Selina Miles Opens Sydney Film Festival With 248 Films From 81 Countries
Selina Miles will open sydney film festival on June 3, 2026, with her documentary Silenced at the State Theatre. The 73rd edition runs through June 14 and packs 248 films from 81 countries into a program that also includes 19 titles direct from Cannes.
State Theatre on June 3
Silenced follows human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson’s fight against the weaponisation of defamation law, and both Miles and Robinson will attend the opening-night screening. That puts a legal story, not a red-carpet showcase, at the front of a festival built around discovery and empathy.
Nashen Moodley said each moment of this year’s event offered an opportunity for discovery and empathy, and he described art and cinema as a way to 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. He added, “And we can’t forget, they’re also an enormous source of joy.”
Leviticus in the prize race
Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus joins the local contingent and competes for the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize, alongside six films direct from the Cannes Competition. The Sundance breakout about two teenage boys confronting an evil force that takes the form of the person they desire most gives the prize lineup a sharper genre edge than a standard prestige slate.
Natalie Erika James’ Victorian-shot body horror Saccharine also sits inside the Australian contingent, giving local filmmakers visible space inside a field dominated by international titles. For readers tracking the festival as a discovery market, that mix says the programming team is not treating Australian work as an appendix.
Kleber Mendonça Filho jury
The competition jury will be presided over by Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, with Ildikó Enyedi, Boo Junfeng, cinematographer Ari Wegner, and First Nations producer-director Sally Riley alongside him. Special Presentations at the State Theatre include Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood, Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and Anthony Maras’ Pressure.
The opening-night choice and the prize lineup point to the same thing: this festival wants attention on films with a point of view, not just scale. If you are planning what to watch first, start with Silenced at the State Theatre and then work outward through the local titles and Cannes arrivals that give the 73rd edition its range.
