By Joshua Bonador
It feels like everyone and their mum’s dog has a Letterboxd account now and while I might sound cynical about that, I assure you I’m actually glad! Film culture currently feels more alive than ever, whether that’s audiences racing to the Letterboxd review section with a perfectly timed one-liner or booking time off work just to watch the Oscars–or is this just my roommates? Either way, the Sydney Film Festival is back in town from June 3rd to the 14th showcasing Sundance, Cannes and other international film festival debuts alongside some really interesting retrospectives via their ‘Sartorial: Fashion on Film’ program. Here are a few of my picks that’ll hopefully pique your interest and get butts in theatre seats for the love of film!
Filipiñana
Dir. Rafael Manuel
17 year-old Isabel relocates to Manila from her rural Ilocos to become the newest ‘tee-girl’ at an overtly swanky country club with a checkered past. Expanding on the concept from his 2020 short film of the same name, Filipino director Rafael Manuel’s debut feature explores the effects of colonialism through the satirical lens of a Manila golf resort, where elaborate musical ceremonies, gaudy flight attendant-esque uniforms and superfluous jobs like ‘tee-girl’ are the everyday. Honestly, when I first spotted this on the program I couldn’t have been more stoked (as a Filipino, how couldn’t I?!) to see my people getting some shine, especially through a story examining some genuine pains from the past. From the promotional shots and teaser trailers all I’m seeing so far is, as short-sighted it may sound, ‘Filipino Saltburn’ but the costuming and movements of the country club staff seem so deliberately unnerving that I’m certain we’re in for a crazy one here.
Sessions for Filipiñana are set on the nights of the 7th and 11th of June
Sheep in the Box
Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
Legendary Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda comes through with another original family-driven drama piece, this time following a grief-struck family that seeks emotional relief in an AI-generated humanoid replicant of their deceased son. Kore-eda’s modern works should be familiar with the devout SFF attendees with 2018 and 2023 masterpiece entries ‘Shoplifters’ and ‘Monster’, respectively, all receiving critical acclaim. While I can recognise the ubiquity that AI is seeing in our lives at the moment, I find myself particularly cautious with any creative work that wants to speak on it it because they’ve always come out so oppressively on-the-nose. My biases towards Kore-eda however cannot be shaken and I’m going all-in on this because when has a family drama of his ever not delivered? I expect the child actors to be unbelievably fantastic beyond their years and have me sobbing as if I’d lost a child myself.
You can catch ‘Sheep in the Box’ (and me, you best believe) at any of the sessions on the 9th, 10th and 14th of June.
Marc by Sofia
Dir. Sofia Coppola
In her first ever non-fiction feature film, Sofia Coppola has longtime friend, none other than fashion juggernaut, Marc Jacobs talk shop all in the lead up to his 2024 “paper doll” runway show. Absolutely not a tourist in the fashion world herself, Sofia Coppola, has had a keen eye for detail with the costuming in her works, be it only using cotton fabrics in 2010’s ‘The Beguiled’ to respect historical accuracy or having Manolo Blahnik do all the footwear in her iconic 2006 ‘Marie Antoinette’. It could really only be described as a match made in heaven having these two titans of their respective crafts talk through the the creative process while deep-diving into the storied life of Marc Jacobs in a way only Sofia Coppola ever could.
Sessions are filling up by the second but you can catch ‘Marc by Sofia’ on the 6th, 11th and 13th of June.
Notebook on Cities and Clothes
Dir. Wim Wenders
German auteur and European king of the road genre Wim Wenders gets a retrospective spot on the SFF2026 program with his 1989 documentary where interviews with the Japanese patron saint of fashion Yohji Yamamoto are spliced together with contemplative reflections on the concept of identity and its affected state in the birth and rise of cinema and fashion.
After making a glorious comeback to film with his post-COVID debut ‘Perfect Days’ (also a highlight of SFF2023), Wim Wenders is a name film lovers new and old have now got on the forefront of their brains and what better way to get another public helping of him. Expect long-form shots out the windshield on a Tokyo freeway while Wenders, almost jaded, muses about how “Identity is out of fashion. Then what is en vogue? If not ‘fashion’ itself.”
Sessions for ‘Notebook on Cities and Clothes’ can only be found on June 7th