Whether you love John Waters or Kristen Stewart, the 2024 Sydney Underground Film Festival has a film for you

Nobody puts together a film festival program just like that. For 18 years now, the Sydney Underground Film Festival has been putting together one program after another each year, consistently offering Harbour City cinephiles a feast of the most surreal and sublime films. But if Sydney could ever boast a film festival that's as much about going and seeing where the mood takes you as it is about making plans to see specific films, this is it. Here, a conversation in line for one film can lead you to your next one.

To celebrate its latest milestone – turning 18 is no small feat for any film festival, let alone an independent festival that for years was based at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville and is now based at Dendy Newtown – SUFF has another cleverly chosen program on offer. Over the four days between Thursday 12 September and Sunday 15 September, expect everything from classic John Waters films to Kristen Stewart's latest work. If festivals past are anything to go by, it will also offer one of the best vibes on the Sydney and Australian festival scene, where there's always a feeling in the air that you're about to discover something wild and wonderful.

Trust SUFF opens its 18th festival with Waters' Female problemswhich also has a reason to celebrate: its 50th anniversary. The film, directed by Divine, will be shown with scratch cards to allow for the full sensory experience. The one and only Waters is an interviewee on the closing night Scale!!!also about the London cinema of the same name. The rest of the documentary title is Or the incredibly strange rise and fall of the world's wildest cinema and how it influenced a confused generation of weirdos and misfitswhich gives the audience an idea of ​​what kind of story is being told.

Stewart fans should Sacramento on their must-see list, with the Love lies bleeding, Crimes of the future And Spencer Actor who stars in the road trip film alongside Michael Cera (Dream scenario), Maya Erskine (Mr and Mrs Smith) and Michael Angarano (Oppenheimer), the latter also works as an author and director.

SUFF’s list of images with connections to big names also includes documentaries Michel Gondry: Do it yourselfabout the Don't forget me! filmmaker; Daaaaaali!who sees rubber And DeerskinQuentin Dupieux explores the cult artist Salvador Dalí in the director’s usual unconventional manner; and The visitor by Bruce LaBruce (Saint Narcissus), a tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini's TheoremOr the Village People in The music cannot be stopped – and yes, you are encouraged to dress smartly to attend the screening.

Other highlights include black comedy Mother Father Sister Brother FrankHorror thriller that is transferred from the page to the screen Saint Claremore road trips with RATS!And We are zombies from the team behind Turbo Kid And Summer 84If you have seen stunning animations from 2018 The Wolf House Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña are back on the festival grounds – also at SUFF 2019 The Hyperboreans.

“At SUFF we are all about celebrating the wild, the strange and the wonderfully unexpected. This year’s festival takes you on a journey through the boldest corners of cinema – where anything can and usually does happen,” explains festival director Nathan Senn.

“Our film selection is a testament to the fearless creativity of filmmakers who dare to challenge, provoke and entertain, and we can’t wait for our audiences to join us on this journey.”

The 2024 Sydney Underground Film Festival will take place from Thursday 12 September to Sunday 15 September at Dendy Newtown, King Street, Newtown. For more information and tickets visit the SUFF website.