Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival

From November 19-21, 2020, the state-of-the-art facilities at the Actors Centre Australia (ACA) will host a wildly diverse screening schedule drawn from visionaries working in the field of speculative storytelling from Australia and around the world.

The inaugural Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival (SSFFF) will include 8 feature-film screenings, with each session including a curated short-film accompaniment. It all begins with the Opening Night screening and celebration on Thursday, November 19 within the beautiful surrounds of Sydney's premiere inner-west venue, The Italian Forum at Leichhardt, and continues with two sessions on the evening of Friday 20th and a whopping five sessions on Saturday 21st.

The Founder and Festival Director is Simon Foster, who comes to the new role after three years as Program Director of SciFi Film Festival; he is also currently Festival Director of the Sydney leg of Monster Fest. “There is an enormous groundswell of support amongst the Sydney science-fiction community for an especially dedicated festival,” says Foster, “one that caters to broader tastes yet also services the most fringe elements of the genre.”

While the core of the 3-day event will be the presentation of cutting-edge science-fiction cinema, the SSFFF will also highlight the best speculative narratives in the field of art and photography, with planned exhibition space; engage with the future of science fiction cinema, with students from the ACA taking part in script-reading sessions; and, a special scifi-themed session of the ACA's popular 'In Conversation' Q&A events, with a leading filmmaker offering insight into his creative process.