Elise Cooper

1 Start at the beginning: Opening Night!A sure-fire way to spot someone more important than the receptionist for a distribution company is to go to world premieres. A large part of SFF is to screen “world firsts” and as such, the team (read: famous people/soon to be famous people) behind these films will almost definitely be at the screening of their movie wearing really beautiful clothes and smizing in a non-specific direction that you can move to so that they are staring at you. 2 Sydney Film Festival HubAs the word hub denotes, the SFF Hub at Town Hall is not only a central part of the proverbial wheel that is Sydney Film Fest but it is the meeting point for all important and well dressed humans to launch themselves onto the cinema scene. Squeeze yourself in on any of the 11 days that it’s open and you will quite literally rub shoulders with the famous, soon-to-be-famous and wish-I-was-famous. 3 Booze brings us together!Actors pretend to be confident. They are deeply insecure as their whole life hinges on how well their film is received. As such you can almost bet the coin jar on your desk on the likelihood of an actor drinking free rosé/cheap beer at the closest venue to any of the film screenings. Think Marble Bar for the State Theatre, Assembly Bar near George Street Event Cinemas, Opera Bar for Dendy Circular Quay, and literally any bar in Newtown for screenings at Dendy Newtown (side note: unlike on one-night stands, always be less drunk than the person you’re approac