The 1940s were the peak of the Golden Era of Cinema. Iconic films like Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon and It’s a Wonderful Life filled theaters with larger than life characters created by legendary filmmakers.
In Sydney, tucked inside the art deco Paramount House building that served as Paramount Pictures’ 1940 Oceania headquarters, was a basement screening room where executives got their first glimpse of many of these groundbreaking films. It is this venue so rich in cinematic history that will once again showcase cutting-edge films as The Sydney World Film Festival begins a new era in 2018.
The Sydney World Film Festival was launched in 2015 as an online film festival. The online environment and the technology that made it possible was critical to the success of myriad filmmakers whose works would probably never have been screened at conventional festivals.
Having a film selected at Sydney World Film Festival was about industry prestige since the format only allowed private screenings for an international jury. Beginning in 2018, this distinguished festival enters a new era as its first brick-and-mortar event is held at the Golden Age Cinema. Free and open to the public for the first time, this venue will allow filmmakers to witness the impact their films on a live audience.
The festival aims to introduce quality, non-mainstream films from global filmmakers. Previous highlights include filmmakers such as Marina Stepanska, Sona Moghaddam, Dimitris Katsimiris, Luca Leoni, Yoav Tal, Asa Eitan, Or Kan tor, Pia Lauritz, Lemuel Lorca, Juan Sebastián Martínez Mora, Zheng Laizhi, Abbas Sendi, Rosa von Praunheim, Elvis Lu, Latifa Said, Lourdes Sandoval, Vladimir Beldian, Sugandha Garg, Tamara Vittoz, Lucia Lalor, André Marques, Cristina Lladosa, Joaquín Vallet, Levente Kölcsey, Christian Calon, Darko Vukić, Vojtěch Domlátil, Magda Fernandez, and more!
Inspired by the grand screening rooms of the past and born of today’s interconnected world, the 2018 Sydney World Film Festival will serve as a showcase for the work of cinema masters as well as rising talents. We are thrilled to offer filmmakers this fantastic opportunity.