The Sydney Film Festival has announced that Selina Miles’ Australian documentary Silenced will open the 73rd edition of the citywide celebration of cinema on June 3 at the State Theatre.
The film, which follows international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson and traces the case of Brittany Higgins among others, will have its Australian premiere at the opening night of the SFF at the State Theatre on Wednesday June 3, followed by a post-screening celebration at Sydney Town Hall.
Silenced, which takes audiences inside the courtroom and behind the global headlines as Robinson fights against the weaponisation of defamation law by alleged perpetrators to silence survivors and journalist, was shown at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it received critical acclaim.
“We are proud to open the Festival with Silenced,” said SFF director Nashen Moodley. “Selina Miles has made a clear-eyed and urgent work that challenges audiences to question the systems that decide whose voices are heard and whose are suppressed.”
For Miles, the selection is a personal milestone. “The opportunity to play at the State Theatre as the opening night Film for Sydney Film Festival is a dream come true, and a testament to the power of storytelling to elevate voices that might otherwise go unheard,” she said.
As well as Higgins, the powerful documentary also follows Colombian journalist and co-founder of feminist magazine Volcánicas Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, and Amber Heard, whose defamation battle with her ex-husband Jonny Depp became one of the most high-profile legal cases in recent history. Inspired by Robinson’s book How Many More Women?, co-authored with Dr Keio Yoshida, it uses courtroom footage and behind the headlines interviews to tell their stories.
It’s a heavy subject matter to open the festival so it will be interesting to see the rest of the program when it is announced in May.
The SFF, one of the world’s longest-running and most prestigious film festivals, is always a highlight of Sydney’s winter calendar and this year already looks to be no different.
Although we have to wait for the full program to be revealed on May 6, the SFF has already announced that it will present Sartorial: Fashion on Film. That program will feature premieres alongside restored classics that explore the relationship between fashion and cinema.
A centrepiece will be the Australian premiere of Marc by Sofia, Sofia Coppola’s first documentary, offering a personal picture of longtime friend, designer Marc Jacobs, and his creative world. The Australian film French Girls, following a young woman drawn into Sydney’s modelling industry after being scouted, will have its world premiere as part of the program.
Tickets to Silenced, the Sartorial: Fashion on Film strand, Flexipasses and subscriptions to Sydney Film Festival 2026 are on sale now at sff.org.au.
