May 6, 2010 
The official lineup for the 2010 Sydney Film Festival has been announced – and it is a corker. The fest will feature 157 films from 47 countries, including 92 Australian premieres and 7 world premieres.
The festival kicks off on June 2nd with the debut of Shirley Barrett’s new film South Solitary, starring Miranda Otto and Barry Otto. The festival will close on the 14th of June with the Australian premiere of Lisa Cholodenko‘s Sundance hit The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
There will be twelve films running in the official competition. They include:
– The Tree (dir. Julie Bertucelli)
– Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives (dir. Apichatponh Weerasethakul)
– Heartbeats (dir. Xavier Dolan)
– Wasted on the Young (dir. Ben C. Lucas)
– The Killer Inside Me (dir. Michael Winterbottom)
– Life During Wartime (dir. Todd Solondz)
– Lola (dir. Brillante Mendoza)
– Women Without Men (dir. Shirin Neshat)
– Four Lions (dir. Chris Morris)
– Moloch Tropical (dir. Raoul Peck)
– How I Ended This Summer (dir. Aleksei Popogrebsky)
– If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (dir. Florin Serban)
The festival will also feature Australian premieres of Roman Polanski‘s The Ghost Writer, Oscar-nominee Ajami and the Duplass Brothers‘ Cyrus among many, many others. Ultra-buzzy Australian films Red Hill and The Loved Ones will also screen at the fest.
A whole bunch of special guests will grace Sydney with their presence for the festival, including aforementioned directors Morris, Peck, Mendoza and Lucas as well as actors Pegah Ferydoni (Women Without Men), Jonah Hill (Cyrus) and more.
You can read about ALL the films featured at this year’s festival via this nifty SFF Press Release.
Over the next few months, we will endeavour to discuss as many of these exciting films right here on the blog. If there are any Sydneysiders lucky enough to catch a film or 12, let us know your thoughts via a mini-review or blog-rant.
The Sydney Film Festival runs from June 2 – June 14.
Discuss: Any films you’re particularly looking forward to checking out?
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Keen on seeing Aussie Western/thriller "Red Hill" and Casey Affleck in "The Killer inside me". Hope they come donw to Melbourne town soon after.
Shalom, my sibling cinéastes in Sydney,I've done my due diligence perusing the program and put down for 17 screenings. The prospect of another of Guy Maddin's retro-atmosphero-weirdo productions means DRACULA, PAGES FROM A VIRGINS DIARY was my first booking.If you are going to the festival you might like to meet and chat with my film discussion group who are planning some excursions.The first is to CAIRO TIME on Saturday June 5.Learn more on the club's blog, including rendezvous detail as decided.See http://moviebookchats.posterous.com/savor-superior-cinema-at-sff