Official Competition Films SFF
May 28th 2009 15:03
The Sydney Film Prize is awarded for ‘new directions in film’ and recognises filmmakers for work that is ‘courageous, audacious and cutting-edge’. Selected films must be enterprising and bold with the power to provoke original thought and emotion. SFF is the first Australian film festival to have an Official Competition accredited by FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations).
The Official Competition is supported by Events NSW and the winning filmmaker will receive AUD$60,000, generously provided by Hunter Hall Investment Management.
Acclaimed Australian director, Rolf de Heer is the 2009 Official Competition Jury President, De Heer and four other Jury members (three international, one Australian) will determine the winning film which will be awarded the Sydney Film Prize on the festival’s Closing Night (14 June 2009).
‘Our Official Competition celebrates films that make you think and feel differently about both cinema and the world, and recognises bold ideas and decisions on the part of the creative teams. I congratulate all the filmmakers on their selection and look forward to introducing these great films to Sydneysiders this June’, said Clare Stewart, Festival Director today.
The 12 Official Competition films are:
World premieres: Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate and Khoa Do’s Missing Water.
International premiere: Tsai Ming-liang’s Face/Visages
Australian premieres: Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric, Sebastián Silvia’s The Maid (La
Nana), Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace, Peter Brosens and Jessica Hope’s Antiplano, Nicholas Winding Refn’s Bronson, Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delépine’s Louise-Michel,
Alexey German Jr’s Paper Soldier (Bumazhnyy Soldat), Henry Selick’s Coraline, and
Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience.
The 12 Official Competition films are (in screening order):
Looking For Eric
Screens Wed 3 Jun 7.30pm (Opening Night) and Thu 4 Jun 10am State Theatre
Dir Ken Loach | Scr Paul Laverty | Prod Rebecca O’Brien | with Steve Evets,
Stephanie Bishop, Eric Cantona | UK-France-Belgium-Italy
Devoted soccer fan Eric Bishop (Evets) struggles with his day-to-day life as a postman and
unexpectedly receives a little life-coaching from soccer star Eric Cantona (as himself).
Australian premiere – Selected Official Competition Cannes 2009
The Maid / La Nana
Screens Thu 4 Jun 6.30pm and Fri 5 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir Sebastián Silva | Scr Sebastián Silva, Pedro Peirano | Prod Gregorio González,
Issa Guerra, Edgar San Juan | with Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón, Mariana
Loyola | Chile
Sebastián Silva’s perceptive and amusing second feature follows a long serving (and
suffering) live-in maid and is underscored with an awareness of the class system and its
inherent tendencies.
Australian premiere – Winner Grand Jury Prize and Special Jury Prize (acting) Sundance
2009
Disgrace
Screens Fri 5 Jun 6.30pm and Sat 6 Jun
10.00am State Theatre
Dir Steve Jacobs | Scr Anna Maria Monticelli based on the book by JM Coetzee | Prod
Steve Jacobs, Anna Maria Monticelli, Emile Sherman | with John Malkovich, Jessica
Haines, Eriq Ebouaney | Australia
Based on the novel by Nobel prize-winner JM Coetzee, Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace wrestles
with an intricate web of racial, gender and generational politics in contemporary South
Africa.
Australian premiere – Winner Critics Awards Toronto 2008
Altiplano
Screens Sat 6 Jun 2.15pm and Sun 7 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir-Scr Peter Brosens, Jessica Hope Woodworth | with Jasmin Tabatabai, Magaly
Solier, Olivier Gourmet | Belgium-Germany-Netherlands
Brosens and Hope Woodworth’s (Khadak) second feature together is set high in the
Peruvian Andes where a mercury spill contaminates a local township and the villagers direct
their anger at visiting doctors.
Australian premiere – Selected Critics Week Cannes 2009
Bronson
Screens Sat 6 Jun 7.00pm and Sun 7 Jun 12.15pm State Theatre
Dir-Scr Nicholas Winding Refn | Scr Brock Norman Brock | Prod Rupert Preston,
Danny Hansford | with Tom Hardy, Matt King, Kelly Adams | UK Nicholas Winding Refn’s (The Pusher trilogy) Bronson features a bravura performance from
Tom Hardy as Britain’s most notorious criminal ‘Charles Bronson’ who has been out of jail
for only four months in 34 years.
Australian premiere
Louise-Michel
Sun 7 Jun 7.00pm and Mon 8 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir-Scr Gustave de Kervern, Benoît Delépine | Prod Benoît Jaubert, Mathieu
Kassovitz |with Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners | France
Wildly anarchic duo de Kervern and Delépine’s (Aaltra) absurdist comedy in which
redundant factory workers pool their funds and hire a hitman to trackdown and take-out the
boss.
Australian premiere – Winner Best Screenplay San Sebastian 2008, Special Jury Prize
(originality) Sundance 2009
Paper Soldier / Bumazhnyy Soldat
Mon 8 Jun 6.30pm and Tue 9 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir-Scr Alexey German Jr | Scr Vladimir Arkusha | Prod Sergey Shumakov, Artem
Vassiliev |with Anastasya Sheveleva, Merab Ninidze, Chulpan Khamatova | Russia
Alexey German Jr’s moody assault on Cold War heroics shows the Soviet side of the space
race, pivoting around the existential crisis of a doctor who monitors the cosmonauts training
for the launch of Vostok 1.
Australian premiere – Winner Best Direction, Best Cinematography Venice 2008
Missing Water
Tue 9 Jun 6.30pm and Wed 10 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir-Scr-Prod Khoa Do | with Kathy Nguyen, Sheena Pham, Hieu Phan, Vico Thai, Hien
Nguyen | Australia
Khoa Do’s (Footy Legends, The Finished People) deeply personal film centres on the plight
of Vietnamese refugees who travelled in junks and trawlers to Australia in the late 70s and
early 80s.
World premiere
Coraline
Screens Wed 10 Jun 6.30pm at Greater Union George St VMAX and Sat 13 Jun 12.00pm
GU George St 5
Dir-Scr Henry Selick based on the book by Neil Gamain | Prod Bill Mechanic, Claire
Jennings, Mary Sandell | with Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn
French, John Hodgman, Ian McShane | USA
Henry Selick’s Coraline is the first stop-motion feature shot in stereoscopic 3D. The unique
visual journey follows the fearless Coraline as she discovers a parallel universe behind a
secret door.
Australian premiere
Face / Visages
Screens Thu 11 Jun 6.30pm and Fri 12 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir Tsai Ming-liang | Prod Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin | with Lee Kang-sheng,
Laetitia Casta, Fanny Ardant, Jean-Pierre Léaud | France-Taiwan
In the first film commissioned by the Louvre, a Taiwainese film director (Lee), who cannot
speak French, is invited to Paris to make a film based on the story of Salome.
International premiere – Selected Official Competition Cannes 2009
The Girlfriend Experience
Screens Fri 12 Jun 7.15pm and Sat 13 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir Steven Soderbergh | Scr Brian Koppelman, David Levien | Prod Gregory Jacobs |
with Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Philip Eytan | USA
Steven Soderbergh combines a relaxed, free-wheeling style with a fragmented temporal
structure in his film about an expensive escort (played by adult film star Sasha Grey) with
taste and intelligence to match.
Australian premiere
Beautiful Kate
Screens Sat 13 Jun 7.00pm and Sun 14 Jun 10.00am State Theatre
Dir-Scr Rachel Ward | Prod Bryan Brown, Leah Churchill-Brown | with Rachel
Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Ben Mendelsohn | Australia
Rachel Ward’s powerful feature debut follows Ned’s (Mendelsohn) return to his outback
family home where he gradually succumbs to recollections of the summer in which
burgeoning adolescent sensuality led to desire, transgression and ultimately loss.
World premiere
All tickets and passes can be bought and redeemed through the Sydney Film Festival’s website www.sff.org.au.
Source: Media Release
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