The 72nd Sydney Film Festival (June 4th – 15th, 2025) program has officially launched, with Festival Director Nashen Moodley unveiling an exceptional line-up, including 15 films direct from the Cannes Film Festival, including Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident and Kelly Reichardt’s 1970s-set art heist drama The Mastermind. Other major highlights include The Life…
Hagar’s Hut embarks on a journey through the complexities of psychological trauma and that of the lines it often blurs between reality and fantasy as it follows Skye, a young girl fleeing from the clutches of abuse inflicted upon her by her psychiatrists, who seeks solace in the untamed wilderness. There, she encounters Xan, a…
Having already dipped his toe in the comedy/horror field with both Little Evil and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, writer/director Eli Craig dives confidently headfirst into the cornfield for a meta slasher of sorts that subverts expectation as much as it plays into tropes of the genre. With a title like Clown in a Cornfield,…
Looking for a fresh start, Quinn and her father move to the quiet town of Kettle Springs. They soon learn the fractured community has fallen on hard times after losing a treasured factory to a fire. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning clown emerges from the cornfields to…
Established in 1993, in honour of two of Australia’s most significant filmmakers, Charles and Elsa Chauvel, the Chauvel Award acknowledges significant contribution to the Australian Screen Industry. In recognition of the incredible Charles and Elsa Chauvel, the Gold Coast Film Festival proudly honours those Australian screen industry legends, who shape Australian cinema in their own…
Ezra, a once-famous trumpeter, now struggles to keep his career afloat, performing for scraps at the local small jazz club. After his family is killed in a horrific car crash, Ezra stumbles upon a lighthouse and is mistaken for the keeper by one of the workers. Drawn by the power of the lighthouse, he decides…
Whilst it shouldn’t have taken as long as 7 years for us to be gifted a sequel to 2018’s comedic thriller A Simple Favour – a quirky piece that played out like Gone Girl rinsed through the cycle of a soap opera – director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy) and writers Jessica Sharzer (who also penned…
Dwayne Johnson has had a lot of iterations as a performer: The Rock, franchise Viagra, unlikely hit singer, television personality, Tequila connoisseur, United Football League owner…and now, possible Oscar winner? Transforming himself to embody Mark Kerr, an American former wrestler and mixed martial artist, Johnson is looking to prove his detractors wrong in The Smashing Machine, a filmic…
Not unlike its DC counterpart the Suicide Squad, Marvel have assembled an anti-hero-minded crew of degenerates to lead the charge for the greater good in Thunderbolts*, one of the MCU’s strongest efforts in a recent phase of mostly underwhelming, middle-ground entries that have all largely failed to live up to the expectations of a post-Endgame…
Marvel are being careful with who they assemble with Thunderbolts*, an unconventional team of anti-heroes who, after finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their past. As the Thunderbolts – Yelena Belova, Bucky…
Unhinged was the first word that came to mind when viewing Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock ‘n’ Roll, a British rock mockumentary (rockumentary?) that very much submits to a level of madness that is likely to prove incredibly divisive. Writer/director Mitchell Tolliday and co-writer Neil Rickatson adopt a more-is-more type mentality across…
Launching at Screen Forever next month, the new First Nations initiative, Damulgurra Stories, is set to redefine respectful, holistic engagement with First Nations communities in the screen industry. Founded by Larrakia man Cian Mungatj McCue, of Moogie Down Productions, and award-winning casting director and producer Sarah Price of Castaway NT, Damulgurra Stories aims to transform…
Basic, comedy-inclined title aside, Neighbourhood Watch proves to be more than just a mismatched buddy effort thanks, in large part, to the winning chemistry between Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid, who, against their characters’ best efforts, find a sense of kinship in their respective societal outcasts. There’s a bit of clumsiness to their exposure…
There is no shortage of coming of age films that dive into the deep existential dread that most people experience at the mere thought of growing up; Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, Boyhood, Booksmart…the list goes on. Escape from the 21st Century is another good example of a film that falls into this category, but sets…
Tinā is the feature debut from writer/director Miki Magasiva. The film might appear on the surface a classic underdog tale, but it quickly proves itself to be something richer and more resonant; coming off earlier contributions to Teine Sā and We Are Still Here, Magasiva brings a fresh, heartfelt perspective to this deeply communal story….
As someone who hasn’t played the video game upon which this film is based, and is only vaguely familiar with its plot outline, I’m coming into David F. Sandberg‘s adaptation with horror movie eyes. And in that regard, the Lights Out director – returning to the genre that made him a name after dipping his…
Derived from the interactive survivalist horror game, Until Dawn is an original standalone story that expands upon the game series’ mythology, focusing on Clover and her friends, who head into the remote valley where Clover’s sister vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor centre, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and…
It’s been nearly 10 years since Ben Affleck debuted as Christian Wolff, aka The Accountant, in the same-name actioner that Gavin O’Connor pushed to a sizeable box office haul ($155m) despite tepid-ish reviews. That being said, average reviews have never stopped a sequel from being brought to fruition before, and the creation O’Connor, Affleck and…
Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) has a talent for solving complex problems. When an old acquaintance is murdered, leaving behind a cryptic message to “find the accountant,” Wolff is compelled to solve the case. Realizing more extreme measures are necessary, Wolff recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother, Brax (Jon Bernthal), to help. In partnership with…
The surreal and genre bending Fantastic Film Festival Australia (FFFA) is back with an extremely exciting lineup. For the lovers of indie, alternative, arthouse, cult, visually bizarre, and outright weird (in the best way possible) films, FFFA brings to audiences the films that challenge the traditional tropes of cinema, putting unconventional and unusual to the…
With legacy sequels working in the favour of classic horror titles like Halloween and Scream, it only makes sense that another staple of the slasher genre gets its due, with the 1997 teen chiller I Know What You Did Last Summer getting a 2025 revisit; and if Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell can face…
It Feeds follows the harrowing story of a young girl who insists that a malevolent entity is feeding on her. Ashley Greene (Twilight) stars as a clairvoyant therapist who must confront her own past traumas to save the girl before it’s too late, with Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) as the anguished father desperately fighting to protect his daughter…
The War of the Roses, a 1989 satirical black comedy from Danny DeVito which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a warring married couple and the bitter, fatal divorce that followed, never seemed like the most obvious choice to garner a remake. But here we are, over three decades later, with Benedict Cumberbatch and…
As much as Warfare is detailing a true story during the events of the Iraq War in 2006, Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland‘s panic-attack of a movie goes beyond merely being “based on true events.” Instead, it’s noting itself as a film based on “the memory of the people who lived it.” With that, the…
“You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” Written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler, Sinners presents a new vision of fear. Starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role, Academy Award nominee Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Li Jun Li, and Wunmi Mosaku, the film details…
While covering the news desk in Cairo for a colleague over the Christmas holidays, Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested and accused of terrorism. He became a pawn in the middle of a deadly game full of corrupt officials and ancient rivalries. The subject of his own worldwide news story, where only his wits and…
While covering the news desk in Cairo for a colleague over the Christmas holidays, Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested and accused of terrorism. He became a pawn in the middle of a deadly game full of corrupt officials and ancient rivalries. The subject of his own worldwide news story, where only his wits and…
Having already carved out a sense of the absurd regarding the legal system with their work on the TV series Rake, star Richard Roxburgh and writer Peter Duncan take on a far more serious aspect of such risibility in The Correspondent through the incarceration of Australian journalist Peter Greste and the dubious charges of terrorism…
A sweet film with a talented cast and an evident love for the aspiring creative, The Comic Shop is well-meaning in its temperament, but a little less confident in its execution as it injects a dramatic streak that doesn’t flow with its initial personality. The titular comic shop is Mike’s World, a small venture that…
First dates are nerve-wracking enough. Going on a first date while an unnamed, unseen troll pings you personal memes that escalate from annoying to homicidal? Blood-chilling! Returning to the thriller genre with the playful, keep-you-guessing intensity he perfected in the Happy Death Day films, director Christopher Landon delivers an of-the-moment whodunnit where everyone in the…
