Australian director Gerald Rascionato’s raptor romp CLAW and American indie voice Ben Tedesco’s lockdown timeloop drama NO TOMORROW are the latest feature films to be confirmed for the 2021 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival.
The second annual celebration of speculative cinema is to be held November 3-14 at the Actors Centre Australia in Sydney’s inner-west. The features join the previously-announced VERA DE VERDAD, from Italian director Beniamino Catena, in a program that has grown to 15 sessions in 2021.
Starring Chynna Walker and Richard Rennie as best friends being stalked in an abandoned ghost town by prehistory’s favourite villain, CLAW is the second feature for Rascionato, following 2017’s deep sea creature feature, Cage Dive. Hailing from the far north coast of New South Wales, the LA-based Rascionato and collaborator Joel Hogan shot in remote desert locations through the 2020 pandemic to ready their film for a 2021 release.
Enjoying its Australian Premiere in Sydney, NO TOMORROW is a true auteur’s vision, with Tedesco (pictured, right) starring and assuming production duties on his handmade but very polished film; it was shot on his iPhone 11Pro, GoPro Hero 7 Black and using screen recordings from his MacBook Pro. Filming took place in his parents home in Arizona and en route to his own home in Los Angeles, and all points in between, with the entire shoot adhering to COVID-19 lockdown conditions.
Also selected from the earlybird submission period were four short films that will debut for Aussie audiences in Sydney:
HIRAETH (Dir: Ryan Andrews; UK). Commander Amber Jones’ mission is to research newly discovered life on Europa. She has courted controversy her entire career, not least because Commander Jones is the daughter of child killer Crista Jones, the first woman to be hanged in Britain in 70-years. Smashing loss and sadness into the limitations of life itself, Hiraeth is a deeply human story of consciousness and loss, raising harrowing questions about the nature of love and the things we do to honour it.
TODAY (Dir: Andrew Jaksch; Aust) Today is November 19th, 1969, and this young successful couple find themselves in a vicious cycle, trapped within an impenetrable void. He wields his power and entitlement like weapons, can she distinguish one day from another? And how does she survive?
BEACON (Dir: Anna Twomey; Aust; pictured, top). Goose is a 16-year-old ‘charger’, a girl whose body produces massive amounts of electricity due to nuclear side-effects. Alongside her warrior older sister, Goose must fight for her freedom from violent raiders, hunting her with the aim of harvesting her energy.
DAILY DRIVER (Dir: Jonathan Adams; Aust; pictured, above). Shane and V.I.N.C.E, a dying old Holden made sentient through artificial intelligence, navigate life and love from polar perspectives.
The 2021 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival will run November 3-14 at the Actors Centre Australia in Leichhardt, Sydney.
Web: https://www.sydneysciencefictionfilmfestival.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SydneyScienceFictionFilmFestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SydSciFiFest
Pictured: Chynna Walker in Claw