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Sydney Film Festival

Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

A Quiet Observer: An Interview with Jakeb Anhvu

James Walsh talks to the director of ‘A Hundred Years of Happiness’ about blending in as a documentary filmmaker, and using an observational approach to allow his young Vietnamese female subject to speak for herself.

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Sketch & Study, Sydney Film Festival

Sketch & Study: ‘A Year Full of Drama’

Marta Pulk documents a teen’s shifting sense of self, as she is tasked with watching 224 plays in 365 days.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘Descent’ is a Cathartic Deep Dive That Takes Your Breath Away

Nays Baghai crafts an empathetic portrait of ice freediver Kiki Bosch, exploring how the traumas of her past led her to the extreme sport.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘Rosemary’s Way’ Introduces Audiences to the Australian Hero We Need Right Now

It’s hard not to fall for the community spirit and gentle charms of Ros Horin’s sophomore documentary feature.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Superstition as Anesthesia in ‘Zana’

Set in the aftermath of the Kosovo war, Antoneta Kastrati explores the stigmatisation of female psychology in her unflinching narrative debut.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘Sea Fever’ is a Moody Deep-Sea Sci-Fi

Watery characterisation and borrowed genre tropes leave this thriller down among the dead men.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: Animation

Although ‘GNT’ and ‘The Quiet’ are animated, they’re far from two-dimensional.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: Live-Action

‘Her Own Music’, ‘Mukbang’, and ‘Idol’ tell their stories of adolescence and social media madness sensitively – and quickly.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Translating Between Two Worlds: An Interview with Nays Baghai

Michelle Wang speaks with the director of ‘Descent’ about the physical and psychological journey of filming an underwater exploration of the soul.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

The Illusions of Idolatry: An Interview with Alex Wu

Ahead of ‘Idol’’s Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Alex Wu talks about his short film, the one-take structure, and being influenced by Lee Chang-Dong and Asghar Farhadi.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘The Weather Diaries’ Speaks to Parenting in an Environmental Crisis

In her documentary, Kathy Drayton affectingly examines the climate crisis in Australia and its influence on her relationship with her daughter.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘A Hundred Years of Happiness’ is a Marriage of Unfulfilled Potential and Slow Storytelling

Jakeb Anhvu’s observational documentary can feel more like an exercise in aesthetics than the fascinating cultural study it promises.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Art After Artisan: An Interview with Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

André Shannon talks to Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki about his new film Saturday Afternoon in the aftermath of Holey Artisan Bakery, censorship, and how to move forward after calamity.

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Features, Sydney Film Festival

Populism Projected in The Brink and Reason

Faraaz Rahman examines truth and accountability in two documentaries charting the rise of populism.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Scars as a Work of Art: An Interview with Dirty God’s Vicky Knight and Sacha Polak

At the Sydney Film Festival, André Shannon talks to actress Vicky Knight and director Sacha Polak about tattoos, electronica, and making survivor films.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Monos

This chaotically evocative thriller is a sensory, obscure look at a unit of child soldiers set on a faraway Columbian mountaintop.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn deftly navigate conflict and compassion between two Indigenous women with unparalleled care and intimacy.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Jesus

Japanese director Hiroshi Okuyama’s debut looks at a religious experience through a child’s eyes.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Weird the Whole Way: An Interview with Ladyworld’s Amanda Kramer

At the Sydney Film Festival, Ivana Brehas talks to writer-director Amanda Kramer about writing, weirdness, and womanhood.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Depraved

Larry Fessenden’s human tale of broken bodies updates the Frankenstein story for the 21st century.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Find What Affects You: An Interview With RJ Mitte

Ahead of Standing Up For Sunny’s premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Ivana Brehas spoke with RJ Mitte about mental health, the Australian film industry, and kung-fu movies.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Revolt Against The System: An Interview with Slam’s Partho Sen Gupta

Ahead of Slam’s premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Claire Cao talks to director Partho Sen-Gupta about racial microaggressions, the rousing power of Bankstown Poetry Slam, and the strength of mothers all over the world.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Community and Country: An Interview with Emu Runner’s Imogen Thomas

At the Sydney Film Festival, Tansy Gardam talks to director Imogen Thomas about her debut feature, community collaboration, and filming in remote Australia.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Her Smell

Elisabeth Moss is a riot (grrrl) in a dizzying and exhausting portrait of punk infamy.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Animals

Animals plays out like a memory: within the wine-fueled haze of love won, love lost, and uncertainty, you might just find yourself.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: One Child Nation

Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang transform the political to personal as they lay bare the effects of China’s one child policy.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: The Heart Dances

Kiwi filmmaker Rebacca Tansley offers an empathetic look at the conflict between different cultural and artistic perspectives during the production of a ballet in New Zealand.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

The Spaces Between: An Interview with Imogen McCluskey and Béatrice Barbeau-Scurla

At the Sydney Film Festival, Michael Sun talks to first-time Aussie filmmakers Imogen McCluskey and Béatrice Barbeau-Scurla about Australian suburbia on film, queer narratives, and… James Charles.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: The Miracle of the Little Prince

A documentary on Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s beloved children’s classic thoughtfully breaks down language barriers.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Monrovia, Indiana

Veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman stitches together a covertly political portrait of a conservative town in rural America.

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