Sydney Film Festival is going for a dose of droll New Zealand comedy on opening night this year.

After previous success with Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi's comic work, director Nashen Moodley has chosen The Breaker Upperers, about two misfits who break up unhappy couples for money by impersonating police and strippers, faking deaths and feigning pregnancies.

Waitati, best known for Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok, triumphantly closed the festival with the vampire comedy What We Do In The Shadows four years ago.

He is executive producer of The Breaker Upperers, which is directed by Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek, who also play the two starring roles alongside James Rolleston, who shone in Waititi's Boy in 2010, and Australia's Celia Pacquola.

Sami and van Beek  said they were delighted to be opening the festival.