Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival – Ready for Takeoff

by Dov Kornits

The Actors Centre in Leichhardt is set to become the go-to venue for community minded film events, with the first Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival (SSFFF) making it its home, following in the footsteps of the recent relaunched A Night of Horror Film Festival.

Hosting film events is a logical step for ACA, as it transitions into a multi-purpose centre that is so much more than just an acting school most famous for graduates like Hugh Jackman. Two recently appointed staff members – Head of Marketing/Strategy Jessica Khoury and General Manager Anthony Kierann – both have vast experience in film exhibition.

Speaking of connections, Festival Director Simon Foster launches the exciting initiative after curating last year’s SciFi Film Festival, which yours truly curated a few years ago.

SSFFF 2020 will screen 10 feature films and 41 shorts, with a special focus on Australian content. Opening night is the world premiere of Australian filmmaker Mark Toia’s Monsters of Man, an independent film shot in Cambodia, which festival director Simon Foster describes as ‘Predator-meets-Robocop’.

Two Australian films will screen on the Saturday matinee, Travis Bain’s mini-feature Starspawn: Overture, starring Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2), and Stephen Osborne’s debut feature, UFO-themed comedy/thriller, Strangeville. Both films were made in Queensland.

Other feature films screening include Italy’s Darkness by Emanuela Rossi; France’s Fish Love by Olivier Babinet, Japan’s Hide & Sniff by Kousuke Hishinuma, Spain’s The Queen of the Lizards by Juan Gonzalez & Nando Martinez and Russia’s epic fantasy COMA by Nikita Argunov, which will close the fest. Saturday night will feature two sci-fi films from the Middle East, psychological thriller The Fabricated, the debut of Iranian brothers Ali and Emad Katmiri, followed by Shahad Ameen’s Scales, a ‘sea-monster/female-empowerment vision’ from the U.A.E.

Short films are always a highlight at genre film fests, and SSFFF will not disappoint, with a special highlight sure to be FilmInk’s former graphic designer Richard de Carvalho’s Star Wars fan-fiction actioner, A Blaster in the Right Hands.

And to reinforce the community spirit, Luxembourg feature Tune into the Future by Eric Schockmel will play for free in the venue foyer throughout the fest.