Main photo: Katy Durn
Screens across the city will glow with films that span genres, continents and realities for Adelaide Film Festival. From Wednesday October 15 to Sunday October 26, this year’s program spotlights both rising talent and internationally acclaimed filmmakers featuring cult animation to spooky thrillers to intimate documentaries.
To help you navigate it, we’ve pulled together 10 picks to consider adding to your watch list >>
SIRÂT
Set amongst Morocco’s illicit mountain rave parties, Sirât follows a father and son searching for their missing daughter and sister through a blur of bass and dust. As they navigate the desert’s dancefloors, joy and danger intersect in a hypnotic journey with a film soundtrack that moves from heavy techno to ambient. Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize, Oliver Laxe’s latest film an immersion of music and transformation.
Friday night’s Pink Carpet premiere screening of Sirât at Palace Nova East End is followed by an after party at The Howling Owl with drinks, canapés and DJs.
Screening: Friday 17 Oct, Palace Nova East End, Pink Carpet & Party // Saturday, 25 Oct, Palace Nova East End
Language: Spanish & French
Country: Spain & France
Runtime: 115 minutes
THE FOX
Drawing on Japanese and Korean folktales as well as his own upbringing in the Adelaide Hills, director Dario Russo presents a trickster fox through an Australian lens. Nick’s world unravels when his fiancée betrays him, until a sly fox offers a scheme to win her back.
The stacked cast features Miranda Otto, Olivia Colman, and Sam Neill. The Fox explores the struggle between devotion and desire, stability and chaos, delivered ins a surreal, comedic and genuine way.
Screening: Sunday 19 Oct, Capri Theatre // Saturday 25 Oct, The Piccadilly
Language: English
Country: Australia
Runtime: 90 minutes
PENNY LANE IS DEAD
It’s 1986, the beach house is sweltering, and Penny’s ‘no dick party’ goes off the rails with the new Australian horror. A jealous cousin, a spiked cupcake and a pack of violent men turn the night into a blood-soaked survival showdown.
Filmmaker Mia Kate Russell’s debut dives into toxic masculinity and gendered violence, while presenting cinema chaos through punk attitude and dark humour.
Screening: Saturday 18 Oct, The Piccadilly // Tuesday 21 Oct, Palace Nova East End
Language: English
Country: Australia
Runtime: 90 minutes
IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg reframes the legacy of Jeff Buckley, the enigmatic singer-songwriter best known for his take on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Often remembered for his tragic death at 30, Buckley’s story is told in the documentary through bandmates, lovers and friends, alongside intimate archives, notebook entries and voicemails.
From the release of his groundbreaking debut album Grace in 1994 to the legacy of his folk singer father Tim Buckley, the film paints a portrait of an artist who burned bright and still resonates three decades on.
Screening: Friday 17 Oct, Capri Theatre // Friday 24 Oct, Palace Nova East End
Language: English
Country: United States
Runtime: 108 minutes
FRANKENSTEIN
Director Guillermo del Toro brings his dream project to life in a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic classic. Oscar Isaac stars as Dr Frankenstein, the obsessive scientist who creates a monster, played by Jacob Elordi, in a twisted experiment. With del Toro’s trademark dark beauty and emotional weight, Frankenstein offers a reflection of power, grief and obsession.
Screening: Thursday 16 Oct, The Regal Theatre // Saturday 18 Oct, The Regal Theatre
Language: English
Country: United States
Runtime: 149 minutes
MADE IN SA
The ever-popular Made in SA showcases the best in local short films with a selection of eight shorts spanning stories of housemate antics, murder investigations, surreal fantasy and bodily horror. A party at Howling Owl will follow the premier night screening in a tribute to local storytelling.
Screening: Monday 20 Oct, Palace Nova East End // Friday 24 Oct, Odeon Star Semaphore
Language: English
Country: Australia
Runtime: 89 minutes
OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR
Balthy is a privileged Manhattan teen who creates gun control videos for social media to win over his activist crush. When he convinces himself an online troll is a school shooter, he drives to Texas to confront him.
What follows is a black satire of performative activism, fragile masculinity and the craving for validation in the algorithm age. The highly-rated dark comic, Our Hero, Balthazar holds a mirror to Gen Z’s hunger for attention.
Screening: Saturday 18 Oct, Palace Nova East End // Sunday 26 Oct, Palace Nova East End
Language: English
Country: United States
Runtime: 91 minutes
The Square
Film director Kim Bo-sol delivers a haunting animated feature where romance and surveillance intercept in North Korea. Swedish diplomat Isak Borg, stationed in Pyongyang, finds rare love with traffic officer Bok-joo, only for her to suddenly disappear under the shadow of the state.
His quiet search for his secret lover drifts from a romance tale to a political thriller, unfolding through minimalist animation. The Square is a poetic, unsettling exploration of intimacy under control.
Screening: Friday 17 Oct, Palace Nova East End // Friday 24 Oct, Odeon Star Semaphore
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea
Runtime: 73 minutes
Iron Winter
Amid Mongolia’s deadliest winter on record, two young friends, Tsagana and Batbold, take on an ancient ritual in protecting 2000 horses from wolves and blizzards. As temperatures plummet and isolation deepens, their endurance becomes a fight for both survival and tradition.
Shot in the Tsakhir Valley, Iron Winter is story of friendship, resilience and heritage in a rapidly changing world.
Screening: Thursday 16 Oct, The Piccadilly // Sunday 26 Oct, Odeon Star Semaphore
Language: Mongolian
Country: Australia & Mongolia
Runtime: 89 minutes
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Jeremy Allen White steps into the boots of Bruce Springsteen in Scott Cooper’s raw, intimate portrait of the artist on the edge of fame. Set in 1982, as his album Nebraska takes shape in his New Jersey bedroom, the film traces the moment Springsteen turned inward, trading stadium anthems for raw honesty.
Also featuring Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young, the biopic captures the pursuit of perfection and the ghosts that come with it.
Screening: Thursday 16 Oct, The Regal Theatre // Sunday 19 Oct, Odeon Star Semaphore
Language: English
Country: United States
Runtime: 120 minutes
Adelaide Film Festival: Wednesday October 15 to Sunday October 26
The full Adelaide Film Festival program can be viewed online.
