FOOD & DRINK, ARTS & CULTURE, LIFE & TRAVEL
Australia’s Shooshfest, an inaugural silent short film competition, invites diverse creators to innovate in storytelling sans speech. Promising an immersive experience, it will connect with audiences, honour silent film and catalyse cinematic culture.
The 71st Sydney Film Festival, set for 5-16 June 2024, has unveiled an exciting preview of 17 new films and events, offering a tantalising glimpse ahead of the complete program reveal on Wednesday, 8 May. Festival Director Nashen Moodley highlighted that this year’s lineup explores a rich tapestry of human experience, ranging from gripping true stories to innovative fictional narratives and hybrid films that blur the lines between reality and imagination. With resilience emerging as a central theme, the Festival promises a diverse array of films that promise to engage, challenge, and inspire audiences. Among the initial selection are two Australian world premieres that are generating significant buzz. In Vitro marks a highly anticipated sci-fi mystery thriller directed by Will Howarth and Tom McKeith, featuring Ashley Zukerman in a futuristic tale set on a remote cattle farm. In The Pool, directed by Ian Darling, offers a poignant cinematic exploration of a year at the iconic Bondi Icebergs, capturing the essence of this beloved location and its community. Notably, directors Howarth, McKeith, and Darling will be present at the Festival to introduce their films. From across the Tasman, Rachel House makes her directorial debut with The Mountain, a poignant tale of adventure and friendship amidst New Zealand’s stunning landscapes, executive produced by Taika Waititi. This film, eligible for the prestigious First Nations Award, promises to be a highlight of the Festival. The international selection includes notable festival prize-winners like The Rye Horn, Green Border by legendary filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, and Pepe, a unique narrative featuring a… Read More
From the shadows of the unconventional to the spotlight of Melbourne and Sydney cinema screens, Fantastic Film Festival Australia (FFFA) makes a triumphant return with its fifth edition, set to unfold from 17 April to 10 May 2024. This year, FFFA promises an even more vivid spectacle of the weird, wonderful, and wholly unexpected, solidifying its reputation as a panoramic celebration of new and provocative films that dare to venture beyond the cinematic norm. FFFA 2024 emerges as a daring and cutting-edge cinema showcase, presenting a treasure trove of films that challenge, amuse, and provoke. With an eclectic program featuring 24 feature-length films and 14 short films from Australia and around the globe, attendees can expect a kaleidoscopic showcase of the world’s most exhilarating voices in cult, genre, arthouse, and alternative cinema. Artistic Director Hudson Sowada elaborates on this year’s selection, “We’re proud to present 24 premieres, from the thrilling to the surreal. Each film has been meticulously chosen for its unique ability to transport, provoke thought, and entertain. Our 2024 selection is a testament to our commitment to showcasing films that are not only visually striking but also challenge our audience’s expectations.” This iteration sees the festival spread its wings further, returning to the Ritz Cinemas in Sydney and the Lido Cinemas in Melbourne, and debuting a selection of FFFA titles at a new satellite venue, the Thornbury Picture House in Melbourne’s north. The festival’s opening night is set to captivate with the Australian premiere of Sting, directed by Sydney’s horror maverick Kiah Roache-Turner… Read More
9-19 February 2024 | Sydney Antenna, Australia’s premier international non-fiction film festival, today unwraps its complete program for 2024. The event boasts a lineup of 52 of the most compelling, thought-provoking documentaries from around the globe, set to transform Sydney into a haven for documentary enthusiasts from 9–19 February 2024. Festival Director Dudi Rokach expressed, “I am supremely proud of this lineup as a whole. Each documentary is imaginative, cinematic, and provocative, exemplifying the boundless potential of documentary cinema in the hands of a skillful filmmaker.” Kicking off the festival is the Australian Premiere of Tribeca Film Festival winner The Gullspång Miracle. It’s a consistently unexpected and amusing film that follows two devout sisters who purchase an apartment after witnessing a divine sign, only to realise that the seller bears a striking resemblance to their other sister, who committed suicide some thirty years prior. What begins as a story of familial reunion morphs into a drama that’s stranger than fiction. In an exhilarating new partnership with the Sydney Opera House, Antenna will close the festival with the Australian Premiere of Ryuichi Sakamoto | Optus, a concert film that encapsulates Sakamoto’s final performance. A celebration of an artist’s life in its purest form, this film serves as the definitive farewell to the beloved maestro. Fresh from TIFF and IDFA, Antenna will host the Australian Premiere of The World is Family by the renowned documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, who will be a special guest at the festival. Anand’s insights into social and political life have garnered him… Read More
This year, the Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) returns to Australian screens from 23 October – 6 December, presenting a diverse array of enchanting and enlightening tales from Jewish cinema worldwide. Boasting 55 Australian premiere films from 19 countries, the Festival programme includes 30 feature films, 20 documentaries, two series, and six short films, alongside a suite of live events across Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, and the Gold Coast. According to Artistic Director Eddie Tamir, the 2023 JIFF reflects the timeless resilience and adaptability of the Jewish spirit, offering a remarkable line-up of films from the deepest roots of Yiddish culture to Australian stories and boundary-pushing tales. He described the Festival as an immersive journey that reflects on the past and acts as a beacon for the future. The Festival begins with the Australian Premiere of ‘Matchmaking,’ Israel’s biggest blockbuster of 2023. This romantic comedy, directed by the mastermind behind ‘Magic Men’, has won the Audience Award at the Miami Jewish Film Festival and takes audiences on a journey with Moti Bernstein, an Ashkenazi ideal who defies tradition for Nechama, a Mizrahi beauty. As for Australian stories, JIFF 2023 invites audiences to delve deep into history and emotion. ‘Revenge: Our Dad the Nazi Killer’ thrusts viewers into the post-WWII era, where three brothers uncover their father’s suspected revenge spree against Nazis. The closing night film, ‘The Jewish Nazi?’, follows the astounding journey of Alex Kurzem, made “Hitler’s youngest soldier” by a Latvian Nazi battalion after the massacre of his Belarusian family. The Festival’s… Read More
