Antenna Selects - Antenna Festival

ANTENNA SELECTS (2020)

In 2020, Antenna Documentary Film Festival is excited to launch Antenna Selects – a curated selection of physical screenings and events.

Replacing our scheduled 2020 Festival, Antenna Selects will bring the festival’s cutting-edge programming to Sydney audiences year-round between September 2020 and August 2021. We’ll be premiering some of the best local and international documentaries, together with Q&As and panel discussions. Antenna Selects is presented in partnership with the Australian Film Television and Radio School and will kick off on 3rd September 2020 at the Palace Chauvel Cinema with the Australian Premiere of The Painter and the Thief, winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance.

We believe films should be seen on the big screen and we are very excited to bring people together again for a shared experience, but we are also committed to keeping you all safe. We wish to reassure you that, in cooperation with Palace Cinemas, all Antenna Selects screenings will follow the latest Government social distancing guidelines and Palace Cinemas’ new operating procedures to ensure the comfort and safety of our audiences.

The first six screenings are now on sale, and there will be more to come! Tickets for each film can be found on our program pages links below. To save on the cost of watching 5, or 10 films, you can purchase a festival multi-pass here.

7165 — A still from *The Painter and the Thief* by Benjamin Ree, an official selection of the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Barbora Kysilkova. All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or 'Courtesy of Sundance Institute.' Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.

THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF + Q&A

3, 4 & 5 September, 2020 | Australian Premiere

After an artist’s two most famous paintings are stolen from an Oslo gallery, she meets—and unexpectedly befriends—the drug-addicted man who took them, resulting in this twisting, edge-of-your-seat study of the complicated and compelling duo.

WELCOME TO CHECHNYA + Q&A

19 & 20 September, 2020 | Sydney Premiere

A searing look at the current anti-LGBTQ persecution in the Russian Republic of Chechnya, focusing on the survivors and the brave LGBTQ activists who risk unimaginable peril to rescue victims from a targeted campaign of torture and brutality.

GUNDA + Q&A

1 & 3 October, 2020 | Australian Premiere

Through encounters with a mother sow named Gunda, two ingenious cows, and a scene-stealing chicken, master filmmaker Kossakovsky movingly recalibrates our moral universe, reminding us of the inherent value of life and the mystery of all animal consciousness, including our own.

BRAZEN HUSSIES + Q&A

15 & 17 October, 2020 | Sydney Premiere

Interweaving freshly uncovered archival footage, personal photographs, memorabilia and lively personal accounts, Brazen Hussies tells the story of the bold women of the Women’s Liberation Movement, who re-ignited the feminist revolution in Australia.

DOPE IS DEATH + Q&A

5 November, 2020 | Australian Premiere

Radical politics meets community health when Dr. Mutulu Shakur—Tupac’s stepfather—and fellow Black Panthers, viewing both heroin and methadone rehab as “chemical warfare” on the poor, launch America’s first acupuncture detox program in the 1970s.

COLLECTIVE + Q&A

3 December, 2020 | Australian Premiere

Screened at Venice, TIFF, and Sundance to sterling reviews, Collective follows a team of Romanian journalists who untangle an intricate web of unchecked systemic corruption in the wake of a devastating nightclub fire that killed 27 people and injured 180.

Antenna Selects is supported by City of Sydney, Create NSW, Screen Australia, AFTRS and Palace Cinemas.