WHAT’S ON WHERE

Byron Premiere

Friday 18 October - Party 6:30pm Film 8pm

BBFF2025 opens with Birthright, a sharp, darkly funny Aussie satire where boomer wealth meets millennial despair. When Cory and his pregnant wife move back in with his parents, a “temporary” stay spirals into a pressure cooker of entitlement, resentment, and generational tension. a theatrical, twisted, and painfully relatable comedy about housing, family, and the high cost of free rent.

Saturday 18 October 12:30pm

From saving lives to risking his own, Dr Richard “Harry” Harris embarks on a perilous cave dive into one of the world’s most extreme underwater systems. Directed by Jennifer Peedom (SHERPA) and Alex Barry, with stunning visuals and Harris’s own footage, it’s a breathtaking journey into darkness, danger, and the depths of human curiosity.

Australian Premiere

Saturday 18 October 2:40pm

In a Guatemalan barrio silenced by fear, two teenage sisters lead a luminous rebellion - unleashing giant puppets, fire, and artful performance to protest gender violence in a joyful fight for survival, rallying local youth and healing deep wounds.

Saturday 18 October 5:15pm

In a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, 15-year-old Ahmet finds unexpected freedom through music as he grapples with tradition, family expectations, and first love. DJ Ahmet is a joyful ode to self-expression and the power of music to bridge generations, cultures, and hearts - leaving audiences smiling long after the beat drops.

East Coast Premiere

Saturday 18 October 6:00pm + Q&A

Friday 24 October 7:30pm

In 2001, Lennox Head’s Joel Taylor was a rising bodyboarding star when a wave at Pipeline left him paralysed. For 20 years, he stayed out of the water, struggling with the loss of identity and purpose. The birth of his son sparked a return to the ocean - and the beginning of a powerful comeback. Through adaptive surfing, Joel found strength, community, and a new path. In 2023, he became a World Champion. A story of resilience, reinvention, and the healing power of the sea.

Saturday 18 October 7:30pm - with introduction by Jack Thompson

Sunday 26 October 3:00pm

Before his passing in 2021, iconic Yolŋu actor David Gulpilil asked to be returned to his ancestral Homeland of Gupulul. This moving documentary follows his family’s epic journey across more than 4,000 kilometres to honour that promise. A rare and respectful glimpse into Yolŋu ceremony, kinship, and connection to Country. It’s a powerful and deeply spiritual homecoming for a man who walked between two worlds with extraordinary presence.

Australian Premiere

Saturday 18 October 8:30pm

From Cinqué Lee comes a hauntingly beautiful coming-of-age tale set in the winter of 1982, when three American boys become stranded in a cable car high above the snowy Norwegian wilderness. Starring Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit), A Rare Grand Alignment unfolds under a sky lit by the Northern Lights - a breathtaking backdrop for a gripping story of friendship, guilt, and survival. Visually stunning and emotionally raw, it’s a rare cinematic achievement that lingers long after the credits roll.

Byron Premiere + Q&A with the Filmmakers

Sunday 19 October 12:30pm

A moving reminder that love endures, even when memory does not.

Dementia affects countless families, yet Nansie offers an unusually tender window into one - the Miller family of Sydney. Sisters Adelaide and Lucinda share a deep devotion to their grandmother Ann, affectionately known as “Nansie,” who once helped raise them and remains central to their lives, even as dementia gradually reshapes hers.

Byron Premiere

Sunday 19 October 2:45pm

Friday 24 October 5:00pm

In a surveillance-heavy near-future Tokyo, five high school friends face their final year under constant watch. When a harmless prank sparks a school-wide crackdown, friendships are tested as AI-powered systems punish even small acts of rebellion. Happyend, the debut narrative feature from Neo Sora (Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus), is a tender, quietly urgent portrait of youth, resistance, and the fragility of freedom. A beautifully performed and deeply resonant story about growing up in a world that’s closing in.

Sunday 19 October 4pm

The Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Competition shines as a highlight of the Byron Bay International Film Festival (BBFF). Since 2007, it has served as a launchpad for emerging filmmakers, drawing an eclectic mix of narratives, genres, and styles. This year, we've curated a showcase of the top 11 finalists for 2025, representing the pinnacle of young Australian talent.

Byron Premiere

Sunday 19 October 5:00pm

In China, a surprising new profession has emerged - “mistress dispellers” hired to break up affairs and preserve marriages. With extraordinary access, this compelling documentary follows one such case as professional Wang Zhenxi goes undercover to intervene in a crumbling relationship. As the story unfolds from all sides of the love triangle, Mistress Dispeller offers a rare glimpse into the emotional, cultural, and moral complexities of modern relationships, where love, loyalty, and social expectation collide behind closed doors.

World Premiere + Q&A

Sunday 19 October 7:30pm

Kane Guglielmi is on a journey to explore more compassionate alternatives to the systems we take for granted. What began as a personal quest - sparked by trauma and transformation - evolves into a global search for fairness, empathy, and unity. Through candid conversations and cross-cultural encounters, the film invites us to question old structures and imagine a more hopeful future where equity and care sit at the heart of how we live.

NSW Premiere

Monday 20 October 7pm

Isolation tanks, dolphin communication, and LSD-fuelled experiments - neuroscientist John C. Lilly’s life was as strange as it was visionary. A mind-bending dive into consciousness, control, and the cosmic unknown. A cinematic time capsule that asks how far we’re willing to go in the search for truth, freedom, and connection.

Byron Premiere

Tuesday 21 October 7pm

From the creators of 20,000 Days on Earth comes a bold and intoxicating hybrid of cinema, theatre and memory. When a trove of handwritten letters from the 1960s is uncovered, the hidden life of Geraldine “Miss” Flower is reimagined through music, performance and dreamscape. Featuring Emilíana Torrini, Nick Cave, and Richard Ayoade.

Byron Premiere

Wednesday 22 October 7pm

Deep in the mountains of southern Morocco, a father and son search for Mar - daughter and sister - who vanished months earlier at a desert rave. Following ravers to one final party in the wilderness, the journey becomes an intense reckoning with loss, connection, and limits. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, this is a hypnotic, soul-searching odyssey.

Byron Premiere

Thursday 23 October 7pm

Blending archival footage, past screen adaptations, and striking 21st-century imagery, this timely documentary from Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) revisits Orwell’s final months and the creation of his seminal novel, examining concepts like Doublethink, Newspeak, and Big Brother - ideas that feel increasingly urgent in today’s world. A powerful cinematic essay on surveillance, truth, and the fragility of freedom in modern society.

Byron Premiere

Friday 24 October 8:30pm

When a clueless New York media crew lands in rural Argentina chasing a viral story, only to realise they’re in the wrong country, chaos ensues. Desperate to justify their trip, they stage a fake cultural trend - roping in the locals as unwitting participants. Featuring Chloë Sevigny, Magic Farm is a surreal, deadpan satire of media arrogance, cultural tourism, and the Western gaze.

Saturday 25 October 12:30pm

Fools’ Paradise (Lost?) is a love letter to the wild - both the wilderness that surrounds us and the untamed spirit within.

At a time when climate change and environmental degradation threaten the future of life on earth, this film asks: how do we heal ourselves through reconnection to nature, and how do we heal what remains of our planet?

Byron Premiere

Saturday 25 October 3pm

In a dreamlike Winnipeg that feels part Tehran, part Canada, Universal Language unfolds in three absurdly tender tales - a wintry quest sparked by a frozen banknote, a baffled tour of a strange city, and a son's quiet displacement from his mother’s affections. Matthew Rankin’s genre-defying comedy won the inaugural Cannes Critics’ Fortnight Audience Award and MIFF’s Bright Horizons Award, it’s a strange, beautiful ode to belonging, memory, and the mysteries of home.

Byron Premiere

Saturday 25 October 5.15 pm

In Afghanistan’s remote, snow-covered valleys, a homegrown ski culture blossomed - bringing together young athletes from rival villages to race, connect, and dream. Guided by former Olympic hopeful Alishah Farhang, and armed with handmade skis and boundless spirit, they built something rare and beautiful.

Byron Premiere

Saturday 25 October 7:30pm

Sunday 26 October 8:30pm

At the height of his global success, Marlon Williams returned home to Ōhinehou/Lyttelton to create something deeply personal - an album sung entirely in te reo Māori, the language of his ancestors. A moving portrait of an artist finding his way home through language, music, and whakapapa.

Saturday 25 October 8:30pm

Because normal is a myth... Stay Strange flips the bird to conformity with a bold selection of short films that are anything but safe. Headlining the session is the World Premiere of Strange Attractor by Byron’s own Hadley Perkins - a darkly funny outback tale where satire, volatility and mischief collide.

Australian Premiere

Sunday 26 October 12:30pm

Your heart is more than a pump - it’s a powerful, intelligent organ that shapes how we think, feel, and connect. This poetic documentary blends stunning imagery with groundbreaking science to reveal the heart’s hidden role at every stage of life, from before the first beat to beyond the last. Exploring emotion, memory, and meaning, it invites us to reimagine what it means to live with an open heart.

Byron Premiere

Sunday 26 October 7:30pm

Winner of the 2025 Cannes Palme d’Or, It Was Just an Accident is the latest masterwork from Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi. What begins with a late-night stop at a rural repair shop spirals into a tense, darkly comic tale of revenge and uncertainty. Blending suspense, gallows humour and moral complexity, Panahi proves once again why he’s one of cinema’s most fearless voices.