Three feature films from DEGANZ members have been selected for this year’s Sydney Film Festival (SFF). SFF is celebrating its 72nd year with more than 240 films from 70 countries in the programme. The selected films cover themes of resistance, rebellion, identity, climate change, and cultural struggle.
The highly anticipated Pike River, directed by Robert Sarkies (DEGANZ) and edited by Peter Roberts (DEGANZ), is celebrating its world premiere in the Special Presentation strand. This is SFF’s big night out at the renowned State Theatre featuring films with big stars, special guests, and red carpet events.
Documentaries Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds, edited by Josh Yong (DEGANZ), and The Haka Party Incident, directed by Katie Wolfe (DEGANZ), are screening in the First Nations Awards strand. The programme is the world’s largest cash prize in global Indigenous filmmaking. The selected films are full of rich images, ideas, and perspectives from Indigenous storytellings from Canada, Aotearoa, Indonesia, Norway, and Australia.
Congratulations to Katie, Josh, Robert, and Peter on the prestigious selection!
Director: Robert Sarkies
Editor: Peter Roberts
The powerful true story of Anna Osborne (Melanie Lynskey) and Sonya Rockhouse (Robyn Malcolm), and their fight for justice following New Zealand’s deadliest modern mining disaster.
In 2010, a massive explosion trapped 29 men inside the Pike River coal mine in the remote West Coast of New Zealand. This deeply moving film portrays the friendship that grew between Anna, who lost her husband Milt, and Sonya, who lost her youngest son, Ben. Drawing strength from the other, they rebuild their shattered lives and gradually discover the scale of the betrayal they’ve endured. Together they find the courage to fight back against the mining bosses, the judiciary and the government. Their joint efforts shake the nation. Capturing their heroism with great sensitivity, Pike River is an inspiring account of the power of friendship.
Editor: Josh Yong
Follow the charming Aotearoa New Zealand singer-songwriter on a life-changing journey of self-exploration as he embraces his roots and creates his first album in te reo Māori.
Beloved for his alt-bluegrass stylings, Christchurch-born Marlon Williams has spent years on the road, touring with the likes of Florence + The Machine and Bruce Springsteen, and even making a fan of Bradley Cooper, who handpicked the musician to appear in A Star Is Born. This sensitive documentary finds Williams at a crossroads: he returns home to reconnect with his Ngai Tahu and Ngai Tai roots, and to write an album entirely in te reo Maori – calling upon his friend Lorde to contribute. Director Ursula Grace Williams crafts a loving portrait of an artist at his peak. Set against stunning Aotearoa New Zealand landscapes, her film celebrates the creativity that flows from exploring one’s own heritage and identity.
Writer, Director & Producer: Katie Wolfe
A three-minute protest staged in 1979 echoes across the decades as a potent indictment of systemic racism and a lens through which to re-examine Aotearoa’s national identity.
On May 1, 1979, the Maori and Pasifika activist group He Taua confronted University of Auckland engineering students over their annual “haka party”– a racist and drunken mock haka – in what became a pivotal moment in Aotearoa’s race relations. Katie Wolfe’s stirring documentary revisits the event through archival footage and unfiltered contemporary interviews. Adapted from the director’s acclaimed play, the film is suffused with tension, legacy, and painful introspection. With powerful juxtapositions of the past and the present, it interrogates what has changed and what hasn’t – and what remembrance really means. A vital documentary that reclaims forgotten history and honours those who stood up, and changed a nation.
