Sydney Film Festival delivers a cultural feast (plus a little something for your taste buds)

As food lovers, if we’re not making sure it gets to you, here at Delivery Hero, we also like to watch it on the big screen.  There are SOOO many good films out this year and the Sydney Film Festival is bringing them direct to you from 6-17th June. This year’s program features 156 films from 50 countries in 49 languages!

Festival director, Nashen Moody, has put together a diverse program of feature films and documentaries including 22 Australian premières from “Dead Europe” and “Not Suitable for Children”, to “Mabo” (featured in the indigenous Blackfella films program).  Other highlights include the new Wes Anderson flick “Moonrise Kingdom” which looks like a pearler! And then there’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild” by Behn Zeitlin which bagged the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year; and “Bully” a documentary by Lee Hirsch, which follows a few kids and their families in the USA.

This year’s festival also has a special focus on Indian cinema with Anurag Kashyap’s epic “Gangs of Wasseypur“. And by epic, we mean EPIC. It’s in two parts – each weighing in at 160 minutes apiece! You’ll definitely need some sustenance to make it through this gangster tale spanning generations. It’s been described as an Indian mash-up of Tarantino meets “The Godfather”, topped off with a neo-Bollywood soundtrack.

image: SteFou!; Flickr

After all that you will be craving an Indian takeaway on your way home, or even better, schedule your order with Delivery Hero ahead of time, so it arrives 10 minutes after you walk in the door.  Our tip would be Maya da Dhaba in Surry Hills. They do a mean Chicken Jhalfrezi, Dal Makhani (lentil dahl) and Punjabi Baingan (baby eggplant with tomato, chilli and coriander), plus a delicious assortment of spiced rice dishes.

Alternatively if you’re a hardcore foodie, then sign up for the food + film experience, which features the documentary film “Step Up to the Plate” which follows master French chef Michel Bras and his legendary three-Michelin Star hotel-restaurant. After the screening treat yourself to a 4-course meal inspired by the movie, specially prepared by chef Justin North at Quarter Twenty One, with matching Eden Road wines.

We want to know which films you’re excited about checking out at the Sydney Film Festival, and which dishes you’ll be chowing down on as you debrief.