Sydney Film Festival: quick links
The 72nd Sydney Film Festival (4–15 June) has revealed a sneak peek of 16 new films set to screen this June, offering a taste of the 2025 program ahead of the full Festival announcement on 7 May.
Two new Australian features will have their premieres at this year’s Festival. Fwends, the debut feature from Sophie Somerville, a two-time Dendy Award-winner, is a fast-talking buddy comedy about modern female friendship.
In Lesbian Space Princess, a Berlin Teddy Award-winning animated feature, an introverted heir to the throne goes on a mission to rescue her ex-girlfriend from evil incel aliens.
ScreenHub: Lesbian Space Princess review: Australia’s Berlinale champion shines
From SFF alum Kate Blackmore comes Make It Look Real, a layered documentary following internationally in-demand intimacy coordinator Claire Warden as she works with actors and filmmakers on the set of an Australian feature.
Award-winning titles in this year’s sneak peek include The Blue Trail, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Berlinale, about a 77-year-old woman who embarks on a mind-altering journey through the Amazon rather than submit to a dystopian fate.
Sundance Audience Award-winner DJ Ahmet tells the story of a 15-year-old boy in a remote North Macedonian village who discovers electronic dance music, first love and the liberating power of art.
‘This first look offers a cross-section of the bold storytelling and distinctive voices that can be found at this year’s Festival,’ said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
‘From inventive new Australian work to major prize-winners from the international circuit, these films reflect the ingenuity and diversity of cinema today, and offer a glimpse of the rich and rewarding program to come.’
Among the prize-winning documentaries lined up for this years festival are Mr. Nobody Against Putin, winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize, which follows a charismatic Russian teacher who secretly films the propaganda infiltrating his school during the invasion of Ukraine; and Farming the Revolution, which took out the top prize at Hot Docs, details the 13-month protest by 12 million Indian farmers who camped on the outskirts of Delhi to challenge unjust laws.
Star-driven international features include Bring Them Down, starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott in a drama of rivalry and retribution in rural Ireland. In The End, director Joshua Oppenheimer makes his narrative debut with a post-apocalyptic musical set in an underground compound, starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon.
Two music-focused documentaries also feature. One to One: John & Yoko is Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald’s (Whitney, SFF 2018) new film built around John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s historic 1972 Madison Square Garden benefit concert; and Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao e Rua – Two Worlds, a portrait of the beloved Aotearoa musician as he reconnects with his roots and records his first album in te reo Māori.
A number of titles that made waves on the international festival circuit are included in this year’s first look. Stranger Eyes, the first Singaporean film to screen in competition at Venice, is a twist-filled thriller about a grieving couple who receive anonymous surveillance footage after their baby goes missing.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, a Cannes-selected drama from I Am Not a Witch (SFF 2017) director Rungano Nyoni, sees a Zambian family confront hard truths following the death of a relative.
From Sundance, documentary Speak. follows five US high school orators as they prepare for the country’s most prestigious public speaking competition. Also from Sundance is Obex, a lo-fi, ’80s-set genre blend about a reclusive man who enters a mysterious video game to rescue his missing dog.
Finally, Exergue – on documenta 14 is an unprecedented 14-hour documentary, filmed over several years, charting one of the most major and politically charged art exhibitions in recent history, staged across both Germany and Greece.
Flexipasses and Subscriptions to Sydney Film Festival 2025 are available now. The full Sydney Film Festival program is announced on 7 May 2025, when tickets to specific film sessions will be on-sale.
