Robert Pattinson Leads Full Sydney Film Festival Program Announcement

Just more than a month after the Sydney Film Festival released the first details regarding some of the films that make up its giant-size selection for 2014 comes the revelation of the full event program this morning – and, boy, it is massive.

The big news to come out of the launch, of course, is the announcement that the impossibly pretty Robert Pattinson will be joining actor Guy Pearce and director David Michôd for the premiere of his eagerly awaited follow-up to the acclaimed Animal Kingdom, The Rover, at the State Theatre on June 7. 

By no means, though, is that the only surprise SFF has up its sleeve.

Officially announced today by NSW Arts Minister Troy Grant, the 61^st Sydney Film Festival, which runs from June 4 to 15, boasts a line-up featuring 183 titles from 47 countries, including 15 world premieres (including six world premiere short films), 122 Australian premieres (including 14 Australian premiere short films) and six international premieres (including one international premiere short film), a festival statement said.

Festival director Nashen Moodley elaborates: “Sydney Film Festival has gone from strength to strength over recent years, with attendances increasing over 23 percent since 2011 to 143,000.

“SFF not only presents the best films from across the country and around the world but we also open up dialogue between the creators and audiences and curators and critics alike, in every direction and combination. Together in a crowded theatre, comedies are funnier, horror films are scarier and tender moments bring tears more readily, everything we feel is amplified by the power of the shared experience.”

Aside from the already-announced films in the program, today's announcement sheds light on this year's selection for the esteemed SFF Official Competition, which turns seven this year and hands over $60,000 in sweet, sweet cash to the “most courageous, audacious and cutting-edge film from the 12 features selected”.

“The Official Competition selection celebrates cutting-edge film that pushes the boundaries of the art form,” Moodley said. “This year's selection offers some true surprises, and I look forward to the audience reactions to these amazing films."

Among said amazing films – the list of which includes Michôd's The Rover – are some genuine eye-openers: Much has been made of opening-night flick 20,000 Days On Earth, a dual Sundance-award winning film (for directing and editing) that centres on Nick Cave's (fictitious) 20,000th day on the planet; Richard Linklater's Boyhood charts the life, growth and family dramas of a young boy, but his film differs significantly from so many other coming-of-age tales in that it was filmed sporadically over a 12-year period, using the same actors – Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater – throughout; and Australian director Kasimir Burgess will unveil his debut feature film, Fell, as part of SFF's World Premiere contingent – a redemptive tale of paternal vengeance starring Matthew Nable and Daniel Henshall, and shot in the Victorian Alps.

Australian film director Rachel Perkins  (Redfern Now, Mabo, Bran Nue Dae), has been named as president of the Official Competition jury, which will judge the 12 selected films competing for the Sydney Film Prize this June.

“Sydney Film Festival will always be special to me,” Perkins said in a statement. “I screened the first movie I directed at the Festival almost 20 years ago and I can still remember the terror of watching the film in front of its first real audience. Anyone who even completes a movie deserves an award, in my view, as they are so challenging to deliver, let alone make great.

“At SFF, we are lucky to have the greatest cinema of the moment from around the world, distilled for us into a dazzling program by Nashen Moodley and his team. How on earth my fellow jurors and I will decide who gets the prize is yet to be seen, but I am looking forward to the challenge!”

The full Official Competition jury, made up of three internationals and two Australians, will be announced on Wednesday, May 21. Check the festival website for details.

Alongside the Official Competition, SFF also presents a number of awards to recognise excellence in local filmmaking, including the Academy Award-eligible Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films (three prizes, two valued at $5000 and one at $4000) and the Documentary Australia Foundation Australian Documentary Prize (a $10,000 prize, for which Perkins' film Black Panther Woman is nominated).

SFF, however, is not just about celebrating cinema through passive viewing – the festival provides punters with several chances to actively engage with films and the people making them. And it has scored some fantastic people this year to complement Pattinson's announcement.

Among the impressive guest list for 2014, and bringing an A-list distinction along with them, will be the internationally celebrated actors Guy Pearce and Cate Blanchett. As mentioned earlier, Pearce will be joining David Michôd for the premiere of The Rover at the State Theatre on June 7, while Blanchett will introduce a special screening of How To Train Your Dragon2. That franchise now has certified trilogy status, but although you'll have a chance to hear Blanchett as new character Valka at least once more, the one-off Event Cinemas George Street screening at 2pm on June 9 is a definite drawcard.

Meanwhile, revered Australian director Fred Schepisi (The Devil's Playground, Roxanne, Six Degrees Of Separation) will also make an appearance, taking part in the yearly Ian McPherson Memorial Lecture alongside film critic David Stratton, also at Event Cinemas George Street on June 9. Schepisi's latest film, Words and Pictures, starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche, screens at SFF 2014.

Other guests include Diao Yi'Nan, the director of Sydney Film Prize-nominated Chinese noir Black Coal, Thin Ice; Boyhood actor Ellar Coltrane and producer Cathleen Sutherland; Fell director Kasimir Burgess; the directors of buzz film Ruin, Michael Cody and Amiel Courtin-Wilson; and filmmakers such as Hossein Amini (The Two Faces Of January), Fellipe Barbosa (Casa Grande) and For Those Who Can Tell No Tales' director, Jasmila Zbanic along with actor Kym Vercoe.

Guests will speak at an array of times during the festival at the Apple Store Sydney (bookings required), while a mind-blowing range of hub talks and panels will go down at Town Hall. Check the festival site for a full rundown of guest speakers, and ticketing and venue details.

In addition to the straight cinematic content and personalities, SFF is further diversifying their cultural concerns with the announcement of two special Gourmet Cinema food-and-film packages, available on June 10 and 11 only.

The evenings are designed to be a meeting of fine food and finer cinema, and this year guests will be treated with food from celebrity chef Luke Mangan's glass brasserie following a screening of Indian flick The Lunchbox on June 10 ($130pp), while, the following night, Gowings Bar and Grill and its creative food director, Rob Marchetti, will precede a special presentation at the State Theatre of thriller Two Faces of January, starring Kirsten Dunst and Viggo Mortensen ($98pp).

Last, but by no means least, is the festival's unveiling of its Focus On China program, highlighting six feature films – including the aforementioned Black Coal, Thin Ice – and one short film.

SFF Focus On China guest programmer and China-based author, critic and film curator Shelley Kraicer explained:

 “We've selected the widest variety possible of the best new Chinese films … We offer the glossy commercial hit Up In The Wind's pointed examination of middle-class anxieties; homespun indie doc Beijing Ants' ground-level view of marginal urban existence; Dancing In The Room's romantic but blackly comic take on youthful boredom; Mothers' nuanced look at bureaucracy; Lake August's starkly beautiful portrait of death and love in the hinterlands; and 'Til Madness Do Us Part's epic ode to passions that thrive in the remotest corners of the state.

“In our Official Competition, the noir-mystery-arthouse mash-up of passion and murder in Black Coal, Thin Ice landed it the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlinale. Chinese cinema offers unlimited delights: its rebels, ghosts and romantics come to life through its screens to our imaginations.”

That's the gist of what film-lovers have in store for them this year – not forgetting the special 40th-anniversary screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at Skyline Drive-In, Blacktown, on Friday, June 13 – but if you're chasing a comprehensive list of every detail you could possibly want about any of these alluring features – once more for the road – head on over to the official website.