Filmmaker and screen industry professional Vee Shi has been announced as the recipient of the Screen Presence Trailblazer Award 2026, given by the thriving screen initiative to an Asian Australian trailblazer who is redefining the landscape of the film industry. The award will be formally celebrated at Screen Presence in-conversation event in Melbourne on August 27 with…
They say you can start over. But if the music in your head sounds different, the smells aren’t the same, and everything that once felt familiar exists only in memory, where exactly does that new beginning start? That question sits at the heart of Morning Afternoon Night, a new short film from Perth-based filmmaker, Dasha…
Production has commenced in Western Australia on Emilie Lowe’s sophomore feature film, Dead Centre. Set in the near future, the neo-Western tells the story of The Hunter (Gabriel Sheehan) who’s tracking an animal terrorising a local homestead. When he falls foul of an unauthorised poacher gang lead by The Poacher (Paul Walenkamp), he soon discovers that the…
Green Frog Productions today announced that acclaimed Australian screen icons Gary Sweet and Marta Dusseldorp will star in Before You Leave, a powerful new drama from director Jye Currie, whose previous feature The Promise earned widespread critical acclaim. The film marks Currie’s third feature and is written by Currie alongside Edward Vassie. Production begins October…
Finalists in the 2026 CinefestOZ Short Film Competition were announced today ahead of the Short Film Awards, which will be held Thursday 3 September in Busselton, Western Australia, as part of Australia’s largest destination film festival (28 August to 6 September). Recognising exceptional storytelling and emerging talent in the short filmmaking sector, 22 films are in the running for awards across seven categories. These finalists were…
Producer Greer Simpkin, one of the creative forces behind the upcoming film adaptation of Prima Facie, starring Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo, will chair the CinefestOZ Film Prize Jury, which will decide the winner of Australia’s richest $100,000 Film Prize at this year’s festival, running 28 August to 6 September in Western Australia’s South West. Simpkin will be joined on the jury by New Zealand actor and…
Thanks to our friends at Bounty Entertainment, we’re giving three lucky Cinema Australia readers the chance to win a DVD copy of Giles Chan’s debut feature film, Jellyfish. The film Henry (Aidan Rynne), a slacker floating through young adulthood earning a measly income from selling his body as a human punching bag. Meanwhile he wonders…
Over the last two decades, the Sydney Underground Film Festival has cemented itself as a force of creativity in Sydney’s arts and culture scene, with programs that continue to promote independent, experimental and provocative filmmaking. Drawn from the highest ever entries, with over 780 films submitted for consideration, this year’s diverse program features films, documentaries,…
Of the Australian sports feature documentaries released over the past decade, it’s no surprise that such a large number of them have focused on AFL, the biggest sport in the land. At least nine have centred on the sport, including two documentaries released in the same year about the same person: Adam Goodes (The Australian…
Tina Arena will join Mary Coustas on stage at special preview screenings and in conversation events in Sydney on Sunday 23 August, to celebrate the upcoming cinema release of the new documentary Tina Arena: Unravel Me. The highly anticipated film received its World Premiere last night at the Astor Theatre as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival,…
After defying expectations in the East, critically-acclaimed indie satire The Birthday Trip lands on the West Coast today, screening exclusively at Luna Leederville. Despite being snubbed by festivals and distributors, the film was self-released by the filmmakers, and has gone on to out-perform films in its weight class from established distributors, garnering substantial critical acclaim…
If you were around during the late ’90s and early 2000s, and you enjoyed driving around for hours with more people in the car than there were seatbelts, wagging school, partying until dawn every weekend, or taking part in any activity that involved bongs and buckets, dropping tabs, popping pills, or funnelling full bottles of…
Ahead of its full program launch on September 15, the Adelaide Film Festival has announced the Australian Premiere of the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund film Agata The Writer. Direct from its world premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, Agata The Writer is the debut feature film from Polish-born visual artist and filmmaker Kuba Dorabialski. …
Mitchell Withers’ powerful documentary short For the Boys is an intimate portrayal of Australia’s first openly queer former AFL player, Mitch Brown – a trailblazer in Australian sporting culture. Bringing audiences into Mitch’s dedication to his sons, the complexity of his relationship with a game that shaped him, and the winding path to liberating himself,…
Davo Hardy has announced the commencement of production on Emily, in Particular , an evocative independent family drama, set against the vibrant backdrop of 1970s Australia. This heartfelt coming-of-age tale will explore the nuances of family bonds, personal growth, and the pursuit of big dreams, all anchored by the transformative historical era of social and…
