“As the 61st Sydney Film Festival draws to a close, we urge audiences to make the most of the special ‘due to popular demand’ extra sessions, Friday the 13th spooky events and the chance to see a film in one of our beautiful Art Deco picture houses at the State Theatre and the Hayden Orpheum Palace Cremorne,” said SFF Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
The are two Official Competition films still to screen at the magnificent State Theatre: the World Premiere of the stunning debut Australian film Fell on Friday 13 June at 6pm and Saturday 14 June at 12pm; and the spectacular futuristic feature Snowpiercer featuring Tilda Swinton on Saturday 14 June at 6:45pm and Sunday 15 June at 12pm. Also at the State, but not in Competition, is an entertaining documentary about cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky called Jodorowsky’s Dune on Saturday 14 June at 2:15pm.
Catch the final films in the Festival at the beautifully restored Art Deco cinema on the North Shore, the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Cremorne. There are still tickets available to films including award-winning director Ira Sachs’ moving and beautifully tender romance Love is Strange on Thursday 12 June at 6:30pm; Southern Gothic drama Joe from David Gordon Green and starring Nicolas Cage on Friday 13 June at 8:30pm; award-winning Argentine director Daniel Burman’s thoughtful comedic drama about midlife crises, The Mystery of Happiness on Saturday 14 June at 6:15pm; and winner of Best Film at this year's Canadian Screen Awards, Gabrielle, an uplifting story about contemporary relationships, on Sunday 15 June at 6:15pm (Gabrielle also screens at the State Theatre on Friday 13 June at 8:35pm and at Events Cinema George Street on Saturday 14 June at 7pm).
Experience Friday the 13th in horrifically good style at the Festival with the special screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at the retro Skyline Drive-In Blacktown at 11pm; or the black-comic tragedy Love Eternal at Event Cinemas George Street at 10:20pm; or come down to our Festival Hub and join in the monster mash! Or the Junkee debate on The Death of Horror, asking can cinema still scare us, or has the genre become a joke?
Due to Popular Demand, an extra session of Finding Fela! – a film about the life of the pioneer of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, by Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks – SFF 2013) – screens at Event Cinemas, George Street on Friday 13 June at 8:30pm.
Other must-see closing weekend sessions include the sensual Danish coming-of-age werewolf romance When Animals Dream, screening at Dendy Opera Quays on Saturday 14 June at 8:45pm and Sunday 15 June at 9.15pm; Cannes Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan on Saturday 14 June at 8:15pm and Sunday 15 June at 9:45pm both at Dendy Opera Quays; a searing and moving portrait of a village outside Timbuktu in Mali under siege by foreign religious fundamentalists called Timbuktu, screening at Event Cinemas George Street on Sunday 15 June at 10am; Special Jury Prize Winner The Salt of the Earth, directed by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders on Saturday 14 June at 2:30pm at Event Cinemas and Sunday 15 June at 6pm at Dendy Opera Quays.
In addition, as previously announced, SFF will screen the Studio Ghibli documentary, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, by award-winning director Mami Sunada on Sunday 15 June at 12pm at Event Cinemas George Street.
On Saturday and Sunday, SFF presents a three-film retrospective on avante-guarde filmmaker James Benning, who will introduce each film with guest programmer Gabe Klinger. See the filmmaker’s key work and personal favourite American Dreams (lost and found) on Saturday 14 June at 1pm, and the stunning black-and-white and colour re-telling of Utah’s history in Deseret on Saturday 14 June at 3pm, both at the AGNSW; and Nightfall, a 98-minute dusk tableau, filmed in a wooded area high up in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, in which audiences are gradually immersed into the profoundest of black at Dendy Opera Quays on Sunday 15 June at 11am.
James Benning is also subject of a documentary by Gabe Klinger about Benning and fellow movie maverick Richard Linklater, Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater on Friday 13 June at 6:30pm at Dendy Opera Quays.
For tickets and full up-to-date program information please visit sff.org.au
The 61st Sydney Film Festival runs 4-15 June 2014 and brings a packed program of screenings and special events to even more venues across Sydney. For tickets and full up-to-date program information please visit sff.org.au