Sydney Film Festival (SFF) kicks off on June 5 with a first look at Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line. Festival director Nashen Moodley gave Broadsheet a rundown of the films he’s excited to present at the 71st festival, including Yorgos Lanthimos’s follow-up to Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness.

As he does every year, Moodley travelled to Cannes Film Festival in May to see the buzziest new films – and select some of the best to screen at SFF. Eight new films have now been added to the program, including Un Certain Regard winner Black Dog, a “strikingly shot” film about a man called Lang and stray dogs. It’s a film full of surreal twists and turns, according to Moodley.

Another addition is Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, starring Adam Driver, which will have its Australian premiere at Imax. The ambitious film charts the decline of a mythic civilisation – New Rome. Driver plays an architect with the ability to pause time. It also stars Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf and Laurence Fishburne.

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Cate Blanchett’s new film Rumours has also been added. The “apocalyptic comedy” is about a G7 summit gone awry. Blanchett plays the German Chancellor in a film said to be absurd and hilarious.

There’s also Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which won five awards at Cannes. Moodley says the “daring and allegorical drama … tells an urgent and powerful story set against the backdrop of Iran’s political turmoil”.

Then there’s documentary Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, winner of Best Documentary at Cannes; love story Caught by the Tides; true crime drama The Girl with the Needle; and revenge thriller Ghost Trail.

SFF has also added more screenings for its closing night film The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. And last week it announced a special event on June 15 featuring Oscar-winning filmmaker George Miller, who’ll talk about making Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga with filmmaker Nash Edgerton.

Tickets are available for all screenings and talks now.

sff.org.au