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Sydney Film Festival to go virtual and national for first time in history
By Robert Moran
For the first time in its 67-year history, the Sydney Film Festival will go virtual. Or, at least part of it.
The annual festival, which was scheduled to run from June 3-14, was cancelled on March 18 following bans on gatherings of more than 500 people. But organisers hinted at a make-up version that would "celebrate film and filmmakers".
The Sydney Film Festival is taking its key awards online in June.Credit: SFF
Around 30 films will be screened as part of the virtual festival, running online from June 10 to June 21, with a focus on Australian documentaries and local short films, plus the festival's recurring program Europe! Voices of Women in Film highlighting female filmmakers from Europe.
Sydney Film Festival chief executive Leigh Small said the virtual instalment would be a "tight, award-focused" version celebrating key programs that "define the Sydney Film Festival", including the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary and the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films.
"Both of these events are very important to Australian filmmakers – the Documentary Australia Foundation Award is a pinnacle for feature-length documentaries each year, and the Dendy Awards have launched the careers of filmmakers for almost 70 years – so we thought it was important to continue with those awards," she said.
In another first the festival will also open to a national audience, working with New Zealand startup Shift72 – a streaming platform which recently salvaged Copenhagen's CPH:DOX documentary festival from coronavirus cancellation ("They delivered over 140 films to over 100,000 people within three weeks; it was quite successful," said Small) – to host its films.
Compared to the usual SFF program of more than 300 films across 12 days, audience-voted prizes and filmmaker Q&As, the virtual instalment is a concession. But a necessary one at such a challenging time for the local industry, said Small.
"It's not quite the same but it's important," she said. "Last week we joined We Are One: A Global Film Festival, which is a great opportunity for audiences. Now we see our revision as something that really supports our local filmmakers, which is extremely important to the Sydney Film Festival."
The full program for the 67th Sydney Film Festival: Virtual Edition and Awards will be revealed on May 27, with tickets on sale the same day.