Focus on the Sydney Film Festival interrupted

Sydney Film Festival has set its sights on Nov­ember to show their delayed program, which will also be featuring Australia’s best short films.

Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley.

It may have been a virtual experience last year but Sydney Film Festival has set its sights on Nov­ember to show their delayed program, which will also be featuring Australia’s best short films.

Due to open in August, the festival has been pushed back to the end of the year in response to the coronavirus lockdown.

With about 150 feature films selected to run, 10 of those will be short films as the festival announces the return of the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films.

Festival director Nashen Moodley said the competition has helped launch the careers of countless directors, writers and producers over the course of its 52-year history.

“It’s such an important calling card for filmmakers,” Moodley said.

“There’s so many wonderful filmmakers who presented a short in these awards who then went on to become some of our greatest filmmakers.”

With many productions forced to press pause last year, Moodley said the number of entries exceeded his expectations.

“We received more entries than any before, and some by quite established filmmakers who had gone back to make a short during these times of constraints,” he said.

The selection of films offers a diverse range of genres, including comedy, horror and animation that will be competing for three coveted prizes announced on the festival’s closing night.

Among the finalists are The Stranger (2020) directed by Jenny Hicks and starring Mad Max actor Steve Bisley; Olivia Martin-McGuire’s Freedom Swimmer (2021), which documents a mass migration story from the 20th century; and Peeps (2020), directed by Sophie Somerville, which presents a portrait of five unique teenage girls in contemporary Australia.

“Watching these 10 films, you really get a sense of a new gen­eration of Australian filmmakers who are taking on really fascinating subjects and doing so incredibly stylishly,” Moodley said.

Sydney’s festival program will also include Europe! Voices of Women in Film from 10 vital ­European women filmmakers.

“From revered award-­winners to powerful exam­inations of prejudice and inequality … these films are sure to resonate with festival ­audiences,” Moodley said.

The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films finalists will screen at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on November 13 and 14.