The 65^th Sydney Film Festival today announced a sneak peek of this year’s essential viewing: 26 new films to be featured in this year’s 6-17 June event, as well as a new Festival location: HOYTS Entertainment Quarter.

The announcement is in advance of the full program launch on Wednesday 9 May.

“65 years young, Sydney Film Festival celebrates a spectacular history of storytelling with another 200+ feature films and documentaries, beginning with these first 26 cinematic gems,” Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley said. 

“Since 1954 Sydney Film Festival has presented over 9,000 films to Australian audiences. The Festival may have reached a stately age, but it continues every year to deliver the most cutting edge and provocative voices in international cinema." he continued.

“The 2018 Sydney Film Festival is once again proud to kick-start exciting conversations and showcase powerful ideas and bold statements that open eyes, expand horizons and enrich the lives of our audiences and community,” he said.

In 2018 the Festival will bring films from the world’s top film festivals to venues across Sydney. For the first time the Festival will present a program of films at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park. The venue will feature specially selected line-up of family films, as well as Screenability, the platform for screen practitioners with disability.

The State Theatre, Dendy Opera Quays, Dendy Newtown, Event Cinemas George Street, Art Gallery of NSW, the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Cremorne, Randwick Ritz, and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre return as official Festival screening venues. An exciting virtual reality program will return to the Festival Hub at Sydney Town Hall premiering cutting edge VR experiences, many for the first time in Australia.

The full Sydney Film Festival [Facebook] program will be announced on Wednesday 9 May but you can see a program preview at their website.