Choose your own adventure Set to open the Sydney Film Festival: Mystery Road follows an indigenous detective investigating the death of an Aboriginal girl. For director Nashen Moodley, programming the 60th Sydney Film Festival was not just about choosing the best movies from around the world. With more than 120,000 tickets sold last year, he knew the festival audience involved widely differing tastes - from those who plan to immerse themselves in night after night of quality international cinema to those who just want to dip into the program for a love story, a horror film or the latest pic from a favourite director or actor. And with the festival adding an extra venue across the bridge this year - the Cremorne Orpheum has joined the State Theatre, George Street Cinemas, Dendy Opera Quays and the Art Gallery of NSW - Moodley knows the mix of viewers will broaden even more. "For people with varied tastes, we create hooks for them to enter the festival," he says. Then hopefully once they're in, they'll explore and take chances and go beyond what they think they like. In a 12-day program that looks strong on European cinema this year, especially in the official competition for "courageous, audacious and cutting edge" filmmaking, different experiences of sexuality is a popular theme. But Moodley was also struck by the number of films from around the world that take a new approach to traditional genres. Here are the picks of the festival for different viewers ... Country US Director Richard Linklater A touching romantic trilogy starts with the 1995 film in which travelling young American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meets French student Celine (Julie Delpy) on an Austrian train. Nine years later, Jesse is a successful writer visiting Paris - promoting a novel based on that night in Vienna - when Celine turns up at a reading. This year's chapter jumps nine more years. Ending a summer holiday in Greece, Jesse and Celine are dealing with complex lives. Country Belgium, Netherlands Director Felix van Groeningen This emotional drama, set in the world of bluegrass music, won the audience award at the Berlin Film Festival. It opens with a musical couple, banjo player Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) and singer Elise (Veerle Baetens), facing their six-year-old daughter's terminal illness. Country Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Slovenia, Italy Director Danis Tanovic A topical docudrama from the director of the Oscar-winning 2001 war drama No Man's Land. Based on an incident that became a national scandal in Bosnia, it follows dirt-poor scrap-metal forager Nazif (Nazif Mujic) and his pregnant wife, Senada (Senada Alimanovic), as they battle for medical attention they cannot afford. Country Romania Director Calin Peter Netzer A tragi-comic portrait of a domineering mother, well-off Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu), who sees a road accident as a chance to regain control over her adult son, Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache). It won the Golden Bear - the top prize - at the Berlin Film Festival. Director Ivan Sen The filmmaker behind Beneath Clouds and Toomelah opens the festival with a tale about an indigenous detective (Aaron Pedersen) investigating the murder of an Aboriginal girl. The strong Australian cast includes Hugo Weaving, Ryan Kwanten and Jack Thompson. Director Kim Mordaunt The sole Australian film in the festival's official competition centres on a charismatic 10-year-old boy trying to help his struggling family in war-torn Laos. The heart-warming drama has won a swag of awards at the Berlin and Tribeca film festivals. Director Juliet Lamont Australian Nikki May forms Myanmar's first girl band as that country emerges from military dictatorship in a thoroughly entertaining documentary that reveals the cultural gulf between the two countries. Country US Directors Nat Faxon, Jim Rash Two of the Oscar-winning writers of The Descendants direct a comic coming-of-age charmer about hapless teen Duncan, played by little-known Liam James, who works in a dilapidated water park over summer. Toni Collette plays his mum, Steve Carell is her know-it-all new boyfriend and Sam Rockwell is the park manager. Country Britain, North Korea Directors Nicholas Bonner and Anja Daelemans A kooky rom-com, set in North Korea, about Comrade Kim (Han Jong-sim), a coalminer who wants to become a trapeze artist in the circus. It screens in the festival's Freak Me Out program. "Wacky cultural camp," one critic has called it. Country US Director David Gordon Green Adapting an Icelandic film, the American director of Pineapple Express has Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as mismatched road workers who paint dividing lines and install reflector poles in a burnt-out Texas forest in 1988. The Hollywood Reporter called it an "exquisitely crafted existential odd-couple tale." Country Britain, US Director Park Chan-wook A masterful South Korean director's atmospheric thriller that brings together three acclaimed Australian actors - Nicole Kidman as the wife of a man who dies in a car accident, Mia Wasikowska as her daughter and Jacki Weaver as an aunt. Country US, Britain Director Zal Batmanglij An eco-thriller about a former FBI agent (Brit Marling) who attempts to infiltrate a violent anarchist group (with members played by Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page) that targets polluters. Country US Director Ariel Vromen Gangster thriller about real-life Mafia contract hitman Richard Kuklinski (hauntingly played by Michael Shannon), who killed more than 100 people before his arrest in 1986. Country US Directors Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman Amanda Seyfried plays Linda Lovelace, the star of the famous porn film Deep Throat, with Sharon Stone almost unrecognisable as her conservative mother. Country US Director Beth B Striptease is voyeurism but burlesque is making a statement, performer Dirty Martini says in this provocative and risque documentary on the alternative burlesque scene in New York. Country Britain, US Director Michael Winterbottom Steve Coogan plays Paul Raymond, the "King of Soho" whose sleazy empire in the 1960s and '70s included strip clubs and soft-porn magazines. Country US Director Alex Gibney The Oscar-winning director of hard-hitting documentaries on Enron, US Army torture and Catholic Church abuse goes inside WikiLeaks to tell a story about Julian Assange's rise and fall. See story, page 8. Country Canada Director Sarah Polley The Canadian actor who directed the Oscar-nominated film Away from Her delivers an intimate portrait of her family in a documentary in the festival competition. Country US Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite A wrenching documentary promising never-previously-seen footage that investigates why an orca killed a trainer at Florida's SeaWorld in 2010. Country US Director Morgan Neville An uplifting closing-night documentary that looks at the importance of back-up singers to such famous performers as the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. Country Australia Director Kaye Harrison A documentary on the enigmatic singer of the popular '80s band the Sunnyboys, Jeremy Oxley, who has emerged from a long battle with schizophrenia. Country US Director Tom Berninger Joining them on the tour as a roadie, the unlikely younger brother of the National lead singer Matt Berninger takes a personal look at the indie-rock band in this documentary. Sydney Film Festival Details June 5 to June 16 Tickets $19.50, concession $15, Flexipasses from $140 for 10 tickets to $350 for 30 tickets, available from 1300 733 733 or sff.org.au.