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, shorts and more that stretch the status quo, exploring the margins of cinematic expression and proving no end of creativity is undeserving of its time in the spotlight.
In 2026, SUFF will bring the festival back to its roots at Factory Theatre, in this homecoming celebration of film at its most creative.
“It’s hard to believe we’ve made it to festival number twenty,” says festival co-director, Katherine Berger.
“We’ve always backed bold, strange and independent voices, and this year feels like the perfect chance to celebrate everything SUFF has become. We’re taking over The Factory Theatre with an incredible line-up of films, wild Q&As, our first SUFF Market, live music, performances and a few surprises along the way. We hope people come for a film and end up staying all day.”
World Premieres of Australian films include the darkly funny debut feature Meat Daddy, written and directed by Branden Wittchen. An awkward weekend meeting the future in-laws soon unravels into a surreal nightmare where everyone has something to hide.
Writer and director Andrew Leavold’s The Taller They Come is a genre bending film parody, celebrating the anarchic nature of filmmaking obsession. Watch along as Andrew leads audiences into a wildly entertaining descent into film making madness.
Sydney gets an 80s double header with two wildly different films both set in Sydney. First up is the cult classic Starstruck directed by Gillian Armstrong and hailed as one of the most eccentric films of the Australian New Wave. Then it’s DJ Maynard spinning some starstruck inspired 80s new wave hits. Then immediately after its Pandemonium by Haydn Keenan, part midnight movie, part apocalyptic comedy, part surreal Australian nightmare, this movie captures Bondi at its most unruly…it’s one of those films you’ll just have to see to believe.
Capturing the essence of this festival is WTF Sydney! an exclusive chance for Sydney filmmakers to bring maximum insanity with minimal warning to SUFF audiences.
Here’s every Australian film screening at Sydney Underground Film Festival:
Short Films
Mr. Legs
Directed by Sean Zwan
World Premiere
Being haunted by a nine-foot poltergeist with the emotional regulation of a toddler makes bathroom breaks downright terrifying.
Die Hard By Decay
Directed by Tony Lawrence
Australian Premiere
Bruce Willis stars in this action packed 35mm film fragment, damaged and decayed beyond any playability.
Gilded Gutter
Directed by Hellen Rose
Australian Premiere
In honour of the sad anniversary of the suicide of Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
The Artist and The End
Directed by George Gittoes
World Premiere
Unless our species changes course fast, we are about to witness the end. A painting or a poem may never have saved a life, but the arts are all that can save humanity.
Heel Turn
Directed by Isabella Poynter-Symonds
Nikki Van Blair is the biggest diva you’ve never heard of. Legend in the Sydney wrestling community, we follow one afternoon as she transforms into her wrestling alter ego and reflects on the ways wrestling has helped and hurt her as a queer trans woman.
A Short Film About Anything
Directed by Oscar Axel Thorborg
Sydney Premiere
A documentary weaving together voices on the topic of meaningfulness, highlighting the importance of shared experience.
The Street With No Name
Directed by Leticia Ng
Sydney Premiere
In the heart of Sydney, there is a forgotten street, which locals claim is haunted by past mysterious murders that occurred nearby. Are these murders mere coincidence, or is something more sinister lurking beneath the surface?
Home Movies
Directed by Benjamin Spencer Bowles
Sydney Premiere
Follows two forgotten VHS tapes, left in an attic after the family they belong to move from their home of 23 years. The tapes, which hold the family’s old home movies, come to life, and endeavour to find a way out. They attempt this, the only way they know how… via time travelling in a VHS player.
Paper Angels
Directed by Sebastian Hill-Esbrand
Sydney Premiere
Mikey Mendoza rises through pro skateboarding and sustainable fashion design to carve out his new identity, despite capitalist and societal forces, leaving his tumultuous childhood in the dust.
A Court of Claws and Riesling
Directed by Anthony Ross
Australian Premiere
A young woman, dissatisfied with modern dating, adopts a cat despite her allergies – only to find that the combination of antihistamines and white wine has her hallucinating a handsome fae lord, straight out of her saucy books… But he may have sinister intentions.
Crammed
Directed by Robin Kalus
World Premiere
An amateur craftsman finds himself in a race against time as he hurries to finish his most horrifying creation yet.
The Touch
Directed by Willem Whitfield
Sydney Premiere
A man sees a doctor about his hand, which is on fire.
Like + Sub
Directed by Aleks Wansbrough
Australian Premiere
In 1924, Fernand Léger prophetically explored issues of mechanical perception and replication in Ballet Mecanique. Today, social media further splits the self, creating digital doppelgängers. Like + Sub attempts to update Léger’s legacy in the era of social media and Only Fans.
Facts
Directed by Tristan Viney
Australian Premiere
After watching Halloween for the first time, a little girl’s fear of serial killers spirals into a dark and twisted survival plan.
Inner West
Directed by Maeve McKenna
Australian Premiere
Locked out of an unforgiving rental market, a desperate young couple inspects a crumbling house with a smarmy real estate agent determined to close the deal. But behind Dom’s relentless charm lies something far more sinister, and the inspection quickly turns into a fight for survival.
Obey!
Directed by Jordan Wippell
Australian Premiere
After the tragic death of her viral dog, Max, a pet influencer is confronted by a vengeful spirit demanding an apology for a life of exploitation.
Pleasure-Seeking
Directed by Michaela Holmes
Sydney Premiere
Suffering a pervasive sense of loneliness, Sasha spends her days chasing a constant stream of dopamine until a bizarre physical malady and a persistent neighbour unearth her unravelling mental state.
Sublet
Directed by James Nolan
NSW Premiere
Set in London, in a busy share house full of Australians, Sublet examines the tension and unease of sharing your home with a complete stranger.
Tunnel Vision
Directed by Alex Salkicevic and Bryce Kraehenbuehl
Sydney Premiere
A man’s frustration with a blown lightbulb leads him to discover a strange hole in his wall. A 16mm short film about a seemingly simple task that leads to shocking consequences.
Driverless
Directed by Eric Hutton
Australian Premiere
Two friends enact a ridiculous scheme to increase the resale value of a car. The results push one of them to the brink of psychological collapse.
Dérive
Directed by Billy White
Australian Premiere
A man wanders through his town trying to figure out if he’s living in a simulation or not.
A Faecal Matter
Directed by Cassandra May
Australian Premiere
Two unlikely friends bond over a pile of poo, and the hilarious potential of someone stepping in it.
I’m a Tuna Sandwich
Directed by Andy Nedelkovski
Australian Premiere
Steve, a struggling actor and model, puts one foot in front of the other as he powers through his pathetic life.
The Impossible Dream
Directed by Nikola Jokanovic
After being made fun of at the pub, Quaid attempts to set a Guinness World Record – no matter the price.
The Catch of the Day
Directed by Zander Czerwaniw
Australian PremiereA journalist investigates a mysterious catch from a group of fishermen.
Billie and Jesse
Directed by AP Pobjoy
A lesbian power couple faces an unexpected reckoning when one partner’s transition reshapes attraction and intimacy.
Spiders on My Lashline
Directed by Grace Tan
Following an attack, genderqueer pole dancer Ash takes shelter in a church, where childhood memories resurface and help them find strength again.
The Special
Directed by Gabrielle Tarabay
Australian Premiere
Two chefs transform a fatal accident into culinary success, until their appetite for perfection demands the ultimate sacrifice.
A Hammer Beats Down on the Horizon
Directed by Geordie G.M. Anderson
Australian Premiere
Clyde walking the streets. Confusion and bitterness. Longing for extinction. World gone to shit. Who said that?
Misery and Other Choices
Directed by Samuel Lucas Allen
What do you do when the world is on fire? ‘Misery and Other Choices’ is a darkly comic eco-thriller pitting climate nihilism against murderous hope.
Our Princess
Directed by James Kunovski
A Greek-Australian bride reckons with the reemergence of her black sheep brother on the morning of her wedding day. This is not a fairytale.
Kooky Crazy No Good Neighbour
Directed by Mark Samual Bonanno
Sydney Premiere
Follows Kirsty – a goofy 30-something who was abused at a centre for troubled youth and is now trying to bring the perpetrators down. But the tighter she holds onto her past traumas the more she can’t shake them.
Items Objects and Things
Directed by Kristoffer Lucia
Sydney Premiere
A young woman reflects on her family’s strange inherited illness.
Burqini Body
Directed by Hebah Ali
A Muslim woman makes a splash at her local swimming pool with her ‘scandalous’ modest swimwear.
Dashcamera Obscura
Directed by Henry Stone
Sydney Premiere
A man desperate to capture a traffic accident on his new dashcam accidentally unleashes a car crash day in his personal life.
Past Tenant
Directed by Ricky Townsend
Sydney Premiere
A Sydneysider must kick out their roommate who refuses to pay their rent. The only problem is their roommate is a ghost.
The Bad Room
Directed by Nicola Sercombe
Sydney Premiere
Set amongst the Sydney housing crisis, a young couple’s hopes of buying their dream home are put to the test when they learn the house they’re inspecting is haunted. Well, not the whole house. It’s just this one room… A very bad room.
The Prize
Directed by Paul McDermott and Ren Thackham
World Premiere
After an unfortunate (but comical) accident, real estate agent Nicholas Flemp gets a sudden taste of victory, but spirals into obsession as he struggles to recapture his fleeting moment of fame.
Appetite of a Nobody
Directed by Amanda Kaye
Sydney Premiere
Gerald, a socially inept man who survives on raw meat, longs to make friends. But when he follows the steps of an ’80s self‑help video, things take a bloodcurdling turn.
Lie Down, Breathe Out
Directed by Gemma Rose Salomon
Sydney Premiere
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.
The CEO
Directed by Michael Cusack
Sydney Premiere
A successful CEO becomes a billionaire and uses this milestone effect to tell the girl who broke his heart decades ago that he finally succeeded in life… or has he?
Feature Films
The Taller They Come
World Premiere
Written and Directed by Andrew Leavold
Never work with children, animals… or Alby Wrangler!
Australian exploitation filmmaker Alby Wrangler (Andrew Leavold) dreams of becoming the next Tarantino. Instead, he finds himself in Ghana, conning his way onto the film set of real-life director Samuel “Ninja” Nkansah’s kung fu remake of the Jamaican reggae spaghetti western The Harder They Come… starring little people.
As Alby goes “full Kinski”, the production (also titled The Taller They Come) hurtles off the rails, and this crazy film-within-a-film transforms into an outrageous portrait of artistic ambition gone completely gonzo, in the tradition of Heart of Darkness and Burden of Dreams. Equal parts action film parody, mockumentary and metatextual self-mockery, it’s an anarchic celebration of filmmaking obsession.
Following The Search for Weng Weng (SUFF, 2013) and Pub: The Movie (SUFF, 2022), Andrew Leavold delivers another wildly entertaining descent into filmmaking madness that every low-budget filmmaker will appreciate.
Meat Daddy
World Premiere
Includes Q&A
Written and Directed by Branden Wittchen
An awkward weekend meeting the future in-laws spirals into a waking nightmare where nothing – and no one – can be trusted.
Rick joins his girlfriend Kristy on a trip to her father’s remote cattle farm, hoping to secure his approval. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an uncanny world populated by bizarre behavior, a masked child who watches from next door, an ominous dead tree, and a family whose logic seems to obey the rules of a fever dream. Every attempt to escape only draws him deeper into the nightmare. Then, just as the story appears to be over, the film rewinds and unfolds again from Kristy’s father’s perspective – transforming an already surreal experience into something even more unsettling.
Drawing on the surreal dream logic of David Lynch, the existential absurdity of Charlie Kaufman and the subversive spirit of Luis Buñuel, Branden announces himself as a fearless new voice in Australian cinema. A bold, darkly funny and deeply unsettling debut, this is the kind of film that rewards adventurous audiences and leaves them questioning everything they’ve just witnessed.
For fans of: I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), Beau is Afraid (2023)
Starstruck
Hosted by Maynard
Directed by Gillian Armstrong
A wonderfully zany, neon-soaked musical with Sydney in its veins and pop music in its heart.
Starstruck is one of the most eccentric films of the Australian New Wave, capturing a side of Sydney unlike anything else from the era.
Working behind the bar in her family’s crumbling pub beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Jackie dreams of becoming a pop star. With the help of her ambitious teenage cousin Angus, she hatches a string of increasingly outrageous publicity stunts in the hope of becoming an overnight sensation. The result is one of the most unforgettable New Year’s Eve finales in Australian cinema.
Made between My Brilliant Career and Mrs. Soffel, Gillian Armstrong’s musical comedy is a rare, one-of-a-kind gem. More than 40 years on, its irreverent spirit and infectious songs still feel fresh, making it easy to see why Starstruck has become such a beloved Australian cult classic.
Join SUFF afterwards as legendary broadcaster and all-round pop culture icon Maynard keeps the New Wave spirit alive with a post-screening DJ set!
Pandemonium
Includes Q&A
Directed by Haydn Keenan
Before Bondi became paradise, it was pure pandemonium.
Forty years before Sydney became the polished global city we know today, filmmaker Haydn Keenan captured Bondi at its most unruly, turning it into a world of sex, punk, politics, exploitation cinema, and pure underground mayhem.
Part midnight movie, part apocalyptic comedy, part surreal Australian nightmare, Pandemonium follows the mysterious Dingo Girl, who sets out to find the parents who abandoned her, only to stumble into a strange world hidden beneath a derelict Bondi film studio. Along the way she crosses paths with neo-Nazis, cultists, monsters, and an assortment of outsiders, all living among the crumbling remains of Australia’s cultural myths.
Featuring cult Australian icons David Argue, Esben Storm, Gary Foley, Ignatius Jones and Lex Marinos, Pandemonium is unlike anything else produced in this country. A wonderfully offensive, wildly ambitious, and utterly uncompromising vision of Sydney that could only have emerged from the anarchic independent filmmaking scene of the 1980s.
More information and tickets to all films and events are available here!
20th Annual Sydney Underground Film Festival
Dates: Thursday 10th – Sunday 13th September 2026
Venue: Factory Theatre – 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204
Tickets: Standard tickets from $22 and various passes available for further savings including the 3, 5, 10 ticket passes, Sunday day pass and full festival pass
If you enjoy Cinema Australia as much as I love publishing it, please consider supporting Cinema Australia’s commitment to the Australian screen industry via a donation below.
I strive to shine a light on Australian movies, giving voice to emerging talent and established artists.
This important work is made possible through the support of Cinema Australia readers.
Without corporate interests or paywalls, Cinema Australia is committed to remaining free to read, watch and listen to, always.
If you can, please consider making a contribution. It takes less than a minute, and your support will make a significant impact in sustaining Cinema Australia as the much-loved publication that it is.
Thank you.
Matthew Eeles
Founder and Editor.Make a donation here.
