Friday 20 September, 6.30pm

Dir: Thomas Fairchild / Australia / 39 mins / WORLD PREMIERE
A farmer, grieving the loss of his dog, buys a time travel device to reunite with his four-legged companion; a plan that drives him towards a painful confrontation with the state of his life and those he has left behind. Watch trailer.

Screens with THE RECLAIMERS
Dir: Jason Sheedy / USA / 20 mins / WINNER - BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
After her grandparents are killed by invisible creatures, a determined young woman seeks to avenge them with the help of her canine companion - the only one who can see the mysterious invaders. Watch trailer.

Session includes the pre-screening presentation of the ADAM LEE MEMORIAL AWARD.

Friday 20 September, 8.45pm

Dir: Miguel Llanso / Estonia / 89 mins / AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
On a summer break, Mia and her friends try a meditation app that delivers a mind-bending experience. When a police investigation reveals darker forces at play, and one of the girls ends up in a hospital, Mia grapples with the choice to save them or join them on their bewilderingly surreal journey. Watch trailer.

Screens with EDWARD HAS A TREE INSIDE HIM
Dir: Kristoffer Lucia / Australia / 17 mins / NSW PREMIERE / WINNER - BEST STUDENT SHORT
A young woman is thrust into a caretaking role after her boyfriend is diagnosed with a unique illness.

Saturday 21 September, 10.30am

RETRO-THEMED FAMILY SCI-FI: Remember when a trip to the movies meant a few cartoons and then a fun feature for the whole family?! Those magical moments are back again!

Dir: Don Chaffey / USA / 89 mins
A young inventor bets it all on his latest idea – the Canine Home Protection System, or ‘CHOMPS’, a robot dog that has super strength, x-ray vision and can detect crimes being committed. But when the android mutt proves ground-breaking, a sleazy businessman will stop at nothing to secure it. Wesley Eure, Valerie Bertinelli and an ensemble of great ‘70s comic actors bring to life this delightful romp. Watch trailer.

Screens with
IN THIS TOGETHER (Dir: Jiamu Tao / USA / 1 min)
LAIKA (Dir: Yann Carillo / USA / 1 min)
COLESLAW CRISIS (Dir: Cam Whipple / USA / 2 mins)

Saturday, 21 September, 1.00pm

TOUCH (Dir: Jennie Feyen / 11 mins) In the near future, a woman tries a new therapy to overcome her fear of being touched. Watch trailer.
EMBERS (Dir: Alexis Orosa / 15 mins) In the aftermath of a climate crisis, Rhea longs for a future with her new fiancée, whilst Tyler clings to the ghost of their shared past. A perilous journey to their childhood home threatens to destroy their what remains of their shattered lives.
CONNECTED (Dir: Kelly Nicholson / 18 mins) A woman loses her grip on reality when the technology in her home begins to haunt and possess her. Watch trailer.
SAM (Dir: Masoud Varjavandi / 5 mins) A prototype android wants to explore the world for herself only to find discrimination from the last place she expected. Watch trailer
TRANSMISSION (Dir: Muy Lang Linda Ung / 11 mins) In a dystopian future, a woman is trapped in a funeral parlour's death chamber with her late husband’s life essence embedded in a teddy bear.
THE BEAST INSIDE (Dir: Angus Lowe / 9 mins) A young man must trust a peculiar hunchback and an eccentric alchemist in order to escape a terrifying 'beast' and confront his ex-girlfriend.
TRAVELLER (Dir: Michael McLennan / 11 mins) In a city where missing souls usually go unnoticed, a woman confronts a mysterious man in order to find her lost lover.
THE PEOPLE VERSUS (Dir: Hamish Holton / 18 mins) An alternate history short film set in the 1960s, where criminal trials are decided by public opinion, and a young man monitoring the response to a defendant struggles with the justice system’s murky morality.

This session contains some sequences that may cause discomfort to photosensitive viewers.

Saturday 21 September, 3.30pm

Dir: Fabio D'Orta / Italy / 75 mins / AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
There is an ancient villa where desperate people have the opportunity to revive their fortunes by selling their bodies to mysterious entities in exchange of money. When huge and age old creatures emerge from the deep woods surrounding the villa, a series of strange and sinister events prompt three unlikely guests to band together in a desperate escape. Watch trailer.

Screens with NO MAN’S LAND
Dir: Christian Kennedy / Australia / 29 mins / AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
In this expertly-crafted Alien fan-fiction production, an outfit of Imperial soldiers fighting brutal trench warfare on a desolate WW1 battlefield find themselves up against an enemy not from this world. Watch trailer.

Saturday 21 September. 6.00pm

Dir: Victor Danell / Sweden / 115 mins / AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Denise is a rebellious teenager from a foster family who suspects that her father is not dead but rather abducted by aliens. With the help of a group of enthusiasts who track and investigate UFO encounters, she decides to uncover the truth and embarks on a risky adventure that takes them into a world filled with conspiracy theories, unexplained phenomena, and... parallel dimensions. "'UFO Sweden' is a visually stunning piece of nostalgia full of heart and excitement." - Dread Central

Screens with LIMIT
Dir: Qing Kong / China / 7 mins / NSW PREMIERE
In 2136, the boundaries of human activities have expanded to Jupiter, where the public security organisation "Border" has been established. A groundbreaking animation work from the vibrant Chinese VFX sector.

Saturday 21 September, 9.00pm (RATED R)

Dir: Scooter McCrae / USA / 85 mins / AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Desperate for work, Derek (Damian Maffei) accepts a job at a tech start-up, working on the company’s innovative new project – Susan (Yvonne Emilie Thälker, in a fearless debut performance), a cutting-edge sex doll that receives and responds to punishment as an integral part of her evolving AI. Soon, Derek finds the limits of his own desires being challenged, as his relationship with Susan reveals the nature of man and woman, pleasure and pain, and life and death in a morally uncertain future world. Official Selection – Fantasia 2024. Watch trailer.

Screens with MUSINGS OF A MECHATRONIC MISTRESS
Dir: Jasmin Hagendorfer / Austria / 24 mins
In a world where technology and humanity intertwine, Tiffany, a self-aware feminist "sex robot", embarks on an unparalleled journey of self-discovery. With every revelation, Tiffany's contemplative journey challenges our perceptions and compels us to question the boundaries of technology, desire, queerness and societal expectations.

Sunday 22 September, 10.30am

Dir: Alexander Lasheras / Canada / 86 mins / NSW PREMIERE 
The Piers family - widowed single father, Frank, and his two children, Arron and Rosemary - face an unexplainable cosmic event at their family farm. When a pod of unknown origin is discovered on their property in the wake of a meteor shower, the family must first save themselves then consider the fate that awaits humanity. Watch trailer.

Screens with CHRYSANTHEMUM
Dir: Raúl Díez Rodríguez / Spain / 6 mins / WINNER – BEST ANIMATION SHORT
The crash of a young astronaut on a desolate planet Earth is only the beginning of an uncomfortable relationship of tension and seduction between her injured, dying body and a mysterious figure who may be Death himself.

Sunday 22 September 22, 12.30pm

Dir: Pete Ohs / USA / 73 mins / AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Diane and Fox love to work. Unfortunately, they live in a polarized world where having a job is illegal. From US indie director Pete Ohs (Jethika, 2022) come this pitch-black, bittersweet masterpiece of speculative cinema satire. Film Threat cited its “unique charm”, calling the script by stars Stephanie Hunt and Will Madden, “strange, inspiring” and the film, “an offbeat social commentary that will entertain [and] intrigue fans of Orwell and Vonnegut.” Watch trailer.

Screens with SOULMATE
Dir: Richard Fenwick / UK / 15 mins)
A lonely computer coder has been nurturing an illegal romance with an AI in a computer simulation. When her company uncovers the affair, she’s forced into a desperate battle to save her relationship. Watch trailer.

Sunday 22 September, 2.30pm

Dir: Ryan Ward / Canada / 108 mins / NSW PREMIERE
12-year-old Hildie (Nyah Perkin, in a remarkable debut performance) struggles with life on the run, as she travels across the American midwest with her father Sonny (Ryan Ward), who has Tourette Syndrome. Wanting nothing more than a normal family life, she befriends a community of outcasts in the remote countryside, who soon reveal more sinister motives - they want to harness the volatile supernatural power her father is hiding. Watch trailer.

Screens with ROSE & ESTELLA GET ABDUCTED BY ALIENS
Dirs: Susan Earl, Alice Bishop, Lauren Bailey / Australia / 6 mins / WINNER – BEST WEB/TV EPISODE
A comic spin on a highly publicised incident that happened near the filmmaker’s home town of Melbourne, Australia. Episode 1 of Season 2 of the web series, Classic.

Sunday 22 September, 6.00pm

Dir: Luke Ian Sparke / Australia / 96 mins / WORLD PREMIERE
Trapped below ground amidst a catastrophic city attack, two opposing strangers must crawl through an uncertain, narrowing tunnel in the hope of evading the terror that lies above and behind them. The latest masterful genre thrillride from the director of the international hits Occupation (2018) and Occupation: Rainfall (2020).

Session includes the 2024 SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS CEREMONY