Fwends, Penny Lane is Dead, Edge of Life, The Colleano Heart, It Was Just An Accident and Journey Home, David Gulpilil are officially the first six films in the 2025 Adelaide Film Festival (AFF).
It Was Just An Accident arrives in Adelaide hot on the heels of its screenings at the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) and Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). Winner of the 2025 Palm d’Or prize at the Cannes International Film Festival, Jafar Panahi’s latest work begins with a minor accident that sets in motion a series of escalating consequences. The Guardian’s four-star review from Cannes describes the film as ‘another very impressive serio-comic film from one of the most distinctive and courageous figures in world cinema.’
Notably, two of the recently announced films will be having their World Premieres in Adelaide: The Colleano Heart from director Pauline Clague, and visionary filmmaker Lynette Wallworth’s Edge of Life.
Filmed in Australia and in the Brazilian Amazon, Edge of Life is an exploration of the last great frontier in a human life: the doorway to death. Two doctors in Melbourne are using psilocybin to help ease the anguish of patients at end of life, and the results they have seen are remarkable. But this visioning tool, like other plant medicines, is not new, it comes from ancient traditions that are now being funnelled into Western medicine.
This doco shows us that it’s possible the world’s oldest cultures have something important to teach us, not just about traditional medicines but about one of the most essential aspects of human life.
The Colleano Heart is an Australian-made story about the famous Colleano circus family. Through the wisdom of their Aboriginal matriarch, the family outmanoeuvred 1900’s oppression and racism to rise to the highest echelons of international circus stardom.
Generations later, flamboyant, American-born, octogenarian Molly O’Donnell meets Deb Hescott, an Australian family historian with a DNA connection to Molly’s Colleano line. They build a bridge across the oceans on a quest to reclaim identity, connect to ancestors and unearth family secrets. In doing so, Molly breaks the cycle of the Hidden Generation and reignites The Colleano Heart.
Penny Lane Is Dead marks the debut feature of writer/director Mia’Kate Russell, and continues Australia’s horror genre revival, led by South Australian filmmakers like Danny and Michael Philippou.
Set in 1986 during a scorching Aussie summer, three best friends’ celebration at a beach house turns into a blood-soaked fight for survival when a prank goes horribly wrong. The cast includes Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Bailey Spalding, Alex Jensen, Tahlee Fereday and Ben O’Toole alongside Steve Le Marquand and Fletcher Humphrys.
The other two are both Australian-made films: Fwends, the charming first-time feature that has become an indie darling at film festivals around the world (including at Berlin, where it won the Caligari Film Prize), and Journey Home, David Gulpilil, a documentary directed by Maggie Miles and Trisha Morton-Thomas following the repatriation of the renowned Yolngu actor from South Australia back to his homeland in Arnhem Land for a traditional burial.
In Fwends, directed by Sophie Somerville and produced by Sarah Hegge-Taylor, old friends Em and Jessie reconnect for a weekend. Their conversations flow naturally, covering light topics and deep emotions. They represent a generation of resilient young women navigating life’s ups and downs with honesty and humour. Read our review.
‘2025 is shaping up to be a stellar year for the Festival and we are immensely proud to be showcasing the work of so many fine Australian women directors,’ said Mat Kesting, Adelaide Film Festival’s CEO & Creative Director. ‘The program will be entertaining, thought provoking and audacious. Cinema is where we can commune and contemplate the world and we can’t wait to welcome audiences at AFF in October.’
The Colleano Heart, Edge of Life and Penny Lane is Dead were each supported into production by the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF).
Adelaide Film Festival: first 6 films
- The Colleano Heart
- Edge of Life
- Penny Lane is Dead
- Fwends
- It Was Just An Accident
- Journey Home, David Gulpilil
‘It’s very exciting to be announcing the first six films that will feature at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival,’ said Minister for the Arts, Andrea Michaels.
‘Adelaide Film Festival is renowned for the extraordinary local and international films it screens including this year, the winner of the Cannes International Film Festival Palm d’Or prize for best film, It Was Just An Accident. This year’s Festival is not to be missed so keep an eye out for the full program soon!’
The Adelaide Film Festival takes place from 15-26 October 2025.
