Sydney Film Festival 2019: Highlights of the Program

The full program for this year's Sydney Film Festival was revealed this morning, with dozens of films coming to cinemas all around the city. After scouring through the full list, here are the nine movies that most interest me. At the end of the day, due to being busy, I'll have to cut four of these to see five at various cinemas. Here they are:

Apollo 11


After storming Sundance and South by Southwest with overwhelmingly positive reviews, this IMAX documentary about the moon landing is finally coming to Australia as part of SFF. I've seen it at or near the top of many '2019 ranked' lists so I'm really looking forward to this one.

Mon 10 June - 9:30am - State Theatre
Sat 15 June - 2:00pm - Casula Powerhouse
Sun 16 June - 1:45pm - Hoyts Entertainment Quarter 15


The Dead Don't Die


Jim Jarmusch's new zombie comedy will be appearing at SFF just a few weeks after it opens the Cannes Film Festival and, as with most of these, it is currently the only Australian release date slated for this movie. Although the trailer failed to make too much of an impression on me, it's quirkiness and stellar cast aree drawing me, and audiences everywhere, in.

Fri 14 June - 6:30pm - State Theatre
Sat 15 June - 8:45pm - Ritz Cinema Randwick
Sun 16 June - 6:45pm - Event Cinemas George Street


Hail Satan?


The premise of this documentary is so ridiculous you kind of have to see it. It follows the new Satanic Temple that was set up a few years ago in the United States and their battle for freedom to worship whoever they please. Specifically, Satan. This doco will probably have a tongue-in-cheek tone but something to say about freedom to religion. Should be interesting.

Mon 10 June - 6:30pm - Event Cinemas George Street
Thu 13 June - 8:30pm - Dendy Newtown


I Am Mother


Here's one for the sci-fi fans: I Am Mother is a slightly mysterious dystopian film directed by Australian Grant Sputore and starring Hilary Swank and Rose Byrne. This only has one showing, possibly because it looks like it'll be coming to Netflix pretty soon after. That puts it slightly lower on my priority list, but it'd still be cool to see an original Australian sci-fi on the big screen,

Thu 6 June - 6:30pm - Ritz Cinema Randwick


The Kleptocrats


This documentary was part of the first films announced for the festival and caught my eye when I was scrolling through weeks ago. It's about embezzlement in the Malaysian government. I know that doesn't sound too interesting, but might I add that the money embezzled was used to fund the parties thrown by the people who made The Wolf of Wall Street. It is a crime that runs from Malaysia to Hollywood, and would probably make for a pretty interesting documentary.

Wed 5 June - 8:15pm - Dendy Opera Quays Cinema 1
Sun 16 June - 2:15pm - Dendy Newtown


Midnight Family


Yet another documentary, this one follows a family in Mexico City as they run a private ambulance service, caring for citizens in urgent need of help. As time goes on, their financial needs begin to come into conflict with the safety of their patients. This is an intriguing premise and I'd like to see how it turns out for the family.

Fri 7 June - 6:45pm - Dendy Newtown
Sat 15 June - 12:45pm - Dendy Opera Quays Cinema 1


The Miracle of the Little Prince


The Miracle of the Little Prince is a documentary (today is not a good day to be a fiction fan) about the translators of the book The Little Prince, and their battle to protect their dying language. I don't know too much about book translators and I think this would be an interesting documentary, probably with some beautiful landscape cinematography, as seen above.

Thu 6 June - 10:00am - State TheatreSat 8 June - 4:00pm - Dendy Opera Quays Cinema 1


Skin


Of all the films that I selected for this post, this is the one with the most showings, and it's easy to see why. The short film (by the same director) that it's based on took home the Best Live Action Short Oscar earlier this year, and it is (in my opinion) an early contender for a Best Picture nominee next year. It's also got a classic morality premise, about a white supremacist who decides to leave that, uh, line of work and has to disentangle himself from his dangerous friends. It had a cracking trailer, which I reviewed just a short while ago, and I was very happy to see it in the program, especially since I'm not sure when it'll get released Down Under afterwards. Of all of these films, this is probably the one I'm most excited for.

Thu 6 June - 6:15pm - Event Cinemas George Street
Sat 8 June - 7:00pm - Ritz Cinema Randwick
Sun 9 June - 1:30pm - Hayden Orpheum Cremorne
Mon 10 June - 11:20pm - State Theatre


The Wedding Guest


Dev Patel is an actor who I think has a lot of potential but is hampered by how he keeps taking either the same lead roles (look at him in Slumdog Millionaire compared to him in Lion. Basically the same character) or useless supporting roles. So I'm excited to see him take a role that's a bit different in this, as a man who is paid to take a woman away from her arranged wedding and make it look like a kidnapping. The trailer gave away a bit much but I'm still intrigued.

Wed 5 June - 6:30pm - Event Cinemas George Street
Fri 7 June - 6:30pm - Ritz Cinema Randwick


And that's it! I hope I'll be able to navigate the showtimes for the ones I want to see around my other commitments. It's going to be hard to cut those nine down to five. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Thanks for reading!