Cinema guide: new films in Australia July 2024

Discover July 2024's Australian cinema lineup, including Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line, The Bikeriders, and MaXXXine.
Mia Goth as Maxine Minx in MaXXXine. Image: A24/Universal Pictures Australia

Here is your local list of what’s on in cinemas this July. Make sure to check out the five Australian films hitting the big screen this month.

To find out what’s on streaming, check out our monthly streaming guide.

For all upcoming film festivals in Australia, see our annual film festival guide.

Australian films to watch out for in July 2024

  • Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line (4 July)
  • Sunflower (4 July)
  • Birdeater (18 July)
  • Sting (18 July)
  • The Sloth Lane (25 July)

4 July

Horizon: An American Saga

Kevin Costner directs and stars in this two-part Western epic telling a story spanning 15 years across pre- and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.

Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington
Classification: R
Runtime: 181m

Kill

In this Indian action film, a passenger train bound for New Delhi becomes a bloody battleground of brutal close-quarters combat as a pair of commandos square off against a 40-strong army of invading bandits.

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Cast: Raghav Juyal
Classification: R
Runtime: 115m

Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

Documentary tracing the 45-year journey of the quintessential Australian rock band, featuring interviews and archival material including footage of their outback tour with Warumpi Band, the Exxon protest gig, and wearing “Sorry” suits at the Sydney Olympics.

Director: Paul Clarke
Cast: Midnight Oil
Classification: M
Runtime: 110m

Read: Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line Sydney Film Festival review

Sidonie in Japan

Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer, is mourning her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the reedition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, the city of shrines and temples. As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie: she will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again.

Director: Elise Girard
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, August Diehl, Tsuyoshi Ihara
Classification: M
Runtime: 95m

Sunflower

An Australian coming-of-age story about a seventeen-year-old boy who struggles to understand and embrace his sexuality in the working class suburbs on Melbourne’s edge.

Director: Gabriel Carrubba
Cast: Liam Mollica, Luke J. Morgan, Olivia Fildes
Classification: MA
Runtime: 84m

The Bikeriders

Over the course of the 1960s, a Midwestern motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.

Director: Jeff Nichols
Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer
Classification: M
Runtime: 116m

11 July

Fly Me To The Moon

Rom-com set during the lead-up to 1969’s Apollo 11 mission, starring Scarlett Johansson as a marketing exec hired by NASA to stage a fake moon landing, and Channing Tatum as the launch director struggling to stop the real thing from descending into chaos.

Director: Greg Berlanti
Cast: Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson
Classification: M
Runtime: 132m

Kinds of Kindness

The next film from auteur Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), this story follows a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons
Classification: MA
Runtime: 164m

Read: Poor Things review: a fabulous feminist fable

MaXXXine

Following 2022’s X and Pearl, filmmaker Ti West and star Mia Goth complete their starstruck horror trilogy with this story set in 1980s Los Angeles, following Maxine continuing her journey towards fame after the events of X.

Director: Ti West
Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Kevin Bacon
Classification: R
Runtime: 104m

Twisters

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) directs this update to the 1996 film Twister, which centered on a pair of storm chasers who risk their lives in an attempt to test an experimental weather alert system. Stars Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick), Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and Anthony Ramos (In the Heights).

Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Cast: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 122m

18 July

Birdeater

In this Australian horror film, a bride-to-be is invited to her fiancé’s bachelor party, but when uncomfortable details of their relationship are exposed, the night takes a feral turn.

Director: Jack Clark, Jim Weir
Cast: Jack Bannister, Ben Hunter, Clementine Anderson
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 113m

Longlegs

FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.

Director: Oz Perkins
Cast: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 101m

Mr. Blake At Your Service!

A widowed British businessman takes the job as a butler of a manor house in France to keep alive the memories of his late French wife. His life takes a turn as he navigates the eccentric behaviour of the lady of the manor and the household staff.

Director: Gilles Legardinier
Cast: John Malkovich, Fanny Ardant
Classification: PG
Runtime: 110m

Sting

One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider… The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books.

Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Cast: Jermaine Fowler, Noni Haxlehurst, Alyla Browne
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 91m

Treasure

Poland, 1990. American music journalist Ruth takes her father Edek, a Holocaust survivor, on a journey to his childhood haunts, hoping to make sense of her family’s troubled past. When Edek, reluctant to face his trauma, undermines their trip with his unpredictable and more eccentric than usual demeanor, Ruth is forced to challenge him and the values with which he raised her.

Director: Julia von Heinz
Cast: Lena Dunham, Stephen Fry
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 111m

24 July

Deadpool & Wolverine

Ryan Reynolds returns as the Merc with the Mouth, who now has to find his place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in this third Deadpool film. Hugh Jackman also returns as Wolverine.

Director: Sean Levy
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 132m

25 July

The Sloth Lane

Australian animation. After a terrifying storm destroys their home, a speedy sloth named Laura and her kooky family are forced to move to the big city with nothing but their prized family recipe book – and a rusted old food truck. The family’s delicious food soon catches the eye of a quick witted cheetah named Dotti (Leslie Jones) who will stop at nothing to revive her failing fast food business, Zoom Fuel. 

Director: Tania Vincent, Ricard Cussó
Cast: Leslie Jones, Remy Hii
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 89m

Tótem

Seven-year-old Sol spends the day at her grandfather’s home, helping with the preparations for a surprise party for her father. Throughout the day, chaos slowly takes over, fracturing the family’s foundations. Sol will embrace the essence of letting go as a release for existence.

Director: Lila Avilés
Cast: Montserrat Marañon, Naíma Sentíes
Classification: M
Runtime: 95m

Wilderness Therapy

Deep in the Pyrenees, two close friends at rock bottom have the idea of the century: to pull themselves of their misery, they will launch a horse trekking tour, a voyage through the mountains for tourists in search of nature, silence and adventure.

Director: Édouard Deluc
Cast: Philippe Rebbot, Camille Chamoux
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 97m

31 July

Blackpink World Tour: Born Pink

Blackpink’s Born Pink tour that captivated the world comes to the big screen, celebrating the group’s 8th anniversary since their debut. Drawing an audience of 1.8 million and breaking global records for female group concert tours, experience the energy of the live performances in cinemas worldwide.

Director: Oh Yoon-Dong
Cast: Geun Min, Blackpink
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 93m

Silvi Vann-Wall is a journalist, podcaster, and filmmaker. They joined ScreenHub as Film Content Lead in 2022. Twitter: @SilviReports