Featuring 248 films from 81 countries including 19 World Premieres, 3 International Premieres and 140 Australian Premieres, with screenings at the State Theatre, Sydney Opera House and cinemas across the city, the 73rd Sydney Film Festival program has been officially launched by Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
“We want to invite you to join us at SFF this year, where each moment offers an opportunity for discovery and empathy. Art and cinema help us make sense of the world, take us into the lives of people far away from us, and remind us to remain vigilant about our own rights and freedoms. And we can’t forget, they’re also an enormous source of joy,” said Nashen Moodley.
“This Festival keeps winning the war against the couch and getting people back to the cinema. There is nothing like stepping away from the noise of your day-to-day life and immersing yourself in the cinematic wonder of a film you’ve never seen before. NSW is the nation’s leading hub for screen production, the government is backing it for more growth, and this Festival is a reminder of why we do it,” said the Minister for the Arts John Graham.
OPENING NIGHT:
The 73rd Sydney Film Festival will open Wednesday 3 June with the Australian Premiere of Silenced, directed by Selina Miles. The Sundance-premiered documentary follows international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson as she fights against the weaponisation of defamation law by alleged perpetrators to silence survivors and journalists. The film traces the cases of Brittany Higgins, Catalina Ruiz-Navarro and Amber Heard. Director Selina Miles, and subject Jennifer Robinson will attend Opening Night to present the film.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION:
In 2026, the Official Competition celebrates 18 years of the prestigious Sydney Film Prize, which sees $60,000 awarded each year to an “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous” film. From Australia, Leviticus is a bold, breakout Sundance hit from Australian Adrian Chiarella, where two teenage boys contend with an evil force that takes on the form of the person they desire most: each other.
Films direct from the Cannes Competition include Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, a taut thriller that melds the personal and political in 2022 Russia; Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales, in which a writer uses surveillance for inspiration, with an all-star French cast including Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve.
Kore-eda Hirokazu’s (Shoplifters, SFF 2018; Monster, SFF 2023) Sheep in the Box, a moving near-future drama about grieving parents who turn to AI to rebuild their family; and Paweł Pawlikowski’s (Ida; Cold War, SFF 2018) Fatherland, a sensational snapshot of writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika navigating post-war Germany, starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler.
Also straight from the Cannes Competition are; Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, starring Léa Seydoux; Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure following a woman on a perilous mission through the Bulgarian borderlands; and Cristian Mungiu’s (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) English language debut Fjord, a thought-provoking family drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve.
Also from Cannes Un Certain Regard, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Ben’Imana is an emotionally powerful exploration of reconciliation following the Rwandan genocide, set to be one of the year’s most acclaimed debuts.
Major international prize winners and much anticipated film also compete. Visar Morina’s Shame and Money, winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, is a deeply humane drama following a Kosovar family in dire financial circumstances; Alain Gomis’ (Félicité, SFF 2017) Dao, presented in the Berlinale Competition, is a swirling, life-affirming epic across Guinea-Bissau and France.
Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men, a sparkling political romantic comedy from Afghanistan, opened the Berlinale. Olivia Wilde’s (Booksmart, SFF 2019) The Invite, a Sundance hit starring Seth Rogen, Wilde herself, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, dissects modern relationships over one combustible dinner party.
The winner of the Sydney Film Prize is announced at the Festival’s Closing Night Gala on Sunday 14 June. Previous winners include: It Was Just an Accident (2025), There’s Still Tomorrow (2024), The Mother of All Lies (2023), Close (2022), There Is No Evil (2021), Parasite (2019), The Heiresses (2018), On Body and Soul (2017), Aquarius (2016), Arabian Nights (2015), Two Days, One Night (2014), Only God Forgives (2013), Alps (2012), A Separation (2011), Heartbeats (2010), Bronson (2009), and Hunger (2008).
The competition is the only film competition in Australia endorsed by FIAPF, the regulating body for international film festivals, and is judged by a jury of international and Australian filmmakers and industry professionals.
The 2026 Official Competition jury will be presided over by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (The Secret Agent, SFF 2026), alongside Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul, SFF 2017), Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng (Apprentice), Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), and Australian First Nations producer and director Sally Riley (Mystery Road).
DOCUMENTARY AUSTRALIA AWARD:
Ten outstanding new Australian documentaries will compete for the $20,000 Documentary Australia Award, with the winning film also becoming Academy Award eligible.
World Premieres include Rodeo Dreams, the engrossing story of four young Queensland bull riders following their dreams across Gulf Country to the Mount Isa Rodeo; Yumburra, Grace McKenzie’s portrait of Bruce Pascoe in the aftermath of Dark Emu, living on his riverside farm and testing the theories of his landmark book; and The Piano Tuner, Natalia Laska’s eight-year profile of Martin Tucker, a passionate piano doctor on a mission to save Australia’s ageing instruments.
Australian films premiering in competition include Mockbuster, Anthony Frith’s hilarious audience award-winning documentary charting his attempt to make a dinosaur film for notorious B-movie house The Asylum in just six days; Whistle, Christopher Nelius’ (Girls Can’t Surf, SFF 2021) offbeat crowd-pleaser following the world’s greatest whistling competition, from Toronto 2025; Phenomena, Josef Gatti’s visually stunning psychedelic odyssey into the forces that shape the natural world, a hit at True/False and CPH:DOX; and Replica, in which three Chinese women turn to AI for love and connection, an award-winning documentary from debut director Chouwa Liang.
Also in competition are Silenced, which opens the Festival; Sukundimi Walks Before Me, a powerful documentary following an Indigenous PNG community’s campaign to preserve the Sepik River from a mining project; and Time and Tide, Vee Shi’s compelling hybrid docu-drama tracing contemporary China through a multigenerational family navigating the pressures of familial obligation.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS AT THE STATE:
The State Theatre sets the stage for Sydney Film Festival’s biggest nights, with red carpet premieres, award-winning films and star-studded special events.
Star-led features include Dead Man’s Wire, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery and Al Pacino, recounting the infamous 1977 hostage standoff broadcast live across America; and Rays and Shadows, Xavier Giannoli’s sweeping epic starring Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin as a press baron navigating Nazi-occupied France.
Direct from Cannes comes The Man I Love, Ira Sachs’ romantic drama set in 1980s New York, starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge and Rebecca Hall; The Birthday Party, a taut thriller starring Hafsia Herzi and Monica Bellucci; and Colony, from Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho, a propulsive zombie action film from Cannes Midnight.
Silent Friend, winner of the Venice FIPRESCI Prize, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux in Ildikó Enyedi’s (On Body and Soul, Sydney Film Prize 2017) story spanning a century through the life of a ginkgo tree; Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun’s (I Saw the TV Glow, SFF 2024) stylish psychosexual horror, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson; and The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (Cure, SFF 1998) majestic Cannes-selected samurai epic.
Australian voices feature strongly. Pressure, the much-anticipated latest from acclaimed Australian director Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai), stars Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser in the true story of one meteorologist’s impact on D-Day. Ian Darling’s (The Final Quarter, SFF 2019) The Valley also has its World Premiere, a meditative portrait of life in Kangaroo Valley.
Major award winners also screen. Yellow Letters, the Berlinale Golden Bear winner, and Rose, which earned Sandra Hüller the Berlinale Silver Bear, both have their Australian premieres. Sundays, winner of Best Film at the San Sebastián Film Festival, follows a teenage girl whose decision to enter convent life unmasks the frailties of her family.
Also screening are Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s (Taxi to the Dark Side, SFF 2008) captivating account of Rushdie’s recovery after being stabbed 15 times; and Árru, a powerful Berlinale debut following a Sámi reindeer herder confronting a mining project threatening her ancestral lands.
FEATURES:
Australian features lead with bold new work, including Saccharine, from Natalie Erika James (Relic), a body horror following a medical student addicted to sinister weight-loss pills; and The Fox, Dario Russo’s absurdist Australian folktale starring Jai Courtney and Emily Browning, with Olivia Colman as a talking fox and Sam Neill as a magpie.
First Light, a debut from Filipino-Australian director James J. Robinson, about a nun whose suspicion leads her to a crisis of faith; Yesterday Island, Sam Voutas’ dark indie comedy about a man trapped on an island in a time loop; and Don’t Tell Mother, Anoop Lokkur’s debut set in 1990s Bangalore, from Busan.
Other Australian features include the World Premiere of French Girls, the impressive debut from Hyun Lee, following a young Sydney woman drawn into the world of modelling; Boss Cat, Genevieve Clay-Smith’s World Premiere, a story of family, friendship and the power of krumping from Bus Stop Films; and Body Blow, Dean Francis’ erotic thriller starring Paul Capsis, following a disgraced cop plunged into Sydney’s neon-lit gay nightlife.
International award winners and top festival selections include Queen at Sea, Lance Hammer’s (Ballast, SFF 2008) Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize winner, starring Juliette Binoche; Animol, Ashley Walters’ debut starring Stephen Graham, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlinale; and We Are All Strangers, Anthony Chen’s (Ilo Ilo, SFF 2014) quietly epic drama and the first-ever Singaporean film in Berlinale Competition.
The Blood Countess, Ulrike Ottinger’s passion project starring Isabelle Huppert and written by Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek; Filipiñana, Rafael Manuel’s Sundance Special Jury Award-winning debut, following a teenage tee-girl uncovering class divisions beneath the pristine surface of an elite Manila golf course; and Lost Land, the first-ever Rohingya-language feature and Venice award winner, following two young siblings on a perilous journey to reunite with their family.
Direct from Un Certain Regard at Cannes comes Strawberries, directed by Laïla Marrakchi’s (Rock the Casbah, SFF 2014), following exploited Moroccan migrant women working the strawberry picking season in Andalucia; and Behind the Palm Trees, from filmmaker Meryem Benm’Barek, charting the risky affair of an opportunistic Moroccan man and a wealthy French woman in Tangier.
Also from Cannes, Everytime, Sandra Wollner’s psychological drama starring Birgit Minichmayr, follows a family reckoning with tragedy between Berlin and Tenerife. From Cannes Directors’ Fortnight come 9 Temples to Heaven, produced by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a debut accompanying a Thai family’s pilgrimage; and I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Clio Barnard’s ensemble drama about five Birmingham childhood friends, starring Anthony Boyle and Joe Cole.
Star-led international features include The Death of Robin Hood, in which Hugh Jackman stars alongside Jodie Comer and Bill Skarsgård in Michael Sarnoski’s radical reimagining of the legend; and Palestine 36, Annemarie Jacir’s (Wajib, SFF 2017) sweeping historical epic starring Hiam Abbass and Jeremy Irons, winner of Best Film at Tokyo.
Rosebush Pruning, Karim Aïnouz’s (Motel Destino, SFF 2024) satire of privilege, starring Elle Fanning, Callum Turner and Riley Keough; and The Wizard of the Kremlin, Olivier Assayas’ (Personal Shopper, SFF 2016) political thriller about the rise of Vladimir Putin, starring Paul Dano and Jude Law, from Venice.
Also featuring major screen talent are Late Fame, starring Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee in Kent Jones’ drama about a retired poet rediscovered by New York poseurs; and The Good Boy, from Polish Oscar nominee Jan Komasa, starring Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough in a twisted psychological thriller;
Heart of Light – Eleven Songs for Fiji, featuring Tilda Swinton in Cynthia Beatt’s speculative autobiography about a British woman returning to her childhood home in Fiji, from Rotterdam; I Want Your Sex, Gregg Araki’s darkly funny sex comedy starring Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman and Charli xcx, from Sundance; and Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, from the creators of Wet Hot American Summer, starring Zoey Deutch and Jon Hamm.
Intimate character studies span the globe, including Hen, György Pálfi’s beguiling survival drama following an extraordinarily courageous hen, an Honourable Mention at Toronto Platform; and The Loneliest Man in Town, from Austrian duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (Mister Universo, SFF 2017), a docufiction about an ageing bluesman, from the Berlinale Competition;
The Mutation, Shin Su-won’s (Hommage, SFF 2022) drama about division and identity in South Korea, from Busan; People and Meat, a bittersweet Korean gem following three elderly Seoul residents who become a dine-and-dash gang; The World of Love, praised by Bong Joon-ho; Mama, Or Sinai’s debut starring Evgenia Dodina as a Ukrainian housekeeper returning home to Poland; and A Sad and Beautiful World, a Venice audience award winner set against decades of turmoil in Lebanon.
Queer stories feature across the program, including Strange River, a sensual queer coming-of-age Venice debut; Julian, produced by Lukas Dhont (Close, Sydney Film Prize 2022), winner of five Flemish Film Awards including Best Film; and On the Road, David Pablos’ Venice Queer Lion winner following two Mexican drug dealers whose relationship blossoms into romance.
Asian cinema brings further distinctive voices, including Morte Cucina, from Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang and shot by Australian Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love), a darkly funny Bangkok revenge thriller; Master, Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s Rotterdam award-winning political drama about a Bangladeshi official caught between his electorate and those in power; and Ripples in the Mist, Clara Law’s (Drifting Petals, SFF 2021) essayistic drama following two Hong Kong women in exile across Taiwan and Australia.
Latin American, North African and Middle Eastern cinema offers a rich selection, including The Arab, Malek Bensmaïl’s debut reworking Albert Camus’ The Stranger through a postcolonial lens; Isabel, Gabe Klinger’s (Porto, SFF 2017) Berlinale character study about a São Paulo sommelier; Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars, from Chadian master Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Lingui, SFF 2021), a magical realist tale about a young woman whose visions lead her to freedom; Flies, Fernando Eimbcke’s (Olmo, SFF 2025) blackly comic tale of an unlikely pair of housemates, produced by Michel Franco; and El Sett, portraying the life of legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum in a lavish and epic telling.
Further highlights include 100 Sunset, a debut noir following a young Tibetan thief; Mile End Kicks, Chandler Levack’s (I Like Movies, SFF 2023) romantic comedy starring Barbie Ferreira; Mouse, a coming-of-age gem starring Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo; and Rose of Nevada, Mark Jenkin’s (Bait, SFF 2019) Venice time-travel mystery starring George MacKay and Callum Turner.
Erupcja, Pete Ohs’ portrait of a Warsaw getaway gone awry starring musician Charli xcx, from Toronto; The American Dream, a joyous true-story buddy movie about basketball from the producers of The Intouchables; Memory of Princess Mumbi, exploring artificial intelligence and human creativity; and Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, Shahram Mokri’s (Fish & Cat, SFF 2014) meta-narrative in which three dreamlike stories involving a car accident, a prop gun and an aspiring actress collide.
SARTORIAL: FASHION ON FILM:
Sartorial: Film On Fashion, curated by SFF Senior Programmer Jessica Moraza, brings together seven films spanning decades of cinema, in which some of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers use fashion as a lens on identity, culture and power. From the ateliers of Paris to the factory floors of China, the program moves between documentary and fiction to explore how clothing reflects and shapes the societies that produce it.
Highlights include the World Premiere of Australian film French Girls, directed by Hyun Lee, following a young woman navigating Sydney’s modelling industry; alongside the Australian premiere of Marc by Sofia, Sofia Coppola’s first ever documentary and a personal portrait of designer Marc Jacobs.
The strand also features Frederick Wiseman’s landmark Model, Jia Zhangke’s Useless, Agnès Varda’s playful profile Jane B. par Agnès V., Wim Wenders’ Notebook on Cities and Clothes, and Robert Altman’s satirical ensemble Prêt-à-Porter, offering a rich and multifaceted exploration of fashion on screen.
SCREENABILITY:
Sydney Film Festival marks ten years of its Screenability program with a bold line-up of films by and about people living with disability, curated by Rebecca McCormack.
Joybubbles, Rachael J. Morrison’s exuberant, life-affirming documentary following a blind man who uses his gift for perfect pitch to manipulate the phone system and make free calls, comes from Sundance, produced by Sarah Winshall (I Saw the TV Glow, SFF 2024). Retreat, Ted Evans’ groundbreaking thriller featuring an all-Deaf cast, follows a young woman who arrives at a remote wellness retreat where nothing is as it seems, nominated for the Golden Eye Award at Zurich.
And You Look Fine, comedian J. Snow’s documentary capturing the unfiltered realities of living with sickle cell disease with humour and perseverance, won both the Unstoppable Feature Grand Jury Prize and Unstoppable Audience Award at Slamdance.
Also screening are three Australian short films – Sarsaparilla, in which a sheriff and his outlaw nemesis bond over their love of line dancing; Trapeze, a World Premiere exploring autonomy, ancestral ties and Deaf identity; and When You Hear Hoofbeats, an Australian Premiere in which a woman struggles to have her medical symptoms taken seriously, leading her to believe she’s been possessed by the devil.
THE HUB:
The Hub at Lower Town Hall is where Sydney Film Festival steps off the screen. Connect with fellow filmgoers and filmmakers, participate in special events and exclusive talks, or grab a drink and a bite to eat with friends as you discuss your Festival favourites.
Open to the public each night, and select days from 3 – 14 June, The Hub will feature a daily Happy Hour special pop-up bar between 4:30pm and 6:00pm with drinks from Kirin Ichiban and Mt Yengo Wines.
The Hub will also feature the Air Canada Lounge, where Festivalgoers can enjoy a taste of Canada with complimentary in-flight snacks, with poutine on sale behind the bar to refuel between sessions.
The 73rd Sydney Film Festival runs 3 – 14 June 2026. For more information, full program and to book tickets, visit: www.sff.org.au for details.
Images: Silenced (film still) | Minotaur (film still) | Shame and Money (film still) | Rodeo Dreams (film still) | Dead Man’s Wire (film still) | Saccharine (film still) | Strawberries (film still) | Heart of Light – Eleven Songs for Fiji (film still) | French Girls (film still)