By FilmInk Staff
Over its fifteen-year history, The Sydney Underground Film Festival has served up a host of edgy, lurid, off-the-wall and flat-out dangerous features and shorts from around the world to audiences in the harbour city. Also famed for its parties, premieres and events, The Sydney Underground Film Festival will sadly – like so many other of the world’s film festivals – be heading online in 2021. But while the in-the-flesh elements of SUFF will be missing, the team behind the fest has certainly made up for that by assembling a truly fascinating array of films.
“At a time when there is so much uncertainty, we couldn’t just bear to postpone or cancel SUFF in 2021,” says SUFF festival director Katherine Berger. “We owe it to so many people that support SUFF and that includes all the filmmakers that have been submitting films to us all throughout the pandemic. It’s been a tough time to host an event and a tough time to be making films, but creative outlets are so important, especially in a time like this.”
A thrilling mix of the wild and wonderful, the 2021 line-up features 30 feature films and documentaries, 20 Australian premieres, a special 40-year anniversary film, and over 100 bizarre shorts across nine themed sessions. Joining the program for its third year will be the filmmaking competition TAKE48 Film Challenge. Putting filmmakers’ abilities to the test, TAKE48 takes place for 48 hours from Friday September 3 to Sunday September 5. This year’s challenge will also be entirely online, with entries open to Sydneysiders as well as interstate and international participants, and over $165,00 in prizes to be won.
From its virtual opening night film – the road movie Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It, from Kazakhstan-based director Yernar Nurgaliyev – across its two-week-plus run, SUFF will boast some true must-sees, from music/pop culture docos (Alien On Stage, Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over, Moments Like This Never Last, Fanny: The Right To Rock, Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliche) and comedies (An Ideal Host, SweetHurt) to horror (Kratt) and experimentalism (The Land).
It might be an online affair, but The Sydney Film Festival is set to be just as wild and wonderful as ever.
The Sydney Underground Film Festival (SUFF) runs from Thursday September 9 to Sunday September 26. For all programming and screening details, head to the official website.
