26 Films We Can’t Wait to Watch at This Year’s Melbourne International Film Festival

Lights, camera, obsession — MIFF is back, and we’ve got our popcorn (and diaries) ready. From bold local debuts to international standouts already making waves, this year’s lineup is stacked with must-sees that promise to move, thrill and totally consume us. Whether you’re after edge-of-your-seat drama, a soul-stirring doco or something deliciously unexpected, these are the eight films we’re first in line for. Let’s just say… cancel your plans. The cinema is calling.

Come See Me in the Good Light

Dir. Ryan White / 2025 / 109 mins / USA / Documentary / Victorian Premiere

This tender, poetic documentary traces celebrated non-binary poet Andrea Gibson and partner Megan Falley’s courageous journey through stage-four ovarian cancer. Against the stark backdrop of chemotherapy and mortality, their unflinching honesty and fierce love illuminate hope, resilience, and the power of art to heal. Directed by Ryan White and co-produced by Tig Notaro, this Sundance favourite blends archival footage with Gibson’s evocative poetry to reveal a raw portrait of queer love, mental health, and survival. A profoundly moving meditation on life lived boldly, even in the darkest moments.

Screening: 24th Aug, 1pm at Forum (selling fast)

The Rivals of Amziah King

Dir. Andrew Patterson / 2025 / 130 mins / USA, UK / English / Drama / Australian Premiere

Matthew McConaughey picks up a banjo and a beekeeping veil in this rollicking, honey-drenched fable of the American South. As Amziah King — unofficial mayor of a sun-drenched Oklahoma backwater — McConaughey is pure Southern charm: equal parts potluck host, bluegrass picker, and fiercely loyal guardian. When his estranged foster daughter Kateri turns up out of the blue, Amziah tries to draw her into his world — but rival apiarists, a crumbling legacy, and a dash of heist chaos get in the way.

A genre-blending slow burn from The Vast of Night director Andrew Patterson, this is part revenge tale, part shaggy-dog musical, scored with foot-stomping Americana by T Bone Burnett and The Avett Brothers. McConaughey wears the role like a second skin, but it’s newcomer Angelina LookingGlass who delivers the emotional sting — a luminous debut worth writing home about.

Screenings: 20th August, 9:00pm at The Astor; 22nd August, 6:00pm at Forum; 24th August, 3:30pm at IMAX Melbourne

Andrew Patterson will attend all screenings

Sirât

Dir. Oliver Laxe / 2025 / 115 mins / France, Spain / Spanish, French / Drama, Thriller / Victorian Premiere

Fresh from Cannes, where it nabbed the Jury Prize and critics’ hearts alike, Sirât is a hypnotic plunge into a world on the edge of apocalypse — and ecstasy. Luis (Sergi López) and his son Esteban journey through Morocco’s blistering deserts, chasing whispers of a mythical rave and the daughter lost to its shadow. Oliver Laxe’s latest work pulses with elemental myth and fevered urgency, shot on grainy 16mm with a thunderous Kangding Ray score. Equal parts Mad Max: Fury Road and The Sheltering Sky, this is cinema that shocks, unsettles, and lingers long after the credits roll.

Screenings: Friday 9th August, 6:30pm at IMAX Melbourne; Tuesday 13th August, 9:30pm at The Astor Theatre; and Friday 23rd August, 9:30pm at The Astor Theatre

Urchin

Dir. Harris Dickinson / 2025 / 99 mins / UK / English / Drama / Australian Premiere

Cannes-awarded actor and director Harris Dickinson makes a powerful debut with Urchin, a gritty, haunting character study steeped in social realism. Mike, a street-smart, impulsive Londoner battling addiction and homelessness, faces the fragility of redemption after a stint in prison. Anchored by a magnetic performance from Frank Dillane—winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Best Actor—the film unspools with raw humanity and unsettling beauty. Drawing comparisons to Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, Urchin is a visceral, tender portrait of survival on society’s margins, marked by Dickinson’s sharp, empathetic directorial voice.

Screenings: 20th Aug, 6:15pm at ACMI; 22 Aug, 9:30pm at IMAX; 24th Aug, 6:30pm at The Astor

Birthright

Dir. Zoe Pepper / 2024 / 93 mins / Australia / English / Drama, Comedy / Victorian Premiere

Set against the sharp backdrop of Australia’s housing crisis, Birthright pits millennials against baby boomers in a darkly comic, intensely theatrical clash. Cory and Jasmine, newly unemployed and evicted, crash at Cory’s wealthy parents’ home, igniting generational tensions that escalate from biting verbal sparring to raw confrontation. Shot in Western Australia and premiering at Tribeca, Zoe Pepper’s feature debut crackles with wit and menace, blending farce with real emotional stakes. This distinctly Australian Gothic drama interrogates wealth, family, and survival with razor-sharp humour and unsettling urgency.

Screenings: 14th Aug, 9:15pm & 16th Aug, 6:15pm at Hoyts Melbourne Central

Blue Moon

Dir. Richard Linklater / 2025 / 100 mins / USA / English / Drama / Victorian Premiere

On the night of Oklahoma!’s debut in 1943, Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart wrestles with fading fame and shifting theatre landscapes in Richard Linklater’s introspective chamber drama. Ethan Hawke delivers a searing, nuanced performance as Hart, embodying the raw vulnerability and biting wit of a man grappling with legacy and loneliness. Infused with conversational elegance and period charm, Blue Moon blends showbiz lore with philosophical depth, anchored by standout performances from Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley. It’s a richly textured meditation on art, commerce, and the price of brilliance.

Screenings: 9th Aug at The Astor; 16th Aug at Forum; 24th Aug at ACMI

One More Shot

Dir. Nick Clifford | 2025 | 92 mins | Australia | English | Drama, Comedy | International Premiere

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1999, and Y2K jitters fill the air as anaesthetist Minnie (Emily Browning) heads to a house party determined to win back her ex — only to discover he’s with someone new. One tequila shot after midnight traps her in a wild time loop, forcing her to relive the night’s chaos over and over. Each do-over brings fresh chances — and fresh mistakes — in this sharp, darkly funny take on time-loop comedies. Packed with ’90s anthems and Aussie charm, One More Shot is a chaotic, heartfelt blast from the past.

Sitchu Tip: Emily Browning will attend screenings on 9th and 10th August.

Various screenings and cinema locations

The Chronology of Water

Dir. Kristen Stewart / 2025 / 128 mins / USA, France, Latvia / Drama / Australian Premiere

Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut is a breathtaking, lyrical dive into trauma, resilience, and rebirth. Adapting Lidia Yuknavitch’s raw memoir, Stewart captures the fluid, fragmented nature of memory, where pain and healing intermingle like waves. Imogen Poots delivers a powerhouse performance as Lidia — fierce, vulnerable, and utterly alive — embodying a woman who finds refuge in swimming and writing, especially after joining a creative writing class led by countercultural icon Ken Kesey. This is cinema as catharsis: unflinching, poetic, and unforgettable.

Screenings: Thursday 15th August, 9:15pm at The Astor Theatre; Sunday 24th August, 4:00pm at Forum

Deaf (Sorda)

Dir. Eva Libertad / 2025 / 99 mins / Spain / English, Spanish / Drama / Victorian Premiere

In the lush rural heart of Murcia, a deaf potter and her hearing partner welcome their first child, only to find their contrasting worlds shaping parenthood in unforeseen ways. Eva Libertad’s feature debut, expanding on her acclaimed 2021 short, offers a raw, immersive look at love, communication, and isolation. Starring Miriam Garlo, deaf in real life, Deaf captures the quiet struggles and resilience of navigating a world built for hearing. Winner of two Berlinale awards, this emotionally charged drama is both intimate and profoundly authentic.

Screenings: 9th Aug Kino 1; 13th Aug Cinema Nova; 24th Aug ACMI 2

Resurrection

Dir. Bi Gan | 2025 | 160 mins | Mandarin | Drama, Sci-Fi | Australian Premiere

A century-spanning, genre-melding odyssey from visionary auteur Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Resurrection is an arresting cinematic fever dream where immortality comes at the cost of dreaming. In a fractured future, dissident “Fantasmers” dive into dream realms while authoritarian enforcers — the “Big Others” — hunt them down. What follows is a five-part, sense-driven phantasmagoria drenched in references to Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Wong Kar-wai and more, scored by the ever-morphing sounds of M83.

With Jackson Yee and Shu Qi leading the charge, Bi Gan crafts a rich meditation on memory, rebellion, and cinema itself. Audacious, intoxicating, and unrelentingly beautiful, Resurrection is less a film than an invitation to dream again.

Screening: 13th August, 6pm at The Astor Theatre

Fwends

Dir. Sophie Somerville | 2024 | 92 mins | English, French | Drama, Comedy | Victorian Premiere

Fwends is a bittersweet and beautifully awkward ode to friendship, Melbourne, and the weird limbo of your late twenties. When broke Sydney lawyer Em crashes at her estranged bestie Jessie’s sharehouse, the weekend spirals into a soulful, city-strolling reckoning. Expect coffee-fuelled catch-ups, raw truths, and a few misadventures along the way.

Sophie Somerville’s largely improvised, Berlinale-acclaimed debut is funny, tender, and unshakably Melbourne — a slacker dramedy full of heart and hidden laneways.

Screenings: 19th August, 6pm at ACMI 1; 21st August, 6:30pm at Kino 1

Hallow Road

Dir. Babak Anvari / 2025 / 80 mins / Thriller, Horror / Australian Premiere

Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys deliver powerhouse performances in this claustrophobic, folk horror–laced thriller that unfolds almost entirely inside a moving car. When their daughter calls in the middle of the night after a tragic accident on a remote road, Maddie and Frank must guide her through the chaos — until a chilling voice on the line changes everything. With razor-sharp direction from Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow) and a haunting original script, Hallow Road is an edge-of-your-seat psychodrama that lingers long after the credits roll.

Screening: Saturday, 16th August, 9:30pm at HOYTS Melbourne Central

BMX Bandits

Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith / 1983 / 92 mins / G / Australian Premiere of 4K Restoration

Before she was an Oscar-winning screen siren, Nicole Kidman was tearing up Sydney’s northern beaches on a BMX in this wildly fun slice of Aussie cinema gold. Newly restored in glorious 4K, BMX Bandits is all bright colours, bigger hair, and boundless mischief — a high-octane teen caper where wheelies, walkie-talkies and water slides collide.

When three bike-mad teens accidentally intercept plans for a bank heist, they become targets of a trio of bumbling crims with bad moustaches and worse luck. What follows is pure ’80s delight: mad chases, slapstick escapes, and Ken Done–level colour palettes that are as loud as the synth soundtrack.

Directed by cult legend Brian Trenchard-Smith (Dead-End Drive-In) and shot by future Oscar-winner John Seale, this is a fizzy, fearless homage to friendship, freedom, and doing skids in school shoes.

Sitchu Tip: Watch for the iconic line “You’re right in the poo now, sister!” — and consider it your new catchphrase.

Screening: Sunday, 10th August, 4pm at HOYTS Melbourne Central

Twinless

Dir. James Sweeney / 2025 / 100 mins / USA / English / Drama, Comedy / Victorian Premiere

When Roman (Dylan O’Brien) and Dennis (James Sweeney) meet in a support group for twin bereavement, an unexpected friendship forms — sharp, funny, and charged with emotional fallout. As their bond deepens, old wounds resurface in this clever, disarming exploration of identity, grief, and male loneliness. With standout turns from Lauren Graham and Aisling Franciosi and a career-best performance by Dylan O’Brien, James Sweeney’s whip-smart sophomore feature cements him as one of American cinema’s most thrilling new voices.

Screenings: Friday 8th August, 6:30pm at The Capitol; Sunday 17th August, 6:45pm at ACMI 1, and Friday 22nd August, 9:30pm at Forum

The Blue Trail (O Último Azul)

Dir. Gabriel Mascaro / 2025 / 86 mins / Mexico, Chile, Netherlands, Brazil / Portuguese / Drama, Sci-Fi / Victorian Premiere

Winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, The Blue Trail is a visually entrancing, genre-defying tale of resistance, dignity and desire. Denise Weinberg is luminous as Tereza, a 77-year-old woman who escapes bureaucratic confinement to chase a lifelong dream — flying in a plane — before she’s forgotten. Along the way: talking snails, spectral visions, and a surreal odyssey through the Amazon. Gabriel Mascaro (Divine Love, MIFF 2019) returns with a gorgeously strange, vibrant and life-affirming portrait of ageing and agency in a fractured future.

Screenings: Wednesday 13th August, 6:30pm at The Capitol; Friday 15th August, 3:45pm at Forum; and Sunday 24th August, 7pm at The Capitol

The Mastermind

Dir. Kelly Reichardt / 2025 / 110 mins / USA / English / Drama / Victorian Premiere

Why watch The Mastermind? Because it’s a heist movie that doesn’t feel like one — more a charming, wry meditation on dreams gone sideways, brilliantly anchored by Josh O’Connor’s quietly hilarious performance as a hapless ex-art student with a ‘foolproof’ plan. Set in the turbulent 1970s, Kelly Reichardt’s latest effortlessly blends deadpan comedy with raw humanity, weaving a story about family, failure, and the messy beauty of getting by. With Alana Haim and Gaby Hoffmann in the mix, this is indie cinema at its sharpest and most heartful.

Screenings: Thursday 8th August, 9pm at The Capitol; Friday 16th August, 3:30pm at The Astor Theatre

Left-Handed Girl

Dir. Shih-Ching Tsou / 2025 / 108 mins / France, Taiwan / Drama / Australian Premiere

From long-time Sean Baker collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou comes a luminous, bittersweet portrait of family life on Taipei’s vibrant margins. Following single mum Shu-Fen and her two daughters — steely I-Ann and curious, left-handed I-Jing, burdened by superstition — Left-Handed Girl weaves tender moments of rebellion, secrets, and survival against the city’s neon-lit chaos. Winner of Cannes Critics’ Week Gan Foundation Award, this quietly powerful drama blends intimate performances with the pulse of everyday resilience and generational bonds.

Screenings: Friday 16th August, 3:30pm at The Capitol; Thursday 22nd August, 9:45pm at The Astor Theatre; Friday 23rd August, 9:30pm at Hoyts 3

Sorry, Baby

Dir. Eva Victor / 2025 / 104 mins / USA / English / Drama / Victorian Premiere

There’s nothing neat about healing, and Sorry, Baby embraces the messy, unpredictable bits with a delicate, wry charm. Eva Victor’s debut captures Agnes’s fractured journey back to herself with uncanny honesty — she’s not “over it,” she’s just learning how to live again, one awkward, tender, sometimes absurd moment at a time. Told in shards, this film is as much about the little pauses — adopting a kitten, jury duty, sandwiches — as it is about survival. A24-backed and brimming with razor-sharp humour, it’s a quietly radical reminder that resilience doesn’t have to be heroic to be heroic.

Anchoring it all is a truly lovely cast, including Naomi Ackie, John Carroll Lynch and Lucas Hedges, who bring warmth and depth to every scene.

Screenings: Thursday 10th August, 3:45pm at Hoyts 11; Monday 14th August, 9:45pm at The Astor Theatre; and more across August

Heads or Tails? Testa o Croce?

Dir. Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis / 2025 / 113 mins / USA, Italy / Drama, Western / Australian Premiere

John C. Reilly was born to be Buffalo Bill in this lush, genre-bending Italian western that flips the script on myth and history. Touring 19th-century Italy with his grandiose show, Buffalo Bill’s bluster is charmingly unspooled as he chases runaway lovers Santino and Rosa — two rebels rewriting their own stories in a world rigged by men. Directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis weave surreal beauty with sharp wit, crafting a film revelling in storytelling’s power to shape truth and legend.

Reilly is a revelation, while Alessandro Borghi and Nadia Tereszkiewicz ignite the screen as the lovers caught between revolution and escape. Shot on evocative 35mm and 16mm, Heads or Tails? is a wildly original Euro-western that dares to rewrite the rules with elegance and irreverence.

Screenings: Friday 16th August, 9:00pm at Hoyts 11; Sunday 24th August, 9:45pm at Hoyts 8/10

Special Preview: Eddington

Dir. Ari Aster / 2025 / 145 mins / USA / English / Comedy, Western / Victorian Premiere

Step into the wild heart of 2020 madness with Ari Aster’s latest fever dream — a black comedy that cuts through the chaos of the pandemic with savage wit and razor-sharp satire. In the dusty New Mexico town of Eddington, mask-mandate dodging sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) locks horns with a mayor eager to bring an AI hub to town, while the town’s fractured souls swirl in a vortex of conspiracy, privilege, and simmering violence. Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, and Michael Ward round out an electrifying cast that makes this absurdist western a compulsively watchable dissection of a country — and a world — tearing itself apart.

Screenings: Friday 9th August, 6:15pm and Saturday 10th August, 12:45pm at The Astor Theatre

Enzo

Dir. Robin Campillo / 2025 / 102 mins / France, Italy, Belgium / Drama / Victorian Premiere

Robin Campillo’s Enzo is a tender, sensual coming-of-age story about a privileged French teen who finds himself—and desire—working alongside Ukrainian immigrant Vlad on a construction site. Eloy Pohu’s magnetic performance captures the ache and arrogance of adolescence with nuance and warmth. Rooted in themes of class, belonging, and identity, Enzo is a quietly powerful film that lingers, inviting us to feel the fragility and urgency of youth.

Screenings: Friday 16th August, 1:00pm at The Capitol; Tuesday 20th August, 3:30pm at Forum; Friday 23rd August, 9:15pm at Hoyts 8/10

Promised Sky Promis le ciel

Dir. Erige Sehiri / 2025 / 95 mins / France, Qatar, Tunisia / Drama / Australian Premiere

From acclaimed filmmaker Erige Sehiri comes a tender, stirring portrait of resilience and chosen family. Promised Sky follows three Ivorian women in Tunis — each navigating life as an outsider — who band together to care for a shipwrecked child. Opening Un Certain Regard at Cannes, this compassionate, beautifully observed film speaks to the power of solidarity in the face of displacement and uncertainty. Sehiri weaves social realism with grace, offering a quietly radical testament to community, courage and care.

Screenings: Saturday 10th August, 11:15am at ACMI 2 (Selling Fast); Thursday 15th August, 1:15pm at ACMI 2

The Ice Tower La Tour de glace

Dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović / 2025 / 117 mins / Germany, France / Drama, Fantasy / Australian Premiere

From the singular vision of Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence, Earwig) comes a mesmerising, icy fairytale shimmering with danger and desire. When runaway teen Jeanne finds herself on the snowy set of The Snow Queen, she’s drawn into the enigmatic orbit of its star (Marion Cotillard) and swept into a darkly poetic coming-of-age odyssey. Luminous, unsettling and visually exquisite, The Ice Tower is a haunting meditation on girlhood, fantasy and the fine line between wonder and fear.

Screenings: Friday 16th August, 9:15pm at Hoyts 3; Friday 23rdAugust, 6:30pm at IMAX Melbourne

Dreams (Sex Love) Drømmer

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud / 2025 / 110 mins / Norway / Drama, Comedy / Victorian Premiere

Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, Dreams (Sex Love) is a tender, intelligent coming-of-age tale about Johanne, a teenage girl who writes a novel exploring her crush on her French teacher. As Johanne shares her intimate story with her mother and grandmother, the lines between reality and fantasy blur, prompting them to confront passion and desire in their own lives. Dag Johan Haugerud’s achingly empathetic film beautifully captures the heady rush of first love and the power of self-expression.

Screenings: 10th August, 1:30pm, Kino 2; 16th August, 8:45pm, The Capitol; 17th August, 7:00pm, Theatre Royal Castlemaine; 23rd August, 6:45pm, Kino 2

Nineteen Diciannove

Dir. Giovanni Tortorici / 2024 / 109 mins / Italy / Drama / Victorian Premiere

Luca Guadagnino produces this warm and witty portrait of youthful longing, identity and missteps, following a Sicilian teen as he ricochets between cities, crushes, and crises of self. With its lush 35mm visuals and emotionally honest tone, Nineteen captures that uniquely chaotic age when the world feels both impossibly big and unbearably small. A standout debut from Giovanni Tortorici, it’s playful, poignant and all too relatable for anyone who’s ever been nineteen and entirely unsure.

Screenings: 15th August, 6:15pm at Hoyts 11; 21st August, 3:45pm at Forum (Food & Film event); and 24th Aug, 6:15pm at Hoyts 3

DJ Ahmet

Dir. Georgi M. Unkovski / 2025 / 99 mins / Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Czechia / Drama, Comedy / Victorian Premiere

In the shadow of the Balkan hills, 15-year-old Ahmet tends sheep by day and dreams of a different beat by night. When a forest rave and the luminous Aya spark a personal awakening, he finds himself torn between family duty and his own burgeoning identity. Bursting with heart, humour and a banging soundtrack, DJ Ahmet is a joyous coming-of-age tale about breaking free without turning your back.

Multiple screenings from 8th August

Splitsville

Dir. Michael Angelo Covino / 2025 / 100 mins / USA / English / Comedy / Victorian Premiere

One car crash, two couples, and an open marriage later, Splitsville gleefully spirals into chaos. In this laugh-out-loud screwball gem, Carey’s wife leaves him mid-Hamptons holiday, only to reappear with a parade of new lovers. Meanwhile, their wealthy hosts aren’t exactly #relationshipgoals either. From the creators of The Climb, this Cannes hit is a warm-hearted romp about modern love, old wounds and very expensive vases.

Screenings: Thursday 15th August, 9:00pm at Hoyts 11; Saturday 17th August, 1:00pm at The Astor Theatre; Saturday 24th August, 6:15pm at ACMI 1

Plus, The Breakout Hit of MIFF Everyone’s Already Talking About…

The first film to sell out across all its Melbourne sessions, PASA FAHO has already cemented itself as one of this year’s buzziest titles. The feature debut from Igbo-Australian filmmaker Kalu Oji is a soulful, quietly powerful portrait of African-Australian life—set in the suburbs of Melbourne, but resonating far beyond. Anchored by a deeply moving father-son story and filmed with striking visual warmth, it’s a gentle triumph that’s got the industry talking.

Missed out on tickets? Don’t despair—PASA FAHO is heading to regional screens as part of MIFF’s Regional Showcase. So yes, there’s still a chance to see the film everyone’s whispering about.

As the curtains rise on another MIFF season, it’s clear this year’s program isn’t just cinema — it’s a visceral, soul-rattling immersion. From auteurs at their peak to quiet indies that leave a lasting mark, these are the films shaping the cultural conversation right now. Hungry for more? From gallery-hopping in Collingwood to bold exhibitions in Fitzroy, explore the most compelling art galleries in Melbourne. And for what’s new and noteworthy on stage, screen, and everywhere in between, don’t miss our latest in entertainment news.