By Travis Johnson
Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute, will launch the For Film’s Sake festival this Wednesday, April 26, with a keynote speech at the Sydney Town Hall, followed by a cocktail reception. Renowned for her tireless fight for gender parity in the Swedish film industry, Serner is an apt speaker for FFS, which aims to showcase the many strong female voices in the Australian screen sector that too often have no avenue of expression.
The festival, which runs until April 30, encompasses feature and short film screenings, plus a number of “activations” – seminars, discussions, and events aimed at stimulating discourse around the industry’s diversity issues.
Some of the film highlights include a special encore presentation of the Australian drama, Head On, followed by a Q&A with director, Ana Kokinos; the Beyonce fan documentary, Waiting for B; the lesbian romantic drama, All About E, and on Saturday night an evening of horror, with screenings of Bitch, the female-directed anthology XX, and a 30th anniversary screening of Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire classic, Near Dark. One of XX‘s directors, Roxanne Benjamin, will be on hand for her only Sydney appearance, too.
The festival will close out on the 30th with Fight Night, which includes not only screenings of the Indian documentary Burqa Boxers and the Michelle Rodriguez-starring Girlfight, but sees three of the festivals key personnel, Sophie Mathisen, Mohini Herse, and Grace Tan, getting into the ring themselves after 12 weeks of training with Corporate Boxing, in what should be a highly entertaining and deeply symbolic bout.
That night will also see the announcement of the inaugural winner of The Big Pineapple, a $100,000+ cash and in kind prize intended to fund a debut feature film.
For full info, tickets and session times, head over to the FFS website.
