Direct from the Cannes Competition, Eddington – the latest pressure-cooker feature from Hereditary and Midsommar director Ari Aster – will make its Australian debut at the 72nd Sydney Film Festival this June.
Set at the height of early-pandemic paranoia, Aster’s fourth feature trades supernatural horror for something far more recognisable: a small-town political meltdown with the whole world watching.
Eddington stars Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as ideological adversaries in a divided New Mexico community grappling with mask mandates, misinformation and the shifting ground of American identity. Emma Stone and Austin Butler round out a powerhouse cast.
Pascal plays Ted Garcia, the town’s entrepreneur-turned-mayor, whose COVID-era policy decisions pit him against the local sheriff, Joe Cross (Phoenix). What begins as a public health disagreement quickly mutates into a bruising mayoral race – one that exposes the fault lines of race, class, technology and trust in institutions. Sound familiar?
Watch the teaser for Eddington below:
IndieWire’s David Ehrlich calls it the ‘first truly modern American Western’, praising it for being the ‘first major Hollywood movie that’s been willing to see the Covid pandemic for the hellacious paradigm shift that it was’.
He goes on to say that the film is a ‘bleakly funny and brilliantly plotted assessment of how fucked we’ve become since’.
Festival Director Nashen Moodley describes Eddington as ‘provocative, urgent and completely gripping’.
‘With Eddington, Ari Aster turns his razor-sharp gaze to the fractured heart of America, and perhaps the world,’ Moodley said. ‘This is a compelling work that speaks to the chaos and contradictions of our times – and one that will spark passionate conversation.’
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Aster, long regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema, steps away from folk horror and into something arguably scarier: real life.
Premiering in competition at Cannes, Eddington has already generated significant buzz for its politically loaded narrative and nerve-jangling intensity.
SFF audiences will be among the first outside Europe to see it.
The full Sydney Film Festival 2025 program is now live at sff.org.au, with screenings, talks and red-carpet appearances slated across the city from 4–15 June.
