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Tag: Sydney Film Festival

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2021

Friday, November 19th, 2021 Film Reviews,

It was a long intermission between June 2019 and this month, but the 68thSydney Film Festival finally made it to the cinemas – and came through with every sign of success. My own attendance was more sporadic than usual but the overall impression was bouyant. I’m not sure if this was because of the program, […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2019: A First Look

Friday, June 7th, 2019 Film Reviews,

It’s time scientists studied the link between major arts events in Sydney and rainfall. All it takes to break the drought is the opening of Sculpture by the Sea, or Vivid, or, last week, the Sydney Film Festival. Admittedly one only gets damp en route to the Film Festival, and can spend the rest of the […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2018: Fashion Documentaries

Thursday, May 31st, 2018 Film Reviews,

This year the Sydney Film Festival turns 65 but has no thoughts of retirement. On the contrary, with more than 250 films being screened over a mere 12 days, the SFF is operating at the peak of its powers. Arriving at a time of year when good new releases are scarce it offers something for […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2016

Friday, June 17th, 2016 Film Reviews,

This is the closing weekend of the Sydney Film Festival and I’ve managed to see 22 out of 254 films. A paltry score, but enough to get the general flavour of proceedings. Some of those films such as Goldstone, Everybody Wants Some!!, Demolition and The BFG will be released in the near future, so it […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2016

Friday, June 10th, 2016 Film Reviews,

Whoever puts together the official program for the Sydney Film Festival should be given responsibility for the city’s urban redevelopment. The minds behind such a masterpiece of cross-referencing, indexing and organisation might have thought twice about the over-expansion of Green Square, the stealthy growth of Barangaroo, the tree massacre on Anzac Parade, and the ludicrous […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2015

Saturday, June 13th, 2015 Film Reviews,

A first glance the program for the annual Sydney Film Festival is like dipping into a voluminous menu written in a foreign language. You know there are lots of good things in there but it’s not easy to identify them. Experience dictates that films which sound like non-events may turn out to be masterpieces, and […]

Blog

Alex Gibney Lunch

Saturday, June 13th, 2015 Blog,

Meeting Alex Gibney for High Tea is almost too civilised. This is the fearless documentary maker who gave us a devastating portrait of a rogue multinational – Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Since that ground-breaking film of 2005 Gibney has directed more than twenty feature-length documentaries and worked on many smaller projects. He […]

Film Reviews

Two Days, One Night

Saturday, November 8th, 2014 Film Reviews,

Two Days, One Night by Belgian filmmakers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes took out the major prize at this year’s Sydney Film Festival. It’s an indication of the socially conscious tastes of the jury that they should have preferred this slab of uncompromising realism to the unique experiment of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, or the irresistible charm […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2014

Saturday, June 14th, 2014 Film Reviews,

Sydney’s passion for cinema is beyond dispute, but the annual Sydney Film Festival is as close as this hedonistic city gets to a religious experience. For two weeks diehards will submit themselves to four, possibly five films a day. It’s a luxury for those who don’t have to turn up at the office on Monday […]