15th Festival 1968

The festival finally left its Sydney University origins and moved all of its screenings to the Wintergarden Theatre at Rose Bay, where it would remain for six years.

After the traumas of the previous two years there was a deceptive quiet on the film censorship front – no films were cut or banned.

The Festival’s special guest was Satyajit Ray, long a popular favourite, who presented his first colour film, Kanchenjungha.

The festival opened with Richard Lester’s How I Won The War (starring John Lennon), and closed with Luchino Visconti’s The Stranger; in all 26 features were shown, a drop of six from the previous year: Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (Japan), Marco Bellocchio’s China is Near (Italy), Volker Schlöndorff’s first film Young Törless (West Germany), Jiri Menzel’s first film Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia), Bo Widerberg’s Elvira Madigan (Sweden), Jerzy Skolimowski’s Le depart (Belgium) , Georges Franju’s Judex (France), Henning Carlsen’s Hunger (Denmark), Istvan Szabo’s Father (Hungary), Robert Bresson’s Mouchette (France), Masaki Kobayashi’s Rebellion (Japan), Sergei Yutkevich’s Lenin in Poland (USSR), Andrei Blaier’s Mornings of a Sensible Youth (Romania), Zako Hoshiya’s Hot Noon (Bulgaria), Kostis Zois’ Silhouettes (Greece), Gianfranco Mingozzi’s Trio (Italy), Ephraim Kishon’s Ervinka (Israel), Adrian Ditvoorst’s Paranoia (Netherlands), Allan King’s Warrendale (Canada), Josef Heifits’ In the Town of S (USSR), Robert Carlisle’s Sofi (USA), Henryk Kluba’s Skinny and the Others (Poland), Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierret le fou (France), and Koreyoshi Kurahara’s Longing for Love (Japan).

Shorts included: Tom Cowan’s Helena in Sydney, Don Levy’s Opus, Joseph Strick’s The Hecklers, Bruno Bozzetto’s Life in a Box, Jan Nĕmec’s Mother and Son, Walerian Borowczyk’s Joachim’s Dictionary, Jiri Brdecka’s Rendezvous in a Forest, Donald Brittain’s Never a Backward Step, John Halas’ The Question, Albert Lamorisse’s Versailles, Albie Thoms’ Bolero, and Geoffrey Jones’ Rail.