Probably not seeing as it’s being held between 5 and 16 June 2013, but I did find an interesting interview with Liz Watts which was included as part of the  Sydney Film Festival’s free online publication launched to celebrate its 60th anniversary.  I’ve extracted the relevant part from  “Interview with Filmmakers” here:

“Producers and distributors will only accept an invitation to screen their film at a festival if it will help with a film’s release into cinemas or with its commercial prospects. A range of factors is considered, including whether the timing of the festival fits with the best time of year to release the film. There were discussions about Animal Kingdom being shown at the SFF but the festival was deemed too late to take full advantage of the buzz that flowed from Sundance, one of the first major festivals in the annual worldwide calendar. In the end, however, the film was released into Australian cinemas while SFF was on.

“It was a bit of an experiment, but it seemed to work,” says Watts. Only time will tell whether director David Michôd’s follow-up film, The Rover, will be shown at SFF. When Watts was interviewed for this article she was about to head off to remote South Australia for filming, which was to run through until late March 2013. Twilightstar Robert Pattinson and the homegrown Guy Pearce star as a damaged man in ruthless pursuit of the people who stole his car and the younger brother of one of the thieves.

Screening in a festival might not suit some films; or it can send a message to filmgoers that a film is not of broad appeal – but Watts thinks this applies more to international than to local titles when it comes to Australia’s key fests. In other words, the strong level of interest in Aussie films generally cancels out such concerns.”  [My emphasis]

Read Liz’s full interview here.

I know this is wishful thinking, since the deadline is pretty damn tight, but I’ve wondered whether David Michod would unleash it there.  I hope they aren’t talking about 2014!