Sleeping Beauty and Toomelah in SFF Competition
Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty and Ivan Sen’s Toomelah are the two Australian titles in this year’s Sydney Film Festival Official Competition.
The line-up also includes The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick), Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols), A Separation (Asghar Farhadi), The Forgiveness of Blood (Joshua Marston), Amador (Fernando Leon de Aranoa), Target (Alexander Zeldovich), 678 (Mohamed Diab), Attenberg (Athna Rachel Tsangari), The Future (Miranda July) and Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung).
The full program has been announced (available here) and includes 75 features, 39 documentaries, 34 short films, 13 retrospective titles, 10 world premieres, 86 Australian premieres, 42 countries, 47 languages and 29 Australian productions (1 retrospective, 6 features, 10 documentaries, 12 short films).
The opening night film is Joe Wright’s Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana; the festival will be closed by Mike Mills’ Beginners.
“From the daring stylistic approaches in our Official Competition selection through the inspirational subjects and investigations in the Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize lineup, this year’s festival is a rousing chorus of unfettered vision, enquiry and creativity,” said festival director Clare Stewart.
Australian features include 33 Postcards (Pauline Chan), Black & White & Sex (John Winter) and Hail (Amiel Courtin-Wilson).
The event will include new venues, such as international television marathons at AFTRS, talks and drinks at Grasshoper Bar, and a live site in Martin Place.
