The Adelaide Film Festival has launched its full program for the 2026 Festival, to be held from October 14 – October 25 at cinemas across Adelaide.

Twenty-seven Australian Premieres and 10 World Premieres are among the 122 films from an astounding 52 countries to be presented at AFF 2026.

This year’s Closing Night Gala presentation is the AFFIF film Hell Has No Fire Escape from directors Georgina Savage and Matthew Bate. This remarkable film is the story of Pastor Ina Dry, a 63-year-old widow who, after inheriting her late husband’s evangelical rehabilitation centre, begins to flourish, finally free from their stifling marriage. While attempting to heal people struggling with addiction, Ina yearns for a new life and the possibility of love. But as she drifts away from God and towards TikTok, fantasy television and an online romance with a man posing as Jason Momoa, can Ina save the failing rehab while pursuing her own desires? And does filmmaker Georgina Savage’s presence ultimately help her, or cause more harm than good?

Other AFFIF films premiering at AFF 2026 are the previously announced Agata The Writer, starring Mia Wasikowska, which recently premiered at Venice (Director Kuba Dorabialski); Kumarangk: Sacred Women’s Business (Director Tracey Rigney); The Forbidden Aunt, directed by and featuring internationally regarded Australian actress Bojana Novakovic; Aftermath (Directors: Jared Nicholson, Ben Lawrence) which, in era where conspiracy theories threaten the scaffolds of society like never before, is a fearless psychological portrait of two lives intertwined by trauma and obsession, in the years following the Port Arthur massacre; and, announced today, Lucrum, directed by Johanis Lyons-Reid, about a celebrated pianist whose secluded estate conceals a terrifying covenant. Lucrum, which stars Sophie Lowe, Tahlia Sturzaker and Adelaide local Nathan Page, is a meticulously composed work of folk horror that exposes the insatiable forces that can lurk beneath refinement, privilege and legacy. Following Monolith (AFF2022) and Lesbian Space Princess (AFF2024), Lucrum is the third Film Lab New Voices production, an initiative of AFF, South Australian Film Corporation and Screen Australia.

AFF has also announced that the Australian premiere of Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s feature directorial debut, It’s All Going Very Well.., will be an AFF special co-presentation with the Adelaide Festival March 2027. The film was supported by AFFIF.

The final AFFIF titles screening at this year’s Festival are the two short films: Delia, from director Madeleine Parry, starring Essie Randles, about an emotionally suppressed office worker caught in a supermarket hold-up who finds an unexpected way to intervene, featuring Missy Higgins singing Troye Silvan’s One of Your Girls; and the first AFFIF and Pride Foundation Australia co-commission, The Night Moses Died, directed by Lilah Bennett, where, on a night of escape and amid the sequins and stories of retired showgirl Carmel, nineteen-year-old Moses finally sees themselves.

AFF 2026 also see a number of Australian independent films in the program including director Genevieve Clay-Smith’s audience pleaser Boss Cat, about 20-something Sonja, a person with Down syndrome, who expresses her independence through Krump dancing; River, the sophomore directorial feature of Sunflower (2023) producer Zane Borg, is an achingly beautiful coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old girl cast adrift by the shock death of her mother, who finds solace in a lonely, equally troubled boy; the documentary The Piano Tuner from veteran Australian filmmakers Julia Overton and Tom Zubrycki; the CinefestOZ prize winner Sweet Milk Lake, directed by Harvey Zielinski, about Jake, a trans man, who is mistaken for his twin brother by their estranged dad; and Wilderness, starring Mirrah Foulkes and Yael Stone, directed by Martin McKenna, about an offbeat road trip into Victoria’s High Country which reunites two old friends who have forgotten how to listen to each other.

The Late Night series also returns to AFF in 2026 and will feature South Australian film Ruby, Ruby (Director Ursula Dabrowsky) about two friends who awaken a deadly legend and find themselves hunted by the living and the dead.

Adelaide Film Festival runs October 14 – October 25. Details here.

Agata the Writer

Written and directed by Kuba Dorabialski
Produced by Alex White
Starring Mia Wasikowska, Vedrana Bozinovic, Mia Morrissey and Selma Alispahic
Agata (Mia Wasikowska) a disillusioned writer, arrives in Sarajevo to write a novel set during the Bosnian war. As she speaks with survivors, her project begins to unravel. In the house where she’s staying, obscene art objects begin to vanish, and the line between lived experience and fiction starts to dissolve.

Phenomena

Directed by Josef Gatti
Produced by Josef Gatti, Rob Innes and Joseph Nizeti
Inspired by his physicist father, Josef Gatti transforms scientific experiments into a sensory work of art. Captured entirely in camera without visual effects or digital manipulation, Phenomena reveals hidden worlds beyond ordinary perception. 

The Fox

Written and directed by Dario Russo
Produced by Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings and Carly Maple
Starring Damon Herriman, Emily Browning and Jai Courtney
The Fox had its world premiere at AFF 2025 and they are delighted to present this encore screening in the lead up to its cinema release. A darkly comic folktale of an ordinary bloke and the fox who offers to solve all his problems.

Tiber 

Directed by Dominic Allen
Written by Dominic Allen and Miles Allinson
Starring Marcus J. Cotterell, Uma Cotterell and Tamara Godivier
Thoughtful Marco feels the history of art deep in his soul. But when awful news sees him placed on leave from his lecturing gig in Rome, he jumps in a beat-up Fiat and heads to Tuscany to take his young daughter on an emotional journey along the Tiber River.

KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business

Directed by Tracey Rigney
Produced by Joshua Trevorrow and Carolyn Johnson
Through extraordinary interviews and richly textured archive, KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business restores humanity to one of Australia’s most divisive cultural conflicts, returning the story to the women who lived it.

Ruby, Ruby

Written and directed by Ursula Dabrowsky
Produced by Antony I. Ginnane & Sue Brown
Starring Asha O’Connell, Barrie Cotton, Henry Cooper, Jordan Cowan, Luca Sardelis, Sarah Jeavons and Tommy Darwin
A South Australian urban legend comes terrifyingly to life in this atmospheric horror from Ursula Dabrowsky. When two friends awaken the spirit of Ruby Bland in a remote cemetery, they find themselves trapped between a supernatural curse and a very real human predator.

Aftermath

Written and directed by Jared Nicholson and Ben Lawrence
Produced by Rebecca Barry, Scott Baskett, Chris Kamen, Madeleine-Hetherton Miau and Deanne Weir
Who takes care of the emotionally scarred survivors of an atrocity after everyone else moves on? This sobering and insightful documentary bears witness to trauma’s harrowing effects and the seductive pull of alternative facts — where even the unlikeliest of people can be ensnared.

Sweet Milk Lake

Written and directed by Harvey Zielinski
Produced by Harvey Zielinski, Philippa Campey and Molly O’Connor
Starring Belinda McClory, David Howell, Harvey Zielinski, Hunter Page-Lochard, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Mia Morrissey, Ngaire Pigram and Nic Cassim
When the recently transitioned Jake heads to the rural town Sweet Milk to reconnect with his dying father, he is mistaken for his cis twin brother, Sam (writer-director Harvey Zielinski). Both privileges and a chasm of doubt open, enveloping Jake and those he loves in this emotionally rich tribute to living your truth.

The Forbidden Aunt

Written and directed by Bojana Novakovic
Produced by Milan Stojanovic, Bojana Novakovic and Danielle Redford
When Love Me star, Bojana Novakovic travels from Hollywood to rural Serbia to explore the life of the eccentric, tormented aunt she was never allowed to know, she is forced to face secrets about the women in her family and about herself as well. The result is a rousing documentary about the survival of four generations of women in the face of patriarchal violence.

Yumburra

Directed by Grace McKenzie
Written by Grace Mckenzie & Bruce Pascoe
Produced by Tom Zubrycki, Brian Mckenzie and Grace Mckenzie
After the shocking backlash against his 2014 truth-telling book, Dark Emu, the reclusive writer Bruce Pascoe retreats to the tranquil peace of his beloved farm, Yumburra. Inviting documentarian Grace McKenzie into his calm place, we all benefit from his immense generosity as this soul-replenishing portrait unfurls.

Wilderness

Written and directed by Martin McKenna
Produced by Lisa Wang and Mat Govoni
Starring Mirrah Foulkes, Yael Stone, George Mason and Grace Jackson
A car accident reunites Allie with estranged school friend Kaz, a field sound recordist documenting a changing natural world. Their escape into Victoria’s High Country becomes an offbeat midlife road movie, as old grievances resurface and two friends discover what can happen when they start listening again.

Boss Cat

Directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith
Written by Genevieve Clay-Smith and Mandela Mathia
Starring Chris Bunton, Elijah Williams, Jessica Trueman, Julia Savage, Mandela Mathia, Olivia Hargroder and Penny Downie
Confronted with a world that too often limits the capabilities of people with Down syndrome, Sonja (Olivia Hargroder) carves her own path on the dance floor alongside cheerleading mate Hakim (Elijah Williams). If only her gran, played by The Diplomat’s Penny Downie, can let her fly free.

River

Written and directed by Zane Borg
Produced by Gabriel Carrubba, Mia Barrett and Zane Borg
Starring Justin Rosniak, Luca Sardelis, Mia Barrett, Sal Galofaro, Shabana Azeez and William Mckenna
River (Mia Barret) wants to run away from it all, following the tragic death of her mother. But when she falls in with bad boy Marcus (My Brilliant Career’s William McKenna), his insistence on ‘no strings attached’ actually leads the way to a place of hope and healing for both wounded souls.

Bukal Bukal

Directed by Pauline Clague and Rhoda Roberts AO
Produced by Julie Nihill, Mitchell Stanley and Rhea Stephenson
Bukal Bukal is a visually immersive documentary, shaped by the Seasons and Country we follow Yidinji woman Henrietta Marrie AM, whose life’ and transformed how governments, corporations and global institutions understand their s work has reshaped Indigenous rights responsibility to land, culture and custodianship.

Lucrum

Directed by Johanis Lyons-Reid
Written by Piri Eddy and Pearl Berry
Starring Nathan Page, Sophie Lowe and Tahlia Sturzaker
Summoned to the secluded estate of a celebrated pianist, young adoptee June discovers a world of beauty and artistic brilliance sustained by a terrifying covenant. A haunting work of folk horror where refinement masks something far more insatiable.

Hell Has no Fire Escape

Directed by Georgina Savage
Written by Georgina Savage and Matthew Bate
Produced by Rebecca Summerton, Matthew Bate and Sorcha Bacon
In a world where the internet is slowly replacing faith, a lonely South African pastor, who guides similarly lost addicts, believes she’s found true love online with a man posing as ‘Jason Momoa’. But when financial disaster follows, the bedrock of her faith crumbles in this thoroughly modern musing on addiction and belief.

It’s All Going Very Well…

Written and directed by Tilda Cobham-Hervey
Produced by Liam Heyen, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Dev Patel and Jomon Thomas
Starring Chris Alosio, Jonathan Pryce, Roxie Mohebbi & Tilda Cobham-Hervey
Everything is not going well. Audrey’s life is adrift after a breakup, a stalled creative path and a recent loss. Working in aged care, she forms an unlikely bond with Harold (Jonathan Pryce), opening a space for hard-won clarity around grief, friendship and the work she has avoided.