The 2022 program for Sydney’s Westpac Openair is headlined by a dozen premiere or preview screenings, commencing on opening night with the inspirational tennis bio-pic King Richard, which stars two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith as the father of young tennis prodigies Venus and Serena Williams. There’s the Australian premiere of Kenneth Brannagh’s Death on The Nile, as well as previews of Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette); Joe Wright’s Cyrano; Pablo Larrain’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart as Lady Diana; and British charmer The Duke starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. Closing night will feature a gala preview of Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend Of Molly Johnson.

Introducing a new partnership with AFTRS, each Sunday night the event will be given over to the best new independent films, including previews of Kenneth Brannagh’s Belfast (Jamie Dornan), Cmon Cmon (Joaquin Phoenix), Pablo Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers (Penelope Cruz) and the comedic masterpiece that beat it to become Spain’s Oscar nominee, The Good Boss (Javier Bardem). Other indies on a Sunday will include Jane Campion’s Oscar touted The Power of The Dog, gorgeous Norwegian romantic comedy The Worst Person in the World, and musical documentary Summer Of Soul (… Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised).

On top of all this, audiences will have the opportunity to see outdoors on Sydney Harbour all the big   blockbusters recently or soon to be released. To meet demand, there will be multiple screenings of No Time To Die, Dune, West Side Story, House of Gucci, The Matrix Resurrections, Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. Other featured titles that will make for a perfect night out on the harbour are Aretha biopic Respect, Don’t Look Up starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, the mouth-watering Delicious; Nightmare Alley, The 355 and The King’s Man.