The Birthday Trip

Relationship dramas are having a moment on screen right now. Titles like Materialists (2025), The Drama (2026) and The Invite (2026) each offer a window into contemporary, sometimes dysfunctional relationships.

Now, Aussie non-rom-com The Birthday Trip joins the fray, written and directed by James Robert Woods and produced by indie producer/distributor Badlands. It hits cinemas nationally on Thursday July 30, and has already earned critical acclaim, hailed by Cinema Australia as “one of the best Australian films of the year” and described by Filmink as “an intimately intense handheld character study taking a leaf from Steven Soderbergh” of Ocean’s 11 and Sex, Lies and Videotape.

The holiday-from-hell satire begins when high school friends Clare, Angie and Isabel organise a weekend away to honour a legacy friendship and celebrate their joint thirtieth birthdays. With their partners in tow, the couples descend on a luxury farmstay in the New South Wales Southern Highlands (shot in verdant Robertson). But as the top-shelf wine flows, legacy friendships are put to the test, with infidelity and class anxiety steering the group toward chaos. Meanwhile, across the manicured grounds, the farmstay’s “experience curator”, Felix, is dealing with dysfunction of his own. The result? Chaos, combustion and one of the largest practical stunts in Australian indie cinema history.

The ensemble cast of uniformly insufferable characters includes David Quirk (Rosehaven, Please Like Me), Ben Gerrard (Wolf Creek 2) and rising star Nicola Frew (I Am Woman, The Daughter), alongside the likes of Josephine Starte, Annelise Hall and Aussie TV personality Luke Jacobz, cast as an almost meta-version of his on-screen persona. Restless handheld camerawork and fast-paced dialogue bring to mind The White Lotus and Succession, as Woods dares viewers to sit with discomfort. And where Australian dramas might have a reputation for gloomy, insular plotlines, The Birthday Trip is refreshingly sharp and unflinching, staying with you long after the credits roll.

The Birthday Trip has its theatrical premiere on the red carpet at Dendy Newtown on Thursday July 30 before rolling out to cinemas nationally, or you can catch an exclusive screening before its launch, like this one hosted by Golden Age Cinema on Friday July 17.

Other early screenings are popping up around the country before the premiere – check them out here.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Badlands.