Jimpa Selling Fast
Opening Night Gala
Feature ·
Fiction ·
Gala
In Amsterdam, an Adelaide filmmaker and their non-binary teen reconnect with the family’s flamboyant patriarch. As old tensions resurface, Jimpa becomes a tender, emotionally precise portrait of queer family, care and the shifting boundaries between generations. Sophie Hyde’s most personal film yet, fresh from Sundance acclaim.
Deep Dive into Distribution
Screen Conversations
Talk
A local distributor plays a crucial role in unlocking a range of doors for filmmakers. Gain insight into the preoccupations and challenges of their part of the business.
Vanilla
Feature ·
Fiction
In late-1980s Mexico, Vanilla is a textured family drama told through the eyes of a young girl raised by seven formidable women. As debt threatens their home, she witnesses resilience, tenderness and struggle that reshape her sense of belonging and the meaning of family.
The Demands of Documentary
Screen Conversations
Talk
Telling an unfolding story about real life injects unpredictability. Hear how Abraham Joffe (Trade Secret), Ben Golotta (Iron Winter) and Lynette Wallworth (Edge of Life) rolled with the punches and seized the opportunities.
The President’s Cake
Feature ·
Fiction
Iraq, 1990. In a school lottery, nine-year-old Lamia is chosen to bake Saddam Hussein’s birthday cake. With her grandmother, she travels through marshlands and markets for scarce ingredients. The President’s Cake is a grounded, lyrical portrait of resilience and irony, seen through the eyes of a child facing an absurd demand.
Reedland
Feature ·
Fiction
Johan harvests reeds in the Dutch marshlands. When he discovers the body of a girl, he embarks on a search for the killer. Sven Bresser’s debut feature is a brooding reinvention of the crime genre. You can lose yourself in the tall reeds—or maybe find yourself.
Fwends
Feature ·
Fiction
Em visits Jessie in Melbourne for a weekend of laughter, and late-night truths. What begins as easy reconnection slowly shifts. Fwends is a sharply observed, gently aching study of friendship, change, and the quiet distance that grows between the people who once knew you best.
Nouvelle Vague
Feature ·
Fiction
Paris, 1959. Cinephiles eagerly grasp the chance to turn themselves into directors. None would equal the impact of Godard’s Breathless. Reinvent cinema by shooting on the streets, making it up as you go along. Richard Linklater presents an irrepressible love letter to a moment where suddenly anything seemed possible.
Frankenstein
Feature ·
Fiction
A brilliant but egotistical scientist brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
North South Man Woman
Documentary ·
Feature
Yujin Han, a North Korean defector turned matchmaker, runs Lovestorya in Seoul, pairing Northern women with Southern men. Shot over five years, the film tracks her clients and marriage as politics, prejudice and practicalities collide, blending candid testimony with playful storytelling to ask what love can truly negotiate.
The Weed Eaters
Feature ·
Fiction
From across the ditch comes this killer horror/comedy hybrid, in the blood-spattered tradition of Bad Taste and Black Sheep. An idyllic New Years getaway takes an unexpected turn when a bad batch of cursed weed unleashes horrific after-effects.
Screen Industry Talk: No Money, No Film
Screen Conversations
Talk
Anyone involved in financing a feature gets close to tearing their hair out at some stage. Adelaide Film Festival CEO and Creative Director Mat Kesting and filmmakers share war stories and strategies, and how they remain clear-eyed and committed.
Twelve Moons
Feature ·
Fiction
Distressed by her inability to have a child, Mexico City architect Sofía descends into a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction. Filled with precisely composed architectural images presented in striking black and white, writer-director Victoria Franco’s feature debut is a memorable and unflinching descent towards rock bottom.
Jimpa and the Secret Art of Acting
Screen Conversations
Talk
Director Sophie Hyde and Jimpa cast members Daniel Henshall and Aud Mason-Hyde talk about Opening Night film Jimpa and their other work.
Deaf
Feature ·
Fiction
When Ángela, a deaf woman, becomes a mother, the fragile equilibrium of her relationship with her hearing partner begins to unravel. Rooted in lived experience, Deaf is a luminous, deeply human portrait of maternal love, identity, and the dissonance between worlds.
“The Horror … The Horror”
Screen Conversations
Talk
Horror has come out of the shadows and sparked conversations worldwide. Mia'Kate Russell (Penny Lane is Dead) and Finnius Teppett (The Weed Eaters) talk about their love of the genre, the types and traits, and audience appeal.
Cast Off
Documentary ·
Feature
Filmmaker Julian Wittmann embarks on a journey to find the secret of freedom with Wolfgang ‘Gangerl’ Clemens, an 80-year-old sailor who left society behind to roam the seas. A compelling, rare character study reveals freedom as both a dream and a discipline.
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley
Documentary ·
Feature
In It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, documentary filmmaker Amy Berg turns the camera on his bandmates and the women who loved him and knew him best, to tell the story of a poetic artist full of life, with a natural born talent and an uncanny musical ear.
Koki, Ciao
Documentary ·
Short
Co-written and narrated by Koki, the 67-year-old speaking cockatoo formerly owned by Tito, leader of Yugoslavia for 35 years, Koki, Ciao is a short experimental documentary and autobiography, featuring a non-human as its central creative figure.
Sanatorium
Documentary ·
Feature
In an ex-Soviet wellness resort on Odesa’s shore, patients and staff pursue cures, companionship and small joys as war murmurs nearby. Sanatorium observes one summer of mud baths, electro therapies and karaoke with bright, ironic wit, revealing how ordinary rituals keep dignity, desire and community intact.
Power Station
Documentary ·
Feature
Two artist-activists plan to install solar panels on every building in their street. Take a community, mix in some vision and a dash of British eccentricity, and the result is everyday magic. By turns funny and heartwarming, this is a vibrant testament to the power of art in making change.
Sirât
Friday Night Party
Feature ·
Fiction
In Morocco’s illicit mountain rave parties, a father and son search for a daughter and sister who has been missing for far too long. Music drives them deeper into the desert, where joy and danger share the same beat and the path offers no closure, only transformation.
Diabolic
Feature ·
Fiction
Adelaide’s Daniel J. Phillips aims to make your blood curdle – a religious cult, a troubled young woman, hallucinogenic therapy, and an evil that refuses to die. Diabolic showcases the cream of local talent to produce what is sure to be a breakout horror success.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Feature ·
Fiction
Rose Byrne is astonishing as a working mother hanging on by the barest thread in this darkly comic dramedy. Therapist Linda’s 10-yearold daughter has some mysterious illness, is being fed by tube requiring constant care. At the same time Linda’s husband is away and the house floods.
Only on Earth
Documentary ·
Feature
A holistic documentary on wildfires and wild horses. Robin Petré stares long and hard at the rhythms of social life in Spanish Galicia that revolve around the horses, living with fire, even the way kids play. If we’re going to save the earth, we need to look closely at it.
Automagic
Fiction ·
Short
On his return home, androgynous-looking Madhu attempts to seduce Ratnakar, his rickshaw driver, who is practicing celibacy in preparation for a religious pilgrimage.
Boyish
Fiction ·
Short
Josh & Cam, two life long friends, test the boundaries of their friendship with a kiss.
Crabs in the Air
Fiction ·
Short
After a devastating argument with his partner, Iván runs away in search of refuge and freedom. With no money or direction, he reconnects with an old love who has already rebuilt his life, reliving unresolved wounds and desires. That night, the past returns under the silent gaze of a crab...
Emile is Missing
Fiction ·
Short
In the style of an investigative documentary, Emile Is Missing follows trans filmmaker Isobel as she pieces together interviews, webcam footage, security tapes and her own growing suspicions to solve the disappearance of her missing girlfriend Emile.
Ladies Night
Animation ·
Short
During a girls' night clubbing with her best friend Fiona, Viv spots her ex, Remy. Determined to keep the night going, Fiona helps score Viv a hot new babe to move on (and shove it in Remy’s stupid face).
The Eating of an Orange
Animation ·
Short
In a large manor house identical figures eat the same, move the same, look the same. But everything will change for one woman when she gets given an orange by an unknown figure. She has never seen an orange.
The Fling
Animation ·
Short
A nice romantic dinner in a restaurant goes awry when it’s revealed one of them has a monstrous secret.
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Documentary ·
Feature
Oscar-winning director Mstyslav Chernov, acclaimed for 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), shifts from civilians to soldiers in 2000 Meters to Andriivka. Drawn from helmet and body-cam footage during the 2023 counteroffensive, the film follows a platoon advancing through mined forest toward an occupied village.
Catchin' Mumoo
Fiction ·
Short
When a Great White shark keeps taking a fisherman's catch his seven year-old son takes it upon himself to row out to sea and catch it.
Second Chance
Fiction ·
Short
Taylor and Sarah haven't seen each other in over two decades, and their initial awkwardness gives way to reminiscing about their shared past. As they reconnect, they uncover old feelings and unspoken truths.
The Mysterious Maiden of Montefiores
Fiction ·
Short
In this darkly comedic exploration of historical hypocrisy, The Mysterious Maiden of Montefiores unravels the absurdity of colonial narratives. When two self-important colonisers, Samuel and Benjamin, cross paths in the Australian bush, they discover they’re both vying for the affections of the same woman, the enigmatic “Mysterious Maiden.”
The Secret
Fiction ·
Short
Alone and ashamed, a young woman grapples with the weight of her choice as she endures an abortion at home.
Richard Leplastrier: Framing the View
Documentary ·
Feature
Revered by architects around the world, Richard Leplastrier’s search for beauty in his career is interwoven with his own life in a bush camp on the edge of Sydney.
ChaO
Animation ·
Feature
Playful anime chaos in a dazzling, near-future Shanghai. A mermaid princess proposes on sight, dragging a shy engineer into civic uproar, sweet misfires and whiplash gags. STUDIO4°C layers intricate streetscapes with a bright, warm romance.
From Life to Screen: Re-Presenting First Nations Stories
Screen Conversations
Talk
Join NITV's Dena Curtis in conversation with directors Pauline Clague (The Colleano Heart) and Dylan Coleman (Catchin' Mummo) as they discuss their process in transforming personal journeys into screen stories.
Edge of Life
Documentary ·
Feature
We all know our lives will end and yet act as if death is a mirage. A pair of palliative care specialists allow renowned Emmy Award-winning artist Lynette Wallworth an opportunity to explore death with calmness, and even joy, through their use of psychedelics in a world-first trial for palliative care patients.
Yohanna
Feature ·
Fiction
Young Catholic nun Yohanna frantically searches for the stolen truck she has borrowed to deliver humanitarian supplies to one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces, Sumba, beautifully captured by skilled cinematography. Finding herself in a murky world of slave child labour, she is desperate to help.
Fortune Favours the Bold
Screen Conversations
Talk
Directors Dario Russo (The Fox) and Zoe Pepper (Birthright) discuss the making of two films that stand out from the crowd because of their boldness.
Until the Sky Falls Quiet
Documentary ·
Feature
Two Sydney doctors volunteer to work in Gaza. This is the story of their time in a hell on earth. They experience frightful scenes of carnage including the deaths of many children. But they also bear witness to the resilience and generosity of many people.
Audience advice: This film contains distressing images.
Audience advice: This film contains distressing images.
The Secret Agent
Feature ·
Fiction
A Cannes standout set in 1977 Brazil, The Secret Agent follows a fugitive father returning home during Carnival to escape with his son. Vivid bursts of carnivalesque playfulness collide with the stark brutality of military rule, revealing the absurdities and dangers of authoritarian life.
Our Hero, Balthazar
Feature ·
Fiction
A privileged, performative teen becomes convinced an online troll is a school shooter and drives across the country to confront him. Our Hero, Balthazar is a jet-black satire of performative activism, fragile masculinity, and the hunger for attention in Gen Z culture.
Animation Shorts
Short
A celebration of the best in Animated short filmmaking from Australia and around the world.
Balconada
Animation ·
Short
A hot summer day brings several neighbours out on their balconies. During a sudden rainstorm, one of them gets a burst of inspiration, which encourages the rest to live in the moment.
Caries
Animation ·
Short
Eager to create a monumental work of art, a shaman remains blissfully unaware that she is painting her murals inside the mouth of a vain weather presenter.
Deluge
Animation ·
Short
An ever-evolving landscape where the present inevitably coexists with the past. Memories are formed, reshaped, and obliterated, relentlessly competing for space. Control is surrendered, and mistakes and second chances are embraced. It is the slow stampede of a vulnerable mind.
God Is Shy
Animation ·
Short
During a train ride, Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when Gilda, a mysterious passenger, intrudes on their exchange. Yet, her relationship with fear seems far less innocent than their playful drawings.
I'm Not Sure
Animation ·
Short
Insight into the filmmaker's stay in hospital, where she repeatedly experiences absurd, funny moments between pain, homesickness and disgust of her own body. Meanwhile, she tries to come to terms with the hospital's own procedures and hierarchies. An emotional trip through the long underground corridors of the hospital with lots of small talk and tubes.
My Wonderful Life
Animation ·
Short
Grace Lee, an overworked mom in Singapore, collapses at work. She gets admitted into the hospital, where she finds newfound freedom as a patient.
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Phantoms of July
Feature ·
Fiction
Whimsical and beautifully strange, Phantoms of July blends folklore and modern life in a lyrical four-part fable. When Ursula and Neda embark on a ghost hunt, their encounter becomes a story of eccentric locals, spectral rumours and the surprising connections strangeness can spark.
Penny Lane Is Dead
Feature ·
Fiction
A sweltering beach house party in 1986 turns savage when a spiked cupcake, a jealous cousin, and a gang of violent men crash the scene. Penny Lane is Dead is a punk-fuelled, blood-soaked survival thriller laced with dark comedy and gendered rage.
Resurrection
Feature ·
Fiction
In a world devoid of dreams, a woman (Shu Qi) wakes up from brain surgery in a dystopian near future. As she recounts the history of China to an android (Jackson Yee), they live out several past lives together through a confluence of dream and memory, passing through five cinematic eras that reshape their shared experience.
Birthright
Feature ·
Fiction
Evicted and jobless, Cory and his pregnant wife move back in with his boomer parents. What begins as uneasy dependence spirals into paranoia, as both generations confront their failures and fears. Birthright is a sharp, unsettling family satire of housing, inequality and the collapse of middle-class dreams.
Dead Dog
Fiction ·
Short
While driving home from his father’s funeral, a young farmer, James, runs over and kills a dog. He must then go and return its body to the owner, Heather. Set in the rural farming community of Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
Cactus Pears
Feature ·
Fiction
When Anand’s father dies, he returns to his family’s village to complete his filial duties. The village is another world, where homosexuality is not acknowledged. But it is also the home of Balya, with whom intimacy blossoms for Anand. A film of great simplicity and tenderness.
Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story
Documentary ·
Feature
“I was born with this ability, and demon, to write. I was punished for it constantly.” In this candid and captivating final portrait, the late Edna O’Brien reflects on her incendiary life and literary legacy in her own words.
Speak.
Documentary ·
Feature
All-American teens Esther, Noor, Noah, Mfaz and Sam spend their year juggling the highs and lows of high school life, while preparing for the world’s largest and most intense public speaking competition, the NSDA Nationals. With just nine minutes to make their mark, they rail against life’s obstacles and prejudices to be heard.
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Feature ·
Fiction
Jeremy Allen White stars as the Boss, alongside Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham and Australia’s Odessa Young in this portrait of an artist chasing perfection and battling generational demons. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is a rare candid biopic based on the book by Warren Zanes.
The Colleano Heart
Documentary ·
Feature
A circus family’s hidden legacy unfolds as descendants reunite across continents, uncovering their Aboriginal ancestry, global stardom, and the extraordinary secrets they kept in order to survive. Through the Colleano family's remarkable home movies, never-before-seen footage, family interviews and archival recordings, their extraordinary story is brought to life.
Plainclothes
Feature ·
Fiction
In Syracuse, 1996, Lucas (Tom Blyth) is a rising undercover agent tasked with luring gay men to public toilets to arrest them. When he meets Andrew (Russell Tovey) on the job, he breaks the rules and falls in love. In his directorial debut, Carmen Emmi creates a striking film that draws the viewer into experiencing the world from Lucas’s perspective.
Eagles of the Republic
Feature ·
Fiction
George Fahmy (played by Fares Fares) is the greatest star of Egyptian cinema, known as ‘The Pharoah of the Screen’. This has its drawbacks, such as being forced to make government propaganda. Flying with the political eagles quickly leads him into a spiral of betrayal. Tarik Saleh brilliantly skewers the military government, completing his ‘Cairo Trilogy’ on the social structures of contemporary Egypt.
It Was Just an Accident
Feature ·
Fiction
Despite bans and imprisonment, Iranian master filmmaker Jafar Panahi continues to make great humanist films. In the middle of the night a damaged car arrives at mechanic Vahid’s garage. He hears something that triggers him to believe that the driver of the car is the official who had tortured him. But as he never saw his face, can he really be sure?
All That's Left of You
Feature ·
Fiction
A powerful and urgent family epic, All That’s Left of You spans 75 years of Palestinian history. As a mother reflects on the events that shaped her son’s defiance, Cherien Dabis delivers a gripping, politically charged portrait of loss, legacy and resilience across generations.
A Useful Ghost
Feature ·
Fiction
Inspired by the Thai folklore legend of Mae Nak, Thai writer/director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke delivers a politically tinged, absurdist comedy/drama in which the ghost of a young woman returns to her husband as a bright-red vacuum cleaner, determined to prove herself a loving ghost.
The Fox
Feature ·
Fiction
A trickster fox is let loose in the henhouse of Australian culture. Nick is an average good bloke, but when his fiancée strays, a fox promises to tame his foxy lady. An all-star cast is headed by Jai Courtney and Emily Browning, with the voices of Olivia Colman and Sam Neill.
Wild Nights, Tamed Beasts
Feature ·
Fiction
China, like many countries, faces the problem of an aging population. Ye Xiaolin is an enigmatic caregiver whose patients tend to die suddenly, and Deyong is a zookeeper whose closest friend is an old lion. They come to understand that love is the ability to understand pain.
Made in SA
Short
The ever-popular Made in SA showcases the best in local short films. Remember their names for when they’re famous, these filmmakers will make you laugh, cry and shudder.
Crocodiles
Feature ·
Fiction
A Mexican photojournalist uncovers a shocking truth while investigating the murder of a colleague. This tense thriller is inspired by events that are all too true. Amnesty reports that 141 Mexican media workers have been killed this century, making it one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalism.
Road At The End Of The World
Fiction ·
Short
A manic driver rockets across the Eyre Highway, the longest stretch of road in the Southern Hemisphere, battling fatigue, the heat and strange streamers flying across the road.
AFF Festival Bridges: Connecting WIP to the International Markets
Screen Conversations
Talk
AFF CEO and Creative Director Mat Kesting talks with filmmakers who attended the world’s most important film market with their works in progress as part of AFF Goes to Cannes.
Jimpa
Feature ·
Fiction ·
Gala
In Amsterdam, an Adelaide filmmaker and their non-binary teen reconnect with the family’s flamboyant patriarch. As old tensions resurface, Jimpa becomes a tender, emotionally precise portrait of queer family, care and the shifting boundaries between generations. Sophie Hyde’s most personal film yet, fresh from Sundance acclaim.
Mad Max and the Genius of George Miller
Documentary ·
Feature
How did Mad Max leap from a scrappy Australian shoot to a global phenomenon? Drawing on remarkable archival footage, this documentary unpacks George Miller’s journey and reveals the meticulous craft that redefined action cinema and cemented the franchise as one of Australia’s greatest cultural exports.
AFF Youth Primary and Middle Shorts
The AFF Youth Filmmaking Competition is an opportunity for South Australian students and young people to experience the power of film, make industry connections, and share their own stories on the big screen.
AFF Youth Senior Shorts
The AFF Youth Filmmaking Competition is an opportunity for South Australian students and young people to experience the power of film, make industry connections, and share their own stories on the big screen.
Becoming Filmmakers
AFF Youth Talk
Talk
Hear from young filmmakers on how they established their filmmaking careers during the 2025 AFF Youth Schools Screening Day.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Documentary ·
Feature
Orwell was not just a writer who chronicled the past, but a thinker who understood and presaged the creeping totalitarianism of the present. Raoul Peck’s biographical study is an insightful analysis targeting the demagoguery, the organised lying and the surveillance technologies that constitute the weapons wielded by the thought police of 2025.
Nervous Energy
Fiction ·
Short
On the cusp of success/failure, two unhinged female filmmakers decide to break up with their boyfriends, and for once, make a bold decision with their lives.
Norheimsund
Fiction ·
Short
A girl’s long- distance romance with an older Norwegian man promises to pull her and her mother from their austere life in Cuba, but her dreams are shaken when she realises he isn’t as idyllic as he seems.
Sammi, Who Can Detach His Body Parts
Fiction ·
Short
He was born with the peculiar ability to move and remove his body parts. Throughout his life, he shares his body parts to people he loves. Until the day he died, all left from him is a torso with a faceless head. His mother is trying to recollect his body parts.
Silvesterchlausen
Documentary ·
Short
Silvesterchlausen is a mysterious tradition that takes place every New Year’s Eve in Switzerland’s Appenzell, the most conservative part of the country. Groups of six men dress in ornate costumes and engage in wordless, polyphonic yodeling and rhythmic bell clanging. The ritual has been performed for at least 500 years, but nobody knows how or why it began.
The Gods (الالهة)
Fiction ·
Short
Under a burning sun, Adel and Moïse try to come to terms with the loss of their father. But as their grief turns into an obsession, a rift grows between the two teenage brothers and threatens to separate them.
The Men's Land
Documentary ·
Short
In Georgia, Ushguli mountain customs dictate that in the absence of a son, a family’s land must be handed down to the next male relative who will perpetuate the family name. The Men’s Land follows the journey of an aspiring singer as she fights for her property in the face of dated local rules and traditions, her song becoming a bulwark against humiliation.
Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds
Documentary ·
Feature
As he records his first album in te reo Māori, Marlon Williams opens a gentle window into the spaces between language, identity, and sound. This observational portrait is less about fluency than feeling, capturing an artist drawn toward something deeper than words.
Abortion Party
Documentary ·
Short
After managing to scrape together money to pay for an abortion after her Polish exchange student boyfriend gets her pregnant, the director decides to celebrate with a party.
The Great History of Western Philosophy
Animation ·
Feature
A cosmic stop-motion animator is hired to make a philosophical film under the gaze of Chairman Mao. Like everything in this film, this should not be taken seriously. We are warned: “Don’t attempt to reason with this film. It’s raving mad.” Dadaists, moviejuicers, deranged avant-gardists, this is for you.
The Run
Feature ·
Fiction
The near future. A plague has ravaged the land, anarchy reigns, everyone’s on the run. Mac does delivery runs for an unseen manipulator. Aliah seizes her baby and runs for sanctuary. This stylish thriller from local director Stephen de Villiers uses SA locations as an appropriately harsh backdrop for white-knuckle suspense.
Black Water
Documentary ·
Feature
Climate change is making the world a more dangerous place, though the pain is not shared equally. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and cyclones drive Lokhi to migrate to Dhaka, one of the most polluted cities on earth. This observational documentary showcases the struggle for survival in Bangladesh, under a glowering sky.
AFF Youth Gala
Event
A special night for young filmmakers and families of the shortlisted films from the AFF Youth Filmmaking Competition.
The Tale of Silyan
Documentary ·
Feature
Directed by Tamara Kotevska of Oscar nominated Honeyland (2019), this Australian premiere unfolds with quiet beauty and transformative warmth. In rural North Macedonia, a dispossessed farmer rescues a wounded white stork. Against growing hardship, their improbable bond echoes legend.
Perla
Feature ·
Fiction
In 1981 Vienna, a Slovakian exile struggles to support her daughter. When the child’s father re-appears in her life, Perla makes the dangerous journey back to communist Czechoslovakia. Based on the director’s grandmother, Perla is torn between the demands of conflicting loves that threaten to pull her life apart.
Maya, Give Me a Title
Animation ·
Feature
Michel Gondry writes features, makes the coolest videos, and has the cutest daughter in the universe. He phones her every evening, and asks “Maya, give me a title,” then creates low-tech animations like Maya in the sea with a bottle of ketchup. Maya’s fantastic voyages will have the little ones dreaming, and the grown-ups smiling.
Interview with a Hero
Fiction ·
Short
A Cambodian-Australian shadow puppeteer is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform on national television, but is interrupted by memories of his past in the Khmer Rouge.
She
Documentary ·
Feature
She tells the story of the Vietnamese women who work at electronics factories. 80% of the 80,000 strong workforce is female. They do long shifts under gruelling conditions. Their primary contact with their children is by phone. Parsifal Reparato’s film questions the very structure of the global economy.
The Guardian of Stories
Documentary ·
Feature
Siphai is on a mission to save the rich oral history of Laos. He searches out elderly storytellers, reviving their folk tales through the most magical collaboration with local puppeteers. It is inspiring to see storytelling brought to life in such a direct and enchanting fashion.
7 Minutes to Rice
Fiction ·
Short
Seven housemates prepare separate meals as they wait for the rice to cook. When they discover that there isn’t enough rice, a witch hunt for the culprit begins. For the crime of ruining their meal the punishment is DEATH!
Alpha Test
Fiction ·
Short
A young detective must solve a murder with the help of a hologram copy of the victim.
Into the Earth
Fiction ·
Short
A young girl watches her family descend into darkness as they disconnect from a failing society and take control of their lives.
Liability
Fiction ·
Short
Louis, a socially awkward support worker, discovers a few things were left out of his job description when he's paired with Kyle, a rule-breaking client with Down Syndrome. Developed with Joshua Campton.
Lie Down, Breathe Out
Fiction ·
Short
An anonymous patient wakes in a stark medical clinic, hurting and disoriented. Staff insist the procedure must proceed without pain relief: suffer now or suffer more later. As oddities multiply, hopes of escape dissolve into an oppressively surreal gauntlet. A claustrophobic horror about women’s bodily autonomy, told with precision, restraint and a backroom, institutional chill that leaves a mark.
The Knight
Fiction ·
Short
It’s just another weeknight. Mum’s in the kitchen, prying, and Claude retreats to her room. Beneath the covers, thoughts of her crush spark a medieval fantasy of knights and romantic rescues – only this time, she flips the script. The Knight is a surreal romantic comedy about privacy, independence, and the pursuit of delicious desire that refuses to be interrupted.
Tunnel Vision
Fiction ·
Short
A man’s frustration with a blown lightbulb leads him to discover a strange hole in his wall.
The Square
Animation ·
Feature
An animated romance blooms under the watchful eye of the North Korean state. When his secret lover vanishes, a foreign diplomat’s quiet search becomes a poetic, political thriller, rendered in minimalist but impactful animation. The Square blends heartbreak and surveillance with unsettling elegance.
Blue Moon
Feature ·
Fiction
The afterparty of the opening night of Oklahoma, launching the partnership of Rogers and Hammerstein, is haunted by Rogers’ original writing collaborator, Lorenz Hart, a drunk with a dazzling and vicious wit. Richard Linklater is a master of modern dialogue-fuelled films, and this chamber piece is perfectly cast.
Rental Family
Feature ·
Fiction
An underemployed American actor living in Tokyo finds himself playing people missing in others’ lives – a father to a Eurasian girl competing to get into an elite school, a journalist documenting a retired film director’s forgotten oeuvre, and a foreign groom for a bride needing to justify leaving both Japan and her parents behind.
The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin
Feature ·
Fiction
In rural Indonesia, Yuli grows up despised within her father’s household. Seeking retribution, she turns to a shaman and summons a djinn through corpse-bound ritual. The film fuses Islamic cosmology with unflinching body horror, transforming domestic cruelty into a terrifying vision of spiritual reckoning.
Ghost Elephants
Documentary ·
Feature
Dr. Steve Boyes seeks an elusive group of elephants in the Angolan highlands. From kings to dung samples, from DNA to dreams, Werner Herzog remains committed to a vision of science which allows room for myth and wonder.
Don Dunstan Award: Robert Connolly in Conversation
Screen Conversations
Talk
Robert Connolly in conversation with AFF Patron, Sophie Hyde.
Singin’ in the Rain
A tribute to David Stratton
Feature ·
Fiction
A very special tribute to a man close to all our hearts, the legendary film critic and cinéaste David Stratton.
Sirât
Feature ·
Fiction
In Morocco’s illicit mountain rave parties, a father and son search for a daughter and sister who has been missing for far too long. Music drives them deeper into the desert, where joy and danger share the same beat and the path offers no closure, only transformation.
Balibo
Feature ·
Fiction
Balibo shows Connolly’s commitment to telling urgent Australian stories. It deals with the investigation of a war crime that our government wanted forgotten. The film’s multitude of awards demonstrates the respect in which Connolly is held as a teller of inconvenient truths.
Journey Home, David Gulpilil
Documentary ·
Feature
David Dalaithngu Gulpilil’s death in 2021 was the beginning of a journey home to his birthplace Gupulul in Arnhem Land. His Bäpurru (funeral ceremony) is a celebration of law, of country, of tradition, of kinship, of ceremony. Journey Home, David Gulpilil offers a rare glimpse into the strong culture that lives on in the heart of his people.
Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Man
Documentary ·
Feature
Barnesy tells it straight. No varnish, no mythmaking. In Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Man, the Cold Chisel frontman traces how childhood harm became adult chaos, then a hard-won recovery, laying mental health on the table with humour, frankness and zero rock star mystique.
Unwelcomed
Documentary ·
Feature
Unwelcomed captures both the vast sweep of migration across mountains and deserts, and the intimate struggles of Venezuelan refugees on foot. With aerial panoramas and close testimony, it reveals a crisis of resilience, grief and hostility. Winner, Emerging International Filmmaker Award, Hot Docs 2025.
Australian Shorts
Short
Celebrating local emerging filmmakers, our Australian Shorts strand highlights innovative and passionate local storytelling.
Faceless
Fiction ·
Short
An Indigenous man navigates three parallel realities; at once a rough-sleeper, an aspiring actor and the employee of a mining corporation. Can he find a place within Australian society or is he bound to remain an outsider in his own land?
Fear of Songs
Fiction ·
Short
In 2002, a young Palestinian asylum seeker is released from Australian detention — but the footage capturing this pivotal moment vanishes, never archived. Fear of Songs is an experimental short film that attempts to reconstruct what was lost, blurring memory, media, and imagination. Through absence, it questions who gets to be seen, and what is remembered.
Mates
Fiction ·
Short
When Blake “Prick” Daniels turns up at the door of an Enmore terrace with a food delivery, he comes face-to-face with his former mate Roy. What follows is a long night of banter and old wounds resurfacing, as the pair navigate resentment, abandonment, and the uneasy question of what it really means to be mates.
Some Kind of Blue
Fiction ·
Short
After moving into her late mother’s home by the beach, a musician is confronted by another kind of loss as mysterious mementos and phantom noises blur reality and memory.
The Body
Fiction ·
Short
Jane is cast as a dead body on a crime TV show. As she goes through the motions on set, the role begins to seep into her private life.
The Shirt Off Your Back
Documentary ·
Short
A dark fairytale about two brothers re-living a strange encounter with a man on Christmas Day, their memories shifting until the truth becomes something unknowable—something that quietly, irrevocably changes them.
Trade Secret
Documentary ·
Feature
A calm, clear-eyed exposé of the international polar bear fur trade and the legal frameworks that allow it to flourish. Spanning six years and nine countries, Trade Secret reveals how political and commercial interests are reshaping the meaning of conservation.
Death of an Undertaker
Documentary ·
Feature
A striking directorial debut from Australian actor Christian Byers (The Narrow Road to the Deep North and December Boys), Death of an Undertaker blurs the line between documentary and fiction, past and present, life and death, where cinema becomes a powerful cue to evoke the presence of absent loved ones.
My Father’s Shadow
Feature ·
Fiction
Set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s historic 1993 election, two brothers spend a day with their estranged father in Lagos. A standout at Cannes, My Father’s Shadow is a lyrical debut that captures the fragility of family bonds with quiet poetry and an unflinching sense of truth.
A Grand Mockery
Feature ·
Fiction
A drunken odyssey of absurdist despair, this boldly uncompromising new film by up-and-coming Brisbane filmmakers Sam Dixon and Adam C. Briggs traces the adventures of frustrated cinema worker and habitual cemetery haunter Josie. Shot on grain-ridden Super 8, A Grand Mockery carves its own singular path against national cinematic convention whilst joining a growing canon of contemporary Australian independent work that grapples with the gaping void at the heart of Australia’s colonial project.
Guttercat
Fiction ·
Short
A punk sapphic couple attempt to wipe away their drug debt in Adelaide's seedy southern suburbs.
Iron Winter
Documentary ·
Feature
For generations Mongolian herders have protected their horses from winter storms by amassing a herd and nominating young men to protect it. Now two young friends are handed the responsibility of reviving this tradition, battling the deadliest winter on record. In the Iron Winter, nothing can survive alone.
Mockbuster
Documentary ·
Feature
Local filmmaker Anthony Frith lands a gig with The Asylum, the studio behind Sharknado. Tasked with directing a schlock film, The Land That Time Forgot, in Adelaide on a shoestring budget, he turns the camera on himself, filming a behind-the-scenes documentary. Both productions will push their director to the brink.
We Are Not Powerless
Documentary ·
Feature
In December 2012, Muzafar Ali and his wife Nagina escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan. They found themselves living in Indonesia as refugees when Australia ‘stopped the boats’. Determined to do something, they started a small two room school, which soon became the hub of a community and the most successful refugee-led initiative in the world.
Guts
Fiction ·
Short
An anthology film documenting one night in a nightclub bathroom where an unorthodox web of coming-of-age narratives unfold and collide.
The Land That Time Forgot
Feature ·
Fiction
The Asylum’s The Land That Time Forgot unleashes submarines, raptors and pulp spectacle in suburban Adelaide. Directed for the cult studio by Adelaide’s Anthony Frith, the film is also immortalised in his documentary Mockbuster, also premiering at AFF.
Drunken Noodles
Feature ·
Fiction
Art student Adnan has moved to New York City, where he is house-sitting in his uncle’s apartment and undertaking an internship at a local gallery. With food delivery and sex both readily available via app, Adnan enters an erotic world of late-night encounters, delivered with the lightness of a lazy summer afternoon sliding into evening.
As If the Earth Had Swallowed Them Up
Animation ·
Short
Olivia, a young woman living abroad, returns to her hometown in Mexico in the hope of reconnecting with her past. But the violence she witnessed as a child has not abated, and the journey rekindles memories that are impossible to reconcile with.
Victoria
Feature ·
Fiction
Victoria, a young beautician working in a suburban beauty parlour, has decided to elope with her Hindu boyfriend against her conservative Catholic parents’ ruling. Amid a never-ending roster of customers and teary phone calls to her unhelpful boyfriend, Victoria reflects on her situation while grappling with conflicting emotions.
Two Prosecutors
Feature ·
Fiction
When a prosecutor investigates allegations made by a prisoner in a Stalinist prison, the pursuit of justice becomes a dangerous journey into the heart of a system devouring its own. There is absurd humour in Stalinist administration, but tyranny is always both banal and malevolent.
Wolfram
Closing Night Gala
Feature ·
Fiction
Warwick Thornton’s Wolfram unfolds in 1932 Central Australia, marking the follow up to his acclaimed Sweet Country (AFF 2017). Aboriginal children are forced into wolfram (tungsten) mining until violence entangles them with ruthless outlaws. At the heart of the story is Pansy, longing for her stolen children in a tightly wrought western of reckoning.