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Film Stephen McCallum, 2017 Prison was tough enough for outlaw bikie Knuck – but that’s nothing compared to what’s waiting outside. A high-octane Aussie thriller starring Matt Nable, Ryan Corr and Abbey Lee.

Anchor and Hope

Film Carlos Marques-Marcet, 2017 A lesbian couple contemplate parenthood in this funny and free-wheeling comic drama by rising Spanish filmmaker Carlos Marques-Marcet.

An Elephant Sitting Still

Film Hu Bo, 2018 This astonishing masterpiece – about the inter-connected lives of four people desperate to leave their Chinese town – is tinged with tragedy: the director Hu Bo took his own life before it was released.

America Town

Film Jeon Soo-il, 2017 A teenage photographer falls in love with a sex worker in Jeon Soo-il’s provocative coming-of-age story set in the 1980s, in South Korea’s Gunsan Military Camp Town.

A Paris Education

Film Jean Paul Civeyrac, 2017 Pure love of cinema inhabits every frame of Jean Paul Civeyrac’s sensitive and sophisticated portrait of Etienne, a provincial boy who moves to Paris to attend film school.

A Season in France

Film Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2017 A widowed asylum seeker finds new love as he faces the threat of deportation. An affecting and urgently topical drama by Chadian-French filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun.

A Vigilante

Film Sarah Daggar-Nickson, 2018 Olivia Wilde stars as a domestic abuse survivor who helps victims to escape their abusers in Australian director Sarah Daggar- Nickson’s riveting debut feature.

Beirut

Film Brad Anderson, 2017 Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike star in this riveting, intelligent spy thriller written by Tony Gilroy (Bourne series) and directed by Brad Anderson (The Machinist, The Wire).

Brothers' Nest

Film Clayton Jacobson, 2018 This tense and blackly comic SXSW hit stars Kenny (2006) creators Shane and Clayton Jacobson (also directing) as bickering brothers attempting to commit the perfect murder.

Butterflies

Film Tolga Karaçelik, 2018 Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. An absurdist, hilarious Turkish comedy-drama about three estranged siblings on a trip to visit their ailing father after thirty years.

Chocolate Oyster

Film Steve Jaggi, 2018 Australian experimental, observational comedy about young people in Sydney struggling to get ahead in love and their careers

Disobedience

Film Sebastián Lelio, 2017 Oscar-winner (A Fantastic Woman, SFF 2017) Sebastián Lelio’s new film is about the love affair between two women (Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams) in an Orthodox Jewish community.

Hard Paint

Film Filipe Matzembacher, 2018 An emotionally fragile young man leads a double life as a neon paint-smeared ‘cam boy’ sex performer. Winner of the Teddy Award for best LGBT film at Berlin.

Hearts Beat Loud

Film Brett Haley, 2018 In this joyous comedy set in Brooklyn, an ageing hipster musician forms an unlikely band with his daughter before she heads to college.

In the Aisles

Film Thomas Stuber, 2018 Franz Rogowski (Victoria, SFF 2015; Happy End, SFF 2017) and Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann, SFF 2016) lead this lyrical film about friendship and romance in a wholesale market.

Lean on Pete

Film Andrew Haigh, 2017 In this poignant and hypnotic coming of age tale, Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years, Looking) tells the story of the bond between a neglected boy and a racehorse.

Mehsampur

Film Kabir Chowdhry, 2018 This wild and daring hybrid film is unlike anything we’ve seen from India before. A blend of fiction and reality, it investigates the assassination of folk-singers Chamkila and Amarjot.

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno

Film Abdellatif Kechiche, 2017 Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue is the Warmest Colour) follows up his Palme d’Or winner with a sensual and nostalgic film about young people in love and lust over a Mediterranean summer.

Mug

Film Malgorzata Szumowska, 2018 A bitingly funny satire and Berlinale Grand Jury Prize winner; Poland’s first facial transplant patient awakes to find that – new face aside – it’s his community that’s changed, not him.

No Date, No Signature

Film Vahid Jalilvand, 2017 A young boy’s death leads a forensic pathologist to investigate himself in a compelling Iranian drama. Best Director and Best Actor in Venice’s Horizons program.

Number 37

Film Nosipho Dumisa, 2018 The feature debut of female South African writer-director Nosipho Dumisa is a riveting reworking of Rear Window set in the urban badlands of Cape Town.

Pig

Film Mani Haghighi, 2018 In Mani Haghighi’s hilarious dark comedy, a blacklisted Iranian director is enraged that he’s being ignored by a serial killer murdering filmmakers.

Puzzle

Film Marc Turtletaub, 2017 In this charming, romantic drama, a whole world opens up for suburban mother Agnes (Kelly Macdonald, Trainspotting) when she discovers that she’s a jigsaw puzzle genius.

Rafiki

Film Wanuri Kahiu, 2018 A hip, romantic and daring lesbian love story from Kenya, the first Kenyan film selected for Cannes - banned in its home country.

Samui Song

Film Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 2017 Murder, marriage and religion are the ingredients of this juicy film noir by leading Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Last Life in the Universe, Headshot, SFF 2012).

Searching

Film Aneesh Chaganty, 2017 This Sundance Audience Award winner about a father’s search for his missing daughter is innovative and tension-filled, unfolding entirely on a computer screen.

Season of the Devil

Film Lav Diaz, 2018 Lav Diaz’s all-singing love-story-rock-opera, based on real events and characters, is set in the darkest period of the Marcos dictatorship.

Skate Kitchen

Film Crystal Moselle, 2017 Crystal Moselle (The Wolfpack, SFF 2015) follows a squad of cooler-than-you New York skater girls as they hang, hit spots and flex on the boys (including Jaden Smith).

Strange Colours

Film Alena Lodkina, 2017 A young woman visits her estranged father in the remote opal-mining town Lightning Ridge. Australian Alena Lodkina’s striking first feature debuted at Venice Film Festival.

Support the Girls

Film Andrew Bujalski, 2018 Andrew Bujalski’s (Funny Ha Ha, SFF 2006; Results, SFF 2015) heart-warming feminist comedy is set in a ‘sports bar with curves’, where the manager has a very strange day.

The Blood of Wolves

Film Kazuya Shiraishi, 2018 A rogue cop, a by-the-book rookie and a vicious turf war between rival yakuza are the ingredients of a super-stylish crime thriller set in 1980s Hiroshima.

The Breaker Upperers

Film Jackie van Beek, 2018 In this side-splittingly funny film, New Zealand directors Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami star as best friends who run an unconventional business breaking up couples for cash.

The Charmer

Film Milad Alami, 2017 An impressive multiple award-winning debut, this intense psychological drama is about a young Iranian man desperately looking to seduce women who can secure his stay in Denmark.

The Children Act

Film Richard Eyre, 2018 Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci and Fionn Whitehead shine in a morally complex legal drama, based on Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel, about a judge forced to determine a child’s fate.

The Great Buddha+

Film Huang Hsin-yao, 2017 Two middle-aged losers stumble upon a crime in this funny and touching slice of life on the margins in Taiwan. Winner of the Toronto Film Festival NETPAC Award.

The Hungry Lion

Film Ogata Takaomi, 2017 A Japanese high school girl is caught up in a sex tape scandal in this topical fable of fake news, media sensationalism and cyber bullying.

The Line

Film Peter Bebjak, 2017 This red-hot crime-thriller about smugglers operating on the lawless pre-E.U. border of Slovakia and Ukraine won Peter Bebjak the Best Director Award at Karlovy Vary.

The Reports on Sarah And Saleem

Film Muayad Alayan, 2018 An illicit affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man in the divided city of Jerusalem ignites a dangerous game of deceit. Rotterdam Audience Award winner.

The Rider

Film Chloé Zhao, 2017 A sensation at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, The Rider skilfully blends fact and fiction in the story of a young, severely injured rodeo star determined to ride again.

The Seagull

Film Michael Mayer, 2017 A sultry adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic play about thwarted love starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan and Elisabeth Moss.

The Second

Film Mairi Cameron, 2018 Rachael Blake, Vince Colosimo and Susie Porter top the bill in a steamy psycho-thriller about a successful author struggling to deliver her hotly anticipated second novel.

The Taste of Rice Flower

Film Pengfei Song, 2017 This elegantly composed drama about a troubled mother-daughter relationship highlights the conflict between tradition and modernity in contemporary China.

Touch Me Not

Film Adina Pintilie, 2018 Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin, Adina Pintilie is both author and subject in her eye- opening drama about human sexuality.

Tyrel

Film Sebastián Silva, 2018 Sebastián Silva’s (The Maid, SFF 2009; Nasty Baby, SFF 2015) delirious comedy of awkwardness was described by Variety as “Get Out without the horror...but with a lot more alcohol.”

We the Animals

Film Jeremiah Zagar, 2017 Winner of the NEXT prize at Sundance, Jeremiah Zagar’s astonishing debut feature is a visually stunning coming of age tale with well earned comparisons to Moonlight.

Wrath of Silence

Film Xin Yukun, 2017 A stylish and provocative Chinese action film with noir and Western elements. When his son disappears, a miner embarks on a desperate and violent search for the truth.

Zama

Film Lucrecia Martel, 2017 Leading Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel returns with an intoxicating comic thriller about a lowly official slowly going mad in a remote Spanish colony.

Closing Night Gala 2018 - Hearts Beat Loud

Film Brett Haley, 2018 All good things must come to an end. Bid farewell to the 65th Sydney Film Festival with our Closing Night Gala. An evening filled with acclaim and applause.

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