For cinephiles – hell, for arts lovers in general – there’s no better, more exciting event in Sydney’s cultural calendar than the Sydney Film Festival. And although the festival has always been renowned for the quality of its program, this year, the organisers appear to have outdone themselves – the 2018 iteration of the festival is the biggest, most impressive yet.

Excitingly, this is also the first year that films at the Sydney Film Festival will be screened at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter, in addition to the venues the fest has booked in the past (notably, the State Theatre, Event Cinema George Street, and Randwick Ritz.) That means there’ll be more screenings at more times, making the dreaded Sydney Film Festival clash a thing of the past.

The 2018 Sydney Film Festival program

In addition to previously announced titles like The Breaker Upperers and dark drama Foxtrot, the Sydney Film Festival lineup boasts films from around the world, spanning a wealth of genres and styles.

Watch the trailer for The Breaker Upperers here:

Highlights include Lynne Ramsay’s acclaimed, Joaquin Phoenix-starring revenge drama, You Were Never Really Here (a film that boasts a score by none other than Jonny Greenwood!); Spike Lee’s newest joint, BlacKkKlansman; the Abbey Lee-led Aussie biker drama 1%; fetishistic horror flick Piercing (from the director of previous Sydney Film Festival favourite, The Eyes Of My Mother); and family fare like Maya The Bee: The Honey Games.

Freak Me Out

Horror fanatics will be excited to learn that the 2018 Freak Me Out section of the Sydney Film Festival is as strong as ever. There’s homegrown horror in the shape of Leigh Whannell’s unbelievably excellent Upgrade (it’s from the writer of Insidious Chapter Three, of course it was going to be good); international spooks in the form of anthology horror flick The Field Guide To Evil; and a range of ever-disturbing, ever-unexpected delights.

…And there’s more

Of course, that is but a taste of what the festival has to offer. For the full range of surprises playing at the festival, head over to the Sydney Film Festival website, here. That’s also where you’ll need to head to book your tickets. As always, you can book either tickets to specific films, or save yer cash and book one of the Sydney Film Festival multipasses, which come in 30, 20, or 10-sized ticket bundles.

Sydney Film Festival runs from Wednesday June 6 to Sunday June 17. For more information, head to the Sydney Film Festival website, here.

The article was originally published on Brag Magazine