This year, the Sydney Film Festival in partnership with Accessible Arts included Rear Window captioning and audio-description services for some screenings as a part of its Accessible Cinema program.
The 56th Sydney Film Festival in partnership with Accessible Arts will trial a new method of captioning for people who are deaf or who have a hearing impairment, at this year's festival. An audio described screening will also be included as part of the Accessible Cinema program. 
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Accessible Cinema at the Sydney Film Festival third year running
Sydney Film Festival is inviting Sydneysiders to get off their couch and experience the real deal from 3-14 June 2009.
For the third year running, the festival will feature a program of Accessible Cinema, with a range of movies exploring disability and access issues. In partnership with Accessible Arts, the accessible cinema program will be launched on Saturday 6 June 2009 at 2pm by Professor Ron McCallum AO, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Disability. The launch will include a screening of A Good Man (Australia), a documentary and love story about a struggling Australian famer, his wife who has quadriplegia and their plans to open a brothel.
Other films included in Accessible Cinema will be Blind Loves (Slovak Republic), a film examining the ways in which people who are blind find love, and The Horse Boy (USA), following the journey of an American family to Mongolia to see if traditional healing can help their autistic son.
An industry forum Representation and Engagement: enriched filmmaking by cast and crews with disability at 4:00 pm on Sunday 7 June 2009 in the Statement Bar at the State Theatre, will involve discussions with film makers and directors about the rewards and challenges involved in producing films with a cast and crew of people with and without a disability. Australian films such as the Black Balloon and Be My Brother will be highlighted as recent examples of successful productions.
Rear window technology that can provide captioning and audio description will be trialed for the first time in Australasia in 2009.
In keeping with its commitment to accessibility, all Sydney Film Festival screenings will be honouring the Companion Card and all venues are wheelchair accessible.