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Turn Up the Volume on AFF 2026

Turn Up the Volume on AFF 2026

Turn up the volume on AFF 2026

From jazz piano and 90s alternative rock to Brazilian funk and experimental soundscapes, music is making plenty of noise at Adelaide Film Festival 2026. Across this year's program, music takes centre stage in stories of creativity, culture, identity and connection, while bringing a whole new dimension to the big screen.

For some, music is more than a passion. It's a way of life. In Everybody Digs Bill Evans, director Grant Gee explores the life of legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans as he navigates grief and creativity following the death of his musical collaborator. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlinale, this beautifully crafted black-and-white portrait stars Anders Danielsen Lie (The Worst Person in the World) alongside Laurie Metcalf and Bill Pullman. Meanwhile, Wolf offers an intimate portrait of British avant-pop musician Patrick Wolf, reflecting on the triumphs and challenges that shaped his life and career in conversation with longtime friend Tilda Swinton. Director Christian Cargill joins AFF audiences for the film's Australian Premiere.

Closer to home, Shine returns to the big screen for its 30th anniversary in a new 4K restoration. Celebrating Scott Hicks' Academy Award-winning story of pianist David Helfgott, this special AFF screening includes a live piano recital from Simon Tedeschi AM, followed by a Q&A with director Scott Hicks, moderated by Russell Torrance from ABC Classic.

Elsewhere, we're turning up the amps. The Best Summer takes us backstage at Australia's iconic 1995 Summersault tour, with rediscovered footage of Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Pavement, Beck and more. Then there's We Are The Shaggs, the extraordinary true story of three sisters who formed a band to fulfil their father's psychic prophecy, later finding unlikely fans in Kurt Cobain, Frank Zappa and Patti Smith. And in Funk, magnetic newcomer Duda Santos takes us into Rio de Janeiro's electrifying funk scene in a Tribeca-recognised story of music, ambition and self-expression.

Music isn't always about who's behind the microphone, either. In Australian film Boss Cat, a young woman with Down syndrome finds freedom and self-expression through krump dancing, with director Genevieve Clay-Smith joining audiences at AFF. Sundance Best Director winner Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! stars Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) as a grieving ballroom dancer who finds her groove again, with the help of an irresistible new dance instructor. Meanwhile, SXSW documentary The Way We Move follows renowned American Sign Language interpreter Amber Galloway as she teaches others to bring the full experience of music to audiences.

Sometimes, it's the music itself that transforms the cinematic experience. In Australian filmmaker Josef Gatti's Phenomena, extraordinary scientific experiments reveal hidden worlds, from soap bubbles resembling distant planets to crystals forming alien landscapes. Captured entirely in-camera without digital effects, these striking images are accompanied by an immersive score from Nils Frahm and Rival Consoles, creating a sensory experience made for the big screen.

And for something a little different, Norwegian indie-pop sensation girl in red makes her acting debut in Low Expectations. Starring alongside Anders Danielsen Lie, she plays a musician who has achieved her dreams, only to find herself broke, disillusioned and back living with her mother. This witty, quietly moving drama asks what happens when the life you've worked towards isn't quite what you imagined.

From the musicians who make it to the communities it brings together, music runs through AFF 2026 in all kinds of unexpected ways. Whether it's a familiar song, a new discovery or a performance that stays with you long after the credits roll, there's plenty to listen out for.

Listen to the sounds of AFF 2026

Want to hear more? We've put together the AFF 2026 Festival Score, a Spotify playlist featuring music heard in films across this year's program.

From Bill Evans and Foo Fighters to The Shaggs and girl in red, the playlist brings together an eclectic mix of sounds from some of AFF 2026's most music-rich films.

Whether you're revisiting a favourite, discovering something new or getting a taste of what's on screen, turn up the volume and take the sounds of AFF with you.

Listen to the AFF 2026 Festival Score on Spotify

Explore the AFF 2026 program and experience the music on the big screen, 14–25 October.

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Shine

Shine

Simon Tedeschi AM to perform a brief piano recital ahead of the new 4K restoration premiere.


The compelling and poignant story of a young man who defies his father’s wishes to pursue his dreams. Shine is a story of rebellion and individuality through the eyes of a pianist whose only form of self-expression is found in the keys of his instrument.


Scott Hicks Q+A with Russell Torrance, ABC Classic.
Wolf

Wolf

British avant-pop musician Patrick Wolf revisits the triumphs and traumas that shaped his life and music through a lifetime of archival material and a searching conversation with longtime friend Tilda Swinton. Delicate yet emotionally raw, Wolf exchanges mythmaking for vulnerability.

Low Expectations

Low Expectations

Depressed, broke and back living with her mother, musician Maja takes a part-time job at a local high school. Far from the career that once defined her, she begins finding unexpected value in ordinary work, new connections and a life no longer measured by ambition.

The Best Summer

The Best Summer

Rediscovered Hi8 footage drops us straight into 1995, backstage at Australia’s Summersault tour with Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Pavement, Beck and more. Tamra Davis’s camcorder captures the music, fashion and unguarded energy of an alternative culture in full flight.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans is unmoored by loss in this hauntingly beautiful black and white portrait. Rejecting the conventions of the biopic, it drifts through grief, memory and withdrawal, tracing a private world shaped as much by absence as by the music itself.

Funk

Funk

Led by magnetic newcomer Duda Santos, Funk plunges us into Rio's wild kinky funk scene, where a young MC's dreams of stardom unfold amid infectious music, sensual performance and the race and class realities of modern Brazil. Sensual, propulsive and riotously alive, Funk received a Special Jury Mention for Best Performance in an International Feature at Tribeca.

We Are The Shaggs

We Are The Shaggs

The Shaggs are a band that defy description - formed by three New Hampshire sisters in the mid-1960s at the insistence of their controlling father to fulfil a psychic prophesy. Championed by Kurt Cobain, Patti Smith and Frank Zappa, now the Wiggins sisters tell their unlikely story in their own words.

Boss Cat

Boss Cat

Confronted with a world that too often limits the capabilities of people with Down syndrome, Sonja (Olivia Hargroder) carves her own path on the dance floor alongside cheerleading mate Hakim (Elijah Williams). If only her gran, played by The Diplomat’s Penny Downie, can let her fly free.

The Way We Move

The Way We Move

A deaf person can feel music’s beat through their feet. Powerhouse Amber Galloway reckons the community deserves more. Join her bootcamp for ASL translators, teaching them to reveal the heart of a song beating between the lyrics, and the wordless highs and lows from classical music to EDM in this SXSW highlight.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

After a sudden loss, middle-age ballroom dancer Haru (Rinko Kikuchi) goes back to the dance studio to get her groove back, only to find a new sexy instructor who inspires more than just slides across the dance floor. Winner of Best direction at Sundance.