Sydney Film Festival (SFF) has revealed the first 13 titles selected for its 73rd edition (June 3-14).
Set to receive its world premiere at the long-running festival in Australia is The Valley, a documentary directed by Ian Darling about the community of creatives, labourers and volunteer firefighters in the community of Kangaroo Valley, about two hours south of Sydney. Darling’s documentary The Final Quarter played at SFF in 2019.
Further Australian features in the inaugural selection include Silenced, a documentary by Selina Miles that follows human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement.
Star-led features include Pete Ohs’ party girl drama Erupcja, starring and co-produced by Charli XCX, which premiered at Toronto; and Marianne Faithfull documentary Broken English, directed by UK filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, and starring Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, which played at Venice.
French icon Isabelle Huppert leads Ulrike Ottinger’s vampire spoof The Blood Countess, while Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery and Al Pacino head the cast of Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, which premiered at Venice.
Festival award-winners set to receive their Australian premieres in Sydney include Ilker Catak’s political drama Yellow Letters, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale; Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana, which scooped a special jury award at Sundance; and Ildikó Enyedi’s drama Silent Friend, which collected the Fipresci prize at Venice and stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux.
SFF festival director Nashen Moodley said: “Prize winners from Berlinale and Sundance, an immersive world premiere from Australia, Isabelle Huppert as a vampire who’s as fabulous as they come, and more – we wanted to offer a glimpse of the distinctive voices from across the globe coming to SFF.”
Sydney Film Festival 2026 first titles
The Best Summer (US-Australia)
Dir. Tamra Davis
The Blood Countess (Lux-Ger-Austria)
Dir. Ulrike Ottinger
Broken English (UK)
Dirs. Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Dead Man’s Wire (US)
Dir. Gus Van Sant
El Sett (Egy-Saudi)
Dir. Marwan Hamed
Erupcja (US-Pol)
Dir. Pete Ohs
Filipinana (Sing-UK-Phil-Fr-Neth)
Dir. Rafael Manuel
Memory Of Princess Mumbi (Kenya-Switz-Saudi)
Dir. Damien Hauser
Past Future Continuous (Iran-Nor-It)
Dirs. Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani
Silenced (Australia-UK)
Dir. Selina Miles
Silent Friend (Ger-Fr-Hun)
Dir. Ildikó Enyedi
The Valley (Australia)
Dir. Ian Darling
Yellow Letters (Ger-Fr-Turkey)
Dir. İlker Çatak
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