For the past 64 years, Sydney Film Festival has celebrated the latest and greatest in international cinema. The city’s major movie-focused showcase, it brings together an enormous program highlighting the breadth and depth of film as an art form. It’s a mammoth endeavour for just one event — but, it’s also more than just one event. Indeed, it’s easy to think of SFF as several film festivals in one.
Curated by artistic director Nashen Moodley, the festival’s thematic strands offer mini-festivals within the broader festival, touching upon topics as varied as music, feminism and First Nations filmmakers in 2017. For fans of films from specific countries, it also serves up a concentrated dose of cinema from a wealth of places. This year, those interested in German cinema can work their way through 24 features and seven shorts either made in Germany, or made as co-productions between Germany and other countries, for example.
24 German features and seven shorts
Leading the charge are five German productions united in their origins but varied in their content, beginning with hedonistic hops through Berlin, observational chronicles of concentration camp tourism, and a collaboration between a German artist and an Australian acting superstar. Axolotl Overkill proves energetic and insightful in adapting Helene Hegemann’s novel, Austerlitz holds a mirror up to humanity’s reaction to tragedy, and Manifesto brings Julian Rosefeldt and Cate Blanchett together in a multi-character art installation distilled into feature-length form. In addition, Beuys: Arts as a Weapon steps through the life and work of iconoclast artist Joseph Beuys, while In the Fade arrives straight from the Official Competition at Cannes, directed by Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin and starring internationally famed actress Diane Kruger. As a snapshot of German filmmaking, they couldn’t offer audiences a more diverse trip through the country’s cinematic output.
And, while they may not boast production ties to Germany, a healthy contingent of SFF’s program possesses another link: screening at the 2017 Berlinale. Germany’s major film festival always proves a fertile feeding pool for Sydney, and this year is no exception. Golden Bear winner On Body and Soul is just one of the highlights of a selection that includes stunning queer romances Call Me By Your Name and God’s Own Country, pithy social satire The Party, documentary powerhouse I Am Not Your Negro, Indian black comedy Newton, all-ages animated delight My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, the Geoffrey Rush-starring Final Portrait, artist biopic Maudie and reality-inspired Macedonian drama When the Day Had No Name. Yes, the list goes on, with SFF delivering an absolute feast of German, German co-produced and Berlin-screened cinema for eager viewers.