Just over two months before the opening night, the Sydney Film Festival announced the first 22 films. Festival director Nashen Moodley is desperate to blow the ghosts of Covid clean out of town.
His strategy seems to be about intimacy and relevance. There are few mainstream names in this first list, but plenty of filmmakers grappling with the implications of history in our own lives. One key film for the festival is When a City Rises, about the Hong Kong resistance seen through the eyes of four protestors.
