Sydney Film Festival Preview

The 2013 festival kicks off on Wednesday 5 June with Mystery Road, the brainchild of Australian Indigenous filmmaker Ivan Sen. SFF will run until Sunday 16 June. Film Carew has broken down his picks. His prediction: keep Richard Linklater's Before Midnight and Ulrich Seidl's Paradise in the back of your mind – these two flicks have generated plenty of buzz and are a part of two notable indie-movie trilogies.

Only God Forgives (Denmark/Thailand, Nicolas Winding Refn)
Winding Refn and meme-tastic beefcake Ryan 'guy from Dead Man's Bones' Gosling reunite in Bangkok, for a (no doubt highly-stylised) picture whose hook sells itself: Gosling dukes it out with a corrupt local cop in a boxing match staged as a form of kangaroo-court justice.

Frances Ha (USA, Noah Baumbach)
Noah Baumbach. All-time mumblecore pin-up Greta Gerwig. Girls oddball beefcake Adam Driver. I'm so there.

The Look Of Love (UK, Michael Winterbottom)
Whilst there's plenty of Scorsese clichés and costly pop-song placements marking Winterbottom's portrait of 20th-century soft-porn empresario Paul Raymond as matinée fluff, Steve Coogan's performance as the fatally-flawed subject is perhaps the finest of his career; capturing the tragic depth behind the flamboyant façade with a sense of unexpected subtlety and quiet gravity.

Mood Indigo (France, Michel Gondry)
After dabbling in documentary-making and Hollywood cheque-cashing, Gondry is back in Gondryist form with his adaptation of Boris Vivan's novel Froth On The Daydream; a novel long beloved but long considered unadaptable. Its high-fantasy and surrealist whimsy seem like perfect sources of inspiration for one of cinema's most inventive visualists, and Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou as the tragic central couple feel like the director's staying oh-so-true to his muse.

Prince Avalanche (USA, David Gordon Green)
Few filmmakers – save, perhaps, Francis Ford Coppola – can boast the extremes of Green's filmography, which goes from idiosyncratic auteurism (George Washington) to detestable Hollywood crap (Your Highness). Prince Avalanche promises something more small and personal, with its slowly-bonding-council-workers set-up reminding me of Tom Gilroy's little-seen and long-forgotten Spring Forward.

Before Midnight (USA, Richard Linklater)
The previous chapters in Linklater's collaborations with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy –1995's Before Sunrise and 2004's Before Sunset – have been two of cinema's greatest-ever romances; thrilling conversation-pieces that touch on the experience of being human, and connecting to another human, in unspeakably profound ways. That's more than a recommendation to be insanely excited about their new third film.

Computer Chess (USA, Andrew Bujalski)
Like Pablo Larraín's No, the latest film from mumblecore maestro Andrew Bujalski evokes the '80s by shooting on archaic VHS 'technology'; the wobbly video-lines adding authenticity to a drama concerned with the extreme nerdery of coding.

The East (USA, Zal Batmanglij)
The brother-of-the-dude-from-Vampire-Weekend proved his cinematic chops with the eerie Sound Of My Voice, and now his second film guns for 'next level' status by building a corporate thriller around activists and the intelligence agents trailing them. It reunites him with Brit Marling, and also stars Alexander Skarsgård and Ellen Page.

Ginger & Rosa (UK, Sally Potter)
Potter's soap-operatic portrait of best gal-pals coming of nihilist age against the nuclear terror of Cold War '60s Britain features famous faces across its cast (including, Mad Men nerds, Christina Hendricks playing piano accordion oncemore). But it's owned by its lead, Elle Fanning, who submits an unendingly-profound performance, further clawing her way out of the dank shadows of sibling-trailing childstardom, now just one of America's most amazing young actors.

Upstream Color (USA, Shane Carruth)
The long-awaited follow-up to Primer has already become one of the best-reviewed films of the year; its heightened cinematic 'vision' furthering Carruth's claim as one of American indie cinema's most interesting new voices. The good oil from film nerds I trust is that if you love it, you'll love it desperately, deeply, profoundly.

What Maisie Knew (USA, Scott McGehee/David Siegel)
McGehee and Siegel's Suture glory days are nigh on two decades ago, but the filmmakers have, even since, made a host of pictures that don't seek easy dramatic answers. Their latest finds Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan as rival sides in a custody case; but the story's seen through the eyes of the daughter they're fighting over.

I Am Divine (USA, Jeffrey Schwartz)
John Waters' muse has long been a pin-up for those drawn to the queerest fringes of queer culture. This documentary is out to explore the man – the boy, really – behind the iconic screen queen.

Beyond The Hills (Romania, Cristian Mungiu)
Though it doesn't measure up to the mastery of Mungiu's prior picture – 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – Beyond The Hills is a slow-burning, claustrophobic, caustic portrayal of religious superstition that will thrill any cinephile.

Mistaken For Strangers (USA, Tom Berninger)
The National – a band readying an impressive forthcoming LP, Trouble Will Find Me – have always had an interesting dynamic: singer Matt Berninger and his mumbly baritone flanked by two pairs of brothers. Touring High Violet, he invited his own brother, Tom, on the road; and the result is anything but your regular rockumentary, instead a portrait of a band as confluence of squabbling siblings.

WHAT: Sydney Film Festival
WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 5 to Sunday 16 June, various locations