Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) is back for the 32nd year with a mix of brand new Aussie films and internationally acclaimed features.

Running over 11 days this October, BIFF will screen 52 feature films and two shorts programs at eight locations across the city. Headliners include Palme d’Or winner Anora, a tragicomic take on the Cinderella story; fellow Cannes pick Emilia Perez, starring Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez in a unique story about a former drug lord faking their death and getting a second lease on life as a woman; and Nightbitch, a quirky exploration of the frustrations of motherhood and female rage, starring Amy Adams.

The festival kicks off with the Queensland premiere of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a high-strung comedy documenting the hectic 90 minutes preceding the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. Reitman, who is best known for cult classic Juno, directs an all-star cast featuring Willem Dafoe, newly-minted Emmy winner Lamorne Morris, cousin Greg himself Nicholas Braun and Dylan O’Brien – all playing the cast and crew of the original SNL season.

Never miss a Brisbane moment. Make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter today.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

The festival has two dedicated short film programs: Shorts From Home, a celebration of Queensland-made flicks; and Shorts From Afar, covering the rest of Australia and the world. But this year, in a first for BIFF, a short film will also be shown before every feature throughout the festival.

There will also be plenty of Australian talent in this year’s lineup. Chantelle Murray’s The Lost Tiger, the first Australian animated film written and directed by an Indigenous woman, will have its world premiere at the festival. Plus, you can catch Inside, a prison drama starring Guy Pearce and Toby Wallace, and The Moogai, an Aboriginal psychological horror flick about a young family terrorized by a malicious spirit. The Red, a horror-comedy where a seven-foot zombie kangaroo terrorizes a remote Australian town, is getting a red carpet world premiere at the Dendy Outdoor Cinema at the Powerhouse

Because the festival sits smack-bang in the middle of the spooky season, BIFF includes a special Halloween program including I Saw the TV Glow, an unnerving psychological thriller steeped in ’90s nostalgia; The Organist, a morbid comedy set in Melbourne featuring cannibals and black market organ traders; and Carnage for Christmas, an Australian horror movie about small-town ghosts.

The festival will end with the world premiere of Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, a documentary on the former women’s world-number-four tennis player, touching on her past as an impoverished refugee from the breakup of Yugoslavia, her father’s physical and mental abuse, and her journey to overcome it all.

Brisbane International Film Festival runs from Thursday October 24 to Sunday November 3. Head here for the full program or to purchase tickets.

biff.com.au
@bnefilmfest