Sydney Film Festival Selects on SBS on Demand is 40 films chosen by Sydney Film Festival from its previous festivals. From 10 June to 10 July, you can watch this selection of films on SBS on Demand.
Of the 40 films in Sydney Film Festival Selects, there are 8 which are either from France or are in French. We tell you which ones below.
Sydney Film Festival director, Nashen Mooden, said that the films he has chosen for Sydney Film Festival Selects will make you laugh, make you cry, and will provoke and entertain.
FRENCH LANGUAGE FILMS IN SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL SELECTS
2012, France, French
Georges and Anne are retirees, former music teachers. Their daughter lives in Britain where she has her own family. When Anne has a stroke, both Georges and his daughter’s love for Anne will be tested.
A poignant film which is sure to be one of the ones to make you cry that Mooden was referring to.
Amour stars Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Riva and, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and won the Palme d’Or in 2012.
Stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuele Riva, Isabelle Huppert
Directed by Michael Haneke
2010, Canada, French Canadian
A film in which best friends, Francis and Marie, develop an obsessive crush on the same person, Nicolas, causing their friendship to fall apart.
A comedy which was the second feature from young writer and director Xavier Dolan.
Stars Xavier Dolan, Monia Chokri
Directed by Xavier Dolan
2014, Belgium, French
Sandra, played by Marion Cotillard, is a young woman assisted by her husband in trying to convince her colleagues to forego their bonuses so that she can keep her job. Why 2 days and 1 night? Because Sandra has just one weekend to convince them. Marion Cotillard was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Two Days, One Night.
Stars Marion Cotillard
Directed by Luc Dardenne
FILMS FROM FRANCE BUT NOT IN FRENCH AT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL SELECTS
2010, France, Farsi
An impossible choice for a married couple – move to another country to improve the life of their child or stay in Iran and look after a parent who is deteriorating from Alzheimer’s disease. This film was awarded the Best Foreign Language Oscar for Director Asghar Farhadi.
Stars Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat
Directed by Asghar Farhadi
2015, France, Turkish
Innocent fun being had by 5 teenage sisters on the beach in Northern Turkey with male classmates is reported to the girls’ family as “illicit behaviour” by a neighbour. What ensues is an effective imprisonment of the girls and lessons in housework to be prepared to become brides. Seeing their eldest sisters married off, the youngest band together and rebel in pursuit of a future in which they make the decisions in their lives. This film about female empowerment was the debut feature for Deniz Gamze Ergüven.
Stars Gunes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu
Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
2016, France, English
After losing his mother, a young boy is befriended by a police officer and sent to a foster home with other orphans his age. With the help of his new friends, he begins to trust and love again.
Stars Will Forte, Ellen Page, Nick Offerman
Directed by Claude Barras
2018, France, English
Rafiki was the first Kenyan film ever selected for Cannes and was banned in its home country, Kenya.
Kenyan girls Kena and Ziki are close, supportive friends who each want to be something more than a Good Kenyan girl who becomes a good Kenyan wife. Love however makes them choose between happiness and safety.
Stars Samantha Mugatsia, Sheila Munyiva, Jimmi Gathu, Nini Wacera
Directed by Wanuri Kahio
WOMAN AT WAR
2018, France, Icelandic
A quirky, heroic tale set in current times in which The Mountain Woman wages war against the local aluminium industry and risks everything to save the untouched Icelandic highlands. The Mountain Woman is Halla, whose double life is unknown to most. As her momentum builds and her actions become bolder, Halla learns her adoption application has been approved. Halla cannot simply stop her environmental activism and decides to plot one final attack on the mining companies before she becomes a Mum.
Stars Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Juan Camillo Roman Estrada
Directed by Benedikt Erlingsson
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The films which are part of Sydney Film Festival Selects will be available to stream on SBS on Demand from 10 June to 10 July.
Want to watch more French films on SBS 0n Demand? Here’s some films from the 2019 Alliance Francaise French Film Festival that you can stream on SBS on Demand
What’s your favourite film that you saw at a film festival?
