Kicking off on Wednesday 8th June, the 63rd Sydney Film Festival has announced eight new films and one restoration, arriving directly from Cannes, to screen as part of this year’s program.
“The Festival is very pleased to announce another six feature films, two documentaries, and one short film, have been added to the program, which now stands at 254 films presented over the 12-day Festival,” said Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
“All nine films come direct from Cannes to Sydney Film Festival including Korean director Park Chan-wook’s sensual, twist-filled tale The Handmaiden; FIPRESCI Prize winner Maren Ade’s clever and original comedy about the complexities of familial relationships, Toni Erdmann; Jim Jarmusch’s popular Cannes hit Paterson, a gentle, quietly moving portrait of a bus driver poet and his artistic wife and Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper, a spooky ghost story starring Kristen Stewart.”
Stewart’s new drama Personal Shopper divided critics at Cannes and is sure to be get tongues wagging when it hits screens in Sydney. Described by the Guardian as “uncategorisable – yet undeniably terrifying,” the film’s Director Olivier Assayas tied in the Best Director category for the French psychological thriller (screening Wednesday 15 June at 9:15pm and again on Friday 17 June at 8:15pm).
The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook’s highly-anticipated adaption of Sarah Water’s novel ‘Fingersmith,’ set in Korea in the 1930s, will too prove a highlight (screening Saturday 18 June at 9:15pm and again on 19 June at 8:50pm). Adam Driver, following a string of hits in Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special and last year’s The Force Awakens stars as an American bus driver and poet in Paterson (screening Tuesday 14 June at 9:15pm and again on Thursday 16 June at 8:30pm), which alongside The Handmaiden was nominated for this year’s Palme d’Or.
A restoration of Marlon Brando’s western One Eyed Jacks, the only film ever directed by Brando, will also screen as part of the Festival, along with new arrivals The Cinema Travellers, The Beast and Hissein Habre, A Chadian Tragedy. Cannes Special Jury Prize winner The Red Turtle, Studio Ghibli’s first ever international co-production, will too screen in Sydney. Containing no dialogue, The Red Turtle depicts the life of a deserted castaway on a tropical island and his interactions with turtles, crabs and birds.
The latest films from Cannes will bring the total number of additions from the recently concluded Festival to 18, the most recently announced entries joining a number of other films including Viggo Mortensen’s family drama Captain Fantastic and Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World which took out the Grand Prix in May.
The Sydney Film Festival runs from the 8th-19th of June, with tickets for the recently announced screenings going on sale Monday at 10am. For more information visit the Festival website
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