Sydney Film Festival 2016

By Ben Stephens.

This is it, roll out the red carpet and the blue media walls, Sydney Film Festival is here and with it comes 11 days, comprising of 244 films, each ready for their Australian or even world premier. Barring Tropfest, this has to be the most exciting film festivals to hit the NSW capital and it’s coming in hot. With so much goodness on show all over the city, we thought we would dig through all the flicks on offer and come up with a hot list of what not to miss out on during Sydney Film Festival 2016.

Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man tells the tale of Hank (Paul Dano), who is stranded on a remote island, about to give up, when he finds Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), a corpse. The film tells a hilarious story of friendship and survival in a harsh environment. Only with two screenings (June 9 and 19), this is sure to sell out, grab a pair of tickets HERE.

Goldstone

Telling the story of an outback police drama, set in remote Western Australia, director Ivan Sen has assembled a standout Australian cast with the likes of Jacki Weaver, David Wenham, David Gulpilil and so many more. This, added with the location creates a beautifully shot film. This world premiere is close to being sold out, grab those tickets HERE.

A photo posted by Sydney Film Festival (@sydfilmfest) on Apr 20, 2016 at 3:47pm PDT

Teenage Kicks

As far as the Australian LGBTQ scene representation goes, this is a stand out. Teenage Kicks focuses on Miklós (Miles Szanto) at that age where everything feels messy, dealing with the recent death of his brother and his new found feelings towards his best friend Dan (Daniel Webber). For a film that was shot on such a small budget, Teenage Kicks gets a giant tick. Again this is sure to sell out in the coming days, tickets HERE.

Europe, She Loves

Officially classed as a documentary, Europe, She Loves follows four couples in four different cities across Europe, in a very raw and vulnerable portrayal. Dealing with social issues such as unemployment, financial uncertainty and drug abuse, the story unravels each couple’s tale with a stylistic approach. The buzz word used by most critics upon review was ‘brave’, you only need to see the trailer to see why. Grab tickets HERE.

White Girl

In White Girl, debuting Director Elizabeth Wood tells the story of a young girl, Leah (Morgan Saylor), who falls in love with a drug dealer, that soon finds himself in jail. Following Leah as she attempts to raise funds for his bail by selling his drugs on New York dance floors, the tale plays out like a diary… sex, drugs and violence. Catch those tickets HERE.

Elvis & Nixon

The year is 1970, Elvis (Michael Shannon) wants to be an FBI agent and Nixon (Kevin Spacey) is the leader of the free world. This flick hilariously imagines how the conversation went down between the two greats of their time, when they met in the Oval Office on the White House. A sure crowd pleaser, grab those tickets HERE.

A photo posted by Amazon Video (@amazonvideo) on Apr 25, 2016 at 5:08pm PDT

Keep in mind that the festival will be paying tribute to Martin Scorsese and his body of work, from Taxi Driver to The Aviator and everything in between, it serves as a good time to reflect on the classics from an amazing director of our time.

Sydney Film Festival runs from June 8 to 19, 2016.