73rd Sydney Film Festival Unveils Lineup, Opens with Australian Premiere of Selina Miles’ ‘Silenced’

The 73rd Sydney Film Festival set to take place 3-14 June 2026, launched its program lineup of 248 films from 81 countries.

The Australian premiere of Silenced, directed by Selina Miles, will open the festival on June 3rd. The Sundance-premiered documentary follows international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson as she fights against the weaponisation of defamation law by alleged perpetrators to silence survivors and journalists. The film traces the cases of Brittany Higgins, Catalina Ruiz-Navarro and Amber Heard.

Other program highlights include Olivia Wilde directing herself, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton in the Sundance comedy The Invite; Jane Schoenbrun’s psychosexual horror Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson; Australian horror sensation Leviticus from Adrian Chiarella; and Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer in The Death of Robin Hood.

“We want to invite you to join us at SFF this year, where each moment offers an opportunity for discovery and empathy,” said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley. “Art and cinema help us make sense of the world, take us into the lives of people far away from us, and remind us to remain vigilant about our own rights and freedoms. And we can’t forget, they’re also an enormous source of joy.”

Official Competition

The Official Competition features award-winning and critically acclaimed films from Sundance, Cannes, Berlinale, and other festivals.

From Australia, Leviticus is a Sundance hit from Australian Adrian Chiarella, where two teenage boys contend with an evil force that takes on the form of the person they desire most: each other.

Films from the Cannes Competition include Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, a taut thriller that melds the personal and political in 2022 Russia; Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales, in which a writer uses surveillance for inspiration, with an all-star French cast including Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve; Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Sheep in the Box, a moving near-future drama about grieving parents who turn to AI to rebuild their family; and Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, a sensational snapshot of writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika navigating post-war Germany, starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler.

Also from the Cannes Competition are: Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, starring Léa Seydoux; Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure, following a woman on a perilous mission through the Bulgarian borderlands; Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord, a thought-provoking family drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve; and from Un Certain Regard, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Ben’Imana is an emotionally powerful exploration of reconciliation following the Rwandan genocide.

Other prize winners and acclaimed films include: Visar Morina’s Shame and Money, winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, is a deeply humane drama following a Kosovar family in dire financial circumstances; Alain Gomis’ Dao, presented in the Berlinale Competition, is a swirling, life-affirming epic across Guinea-Bissau and France. Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men, a sparkling political romantic comedy from Afghanistan, opened the Berlinale. Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, a Sundance hit starring Seth Rogen, Wilde herself, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, dissects modern relationships over one combustible dinner party.

The 2026 Official Competition jury will be presided over by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (The Secret Agent, SFF 2026), alongside Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul, SFF 2017), Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng (Apprentice), Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), and Australian First Nations producer and director Sally Riley (Mystery Road).

Documentary Australia Award

Ten new Australian documentaries will compete for the $20,000 Documentary Australia Award, with the winning film also becoming eligible for the Academy Award.

World Premieres include Rodeo Dreams, the story of four young Queensland bull riders following their dreams across Gulf Country to the Mount Isa Rodeo; Yumburra, Grace McKenzie’s portrait of Bruce Pascoe in the aftermath of Dark Emu, living on his riverside farm and testing the theories of his landmark book; and The Piano Tuner, Natalia Laska’s eight-year profile of Martin Tucker, a passionate piano doctor on a mission to save Australia’s ageing instruments.

Australian films premiering in competition include Mockbuster, Anthony Frith’s hilarious audience award-winning documentary charting his attempt to make a dinosaur film for notorious B-movie house The Asylum in just six days; Whistle, Christopher Nelius’ offbeat crowd-pleaser following the world’s greatest whistling competition, from Toronto 2025; Phenomena, Josef Gatti’s visually stunning psychedelic odyssey into the forces that shape the natural world; and Replica, in which three Chinese women turn to AI for love and connection, an award-winning documentary from debut director Chouwa Liang.

Also in competition are Silenced, which opens the Festival; Sukundimi Walks Before Me, a powerful documentary following an Indigenous PNG community’s campaign to preserve the Sepik River from a mining project; and Time and Tide, Vee Shi’s compelling hybrid docu-drama tracing contemporary China through a multigenerational family navigating the pressures of familial obligation.

Special Presentations at the State

Red carpet premieres and star-studded special events films at The State Theatre include Dead Man’s Wire, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, and Al Pacino, and Rays and Shadows, Xavier Giannoli’s epic starring Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin as a press baron navigating Nazi-occupied France.

Also from Cannes comes The Man I Love, Ira Sachs’ romantic drama set in 1980s New York, starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge and Rebecca Hall; The Birthday Party, a thriller starring Hafsia Herzi and Monica Bellucci; Colony, from Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho, a zombie action film from Cannes Midnight; Silent Friend, winner of the Venice FIPRESCI Prize, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux in Ildikó Enyedi’s; Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun’s stylish psychosexual horror, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson; and The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cannes-selected samurai epic.

Australian titles include Pressure from acclaimed Australian director Anthony Maras , starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser in the true story of one meteorologist’s impact on D-Day; and Ian Darling’s The Valley also has its World Premiere, a meditative portrait of life in Kangaroo Valley.

Other titles are Yellow Letters, the Berlinale Golden Bear winner, and Rose, which earned Sandra Hüller the Berlinale Silver Bear, both have their Australian premieres. Sundays, winner of Best Film at the San Sebastián Film Festival, follows a teenage girl whose decision to enter convent life unmasks the frailties of her family. Also screening are Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s account of Rushdie’s recovery after being stabbed 15 times; and Árru, a powerful Berlinale debut following a Sámi reindeer herder confronting a mining project threatening her ancestral lands.

The full Sydney Film Festival 2026 program is available online.