The Australian film festivals that we’re most looking forward to in 2026
From capital city festivals featuring hot picks from Venice and Canne to smaller thematic festivals across the country, here are the 2026 dates no cinephile should be without.
A screening at the Alliance Française French Film Festival. Photo: Supplied.
For movie lovers, there’s one particularly rewarding way to start putting your 2026 calendar to good use: fill it up with Australia’s must-attend film festivals for the year.
Sydney Film Festival has long been synonymous with commencing winter in a cinema and always boasts an enviable selection of films from overseas events, including May’s Cannes Film Festival, making their Australian premieres. Bookending the colder weather, Melbourne International Film Festival’s three-week run in August reliably proves as comprehensive as festival programs can get.
Sarah Ward is a film and television critic; arts, entertainment and culture editor and journalist; and film festival organiser. She is the film and TV critic for ABC radio Gold Coast, the Australia-based film critic for Screen International, and a critic and member at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Sarah’s background also spans stints as film and television editor at both Concrete Playground and Variety Australia, and as Goethe-Institut Australien’s Kino in Oz critic and writer. Her work has been published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Birth.Movies.Death, SBS, SBS Movies, Flicks, Lumina, Senses of Cinema, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, Junkee, FilmInk, Broadsheet, Televised Revolution, Metro Magazine and Screen Education, the City of Gold Coast, the World Film Locations book series and more.
