We are excited to be returning to Sawtell after a very long hiatus, as well as Nambucca Heads and Port Macquarie.

Eleven feature films, four Australian short films and four documentaries will premiere across the three venues from places as far-flung as Finland, Slovakia, Singapore and France - many of them award winners.

The festival will open in Sawtell at Majestic Cinemas on Friday September 8 with Australia's first Muslim comedy Ali's Wedding, which won the Foxtel Movies Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Sydney Film Festival this past June.

This heartfelt and funny story is based on the real-life experience of lead actor Osamah Sami, whose arranged marriage lasted less than two hours.

The screening will be preceded by our opening night reception, with complimentary drinks and nibbles for all ticket holders.

The program at Sawtell runs until Sunday September 8.

Screening at all venues, Lady Macbeth opens with the arranged marriage between beautiful Katherine and wealthy landowner Alexander, which is the beginning of a gripping and violent psychodrama that's far from a traditional bodice-ripper. 

From Festival favourite Tom Zubrycki, comes Australian documentary Hope Road, the story of a South Sudan refugee who returns to his village to build a school, but his ambitious plans are challenged when life intervenes. Zubrycki will attend the festival and participate in a Q&A session after the screening. 

If you’re feeling like a whacky, slightly surreal road trip movie, then Pop Aye is the delightful story of a man reunited with his childhood elephant travelling across Thailand to their home village. It won the Special Jury Award at Sundance Film Festival this year and played in the Sydney Film Festival's Official Competition.

One not to miss - On Body and Soul, follows an unconventional romance between two co-workers who discover that each night they have exactly the same dreams. After an 18 year break from filmmaking, director Ildikó Enyedi is back in top form, with her transfixing film that won the Sydney Film Prize at Sydney Film Festival, and the Golden Bear at Berlin this year. 

Also in the Official Competition in June was The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola's seductive thriller set in the Civil War era starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.

Fresh from winning Best Director in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival comes Wind River. Elizabeth Olsen and co-star Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) work together to investigate the death of a young Native America woman. This directorial debut of Taylor Sheridan (screenwriter for Hell or High Water, Sicario) is a tense thriller.

I Am Not Your Negro is a documentary not-to-miss: narrated by Samuel L Jackson, this cine-essay about race relations in America was nominated for an Oscar and also competed in the Sydney Film Festival Official Competition. Director Raoul Peck has crafted a “life-altering” (New York Times) film that melds the words of James Baldwin (1960s America’s most incisive commentator on race) with archival footage and contemporary Black Lives Matter protests.

Aki Kaurismäki's new film The Other Side Of Hope is a heart-warming, funny, melancholic tale of friendship between a Syrian refugee and a restaurant-owner which won him the Silver Bear Best Director Award at the Berlin Film Festival this year and a spot in Sydney Film Festival's Official Competition.

Don’t miss your chance to experience a unique and exciting array of cinema right off the back of Sydney Film Festival. ‘Subscribe and Save’ packages offer great value for multiple ticket purchases in Sawtell, with a full subscription from just $8 per ticket, or dip in to the festival with a 5-Film Flexipass from just $9.60 per ticket.

Full program and ticket information is available on our website http://sff.org.au/2017-film-guide/travelling-film-festival-sawtell/