We asked some of our team what they do not want to miss at this years on demand Sydney Film Festival 2020.
JANINE
Eliza Scanlen has established herself as a formidable actor on screen so I can’t wait to see her debut short film. I’ve also always had a bizarre fascination with the South-Korean internet video trend (Mukbang) that Scanlen has named her short after and I’m interested to see how she explores this alongside a teenage girl’s sexual awakening.
BONNIE
I’m excited to watch the unabashadly vulgar and honest exploration of contemporary womanhood in GNT. The animated world is most fascinating when the gross or quotidian aspects of life are pushed to absurd realms, especially when it involves the world of social media. It looks like the art style of the animators really complement the direction of the short film. Plus, someone I follow on Instagram promoted it as they knew the directors so that’s always a bonus!
Malou Reymann’s A Perfectly Normal Family caught my eye. Inspired by the director’s own family experience, the film provides an alternative perspective of the familial experience of having a parental figure transition later in life, focusing on the relationship between a young girl and her transgender parent. Though not uncommon, this is often a hushed and concealed but it’s a really complex situation that deserves a nuanced exploration through cinema. I think it would be refreshing to view through an intimate lens, though at the same time not solely assuming the position of the transitioning mother but empathetically delving into the experiences of all those involved.
KENA
I don’t want to miss Charter, a Swedish dark thriller about a desperate mother who abducts her two estranged children. Charter is by the same writer-director as Sami Blod, which I absolutely loved and featured in the SFF 2017. I’ve been planning for years to go to Sweden on exchange, but seeing as that was cancelled recently, I can still enjoy a bit of Sverige with this film!
I also don’t want to miss out on seeing Force of Habit, an anthology film made by seven Finnish women directors, questioning gender stereotypes and relations in the post-#MeToo world. At last year’s SFF I watched the incredible Vai, also an anthology by a number of women directors, and I really enjoyed both the anthology form and the multiple stories.
CALLUM AND JENNIFER
As we are both big fans of animation, we’re both looking forward to the short film The Quite. Directed by Radheya Jegatheva, it reflects on the beauty and the harsh realities of the universe we live in by an astronaut who has experienced it all. With simplistic animation and beautiful colours, it looks like it will truly assist the narrator in explaining to the audience his realisations about the universe.
We are also looking forward to the short film Obscura. Directed by Emily and Hannah Jordan, this stop motion animation explores the world inside our cameras and the little creatures who live within it. This is such a creative and unique idea that provides an alternate and adorable explanation behind how cameras work and the world behind the lens.