Midnight Oil to a ‘jaw-dropping’ Demi Moore: 15 highlights of the Sydney Film Festival

As the winter chill descends, the 71st Sydney Film Festival promises 12 days of entertaining, stimulating and thought-provoking cinema from around the world. There are well-known actors dotted around the program, including Viggo Mortensen as a new American settler in The Dead Don’t Hurt, Guy Pearce as a preacher in the New Zealand drama The Convert, Saoirse Ronan as a recovering addict in The Outrun, the late Christopher Reeve in the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Aubrey Plaza as a young woman’s future self in My Old Ass.

But the real pleasures of the festival, which runs from June 5 to 16, are traditionally the line-up of new Australian feature films and documentaries, as well as unexpected gems from around the world. Alphabetically, the program runs from Algeria to Vietnam this year.

The State Theatre is the focal point for the festival’s competition for “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous” films, with nine other cinemas around the city screening movies including the new theatre at the State Library of NSW and the IMAX in Darling Harbour. Here are 15 highlights.

1. MIDNIGHT OIL: THE HARDEST LINE

Documentary Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line explores the band’s politics and passions.Credit: Daniel Boud/Sydney Film Festival

After creating and producing the likes of Spicks and Specks, Long Way to the Top and Bombora: The History of Australian Surfing, Paul Clarke has directed a feature documentary on one of the country’s greatest rock bands – maybe the greatest, alongside AC/DC – that opens the festival and screens in competition. It explores their politics and passions with a soundtrack that includes hits such as Power and the Passion, The Dead Heart and Beds Are Burning. State Theatre, June 5 (sold out), 9 and 14.

2. KINDS OF KINDNESS

Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe in Kinds of Kindness.Credit:

After director Yorgos Lanthimos won the festival’s competition with 2011’s Alps, he has gone from art-house weirdmeister to one of the world’s leading directors, with five Oscar nominations for The Lobster, The Favourite and Poor Things. His new film is an audacious trilogy of stories about love, faith and control. Emma Stone returns for her third collaboration with the director, alongside Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau. State Theatre, June 8 and 10; Randwick Ritz, June 12 (sold out).

3. REVEALED: OTTO BY OTTO

Barry Otto in the documentary Revealed: Otto By Otto.Credit:

The $20,000 Documentary Australia competition includes what is guaranteed to be an emotional world premiere for Gracie Otto’s film about her celebrated actor father Barry Otto, who is almost having a second childhood after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The 82-year-old star of Bliss, Strictly Ballroom and The Dressmaker is healthy and cheerful but he’ll wear three hats simultaneously and think the rain is magical. State Theatre, June 8; Cremorne Orpheum, June 10.

4. THE BIKERIDERS

Austin Butler stars as Benny in The Bikeriders, which follows fictional motorcycle club the Vandals. Credit:

American director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Loving) has a powerhouse cast headed by Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, festival guest Austin Butler and Australians Damon Herriman and Toby Wallace for a portrait of a Chicago motorcycle club. As seen through the eyes of Comer’s wilful Kathy, the Vandals starts as a family of outsiders in the 1960s and evolves into a violent gang. State Theatre, June 6 (sold out); Cremorne Orpheum, June 8; Randwick Ritz, June 11.

5. FEDERER: TWELVE FINAL DAYS

Tennis champion Roger Federer in the documentary Federer: Twelve Final Days.Credit:

Sports documentaries often feel like marketing exercises for stars, but the promise of this one about Roger Federer’s looming retirement is that it’s directed by Oscar winner Asif Kapadia, whose impressive work has included films on Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona. It promises candid moments as the tennis legend heads into retirement at the 2022 Laver Cup in London. Cremorne Orpheum, June 15; Event Cinemas George Street, June 16.

6. DYING

Lars Eidinger plays a conductor rehearsing a new composition in the darkly funny drama Dying.Credit:

Germany’s Lars Eidinger has been an actor to watch since he mesmerised in the title role of a touring Berlin production of Hamlet 15 years ago. In Matthias Glasner’s darkly funny family drama from Germany he plays a conductor rehearsing a new orchestral composition called Dying. At the same time he is beset by problems for the living. State Theatre, June 9 and 11; Palace Norton Street, June 15.

7. THE MOUNTAIN

Elizabeth Atkinson stars in New Zealand film The Mountain.Credit:

Popular Kiwi actor Rachel House (Penguin Bloom, Thor: Ragnarok) directs what shapes as a warm-hearted tale in the tradition of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Nude Tuesday and Jojo Rabbit. It’s about an 11-year-old Maori girl (Elizabeth Atkinson) who wants to connect with her ancestral mountain so she can be healed from cancer. She sets off on a journey with two new friends. The great Taika Waititi is an executive producer. State Theatre, June 9; Randwick Ritz, June 10; State Library of NSW, June 15.

8. ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

Cannes award winner All We Imagine as Light.Credit:

The word out of Cannes has been exceptional for this Indian romantic drama about a nurse and her roommate who have moved from small towns to contemporary Mumbai to start a new life. Turning from documentaries to fiction, director Payal Kapadia won widespread critical praise, then the Grand Prix for a film in Malayalam and Hindi. State Theatre, June 13-14; Dendy Newtown, June 16 (sold out).

9. THE SUBSTANCE

Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley star in Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes hit The Substance. Credit:

A body-horror-thriller that Variety called “jaw-dropping, nauseating, defiant [and] hilarious” is a late selection for closing night after creating a stir – partly for its nude scenes – then winning best screenplay at Cannes. Directed by France’s Coralie Fargeat, it stars Demi Moore as an ’80s movie star who, after being fired from her TV fitness show, turns to a substance that promises a younger, better version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley). State Theatre, June 16 (sold out).

10. THE POOL

Documentary The Pool charts life at the Bondi Icebergs pool.Credit: Ian Darling

Director Ian Darling (The Final Quarter, Paul Kelly: Stories of Me) spent 100 days documenting life at the Bondi Icebergs pool, where he is a regular swimmer. It promises to be a fascinating and visually stunning look at the people, weather, colours and textures of what’s said to be the most photographed pool in the world. State Theatre, June 8; Cremorne Orpheum, June 9; Randwick Ritz, June 15.

11. LEE

Kate Winslet stars as trail-blazing war photographer Lee Miller in Lee. Credit:

Kate Winslet plays Lee Miller, an American fashion model who became a trail-blazing war photographer in a biopic from cinematographer-turned-director Ellen Kuras. Miller’s fearlessness led her to take photos of the liberation of France and the horrors of the Holocaust. The impressive cast includes Alexander Skarsgard, Marion Cotillard, Josh O’Connor and Andrea Riseborough. Cremorne Orpheum, June 7; State Library of NSW, June 9 (sold out); State Theatre, June 15.

12. CHARMIAN CLIFT: LIFE BURNS HIGH

Documentary Charmian Clift: Life Burns High looks at one of our most fascinating writers. Credit:

A fascinating documentary from director Rachel Lane about one of the country’s most brilliant writers, whose life with fellow author George Johnston included time at a Bohemian artists’ colony on the Greek island of Hydra. In a too-short life, her writing included the autobiographical Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus, and many evocative essays for The Sydney Morning Herald. Event Cinemas George Street, June 12; State Library of NSW, June 15 (both sold out).

13. THE CONTESTANT

Tomoaki Hamatsu in The Contestant.Credit:

A jaw-dropping documentary about a real-life Truman Show that took place in Japan in the late 1990s. A contestant in a reality-TV show was taken to a small apartment, told to strip naked, and challenged to enter magazine and radio competitions to win what he needed to survive. Isolated from the rest of the world, he didn’t realise he had become a TV star as his every waking hour was filmed. State Theatre, June 7; Dendy Newtown, June 8-9 (sold out).

14. KID SNOW

Billy Howle plays a washed-up fighter in Kid Snow.Credit:

A drama from Paul Goldman (Australian Rules, Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story) about a washed-up fighter (Billy Howle) who works on the tent boxing circuit in the 1970s. After meeting a single mother (Phoebe Tonkin), he gets a rematch against the champion who beat him a decade before. State Theatre June 11; Cremorne Orpheum, June 14; Randwick Ritz, June 15.

15. THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS

Peter Weir’s classic The Cars That Ate Paris.Credit:

Legendary director Peter Weir is making a rare public appearance for a 50th-anniversary screening of a restored version of an Australian New Wave classic. It’s a horror-comedy set in a town called Paris where citizens benefit from car accidents. John Meillon plays the mayor. Event Cinemas George Street, June 13 (sold out).

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