What to watch, where to start and how to do AFF properly – from pink-carpet premieres and after parties to free events and $10 rush tickets.
“Think of it as the Royal Show for filmmaking.”
That’s how Adelaide Film Festival CEO and Creative Director Mat Kesting describes the festival he runs, and once you see the numbers, it’s hard to disagree.
This year’s program packs in 122 films from 52 countries, including 10 world premieres and 27 Australian premieres, across 12 days from 14-25 October.
Mia Wasikowska is in town for the Australian premiere of Agata the Writer, Bojana Novakovic will be here with The Forbidden Aunt, and Adelaide’s invited to walk the pink carpets, attend the after parties, and live your best festival life at free events and screenings that go well beyond the usual night at the movies.
Among those 10 world premieres is a homegrown horror that’s already been creating buzz at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film.
What to expect from Lucrum
Lucrum is the first feature from Dinosaur Disco Films, the SA production company run by Yankunytjatjara producer Lilla Berry, director Johanis Lyons-Reid, Yankunytjatjara writer Pearl Berry and writer Piri Eddy.
It follows young adoptee June, who arrives at the secluded estate of renowned pianist Anna before discovering the place is hiding some disturbing secrets. Sophie Lowe, Tahlia Sturzaker and Nathan Page star.
Lucrum is also the first feature made by a South Australian First Nations-led creative team with major state government support.
“We’ve got two First Nations producers producing in their field for the very first time in South Australia with major funding,” Lilla says – herself on Lucrum, and Josh Trevorrow on documentary KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business, also premiering at AFF this year.
“It’s huge. It’s super exciting. It’s also kind of like – how is it 2026, and it’s only happening for the first time now?”
Johanis describes Lucrum as a slow-burn mystery with an absurd conceit, somewhere between Zach Cregger’s Weapons and the strange, off-kilter world of Yorgos Lanthimos – but still very much horror.
At the centre of it is what he calls “generational reckoning and the ways in which we continue to choose ourselves over other generations”.
What Film Lab made possible
Lucrum was made through Film Lab: New Voices, run by the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), Screen Australia and AFF, an initiative elevating new SA filmmaking talent.
Lucrum is the third feature to come out of the program, after Monolith and Lesbian Space Princess.
The SAFC is the state government agency supporting South Australia’s screen industry, while AFF contributes production funding through its Investment Fund. Since 2003, the fund has backed more than 150 South Australian film projects, including Adelaide-made global horror hit Talk to Me.
“If we didn’t have investment by AFF, SAFC and Screen Australia through the Film Lab: New Voices initiative, we probably wouldn’t have been able to make this film,” Lilla says.
Lucrum isn’t the only reason to be excited about South Australian film this year – from Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s directorial debut It’s All Going Very Well… to the 30th-anniversary screening of Shine, there’s a full slate of SA-made films at AFF worth your time. You can find them all here.
How to shoot a feature in 19 days
Back to Lucrum. The project spent around 18 months in development before the team had to line up cast, crew, finance, contracts and locations, then shoot the whole feature in just 19 hectic days.
For Johanis, the timing was even more intense because his first child was due during filming.
“He gracefully came a week after we wrapped,” he says, “and I’ve just been in post-production and learning how to be a dad since then.”
The owners of the Adelaide Hills house where Lucrum was filmed decided to stay throughout production, which meant they got a close-up view of some of its stranger moments.
“I remember one night, around midnight, where one of our actors was in a smock and had what looked like live maggots stuffed in her mouth by hair and makeup,” Johanis says, “and the homeowners were just watching on in horror at the monitor.”
After three years of work, Lilla says she’s trying to stay focused on the Adelaide premiere rather than whatever might come next.
“I’m just wanting to really be grounded in this moment,” she says. “It’s very much in your own world until you get to share it with audiences. So it’s super exciting to now be at that stage and celebrate with everyone who helped make this happen”
Why AFF beats a night on the couch
If you already have Netflix, Stan and a decent TV at home, why bother going to a film festival?
Part of the answer is seeing films you’re unlikely to find among the usual blockbusters.
Mat jokes that “Marvel is McDonald’s” – fun, familiar and everywhere, but sometimes you want something with a bit more substance.
“It’s made in Hollywood by studios with endless budgets, and they are not interested in telling Australian stories,” he says.
“They’re not interested in telling unique perspectives from Eastern Europe or Africa or Asia. What we’re offering audiences is an opportunity to see the world.”
The other part is getting off the couch and watching with other people.
“We’re social creatures,” Mat says. “That magic that you experience when you collectively experience something – it’s very special.”
“You know, hearing when other people laugh, and when you laugh and they don’t … all of the interactions that happen in the foyers and all around the whole activity. It’s pretty special.”
Yes, you can go to the premieres
Mat says he’s discovered some South Australians who think AFF is an industry-only event.
“It really alerted me to the fact that we need to communicate that message that it is an event for everybody,” he says.
You can buy (affordable!) tickets to premieres, frock up, strut the pink carpet, take selfies, see filmmakers in person and stay for Q&As and after parties.
“Come be a part of it, and you never know who you’ll meet. I’ve made lifelong friends in AFF queues.”
There are cheaper ways in too. AFF has introduced Pay What You Can tickets for weekday daytime sessions before 4pm for concession holders, while $10 Rush Tix drop daily through the AFF app.
What not to miss
Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the program? Here’s Mat’s picks for where to start:
- Opening night – Wild Horse Nine
The man behind In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin is back with a darkly funny spy story set in ‘70s Chile, starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Parker Posey. Mat reckons McDonagh has “really nailed it” once again. The Australian premiere opens AFF, followed by a ’70s cocktail party – so dress the part.
- Saturday Night Party – Jim Queen
Gay-club king Jim is struck by “heterosis”, a plague turning queer people straight, and has to rely on his previously overlooked admirer Lucien. Mat says it’s as hilarious and riotous as it sounds. The screening is followed by DJs, dancing and drag queens at the after party, with filmmakers attending from France.
- Agata the Writer
Fresh from Venice, Mia Wasikowska stars as a novelist whose research trip to Sarajevo turns into a much thornier question: who gets to tell other people’s stories? Mat calls the film “extraordinary”, and both Wasikowska and director Kuba Dorabialski will be here for its Australian premiere.
- Bukal Bukal and campfire yarns
This free Port Adelaide event invites you to “bring a picnic blanket, take your shoes off and sit beside a campfire” for the world premiere of Bukal Bukal, with Elders speaking and truth-telling circles around Aboriginal stories and histories.
- How to Feed a Dictator
Modern history told through the chefs who cooked for Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet and Kim Jong-il. “It’s actually a really important film at this point in our history,” Mat says.
- The Cycle of Love
A true story about an ‘untouchable’ street artist in India who meets the Swedish woman an astrologer had predicted would be the love of his life – then pedals nearly 6000km to Sweden to find her. They met in 1977 and are still together. Mat calls it “such a heartwarming film”, so bring tissues for the happy tears.
- Manhood
A doco about “everything that can go wrong with penis enlargement”. It follows the owner of a chain of penis enlargement clinics and the men prepared to take some pretty extreme steps to change their bodies. Mat says the film has a strong message beneath the eye-watering premise.
- Closing night – Hell Has No Fire Escape
A widowed pastor running an evangelical rehab centre in the South African desert falls for a fake Jason Momoa online. The unbelievable true story was co-directed and co-written by SA filmmaker Matthew Bate and produced by SA’s Rebecca Summerton. Its world premiere closes AFF, followed by a party in Goodwood.
Adelaide Film Festival runs from 14–25 October 2026. Find the full program and tickets through Adelaide Film Festival, and learn more about Film Lab: New Voices through the South Australian Film Corporation.
