10 FAVOURITE FILMS FROM SIX YEARS OF THE SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL

“I’m not going to back away from the undeniable fact that this festival reflects my taste in speculative storytelling. I am very fortunate to have opportunities every single year to bring films to our audience that I have developed a strong connection with and that often have little chance for distribution in Australia. And it’s always a thrill when the exposure we provide leads to a wider release in this market. I don’t always get what I want; in 2020, I fought but failed to have Sandra Wollner’s The Trouble with Being Born in the program, and I would’ve loved to have screened Another End, the 2024 pic with Renate Reinsve and Gael Garcia Bernal.

To pick a Top 10 of feature films we’ve screened over our first six years is starting to feel like a Sophie’s Choice moment (short films? That’s a mammoth task, maybe one day). The gap between # 1 and #11 is so minutely subjective, this list could all spin around by this time tomorrow. But right here, right now, here’s my ten favourite films from your Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival.”

Simon Foster, Festival Director | June 1, 2026

SCALES (Dir: Shahad Ameen; U.A.E; 2020) Set in a dystopian landscape, Scales is the story of a young strong-willed girl, Hayat, who lives in a poor fishing village governed by a dark tradition in which every family must give one daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters nearby.

MONSTERS OF MAN (Dir: Mark Toia; Australia; 2020) A robotics company vying to win a lucrative military contract team up with a corrupt CIA agent to conduct an illegal live field test. Six doctors on a humanitarian mission witness the brutal slaughter and become prime targets.

DARKNESS (Dir: Emanuela Rossi; Italy; 2020) Seventeen year-old Stella and her younger sisters are locked inside their house by a father protecting them from The Apocalypse. But there existence changes when the girls challenge their father’s version of the world.

POLARIS (Dir: Kirsten Carthew; Canada; 2022) Sumi, a 10-year-old human child, escapes capture by a brutal Morad hunting party. She rescues another youth and the two forge an unlikely friendship as they track an elusive polar bear across a vast taiga landscape.

UFO SWEDEN (Dir: Victor Danell; Sweden; 2024) A rebellious teenager who suspects that her father has been abducted by aliens works with a group of UFO enthusiasts to uncover the truth in a world of conspiracy theories, unexplained phenomena and parallel dimensions.

THE PINK CLOUD (Dir: Iuli Gerbase; Brazil; 2022) Giovana is trapped in an apartment with Yago, a guy she recently met at a party, after a toxic pink cloud settles over the city. While they wait for the situation to pass, they have to live as a couple. Over the years, Yago lives his own utopia, while Giovana feels increasingly trapped.

DISTANT THUNDER (Dir: Takayuki Ohashi; Japan; 2023) In Setouchi, three sisters are reunited in grief at a crucial time; in two months, a meteor will lay waste to mankind. The memories they share help to ease their anxiety as the end draws near.

VERA DE VERDAD (Dir: Beniamino Cantena, Italy; 2021) A ten-year-old girl disappears while walking near a cliff. Two years later she returns, but she is a 25 year-old woman who doesn’t remember anything. And whose memory, flashing unfamiliar images in her mind, is part of her conscience?

WESENS (Dir: Derick Mueller; South Africa; 2022) Two days after an unidentified object landed on a farm in South Africa in December of 1967, four authorities brokers, geared up with a Super 8 and 16mm digital camera, drove out to research it.

FISHGIRL (Dir: Javier Cutrona; Ecuador; 2025) Gripped by amnesia, Camilla recalls little of her childhood on the coast. To remain sane, she fills her life with an imaginary world where her reality is unique and extraordinary; details are brought to life; and, where a giant fish is her guardian.