of movies in cinemas across the city — and, if you weren't able to fit all your viewing into its main run, you now have four extra days to head along.

As it usually does, SFF is hosting a Back by Popular Demand program in the days after the fest's official close. In 2023, those bonus screenings will hit Dendy Newtown and Palace Norton Street between Monday, June 19–Thursday, June 22. No, you're not done spending your nights in darkened rooms just yet.

There's 13 films to pick from and, as the name makes plain, they're all flicks that've been proving a hit with crowds so far. That includes straight-from-Cannes titles May December, starring Natalie Portman (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Julianne Moore (Sharper); Perfect Days, with German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Submergence) heading to Japan; and Anatomy of a Fall, a drama about an author (Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann) accused of her husband's murder, which just won French director Justine Triet (Sibyl) the Palme d'Or.

Also on the list: whistleblower docudrama Reality, starring Euphoria and The White Lotus' Sydney Sweeney; the obviously film-loving I Like Movies; environmentalist tale How to Blow Up a Pipeline; and kaijus via Shin Ultraman, which springs from the creators of Shin Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Or, there's Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, a documentary about an Estonian log-cabin sauna; fellow doco A Storm Foretold, focusing on Donald Trump's former adviser Roger Stone; and Beyond Utopia, about a family of five trying to escape from North Korea. Plus, Scrapper won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Dramatic), Riceboy Sleeps follows a Korean single mother and her son as they start a new life in Canada in the 90s, and Sunflower spins a coming-of-age tale in the Melbourne suburbs.

Some films have multiple sessions, while others are returning for just one — but, either way, your time at SFF for this year definitely isn't over yet.