Here’s Your First Look at The Sydney Film Festival 2025 Program
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The Sydney Film Festival has unveiled a powerful early preview of its 2025 program, spotlighting 16 daring and diverse films ahead of the program launch on 7 May.
The 72nd edition of the iconic event will run from 4 to 15 June, showcasing a mix of homegrown premieres, internationally acclaimed features, and groundbreaking documentaries.
Festival Director Nashen Moodley said the preview reflects “bold storytelling and distinctive voices,” with selections that span genres, geographies and perspectives. Among the standout local offerings is Fwends, a whip-smart buddy comedy by two-time Dendy Award winner Sophie Somerville, and the Berlin Teddy Award-winning Lesbian Space Princess, an animated queer sci-fi odyssey.
Other highlights include Make It Look Real, a documentary from Kate Blackmore that offers rare access to the work of an intimacy coordinator on a film set—shining light on one of the film industry’s most rapidly evolving roles.
Critically acclaimed Sydney film festival titles
Internationally, the sneak peek features The Blue Trail, winner of the Berlinale’s Grand Jury Prize, which follows a 77-year-old woman’s surreal Amazonian escape from a dystopian fate. Also making waves is DJ Ahmet, Sundance’s Audience Award-winner about a North Macedonian teen discovering electronic music and self-expression.
Documentaries are especially prominent this year, with Mr. Nobody Against Putin exploring Russian classroom propaganda amid the Ukraine war and Farming the Revolution chronicling the mass protest of Indian farmers on Delhi’s outskirts.
Star talent
Star power arrives with Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott in Irish drama Bring Them Down, while Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon headline In The End, a post-apocalyptic musical from Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer.
Other notable entries include music documentaries on John & Yoko and Marlon Williams, Venice thriller Stranger Eyes, and a marathon 14-hour dive into radical art in Exergue – on documenta 14.
Flexipasses and subscriptions are on sale now at sff.org.au, with full session tickets available from 7 May.
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