Coronavirus: Bryan Brown festive as Sydney Film Festival goes virtual
It may be a virtual experience this year, but with the legendary actor on the jury, the Sydney Film Festival will be an event to remember.
For Bryan Brown, actor, producer and 2020 Sydney Film Festival short-film jury member, COVID-19 is no reason to cancel the event.
“You can’t let a virus stand in your way. If you’re stopping us all from being together, then we’ll find another way around you, you little bastard,” he says firmly. “If they’re going to do a virtual film festival, good for them; it won’t be like the Tokyo Olympics, which is not on. We’ll have a festival.”
This year’s Sydney Film Festival, which launched its program on May 27, is a virtual experience, an online version that’s available for the first time to viewers around Australia. This 67th edition, brought together in the midst of a pandemic, is what festival director Nashen Moodley calls “a distilled essence” of the annual event.
Australian documentaries are to the fore, with 10 films in the running for the festival’s documentary award. The program Europe! Voices of Women in Film returns for its fifth outing with 10 features, including Neasa Hardiman’s science fiction thriller Sea Fever; Amanda Kernell’s Swedish custody drama Charter; and Marta Pulk’s A Year Full of Drama, about a young woman who undertakes to watch every Estonian theatre production staged across a 12-month period.
Brown, with directors George Miller and Sophie Hyde, will be a jury member for the long-running Dendy festival awards, presented to the best short film, best animated short and best director. Ten films are in contention for a prize that has helped to launch the careers of some of Australia’s best-known filmmakers.
There will be events, panels, interviews and discussions as part of the virtual event; details are available on the festival website. Highlights from previous festivals, such as a Q&A with Oscar-winning Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, can be accessed online in the Reverse Shot program.
Brown is pleased the festival will be going ahead virtually, but he also knows he’s going to miss being part of a physical audience in a familiar space. “I’m going to miss the State Theatre,” he says.
“We don’t get to use that lovely theatre very often and the Sydney Film Festival is one of the things that makes it come alive. I’m going to miss being in the lobby there with a whole lot of people who enjoy seeing films from all over the place, looking across at people with packed lunches who’ve been there for six hours.
“Coronavirus reminds us of how much we like being part of things.”
Tickets at sff.org au with access to the full festival for $199. Single tickets are also available. The films can be screened on demand for the duration. A selection of films from past festivals will be available at SBS On Demand from June 10 to July 10. A virtual awards presentation will take place from 6pm on June 18.
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