Sydney Underground Film Festival 2022

Overview

One Australian film festival has been delivering weird, wild and wonderful movies for 16 years now: the Sydney Underground Film Festival. Dedicated to strange and surreal cinema, it screens the kinds of flicks that don't usually turn up at your local multiplex — although, this year, the event itself is making the move to one such venue.

2022 marks a huge milestone for SUFF in two ways. Firstly, it's the fest's return to a physical event for the first time since 2019, thanks to a couple of pandemic-affected years. Secondly, SUFF is shifting to a new location. Accordingly, come Thursday, September 8–Sunday, September 11, Sydneysiders will want to flock to Event Cinemas George Street to watch everything from hilarious Pete Davidson-featuring horror satires through to the latest and greatest genre shorts.

I Love My Dad will open SUFF 2022, telling a tale about an estranged father (played by Patton Oswalt, Gaslit) who catfishes his own son in an effort to reconnect. From there, highlights include new releases by a few mighty impressive filmmakers: closing night's Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, the latest from A Girl Walks Home at Night's Ana Lily Amirpour, and Something in the Dirt, by The Endless and Synchronic's Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.

And, of course, there's the aforementioned Bodies Bodies Bodies — which not only features The King of Staten Island's Davidson, but also Dear Evan Hansen's Amandla Stenberg and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Oscar-nominee Maria Bakalova. They star in a film that turns a party game into a slasher onslaught, and tears into not only its characters, but Gen Z and today's always-online world.

Also on the in-cinema bill: Dual, the Aaron Paul (Westworld) and Karen Gillan (Avengers: Endgame)-starring new deadpan comedy by The Art of Self-Defense's Riley Stearns; On the Count of Three, Jerrod Carmichael's (Rothaniel) feature film debut as a director; and documentary I Get Knocked Down, about Chumbawamba singer Dunstan Bruce. Or, you can see the world premiere of horror flick Pig Killer, which is inspired by a true story; catch Norway's Sick of Myself, which also screened at this year's Cannes Film Festival; and check out a charity screening of Rhino by Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.

Can't make it along in-person? Keen for SUFF to continue at home? The fest's online program will return from Monday, September 12–Sunday, September 25 as well.