Festivals

BBFF26 All of a Sudden

Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) runs an aged-care facility on the outskirts of Paris. She’s devoted to her job and her patients, and firmly believes that the elderly should be treated with dignity. It’s tough work, and, like so many of her employees, she’s dealing with burnout. But her spirit is rekindled when she meets Japanese playwright Mari (Tao Okamoto), who’s staging a theatre piece about the history of mental asylums in Italy. As they plunge headlong into all-night conversations about mortality, philosophy and the degradations of capitalism, Mari and Marie-Lou’s new friendship will change both of their lives. Selected as Japan’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards, All of a Sudden marks Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s second time representing Japan in the category, following the Oscar-winning Drive My Car. Byron Premiere

BBFF26 American Doctor

When three American doctors – Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian – enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth. AMERICAN DOCTOR is a vérité documentary following three prominent physicians – Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa – friends from very different backgrounds who are bound by a shared oath to save lives. Filmed in unfolding, on-the-ground scenes, the film follows them from a Gazan hospital under siege to the halls of Congress. As they treat patients amid extraordinary pressure and witness the human cost of war firsthand, their work increasingly extends beyond medicine. Back in the United States, they fight to keep a promise to their Palestinian colleagues and patients: to speak about what they have seen and continue the struggle where they believe it matters most. Byron Premiere This session includes short films

BBFF26 Big Girls Don't Cry

Summer 2006, rural New Zealand. Fourteen-year-old Sid Bookman is caught between childhood and adolescence, navigating a burgeoning sexual curiosity and a desperate desire for acceptance. Her quiet coastal town is beginning to open up to reality TV, American pop culture and the emerging internet, while wealthy summer visitors offer a glimpse of the life she thinks she wants. Drawn to an older group of teens, Sid shapeshifts through versions of herself in search of belonging. Then her sister returns from university with Freya, a magnetic American whose attention awakens something Sid can’t yet name. As New Year’s Eve approaches, Sid must confront the gap between who she is and who she has been pretending to be. Executive produced by Jane Campion, Paloma Schneideman’s feature debut had its World Premiere in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition before its Australian Premiere in the Melbourne International Film Festival’s Bright Horizons Competition. Byron Premiere This session includes short films

BBFF26 Bitter Christmas

Pedro Almodóvar returns to Spanish-language cinema with a playful, intricately layered story about the slippery line between life and art. Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a filmmaker in the midst of a creative crisis, begins writing after tragedy strikes one of his closest collaborators. His screenplay imagines Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), another filmmaker whose life increasingly mirrors his own. As the two stories fold into each other, real relationships, private grief and creative inspiration become impossible to separate. Featuring a superb ensemble including Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit and Quim Gutiérrez, Bitter Christmas is classic Almodóvar: visually sumptuous, funny, self-aware and fascinated by the stories we tell about ourselves - and what happens when the people we love become part of the material. NSW Premiere

BBFF26 Boss Cat

After the sudden loss of her mother, 23-year-old Sonja (Olivia Hargroder), a young woman with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), fights to stay in the family home and prove she can live independently. Her estranged grandmother Doris (Penny Downie) thinks stability means selling the house and moving Sonja into group care, while younger sister Emma (Julia Savage) is caught between loyalty and her own future. A chance meeting with Hakim introduces Sonja to krump, giving her a fierce new outlet for grief, anger and self-expression. As she learns to navigate buses, relationships and the people who underestimate her, Sonja finds the confidence to insist on being heard. Heartfelt, funny and full of movement, this is the feature debut from Genevieve Clay-Smith BBFF2014’s Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year. Olivia Hargroder will be at some of the screenings - check www.bbff.com.au/boss-cat for more details. This session includes short films

BBFF26 Broken English

From Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard – the BAFTA-nominated directors of the Sundance award-winning 20,000 Days on Earth – comes a bold documentary portrait of the inimitable singer, songwriter and icon Marianne Faithfull. A survivor, provocateur and true original, Faithfull spent more than six decades defying expectations and constantly reinventing herself. Made with her full involvement, Broken English unfolds within the imagined Ministry of Not Forgetting, where memory and mythology collide. Tilda Swinton and George MacKay guide the journey, with performances and contributions from friends and collaborators including Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Courtney Love, Beth Orton, Suki Waterhouse and Jehnny Beth. The film culminates in Marianne Faithfull’s final ever performance, accompanied by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. This session includes short films

BBFF26 Crack Me Open

When faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, a young family man is forced into a profound confrontation with fear, death, and the painful truth of not fully being himself. Blending intimate personal testimony with a wider inquiry into the nature of fear, Crack Me Open reveals a cinematic journey of healing, courage, and transformation. Deeply personal yet universal, the film explores fear not as an enemy, but as a threshold to wisdom, authenticity, and a more fully lived life. As filmmaker Endre Kvia begins to recover, he discovers that surviving cancer is only the beginning. Beneath the illness lies a deeper reckoning with the fears that have shaped his identity, relationships, and choices. This realization leads him on a journey across the world, engaging with thinkers, teachers, and change-makers to explore how fear operates not only within the individual, but within a culture increasingly marked by anxiety, disconnection, and self-destructive patterns. What begins as a search for answers becomes an invitation to live differently. Through vulnerability, inquiry, and the courage to confront what he has long avoided, Endre discovers that fear can become a doorway rather than a barrier - a force capable of revealing what matters most. Crack Me Open is ultimately a film about what can emerge when life cracks us open: a deeper relationship with ourselves, a greater capacity for courage and connection, and the possibility of meeting life with more truth, freedom, and authenticity. Plus Q&A with Endre Kvia World Premiere

BBFF26 Guided by Horses

In Australia’s outback, where youth suicide rates are among the highest in the world, one woman creates extraordinary healing connections between horses and Indigenous teenagers. Set against the breathtaking landscapes of Western Australia’s Kimberley, Guided by Horses follows a group of Aboriginal young people whose lives begin to shift through an unexpected connection with horses. At the heart of the film is Professor Juli Coffin and Yawardani Jan-ga, the Aboriginal-led equine-assisted learning program she founded to create a culturally safe space where young people can build confidence, connection and a stronger sense of self. Having experienced the transformative power of horses in her own life, Juli understands the remarkable way these highly sensitive animals can respond to people without judgement. Through the experiences of young participants including Heather, Athena and brothers Lagee and Nathanael, the film reveals how individual relationships with the horses can open pathways to trust, belonging and new possibilities for the future. Some arrive feeling isolated or unsure of where they fit; others have faced assumptions about what they might be capable of. Around the horses, they are given space to communicate, experiment, find confidence and simply be themselves.

BBFF26 Hen

“With great power comes great responsibility” – but what if the hero is just a hen? Escaping from a chicken farm, a black-feathered outsider finds refuge in the courtyard of a crumbling restaurant on the Greek coast. There she discovers love, confronts the pecking order and fights to protect her eggs. György Pálfi, the visionary director of Taxidermia and Hukkle, charts her funny adventures and hair-raising escapes from a remarkable bird’s-eye perspective. Made with real trained hens and without CGI or AI, Hen is a technically brilliant tragicomedy full of heart, wit and feathers, using its unlikely heroine to reflect on the human world around her. This session includes short films

BBFF26 International Shorts - Short Film Session

Travel the world through cinema in this vibrant collection of international short films, bringing together stories from different countries, cultures and languages. Each film offers a distinct perspective on the world, revealing how place, tradition and lived experience shape the way stories are told. Together, they celebrate both the diversity of global filmmaking and the emotions that connect us across borders. The program also features nominees for the BBFF’s Best Short Film Award. Check www.bbff.com.au/international-shorts to learn more about the films that make up this session.

BBFF26 Late Fame

Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) once published a slim poetry collection before settling into a quiet life working at the New York post office. Decades later, an enthusiastic young admirer turns up at his door, having discovered the forgotten book and convinced he has unearthed a lost genius. Swept into a circle of twentysomething writers and artists, Ed is flattered by the attention and intrigued by Gloria (Greta Lee), the group’s magnetic, theatrical “tragic heroine”. But as the past is repackaged as cultural currency, Ed begins to wonder how much of this new acclaim is real - and what it might mean to take his abandoned artistic life seriously again. Directed by Kent Jones and written by Samy Burch, from Arthur Schnitzler’s novella, Late Fame is a witty, warm-hearted New York story about art, ego, aging and second chances. Byron Premiere

BBFF26 Stay Strange Short Film Session

After an enthusiastic audience response, Stay Strange is back by popular demand for BBFF2026. Stay Strange - Cinema for the curious and unconventional, this short film session celebrates stories that don’t fit the mould, where difference takes centre stage and predictable is overrated. The shorts in this session range from the mischievous to the soulful, the spiky to the surreal. Some spark laughter with sharp wit, others linger with poignancy or take unexpected leaps into the absurd. Together they refuse to play it safe, offering fresh perspectives and memorable moments that keep you on your toes - always with a streak of humour that makes the sting go down sharp and sweet. Stay Strange is for the outsiders, the rebels and the curious - an invitation to celebrate the beauty of difference and the thrill of the unexpected. See www.bbff.com.au/stay-strange for more details about the short films screening.

BBFF26 Sweet Milk Lake

Soft-spoken trans man Jake is stuck in a rut, living in the shadow of his confident, hyper-masculine twin brother Sam. When Jake learns that his estranged father is dying, he travels to the remote country town of Sweet Milk hoping for one last chance to reconnect. But when his father mistakes Jake for Sam - unaware that Jake has transitioned - Jake lets the mistake stand. For the first time, he experiences the easy acceptance he has long craved: his father’s approval, a place among the local men, and the freedom of moving through the world without his transness defining him. Taking on his brother’s identity becomes unexpectedly intoxicating, and Jake begins to discover a confidence - and a version of masculinity - he has never been allowed to inhabit. A connection with local outsider Toby offers the possibility of something more, but as Jake becomes increasingly entangled in his deception, the life he has borrowed begins to collide with the truth of who he is. Tender, funny and sharply observed, Sweet Milk Lake explores masculinity, family, belonging and the seductive power of being seen as the person others expect you to be. At its heart is a complicated question: how much of yourself can you compromise in order to belong before the lie becomes harder to carry than the truth? This session includes short films

BBFF26 That Half Barbaric Twang

Part road movie, part music documentary and part love letter to the Australian landscape, this spirited film follows The Number 4 Band - actors David Field and Geoff Morrell, and musician Tim Oxley - as they take their self-described “bad-ass gospel” country music on the road. Travelling far beyond the usual live-music circuit, the trio seek out remote towns, back roads and communities often overlooked by touring acts, playing wherever they can: pubs, streets, retirement homes and unexpected corners of the country. Armed with banjos, mandolins, guitars, harmonicas, clarinet, drums and a catalogue of entirely original songs, they are less interested in fame than in the simple act of bringing live music to people who rarely get to experience it. Along the way, their eccentricities, friendships and occasional chaos become as compelling as the music itself. Field’s irrepressible humour, Morrell’s obsession with searching for obscure rocks, and Oxley’s quiet role as the band’s musical backbone create an intimate and often hilarious portrait of three very different men united by a shared obsession. Against sweeping Australian landscapes and encounters with unforgettable characters on the fringes, the film becomes a celebration of friendship, creativity and the strange freedom of life on the road. And beneath their proudly unfashionable pursuit of “fameless perfection” sits one audacious dream: to one day take their music all the way to Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry. A funny, raw and deeply affectionate journey through music and country, this is a story about bringing people together, one song - and one roadside detour - at a time.

BBFF26 The Best Summer

Raw, never-before-seen footage takes audiences inside an extraordinary moment in 1990s alternative music, as Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps and Bikini Kill tour Australia and Asia at the height of their powers. Filmmaker Tamra Davis had just finished directing Billy Madison when she joined her husband, Beastie Boys’ Mike D, on the road in late 1995. Already an accomplished music-video director and very much part of this circle of musicians and friends, Davis travelled with a Sony Hi8 camera constantly at hand. The result is extraordinary access: electrifying live performances alongside dressing-room conversations, tour-bus downtime, jokes, friendships and candid backstage interviews that could only have been captured by someone inside the group rather than looking in from the outside. Among Davis’s companions is Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna, who joins her in conducting playful interviews with fellow musicians. The cameras catch Hanna getting to know Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock - the beginnings of a relationship that would continue long after the tour. Nearly 30 years later, Davis rediscovered the extent of what she had captured when she came across the tapes while evacuating during the 2025 Palisades fires. Shaped into an intimate and exhilarating time capsule, The Best Summer transports audiences back to a pre-smartphone era when some of alternative music’s defining artists were young, creatively fearless and, for one remarkable summer, all travelling together. This session includes short films

BBFF26 The Cycle of Love

In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from a poor Dalit family, picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on an extraordinary cross-continent mission: to find Lotta, the Swedish woman who had captured his heart. From Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel, The Cycle of Love transforms PK’s remarkable journey along the hippie trail - through India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Europe - into a sweeping true-life adventure about destiny, self-belief and the kindness of strangers. Blending vivid recreations with tender present-day interviews with PK and Lotta, the film celebrates a love that has endured for half a century and the courage to risk everything for what your heart tells you.

BBFF26 The Fox

Nick (Jai Courtney), affable heir to a wealthy rural landowner, discovers his fiancée Kori (Emily Browning) is cheating on him and wants nothing more than to fix the problem. One night he captures a rogue Fox (voiced by Olivia Colman), who offers him a trade: let her live and she will help save his relationship. All Nick has to do is push Kori into a magic hole with the power to transform her into the perfect partner. The Kori who re-emerges seems to be everything he ever wanted - until her strange new quirks make him question what he has done. With Sam Neill as a talking magpie and a stellar Australian cast, Dario Russo’s debut feature is a wildly original, darkly comic folktale about relationships, control and the futility of trying to change the people we love. The Fox’s Byron Premiere is BBFF’s Opening Night Film, for tickets to the Red Carpet Opening visit www.bbff.com.au/opening-night-2026

BBFF26 The Lightkeeper

Ireland, 1924. Seamus Óg MacGrianna (Dominic Cooper) is a lighthouse keeper whose elaborate rituals keep him tethered to the past - tending the garden where he once lived and rowing out into the mist every morning, to listen for the call of the fabled Each-Uisce that might finally set him free. By night he guides ships by the light burning in his lighthouse; by day he has lost his way. But the walls Seamus has created begin to crack when three lives intersect with his own: Edith (Sarah Gadon), the mysterious American whose quest for closure ignites a long forgotten spark; Father MacGabhann (Aidan Quinn), the hard-line priest who makes it his mission to battle a man who has nothing to lose; and Máire (Sarah Bolger), the housekeeper whose unconditional love can no longer protect him from himself. Set against the wild beauty of Ireland’s Atlantic coast, The Lightkeeper is a powerful meditation on love, loss, and letting go. Byron Premiere

BBFF26 The Oligarch and the Art Dealer

When Swiss “freeport king” Yves Bouvier and Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev build one of the world’s greatest private art collections, their alliance spectacularly implodes into a billion-dollar war. Spanning more than two decades, multiple countries and masterpieces by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Modigliani, Klimt, Picasso and Rothko, The Oligarch and the Art Dealer opens the door to a secretive world where art, money and power collide. Accusations of fraud, hidden fortunes, smear campaigns and a high-profile legal battle involving Sotheby’s turn a business relationship into a real-life thriller in which every version of the truth is contested. Featuring extraordinary access to the people and documents at the centre of the case, director Andreas Dalsgaard creates a gripping investigation into ambition, ego, wealth and the opaque machinery of the international art market.

BBFF26 The Tale of Silyan

A Macedonian folktale comes to life when farmer Nikola rescues an injured white stork from a landfill. With his family forced abroad by the growing pressures on rural life, Nikola is left behind - until the wounded bird, Silyan, gives him an unexpected companion. Inspired by a 17th-century legend, Oscar-nominated Honeyland director Tamara Kotevska weaves reality and magical realism into a visually rich story of survival, belonging and renewal. As Nikola nurses Silyan back to health, their bond draws him back to the land he loves and offers both man and bird a path home. This session includes short films

BBFF26 Tiber

Marco is an art historian who has spent decades in Rome, teaching and writing about the Baroque masters. When he grows distant and unreachable, he is quietly let go from his post and returns to Cortona, where his estranged wife Giulia and their young daughter Lucia live. Reunited with his oldest friend Pietro, Marco borrows a battered vintage Fiat and sets out with Lucia on a summer journey toward Rome and the River Tiber, determined to fulfil a promise connected to the loss that has quietly unravelled his life. Through sunlit valleys and ancient hill towns, past Lago Trasimeno, the hermitage at Le Celle and the streets of Florence, father and daughter move through a landscape dense with history and beauty, a world where art and place seem to mirror an interior life Marco can no longer keep at bay. Lucia is curious, funny and disarmingly perceptive. Between them passes the particular tenderness of a father and daughter finding their way back to each other. As the journey unfolds, small details begin to shift the terms of what we are watching. The road to the Tiber becomes not a summer escape but a passage through memory, absence and the rituals by which we try to carry love through loss. Moving toward the ancient waters of the river, Marco is drawn at last toward a truth he can no longer outrun. TIBER is the debut narrative feature of Irish-Australian writer-director Dominic Allen, an Italian-language arthouse drama shot in Rome, Cortona and Florence. NSW Premiere Cast and Crew Will be in attendance

BBFF26 Young Australian Filmmakers Short Films

At the heart of the Byron Bay International Film Festival’s commitment to emerging talent is the Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Competition. A cornerstone of BBFF since 2007, the competition celebrates the creativity, ambition and distinctive voices of Australia’s next generation of filmmakers. Each year, BBFF selects an outstanding group of finalists aged 25 and under, showcasing short films that reflect the breadth of ideas, perspectives and storytelling emerging from young Australian creatives. The finalists are judged by an esteemed panel of Australian screen industry professionals, with the 2026 Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award presented to the filmmaker whose work most impresses the jury. The award is proudly sponsored by Mercato on Byron. Bold, inventive and deeply personal, these films offer an exciting glimpse into the future of Australian cinema. Many of the nominated filmmakers attend the screening in person, making this a unique opportunity for audiences to meet emerging filmmakers, celebrate their work and witness the announcement of this year’s winner. Experience the work of the 2026 finalists and discover some of the filmmakers helping shape the future of Australian screen storytelling. Full details of the nominees and their films: www.bbff.com.au/2026-young-australian-filmmaker-of-the-year