The Sydney Film Festival has announced its full programme for the 73rd edition, set to run June 3–14, with a competition lineup that places the event firmly among the year’s most significant showcases of international cinema. Crucially, 19 films coming directly from Cannes 2026 will feature in the programme, giving Australian audiences rapid access to the year’s most acclaimed festival titles.
The official competition is particularly rich with auteur prestige. Among the Cannes 2026 premieres competing in Sydney are Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur”; Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales,” starring Isabelle Huppert; Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” featuring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve; Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” with Sandra Hüller; and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Sheep In The Box.”
The competition also draws from other festival circuits, incorporating Sundance hits including Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” and the Australian horror film “Leviticus,” as well as Berlinale competition premiere “Dao” and opener “No Good Men.” The Cannes Un Certain Regard title “Ben’Imana,” by Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, also features, reflecting the festival’s commitment to amplifying voices from underrepresented filmmaking traditions.
The festival will open with “Silenced,” a documentary from Australian director Selina Miles. Screenings will be hosted at Sydney Opera House, the State Theatre, and cinemas across the city, with the full programme spanning 248 films from 81 countries.
Additional awards to be presented include the Sustainable Future Award, the Dendy Short Film Award, and the First Nations Award — the latter reflecting the festival’s ongoing prioritization of Indigenous Australian storytelling.
The Sydney Film Festival’s swift pipeline from Cannes continues to position it as the premier Southern Hemisphere destination for international cinema, offering local audiences the kind of rapid access to prize-winning world cinema that previously required international travel to major European festivals.
