100+ Guests Announced for Sydney Film Festival 2026

Guests will present their films at premieres across the 12 days of the Festival, as well as take part in audience Q&As following screenings. Beyond the cinema, filmmakers will also participate in a series of free talks, panels and masterclasses taking place at Lower Sydney Town Hall, in SFF’s pop-up Festival event space – The Hub.

An unmissable event co-presented by the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), is a landmark In Conversation that will see legendary Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Weir – the Australian New Wave icon behind Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show, and recipient of six Academy Award nominations across four decades – reflect on a career that has shaped generations of filmmakers and carried Australian stories onto the world stage.

Joining the Festival’s special events is Kleber Mendonça Filho – recent Oscar nominee for Best Picture and this year’s Official Competition Jury President – who will deliver a filmmaking Masterclass. His most recent feature, The Secret Agent, became the most awarded film at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Director and Best Actor for star Wagner Moura, before earning nominations for Best Picture and Best International Film at the Academy Awards.

The 2026 Official Competition jury will judge the films in the Official Competition, awarding $60,000 to the winner of the coveted Sydney Film Prize.

The jury is presided over by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (The Secret Agent, SFF 2025), alongside Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul, SFF 2017; Silent Friend, SFF 2026), Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng (Apprentice), Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), and Australian First Nations producer and director Sally Riley (Mystery Road).

Attending the Festival to present their films in competition will be: Australian director Adrian Chiarella (Leviticus), Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (Ben’Imana), French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis (Dao), Austrian director Marie Kreutzer (Gentle Monster), Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (Minotaur), and Afghan actor Anwar Hashimi (No Good Men).