Featuring 201 films from 70 countries including 17 World Premieres, 6 international premieres and 137 Australian Premieres, the 72nd Sydney Film Festival program has been officially launched by Festival Director Nashen Moodley, bringing together hundreds of new international and local stories.
This year also sees the addition of the iconic Sydney Opera House as a screening venue, joining the State Theatre and cinemas across the city – allowing Festival goers to experience some of the world’s best cinema in one of Sydney’s most celebrated cultural landmarks.
“The 2025 Festival offers a bold and expansive view of cinema today, with films that confront the urgent realities of our world, while also revelling in the power of imagination and storytelling,” said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
“From astonishing Australian debuts to daring new works by global auteurs, this year’s program is a celebration of creative risk, personal vision and artistic resilience. We invite audiences to explore this thrilling line-up, connect with filmmakers from around the world, and share in the transformative joy of cinema,” said Moodley.
“The Sydney Film Festival is the highlight of the year for NSW film fans and is part of an amazing line-up of cultural events that kick off as the cooler weather kicks in,” said Minister for the Arts, John Graham.
“As this line-up confirms, you will always see the best films in the world at the Sydney Film Festival. You won’t find this carefully curated collection of films from your couch, so I implore you to get down the festival and join the experience.”
OPENING NIGHT
The 72nd Sydney Film Festival will open with the Australian Premiere of Together, written and directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks and starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco.
The breakout hit of Sundance, Together is a bold new Australian feature that blends domestic drama with a devilishly supernatural twist, offering an off-the-wall and twisted take on co-dependency. Writer and director Michael Shanks will attend Opening Night to present the film.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
In 2025, the Official Competition celebrates 17 years of the prestigious Sydney Film Prize, which sees $60,000 awarded each year to the most “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous” film.
Direct from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival Competition are major new works from acclaimed directors. SFF 2025 retrospective focus Jafar Panahi also brings a new title It Was Just an Accident which reimagines the Iranian road movie; while Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind brings her unique sensibility to a 1970s-set art heist starring Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim.
Berlinale Golden Bear-winner Carla Simón returns with Romería – a mesmerising drama blending family history and breathtaking fantasy, and Sydney Film Prize-winning filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius, SFF 2016) delivers the rousing and tense political thriller The Secret Agent, starring Wagner Moura.
Also straight from Cannes, Icelandic auteur Hlynur Pálmason follows Godland (SFF 2022) with The Love That Remains – a tender and surprising portrait of a family navigating separation; and Christian Petzold reunites with Paula Beer in Mirrors No. 3 – an intrigue-filled, intimate drama exploring loss, healing and the pull of the past.
Akinola Davies Jr.’s debut My Father’s Shadow – a poetic coming-of-age drama set during Nigeria’s political upheaval in 1993. Direct from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, after a buzzy premiere at Sundance, is Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby – a witty and vulnerable dramedy about trauma, healing and friendship.
Internationally awarded films in competition at SFF include Gabriel Mascaro’s Berlinale Grand Jury Prize-winning The Blue Trail – a psychedelic, anti-authoritarian fable set in the Amazon; and Sundance Audience Award-winner DJ Ahmet – a charming coming-of-age story about tradition, dance music and first love in North Macedonia.
Also competing is All That’s Left of You, a moving epic from Cherien Dabis (Amreeka, SFF 2009) that chronicles a Palestinian family’s hopes and traumas over seven decades, which premiered at Sundance. Opening Night Film Together will also screen in competition at the 2025 Festival.
The winner of the Sydney Film Prize is announced at the Festival’s Closing Night Gala on Sunday 15 June. Previous winners include: There’s Still Tomorrow (2024), The Mother of All Lies (2023), Close (2022), There Is No Evil (2021), Parasite (2019), The Heiresses (2018), On Body and Soul (2017), Aquarius (2016), Arabian Nights (2015), Two Days, One Night (2014), Only God Forgives (2013), Alps (2012), A Separation (2011), Heartbeats (2010), Bronson (2009), and Hunger (2008).
The competition is the only film competition in Australia endorsed by FIAPF, the regulating body for international film festivals, and is judged by a jury of international and Australian filmmakers and industry professionals.
The 2025 Official Competition Jury is led by acclaimed Australian director, writer and producer Justin Kurzel as Jury President, joined by Director of the Marrakech International Film Festival and producer Melita Toscan du Plantier, Aotearoa New Zealand director and actor Rachel House, Hong Kong-based producer and distributor Winnie Tsang, and Kamilaroi writer and actor Thomas Weatherall.
DOCUMENTARY AUSTRALIA AWARD
Ten outstanding new Australian documentaries will compete for the 2025 Documentary Australia Award, with a $20,000 cash prize presented to the winner. The prize also makes the winning film eligible for Academy Award consideration.
World Premieres include Floodland, Jordan Giusti’s deeply moving portrait of a flood-affected community in Lismore, Australia’s most disaster-prone postcode; and Joh: Last King of Queensland, Kriv Stenders’ captivating portrait of controversial Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Journey Home, David Gulpilil – a powerful and intimate record of the renowned Indigenous actor’s final journey to his Homeland to be laid to rest; The Raftsmen, Chadden Hunter’s high-seas yarn revisiting a daring 1970s raft voyage across the Pacific; and Yurlu | Country, Yaara Bou Melhem’s deeply personal portrait of Elder Maitland Parker’s environmental and cultural fight for his Wittenoom homeland.
Australian Premieres in competition include Deeper, Jennifer Peedom and Alex Barry’s high-stakes chronicle of Thai cave rescue hero Dr Richard “Harry” Harris’s attempt to achieve the world’s deepest cave dive; and The Golden Spurtle, Sydney based Constantine Costi’s charming and hilarious portrait of the World Porridge Making Championship in the Scottish Highlands.
Also in the running are The Wolves Always Come at Night, Gabrielle Brady’s story of a Mongolian family forced to abandon their nomadic life; Songs Inside, where female prisoners find healing through a unique music program; and Ellis Park, Justin Kurzel’s debut documentary, about musician Warren Ellis and his passionate work rescuing animals in Sumatra.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS AT THE STATE
The State Theatre sets the stage for Sydney Film Festival’s biggest nights, with red carpet premieres, award-winning films, star-studded line-ups, and dazzling special events.
Star-led features include Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley and Andrew Scott in a hilarious chamber piece set against the backdrop of musical theatre; and Michel Franco’s Dreams, featuring Jessica Chastain as a wealthy philanthropist whose passionate affair with a Mexican dancer challenges her carefully curated life.
The Ballad of Wallis Island – a charming comedy with Carey Mulligan about the musical reunion of two estranged former lovers; and Jodie Foster heads a stellar cast in Vie Privée – a Cannes-selected, gently comic murder mystery set in Paris.
Familiar faces also feature in Kevin Macdonald’s documentary One to One: John & Yoko which brings John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s historic 1972 Madison Square Garden concert vividly to life.
Australian award-winners shine with two bold new features: Slanted, debut Australian director Amy Wang’s provocative, SXSW-winning satire on racial identity and belonging; and Lesbian Space Princess – a riotous, Berlin Teddy Award-winning animated adventure following an introverted lesbian princess on an inter-gay-lactic rescue mission.
From New Zealand, two deeply personal stories will screen: Prime Minister – an intimate portrait of Jacinda Ardern’s transformative leadership, and the World Premiere of Pike River, the powerful true story of two women’s fight for justice after New Zealand’s deadliest modern mining disaster, starring Melanie Lynskey.
Direct from Cannes, Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5 offers a gripping meditation on the enduring relevance of George Orwell’s vision; and Robin Campillo’s Enzo, the Opening Film of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, captures a tender coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of war and migration.
Rounding out the section is Twinless – a hilarious and unpredictable queer bromance starring Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney, fresh from delighting audiences at Sundance.
FEATURES
Australian features include Death of an Undertaker, having its World Premiere at the Festival. This debut from actor-turned-director Christian Byers is set in a real Leichhardt funeral parlour and stars Byers as a fragile part-time worker unravelling on the brink of homelessness.
Other local productions are having their Australian Premieres: Birthright, Zoe Pepper’s biting satire about a disillusioned generation and the housing crisis; Went Up the Hill – a gothic tale of grief and possession starring Vicky Krieps and Dacre Montgomery; and FWENDS, Sophie Somerville’s Berlinale award-winning ode to messy, modern friendship.
Dreams (Sex Love) was the Golden Bear winner at Berlinale 2025, and is a potent, nuanced study of forbidden desire and creative awakening by Dag Johan Haugerud.
Also screening at the Festival is Love, the second in Haugerud’s thematic trilogy (following Sex, SFF 2024, and preceding Dreams), a Venice competition selection that observes two Oslo singles – a straight urologist and a gay nurse – navigating vastly different but equally poignant paths to connection.
This year’s award-winning highlights include Alpha. – a chilling father-son social drama set in the Swiss Alps, winner of the Europa Cinemas Label Award at Venice; The Things You Kill – a surreal Turkish psychological thriller about family secrets, awarded Best Director at Sundance; and One of Those Days When Hemme Dies – a wry, lyrical tale of revenge amid sun-dried tomatoes, which earned the Special Jury Prize at Venice.
Come Closer is a Tribeca Viewpoints Award-winner about a woman plunged into grief and obsession after her brother’s death. Kontinental ’25, Radu Jude’s (Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, SFF 2024) acerbic satire, took out a major prize at Berlinale for its darkly funny exploration of guilt and social complicity.
Moon, Kurdwin Ayub’s culture-clash thriller about an Austrian MMA fighter in Jordan, received Locarno’s Special Jury Prize. The Mohican – a Corsican-set contemporary western about land rights and resistance, won the Audience Award at Thessaloniki.
From Berlinale 2025 comes The Heart is a Muscle, in which a South African father, conditioned by a violent past, commits a terrible act while searching for his missing son; and Islands, where a luxury island resort is the setting for a gripping psychosexual mystery, by Jan-Ole Gerster (Oh Boy, SFF 2013).
Late Shift is a high-stakes hospital drama set over a single night on a hospital ward on the brink of a meltdown, a hit when it premiered at Berlinale. Ameer Fakher Eldin’s (The Stranger, SFF 2022) Yunan, is an evocative drama about a world-weary author who retreats to a far-flung island.
Having screened in competition in Berlin, What Does That Nature Say to You by Korean indie auteur Hong Sang-soo (in water, SFF 2023), is a witty drama following an artist who finally meets his girlfriend’s family.
Olmo is a vibrant coming-of-age tale about a 14-year-old in 1979 New Mexico sneaking away from his struggling family to attend a party. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, from Kahlil Joseph (frequent collaborator with Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar), is a genre-defying mixtape blending Black history, Afro-futurism, archival media and performance in dazzling, cerebral layers.
Among the diverse selection of bold international cinema in this year’s program is Happyend – a politically charged story of teenage rebellion under surveillance in near-future Tokyo, and Harvest, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Attenberg, SFF 2011) gritty Middle Ages parable starring Caleb Landry Jones.
Female friendship takes centre stage in January 2 – a minimalist road movie about fresh starts, while Nineteen offers a spirited coming-of-age odyssey produced by Luca Guadagnino.
Stories of mystery and suspense unfold in Pooja, Sir, where an atypically female cop investigates the abduction of two boys in a Nepali border town, and Stranger Eyes, the first Singaporean film to screen in competition at Venice – a twist-filled thriller about a grieving couple who receive anonymous surveillance footage after their baby goes missing.
To Kill a Mongolian Horse delivers a powerful exploration of masculinity and cultural crisis, inspired by the lead actor’s real life as a Mongolian horseback performer.
Global perspectives on motherhood and caregiving emerge in The Mother and the Bear – a quirky comedy about an overzealous Korean mother matchmaking her comatose daughter; Daughter’s Daughter – a tender Taiwanese drama led by Sylvia Chang; and Saba – a Dhaka-set portrait of sacrifice and family.
In The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos – a mother living in a Lagos shantytown uncovers a stash of corrupt money worth millions, sparking a wild and unexpected journey.
Two standouts are the Korean chilling psychological drama: Somebody, centred on maternal trauma and starring K-pop icon Kwon Yuri; and State of Statelessness, the first-ever Tibetan-language anthology, weaving four poignant stories of Tibetans living in exile.
The President’s Cake – a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection, is a rare film from Iraq and a humorous and touching debut about a young Iraqi girl’s mandated mission to bake a cake for her class on Saddam Hussein’s birthday. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl – a Cannes-selected drama from I Am Not a Witch (SFF 2017) director Rungano Nyoni, sees a Zambian family confront hard truths following the death of a relative.
Star-studded features include Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck – a poignant sci-fi drama starring Tom Hiddleston, based on a Stephen King novella; and The Friend – a warm dramedy with Naomi Watts and Bill Murray based on the popular book by Sigrid Nunez.
On Swift Horses – a sweeping queer 1950s romance featuring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi; Bring Them Down – a powerful Irish thriller with Barry Keoghan; and The End, Joshua Oppenheimer’s (The Act of Killing, SFF 2013) daring narrative debut – a dystopian musical starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon.
Other standout selections include Ciao Bambino – a Naples-set debut in which a teenage boy is tasked with protecting a sex worker; and Eighty Plus – a wry and warm-hearted return by Yugoslav New Wave icon Želimir Žilnik, about a travelling musician returning to Serbia to reclaim a family property.
Lurker, the feature debut of TV writer-producer Alex Russell (The Bear, Beef), is a tense, slow-burn Hollywood psychodrama about obsession and fandom. Spirit World stars Catherine Deneuve in a gently supernatural road movie about a French singer who dies while touring Japan and finds herself guided in the afterlife by a devoted fan.
Twelve Moons is a visually stunning drama tracing a middle-class architect’s descent into addiction and turmoil following a shattering personal loss, while Tiger’s Pond is a haunting Indian thriller that examines caste, superstition and political manipulation in a remote village.
Finally, Mr. Burton tells the remarkable true story of legendary Welsh actor Richard Burton’s formative years, with Toby Jones portraying the teacher who helped him find his voice.
SOUNDS ON SCREEN
Big screens come with big sounds – see and hear music take centre screen in this collection of aurally exhilarating documentaries.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House raised the roof at Sundance, unearthing the Black, queer roots of house music in Chicago – born in underground clubs as a radical refuge from repression and segregation.
SXSW Audience Award-winner Selena y Los Dinos reignites the phenomenon around Selena, the pioneering “Queen of Tejano music” with never-before-seen family archives.
Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao e Rua – Two Worlds follows the acclaimed Aotearoa artist as he returns home to write his first album in te reo Māori.
Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand is a Cannes-selected tribute to the Oscar-winning composer of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Yentl, blending never-before-seen archives and interviews with admirers and friends including Barbra Streisand.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
From the frontline of war to the quiet corners of rural life, this year’s International Documentaries spotlight the most compelling, provocative and human true stories from around the world, while Sydney Film Festival is honoured to continue the First Nations Award – the world’s largest cash award for global Indigenous filmmaking.
Sydney Film Festival presents a series focused on the work of acclaimed Indian documentarian Nishtha Jain, showcasing three of her most compelling works alongside a special panel exploring the landscape of independent filmmaking in India today.
Freak Me Out, the Festival’s sidebar dedicated to all things strange and scary, returns with seven features designed to jolt, disturb, and delight, while the Sydney Film Festival proudly presents its Screenability program for a ninth consecutive year – showcasing a vibrant line-up of films created by filmmakers living with disability.
Sydney Film Festival celebrates the trailblazing Elaine May – whose four fiercely original features have grown into cult classics, cementing her legacy as one of American cinema’s most distinctive voices, while this year’s Classics Restored program brings five iconic films back to the big screen, newly remastered and ready to be rediscovered – from Australian cult favourites to visionary international works.
Bring the whole family to Sydney Film Festival for an unforgettable big-screen adventure, with two new family features, including How to Train Your Dragon – a live-action reimagining of the beloved animation.
FLUX: ART+FILM celebrates films that expand the language of cinema, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. This year’s program offers five striking works that transform real and imagined histories into unforgettable cinematic visions – from mythic rebirths in Lesotho to speculative Hong Kong futures.
Sydney Film Festival will present JAFAR PANAHI: CINEMA IN REBELLION – a major retrospective of the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker’s work. The retrospective, curated by Anke Leweke, will include all 10 of Panahi’s feature films, offering Australian audiences a rare opportunity to experience the evolution of a visionary artist who has persistently defied censorship and persecution in order to tell urgent, human stories from inside Iran.
In its 56-year history, Sydney Film Festival’s short film competition has launched the careers of many directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and other film creatives. The short films competing are: Baggage, Button Pusher, DIY, The Eviction, Faceless, The Fling, Interview with a Hero, Mango Seed, Mates, and Moment.
SPECIAL SFF + VIVID SYDNEY EVENTS
In addition to SFFTV as part of the Vivid Sydney Martin Place Light Precinct, Sydney Film Festival has teamed up with Vivid Sydney on an exceptional array of special events. These include An Evening with Warren Ellis, where the Australian music icon will reflect on his life, music, and commitment to animal conservation, alongside a short solo performance following the premiere of Ellis Park; Planet City: Live – a world-first immersive experience bringing designer and BAFTA-nominated producer Liam Young’s visionary speculative film to life; and Beyond the Summit with Jimmy Chin – an evening with the Academy Award-winning filmmaker and National Geographic photographer known for Free Solo, The Rescue, and Nyad.
THE HUB
The Hub at Lower Town Hall is the beating heart of Sydney Film Festival. Drop in for a drink between films, grab a bite, and enjoy a swathe of special events, talks and parties. The Hub will also feature the Glendronach Lounge, where Festival-goers can enjoy Glendronach whiskey cocktails or take a whiskey tasting masterclass.
The 72nd Sydney Film Festival runs 4 – 15 June 2025. For more information, full program and to book tickets, visit: www.sff.org.au for details.
Images: Twinless (film still) | Together (film still) | It Was Just an Accident (film still) | DJ Ahmet (film still) | Floodland (film still) | Jodie Foster in Vie Privée (film still) | Fwends (film still) | Moon (film still) | To Kill a Mongolian Horse (film still) | On Swift Horses (film still) | Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand (film still) | Gulabi Gang (film still) | Muriel’s Wedding (film still) | Jimmy Chin (supplied)