In its 70th year, SFF celebrates with the Living Archive, an interactive, accessible record of the Festival’s evolution – available to explore online now.
On 11 June 1954, the inaugural Sydney Film Festival opened to a sold-out crowd of 1200 film enthusiasts at the University of Sydney. First organised by a passionate group representing Sydney’s film societies, the Festival has since become one of Sydney’s most significant cultural events. In 2023, SFF is looking towards its future by honouring its past with the relaunched Living Archive.
The Living Archive is now an easy to navigate treasure trove, capturing more than just the 10,000 films, filmmakers and events from the Festival’s history. Everyone is now welcome to re-discover hidden treasures – like the controversial films that ignited outrage and censorship wars that went all the way to parliament, or the Soviet films that prompted ASIO’s surveillance of David Stratton and SFF staff during the Cold War, to the premiere of future classics like Strictly Ballroom, and much more.
Created as part of a philanthropic initiative to strengthen SFF’s community origins, the Archives Renewal team and SFF Archivist Jess Furlong engaged volunteers and collected materials from SFF alumni.
“One of the fun things has been speaking to all the subscribers that have come forward with their stories, there are so many people who have been with us since the uni days,” says Furlong. “I found a hand-made poster from 1955 and I went to ask David Donaldson [SFF’s first Festival Director] about it and he said: ‘I actually recognise that excited handwriting’ and it turns out he’d made the poster when he was in his 20s!”
Each item added to the archive is a record of the passions and adventures of the people who safeguarded it. Behind decades-old program guides, membership badges and ticket stubs donated to the archive is “a story of the individuals who have held onto the ephemera SFF made each year, showing their personal journey through the Festival, as well as ours as an organisation,” says Furlong.
Although film festivals are now held world-over, SFF was one of the first. It aimed to bring Sydney’s cinephiles together through a shared love of cinema and connected the city to the entire world through the exchange of stories and ideas.
In the ’50s, there were few cinemas showing anything but mainstream British and American films in Australia. Non-mainstream films were only viewed through screenings held by film societies, which were steadily increasing in membership.
“The Festival was [the audience’s] access point to finding out what was happening in the world, and 70 years later, that is still part of SFF’s essence. It’s just that the story’s developed a bit,” says Furlong.
“The archive is sharing the Festival back with the world and opening the collection to the international community. This is an international project as well as one that is quite literally rooted in the history of this city.”
Film remains an important medium for sharing cultures and ideas. The Living Archive preserves a history of international film and programming – particularly underrepresented films – ensuring these moments in time remain in the collective memory. When viewed in its totality, the Archive reveals that world history and cinema have always been in lockstep.
“We’ve created a modernised framework that’s a lot more contemporary and interactive. The archive functions as a tool for research, as well as a tool for conversation,” says Furlong. “It’s about keeping history close and bringing it forward. In a way, our archive is moving to the future with us.”
We acknowledge Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF are based.
We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.