SXSW Sydney unveils 2025 Screen program

SXSW Sydney has revealed the full lineup for its 2025 Screen program.

The announcement:

South by Southwest Sydney® (SXSW Sydney) has unveiled its full 2025 Screen program, with 100 screenings over seven days and a lineup that spans everything from bold genre cinema to masterful dramas.

Leading the charge are the Festival’s already announced Opening Night film Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White and Headliner titles hot off the festival circuit including Bugonia, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, Die My Love, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Universal Pictures’ and Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2.

The programme’s special Featured Sessions will include Japanese thriller Exit 8, based on the viral game of the same name by Kotake Create; winner of the 2025 Cannes Un Certain Regard Prize, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo; and Peter Hujar’s Day which sees Ben Whishaw reunite with Passages director Ira Sachs for another revealing account of the queer experience.

Receiving their Australian premieres in this category will be Paramount Pictures’ Primate from director Johannes Roberts, producer Walter Hamada and starring Oscar® winner Troy Kotsur; Luna Rose, the fourth feature by Puerto Rican director and musician Omar Rodríguez-López, frontman for Grammy-winning band, The Mars Volta; and F*ck My Son! a gleefully profane adaptation of Johnny Ryan’s underground comic about a decrepit mother who will stop at nothing to get her mutant son laid.

The Festival’s Showcase feature film highlights include fantasy drama The Ice Tower starring Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard; dark comedy Psycho Therapy starring Steve Buscemi; Amanda Kramer’s outlandish and absurd body-swap dramedy By Design, starring Oscar® nominee Juliette Lewis, Melanie Griffith and Udo Kier; indie satire Magic Farm starring Oscar® nominee and Golden Globe® winner Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff and Simon Rex; Pete Ohs’ The True Beauty Of Being Bitten By A Tick; Oscar Boyson’s audacious drama Our Hero, Balthazar starring Jaeden Martell, Chris Bauer, Asa Butterfield and Noah Centineo; Hailey Gates’ feature length debut Atropia; John C. Reilly starrer Heads Or Tails? a surreal Western from Italian directorial duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis; British genre auteur Ben Wheatley’s Bulk; and local Australian productions including Proclivitas, from debut writer / director Miley Tunnecliffe and producer Kate Separovich and The Great Entertainer in collaboration with the Foxtel Group, honouring the extraordinary life and career of Brian Walsh. The captivating documentary will receive its world premiere at the Ritz on Thursday 16 October, and feature a pre-screening in-conversation with Rudi McGregor, Bernadette Cooper, Lana Greenhalgh and Matt Shirvington, moderated by Deborah Hutton OAM.

SXSW Sydney Screen Festival director Jordan Bastian said: “What we love about film and what shapes our program, is seeking out filmmakers who are bold, creative, and willing to take risks. We are not here for safe choices or predictable cinema. We want stories that stay with you, that make you feel something long after the credits roll. SXSW Sydney is about films that excite us, and voices setting the tone for a new era of film. Come discover, be surprised, and fall for cinema all over again.”

In the Episodic Program, Jungle Entertainment will present a sneak peek of its hotly anticipated Stan Original series He Had It Coming, followed by a Q&A with key creators, including Gretel Vella (creator, writer, and EP) at Dendy Newtown; audiences can also look forward to premieres of The Sleeping Beauty, a horror by acclaimed Laotian director Mattie Do; Jacques The Giant Slayer from celebrated directorial duo Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson; and Nuhash Humayun’s horror Dui Shaw.

SXSW Sydney is doubling down on its love of short films this year, expanding the program to include four new spotlights: television pilots, horror anthologies, and a showcase of the best emerging Australian filmmakers including a collection of First Nations shorts from filmmakers across the country.

Headlining this year’s shorts program is the uniquely hypnotising 27-minute short How To Shoot A Ghost directed by Charlie Kaufman and starring Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley and discovery Josef Akiki; BAFTA-nominated Stomach Bug; Chasing The Party, produced by Oscar winner Sam Rockwell; Kwatye Urrere created by GARUWA’s Kieran Satour; Jack Salvadori’s Blondi co-written by BAFTA winner Peter Greenaway; and Help, I’m Alien Pregnant starring Hannah Lynch, Arlo Gibson and Tandi Wright.

A selection of shorts from the program will also screen at Tumbalong Park as part of the free SXSW Sydney Unlocked program.

The innovative future of the moving image will also be showcased across a curated selection of music videos including King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s ‘Grow Wings and Fly’ directed by Hayden Somerville; Emily Wurramara’s ‘Lordy Lordy’ directed by Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore; ‘Always Looking’ directed by Millar Wileman for Winter McQuinn and Friends; Gut Health’s ‘Cool Moderator’ directed by Renee Kypriotis; and ‘Coup de Gronk’ for Party Dozen directed by Tanya Babić and Jason Sukadana.

Comedians and cinephiles Alexei Toliopoulos (The Last Video Store podcast, Finding Yeezus) and Gen Fricker (Gruen) will return to the SXSW Sydney stage to host a live script read of the Australian 1983 classic, BMX Bandits to celebrate the beloved Aussie action classic. Joined onstage by some of Australia’s favourite, funniest performers and special guests on Friday 17 October at Dendy Newtown, this is a live script that is guaranteed to be as thrilling as chucking a wheelie down the escalators at Warringah Mall.

Additional programming highlights this year include the already announced Paul Feig Retrospective which will feature a screening of Bridesmaids followed by a special Q&A with the man himself, as well as a screening of The Heat and a 14-hour Freaks and Geeks marathon to honour his work. Audiences can also look forward to a The Wicker Man Spotlight which features a screening of The Last Sacrifice, followed by an unhinged double feature of the 1973 original cult version of The Wicker Man, and the 2006 version of The Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage.

Judging the projects in-competition will be:

• BEST FEATURE: Alexei Toliopoulos (Comedian, Podcaster), Michael Shanks (Director), Mish Wittrup (Comedian, Writer, Podcaster)
• BEST SHORT: Ben McLeay (Programmer Two Bit Cinema, cult twitter), Jenna Suffern (Comedian, Producer), Zachary Ruane (Comedian, Writer, Podcaster)
• BEST EPISODIC: Gen Fricker (Comedian, Writer, Podcaster), Neil Sharma (Director), Remy Hii (Actor)
• BEST MUSIC CLIP: Ben Lee (Musician), Campbel McNeil (Co-Founder Lunatic Entertainment, Manager of ChVrches), Ruby Miles (Laneway Festival Programmer, Radio Host on Triple J)

SXSW Sydney runs October 13-19, 2025, across venues including Dendy Newtown, Ritz Cinemas, Palace Cinemas and, for the first time, the Seymour Centre. To view the full SXSW Sydney Screen program or to secure Passes, Wristbands and Rush Tickets, visit sxswsydney.com.

Source: NIXCO