Despite all the turbulence these days, from flatlining box office numbers to streaming encroachment and AI, plucky Australian filmmakers continue to work miracles. They’ve earned your support, so here’s a guide to forthcoming local films to look out for.
Australian films in 2026 – quick links
The Deb
While it’s unlikely any 2026 film will go up in flames as much as It Ends With Us, there’s a fair bit of smoke billowing out of Bridesmaids alum Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut. Popping a pin on that and the long-delayed release, it’s a cute-sounding adaptation of Hannah Reilly’s frothy stage musical with Meg Washington songs. Set in fictional Dunburn, it centres on chalk and cheese cousins, played by Charlotte MacInnes and Natalie Abbott, who clash in the run-up to the country town’s old school debutante ball.
The Colleano Heart
I missed this at Adelaide Film Festival, but only heard great things about Pauline Clague’s apparently jaw-dropping documentary. Screening on NITV/SBS as part of the Always Was Always Will Be season, it focuses on a family of Aboriginal circus performers who obscured their identity at the turn of last century to escape punitive, racist government policies. Viewed through the eyes of an American relative returning to the family’s true roots, it offers a fascinating insight into the battle to reclaim identity.
Also check out animated First Nations movie Imagine.
Leviticus
Echoing the Philippou brothers’ Sundance breakout Talk to Me, queer filmmaker Adrian Chiarella’s debut feature will bow during the big-five festival’s last hurrah at Park City later this month. We can only hope it blazes as big a trail once it goes broader, including locally. Drawing on the genre’s rich vein of religious extremism, Talk to Me’s Joe Bird and Crazy Fun Park’s Stacy Clausen play closeted teens endangered by both their small town’s hypocritical holier-than-thou types, but also a manipulative demonic force – same same.
Bunny
This locally produced horror with Mad Max vibes debuted at SXSW Sydney before enjoying a boutique run in independent cinemas. (For emerging filmmakers, body-swerving traditional distribution is a growing trend.) Set in a post-apocalyptic, bushfire-scorched Australia, it stars Kate Wilson as a survivor trying to eke a living out of the ashen bones of the land. But she has to contend with ferocious scavengers, the obligatory sex cult and other temptations of the flesh when there’s nothing to eat but dead people.
Tenzing
Nature lovers in Australia have probably caught Jennifer Peedom’s documentary adventures in the wilderness, including River and Sherpa. Her debut dramatic feature stars relative newcomer Genden Phuntsok as the sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who accompanied Kiwi mountain climber Edmund Hillary to become the first recorded people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Loki star Tom Hiddleston plays Hillary, with Belfast’s Caitríona Balfe and Poor Things Willem Dafoe also onboard.
Sweet Milk Lake
A beloved regular on Australian stages – including in Red Stitch’s celebrated revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – the gifted actor and proud trans man Harvey Zielinski also pops up on screen in shows like White Fever. He’s written and directed this sure-to-be-emotional family drama, exploring a son’s reckoning with estrangement because of his identity. Zielinski also stars as wildly different twin brothers navigating the end of their father’s life, alongside Reckless star Hunter Page-Lochard and Mia Morrissey.
Mockbuster/The Land That Time Forgot
Mentored by Werner Herzog, no less, South Australian filmmaker Anthony Frith became frustrated by the lack of local opportunities for emerging filmmakers. Reaching out to the Asylum, the Californian B-movie studio behind the Sharknado franchise, he scored a gig. I missed the Adelaide-shot dino movie The Land That Time Forgot at Adelaide Film Festival but I’m even keener to catch up on the accompanying doco, Mockbuster, detailing the bonkers six-day shoot on a vanishingly small budget, with shades of chaotic Megalopolis doc, Megadoc.
Crowded House
Much like lamingtons, the ditch-spanning band behind stonking 90s hits like Fall At Your Feet and Distant Sun exists in a liminal (and occasionally contested) space halfway between Australia and Aotearoa, equally beloved by both nations. With Mystify: Michael Hutchence director Richard Lowenstein co-directing this behind-the-scenes documentary with In Bob We Trust helmer Lynn-Maree Milburn, we can rest easy we’re going to get something so strong that whatever you want, just don’t dream it’s over.
Beast in Me
With MMA massive these days, there’s sure to be a bit of buzz around this upcoming Stan original film that features nine-time world champion martial artist Bren Foster. He appears alongside pop star Amy Shark in this sports film co-written by Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe with David Frigerio, and directed by The Amazing Race Australia winner Tyler Atkins. It’s led by Daniel Macpherson as a man who has walked away from the ring but finds himself pulled back in when his family hits financial dire straits.
The Debt
With South Australia championing the way for emerging genre filmmakers, backed by Adelaide Film Festival and Film Lab: New Voices, you can bet we’re already looking forward to October and the debut of this First Nations-led horror movie. Co-written by Pearl Berry and produced by her sister Lilla, it’s directed by Malaysian-Australian talent Johanis Lyons-Reid and centres on a carer who must make a terrible decision: save the life of the 10-year-old in her charge, or sacrifice them to save herself?
Also look out for…
We’re also expecting general releases for these Australian films we’ve seen on the festival circuit:
- Wolfram
- Jimpa
- Zombucha!
- Death of an Undertaker
- First Light
- Penny Lane is Dead
- Birthright
- We Bury the Dead
- The Fox
- Pasa Faho
Read: 10 of the best Australian films of 2025
