What to watch at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival

When the weather in Sydney turns cold and wet, you know it’s almost time for the Sydney Film Festival.

Many a day and night have been spent seated at the State Theatre, umbrella on the floor in front, big coat folded in the lap as audiences shared in the experience of storytelling from all over the world.

This year’s festival has just launched its program, comprising of 197 movies from 69 countries. It will host 28 world premieres, including the opening night selection, the documentary Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line.

Tickets are on sale now and if you’re keen on whiling away a couple of hours at the festival, here are our picks for some intriguing films.

KINDS OF KINDNESS

Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos was already hard at work in post-production on Kinds of Kindness when his most recent release, Poor Things, has doing the rounds on the awards circuit. He reunites with his muse, Emma Stone, on their third collaboration together after Poor Things and The Favourite for this anthology film that also features Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Mamoudou Athie. One of the stories is about a man who is surprised by the return of his wife who went missing at sea.

KNEECAP

Audiences love a biopic of a musician (Freddie! Elton! Elvis!) but they probably weren’t expecting a dramatisation of the origin story of Irish rappers Kneecap. Even more unlikely, that the musicians would play themselves in a movie that is not a documentary. The comedy was a hit when it premiered at Sundance and won an audience award for the story about how the Belfast Irish-language rappers formed their sound and social impact by being proudly and authentically Irish, which, for centuries, has been a political act.

VIET AND NAM

Billed as a moving love story between two gay miners, Viet and Nam is from young Vietnamese filmmaker Truong Minh Quy and it will compete in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this month. Shot on 16mm stock, the film tells of two miners who found each other in the most gruelling circumstances, determined to find the remains of one of their dads. And they must do this before Nam leaves for a new life overseas.

THE CONVERT

Legendary New Zealand director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) returns with his new film, The Convert, starring Guy Pearce. Pearce will play a British preacher during the 1830s Maori wars, caught in the brittle atmosphere of suspicion and political intrigue after he saves the life of a chief’s daughter. Described as a sweeping historical epic, it seeks to reckon with a tumultuous period in Aotearoa’s history, a time of conflict, colonialism and resistance.

DAHOMEY

French actor and filmmaker Mati Diop won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2019 for her first narrative feature, Atlantics, so it’s no surprise her follow-up, the documentary Dahomey collected the Golden Bear in Berlin. Diop uses an innovative format to dramatise the imminent return to Benin of 26 treasures plundered from the Kingdom of Benin by French troops. It’s a way to explore France’s legacy of colonialism in North Africa.

THE BIKERIDERS

Director Jeff Nichols is one of those filmmakers serious actors want to work with, so he’s attracted a stellar cast for The Bikeriders, including Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and frequent collaborator Michael Shannon. Inspired by 1960s book of photographs, the story takes place within The Vandals motorcycle club and the torn loyalties of a young man between his wife and his biker tribe, which is increasingly out of control as the membership grows.

MY OLD ASS

Directed by Megan and produced by Margot Robbie’s production company, this quirky comedy won rave reviews at Sundance. It tells the story of Elliot, a university-bound teenager who meets a woman who claims to be her future self, and she has a piece of advice, don’t fall in love. Seems simple enough, until she meets the boy she has specifically been warned away from. The movie stars Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza.