World premiering at the Cannes Director’s Fortnight, DÉSERTS is a comically thrilling road film following a scenic journey from Casablanca to the South of Morocco Sahara. This futile endeavour only results in absurd and comical escapades when they intersect with a mysterious stranger bound in handcuffs, leading to the beginning of an unforeseen and mystical journey.

Largely absent from screens since 2019’s female assassin thriller Anna, French high-stylist and stand-alone auteur Luc Besson is now back with the highly original DOGMAN, a quirky collision of rich characterisation and hard-edged action set-pieces to rival the director’s best work in the genre, including LEON, NIKITA and LUCY.

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Blazing a trail at Sundance and SXSW, Fremont is a tough, but sweetly tempered tale of displacement and the surprising joys of fitting in, reminiscent of the best work of Jim Jarmusch. Boasting a stunning performance from Anaita Wali Zada, and a cameo from man-of-the-moment Jeremy Allen White (The Bear).

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An anthology film centred on man’s (and woman’s) often complicated relationship with their best friend (of the four-legged variety), Life’s A Bitch tells of three intertwined destinies, three stories of humans and their dogs filled with dark humour, rich characters, snarly satire and bittersweet sadness. 

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A film from a nation literally under siege and under attack, Ukrainian actor-director Arkadii Nepytaliuk’s satirical dark comedy is fascinating and urgent in its topicality and cultural relevance. LESSONS OF TOLERANCE invites viewers on a transformative journey that challenges deep-seated stereotypes and beliefs.

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Picaresque, highly provocative journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the United States; a fractured fairy tale travelogue, crossing paths with strange factions – from anarchists to pretentious creatives and seductive white supremacists – that cut swathes through the uncertain fabric of modern American life. 

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When the local pharmacy gets robbed, a self-proclaimed spunky girl still living with her folks, decides it's time to play detective! Co-written, produced and starring comedian Esther Povitsky, with a side-splitting support cast, including Beverly D’Angelo, James Remar, Haley Joel Osment, Bobby Lee and executive producers Bill Burr and Al Madrigal.

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A filmmaker travels to Colombia with his 18-year-old daughter to solve the mystery of the disappearance of his sister Bertha, among five hundred virgins who went missing aboard the ship "Gloria", which departed from Colombia in 1956. An enigmatic, subversive expertly put-together mockumentary – or is it? 

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Executive produced by award-winning actor Dev Patel (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, LION, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL) and starring Antonio Aakeel (SLOW HORSES) and Anula Navlekar, director Raghuvir Joshi’s debut feature captures the complexity of a married man’s decision to confront the traditional Indian cultural values he was raised with and embrace his true self.

The master director of classics like The French Connection, The Exorcist and Sorcerer leaves us with one final cinematic jewel. An adaptation of Herman Wouk’s play, Kiefer Sutherland is all jittery menace as Lieutenant Commander Queeg of the USS Caine, while Australian acting powerhouse Jason Clarke is sceptical lawyer Greenwald. 

Set in Kings Cross, this hilariously ribald tale of a cynical, unlucky-in-love video store counter-jockey (Sam Lewis), who falls hard for Abi Tucker’s Goth chick May, while navigating a decidedly slacker lifestyle with his two flatmates, wannabe comedian Ian (Justin Smith) and pothead Jade (Jessica Napier), will enjoy its first cinema screening since its release over twenty years ago. 

Sheltering from the 1918 Spanish Flu at their isolated grand estate, a progressive journalist (Billy Magnussen) and his socialite wife (Sarah Gadon) take in a mysterious grifter (Peter Sarsgaard) as a private cook. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, this blackly comic social satire mixes real world politics and characters with allegory to an entertaining effect.  

Jean-Michel, a 70-year-old retiree, is adrift in society. Residing in a retirement home in a cherished heritage building meticulously managed by Suzanne, their tranquillity is disrupted by the arrival of impassioned young activists demanding the destruction of a historical fresco. 

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45th Anniversary of writer/director William Richert’s satirical black comedy cult thriller, WINTER KILLS (1979), endorsed by Quentin Tarantino. The film is inspired by assassination conspiracy theories surrounding President John F. Kennedy and features an all-star cast including Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Malone, Toshirô Mifune, and more (hello Liz Taylor!)

Premiering at SXSW, writer-director Ally Pankiw’s directorial debut feature showcases the rich talents of rising star Rachel Sennott (BOTTOMS, 2023; SHIVA BABY, 2020), in a dark dramedy that's both funny and heartbreaking in its honest and refreshing look at trauma and recovery, and how they affect the relationships and communities that shape us.

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A wonderfully inventive mockumentary that trades as much in meta cinema commentary as it does genuine emotion, HEY, VIKTOR! takes as its starting point the successful 1998 indie comedy Smoke Signals, Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie’s groundbreaking film about young Native Americans. 

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As brutal as it is tender, Heart of the Man showcases a dazzling array of exciting young Australian talent, including Indigenous writer/director/star David Cook, who plays Sammy Wundurra, a boxing coach who wants his son Chris to make it to the top! 

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A sweet, heartfelt paean to cinematic obsession and social awkwardness, I LIKE MOVIES is set in Burlington, Ontario, 2003… when there was no such thing as streaming and you had to leave the house to find something to watch, and potentially change your life. A winning debut from writer/director Chandler Levack, I LIKE MOVIES will warm the heart and stir the soul of anyone who, well, likes movies.

Wild child, mother, domestic abuse survivor, UFC contender, bare-knuckle boxing champion… Bec Rawlings is many things, but above all, she’s a fighter. FIGHT TO LIVE is a gripping look at a young woman’s journey from victim to conqueror; from a troubled young kid in Launceston, to a mother protecting herself and her two sons, raising them to be champions just like her. 

An eye-opening verite peek into one of PNG’s most violence-and-poverty-wracked regions, from award winning photographer turned filmmaker Stephen Dupont. Despite its backdrop, Kaugere rises on the shoulders of true hero Albert Muri, a life and rugby league coach of The Bulldogs. 

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A history and philosophical exploration of cyberspace cinema from 1981-2001, overlaid with bone-dry, otherworldly narration from pop culture icon Debbie Harry. The glimmering, shimmering So Unreal examines cinema as a conduit for humanity’s fear, anxiety, elation and obsession over the emerging technology at the end of the millennium.

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North Macedonian-born, Melbourne-based writer/director Goran Stolevski is as prolific as he is original and idiosyncratic. His latest effort, boasts his punchy, powerful brand of observational storytelling, tellingly portraying the everyday realism of queer (and Roma) life in North Macedonia through the prism of a unique sharehouse. Winner of The Queer Lion at The Venice Film Festival.

Gut-busting, controversy-generating, deliriously politically incorrect Aussie legend Paul Fenech is back with a new show, and you can see it first at The Inner West Film Fest! Don’t miss this bourbon-fuelled Boganomical Multimedia comedy spectacular…complete, of course, with Pauly’s now patented and world renowned Thongings!  

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The much-loved and oft-quoted surprise breakout 2004 indie hit NAPOLEON DYNAMITE helped define a generation that most pundits didn’t even know existed, giving life to a cavalcade of offbeat heroes, none more indelible than the huffing, whiny, constantly annoyed title character.

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