Streaming now. In cinemas soon. Premiering next month. Here’s your guide to the latest SA film and TV highlights – and what’s still to come.
Netflix juggernauts, blood-soaked horrors, and intergalactic queer animations — South Australia’s latest crop of films and series is turning heads on the world stage and popping up on screens near you.
Some are already racking up awards and glowing reviews. Others are about to premiere at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) or are deep in post-production, getting ready to land.
Here’s your ultimate SA film and TV scene guide – what you can watch right now, plus a sneak peek at the titles that’ll be dominating your Letterboxd list (and your group chats) in the months to come.
In production: What’s underway right now in SA
My Brilliant Career
In post-production
Netflix’s latest South Australian production is a fresh take on My Brilliant Career – with corsets, countryside, and complicated feelings to spare. Philippa Northeast (Territory, The Newsreader) stars as fiercely independent Sybylla, with Christopher Chung (Slow Horses, Blitz), Genevieve O’Reilly (Andor, The Dry), Anna Chancellor (My Lady Jane, Outrageous) and Kate Mulvany (Hunters, Elvis).
Written by Please Like Me’s Liz Doran and directed by Sex Education’s Alyssa McClelland, filming on the series has recently wrapped across the Barossa, Adelaide and the South East. Think windswept, swoony, and unapologetically emotional – this one’s got global breakout written all over it. Stay tuned for a release date!
It’s All Going Very Well No Problems At All (working title)
In post production
Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s first feature as writer and director (she’s also producing and starring!) just wrapped shooting in Adelaide – and the team she’s assembled is serious. Liam Heyen (Jimpa, Latecomers), Dev Patel (Lion, Monkey Man) and Jomon Thomas (Monkey Mah, Hotel Mumbai) are producing alongside her, with an SA crew that includes some of the state’s most respected creatives. A modern-day coming-of-adulthood story, set entirely in Adelaide, the film follows Audrey (Cobham-Hervey), a young artist teetering on the edge of collapse, who finds unexpected connection with an elderly man in the aged care home where she works. This one’s intimate, honest, and very much made with love in Adelaide.
Troublemaker
In post-production
A massacre survivor and a filmmaker form an unlikely bond as they slip down the rabbit hole of paranoia in a desperate search for solace and truth. Written and co-directed by SA filmmaker Jared Nicholson and co-produced by SA’s Scott Baskett, Troublemaker is a co-production with SA production company Run Wild and Media Stockade. Ben Lawrence is on board as co-director, and Rebecca Barry is co-producer.
The Debt
In production soon
Anticipation is high for this exciting new horror led by South Australian First Nations filmmakers. Announced last month as the third feature film to be greenlit under the South Australian Film Corporation’s groundbreaking Film Lab: New Voices initiative, it follows Anna and her 10-year-old ward, trapped in a terrifying ordeal that will settle Anna’s debt to society. All she must do is make a choice: end her own life or the life of the child. Co-written by Yankunytjatjara writer Pearl Berry and Piri Eddy, directed by Johanis Lyons-Reid and produced by Yankunytjatjara producer Lilla Berry, The Debt will premiere at Adelaide Film Festival in 2026.
Coming soon: From prestige premieres to punchy post-production
Penny Lane Is Dead
World premiere 18 October at Adelaide Film Festival
It’s 1986. It’s summer. And what starts as a carefree night at a beach house spirals into a blood-soaked fight for survival. This horror film from Australian writer/director Mia’kate Russell, produced by SA’s Julie Ryan (Late Night with the Devil, Hotel Mumbai), features an electrifying young cast, a throwback soundtrack, and a director with zero interest in playing it safe. It’s already been buzzed about at Cannes, and now it’s coming home to premiere at AFF. Buy your tickets here.
The Fox
Preview Screening at Adelaide Film Festival
When a talking fox convinces a jilted fiancé to push his bride-to-be into a magical hole to make her “perfect,” things get… complicated. The Fox is a darkly comic folktale from SA writer/director and Danger 5 creator Dario Russo, and it stars Jai Courtney, Emily Browning, Damon Herriman and Claudia Doumit. Shot at Adelaide Studios and dripping with offbeat charm, this one could be your new cult favourite.
RFDS Season 3
Releasing in 2025
The third season of the TV WEEK Logie Award winning drama RFDS which was filmed last year across Adelaide, Port Augusta and Quorn – the first time the hit series has been made in South Australia, with SA’s Lisa Scott on board as producer. Based on the life-saving work of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the show stars Emma Hamilton, Stephen Peacocke and Rob Collins. An Endemol Shine Australia production, expect dramatic rescues, soaring landscapes and plenty of heart when it returns to the Seven Network later this year.
The Run
Releasing late 2025
In a post-pandemic future where fertility has collapsed and lockdowns have gutted society, an ageing smuggler agrees to do one last job. The cargo? A teenage girl – and the first baby born in years. Written and directed by SA’s Stephen De Villiers and produced by SA’s Chloe Gardner, The Run blends action, tension and a surprising dose of hope. It stars Callan Mulvey (Heartbreak High, Zero Dark Thirty), Felix Cameron (Boy Swallows Universe) and Charlotte Maggi (Rebel Moon, The Surfer).
Diabolic
Releasing in 2025
A woman’s hope for a cure to her debilitating condition turns into a nightmare when she discovers the true cause, the demonic spirit of a witch determined to take revenge on those who have wronged her. Written, directed and produced by SA’s Daniel J. Phillips and also produced by SA’s Mark Patterson, Diabolic is part of a new slate of elevated horror produced in SA for international audiences. It’s moody, relentless, and definitely not for kids.
Mockbuster
Premiering at Adelaide Film Festival
The behind-the-scenes documentary Mockbuster gleefully plunges into the chaotic world of low-budget schlock, following first-time South Australian director Anthony Frith as he makes a dinosaur adventure for Hollywood’s kings of B-movie spectacle, The Asylum (Sharknado), while chronicling his own battle to survive the shoot. Premiering in October at the Adelaide Film Festival, it captures the on-set mayhem, from demanding LA executives to a game but bewildered cast, while reflecting on ambition, creativity and unexpected triumph. Co-written and produced by South Australian Sandy Cameron and produced by David Elliot-Jones and Naomi Ball, Giant Pictures is handling world sales and Umbrella releasing in Australia 2026.
Watch now: The South Aussie stories already on your screen
Lesbian Space Princess
In cinemas
SA’s first animated feature is loud, queer, and absolutely unhinged – and yes, you can see it in cinemas right now. After a sold-out preview run at Adelaide Film Festival 2024, and breaking out with an award-winning world premiere at the 2025 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival), this fever-dream space romp follows anxious princess Saira as she blasts across gay space to rescue her ex from the Straight White Maliens. Expect doom goo, drag royalty, and a sentient spaceship with boundary issues.
SA’s Shabana Azeez (currently appearing in HBO’s medical drama of the moment, The Pitt) leads the all-star voice cast, including Gemma Chua-Tran, Richard Roxburgh, SA’s Kween Kong, and Aunty Donna. Co-written and directed by real-life SA couple Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, produced by SA’s Tom Phillips, and made entirely in SA through the South Australian Film Corporation’s groundbreaking Film Lab: New Voices feature film initiative, it’s a cult hit in the making.
Kangaroo Island
In cinemas
A washed-up Hollywood actress returns home to Kangaroo Island for a reunion with her estranged family – and gets a little more than she bargained for. With its windswept coastal shots, emotionally charged story and an all-star Aussie cast (Rebecca Breeds, Adelaide Clemens, Erik Thomson), this quintessentially South Aussie drama from SA director and producer Timothy David, SA writer Sally Gifford and SA producers Peter Hanlon and Bettina Hamilton is all about reconnection, secrets and second chances.
With or Without You
Now streaming on Apple TV, Prime Video and Fetch
A mother-daughter road trip with baggage – emotional and otherwise. Melina Vidler plays Chloe, determined to get her alcoholic mum (Marta Dusseldorp) out of trouble and into a new life. What starts with good intentions turns into a bumpy, unexpected journey through grief, love, and intergenerational mess. Warm, honest and low-key devastating, this feature directorial debut from SA writer/director Kelly Schilling is now available to stream after its big screen release in May.
Top End Bub
Now streaming on Prime Video
If you loved Top End Wedding, this eight-part TV spinoff brings the same heart and humour, with a little extra chaos. Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) and Ned (Gwilym Lee) find themselves heading back to the NT from Adelaide to raise Lauren’s orphaned niece, navigating family, community, and croissants. Co-created by Tapsell and SA’s Joshua Tyler and filmed across Adelaide and Darwin, SA’s first scripted Prime Video series is a total feel-good watch.
Bring Her Back
Buy it on Amazon or AppleTV
The Philippou brothers’ horror follow-up to Talk to Me drew rave reviews and fainting audiences – and yes, Stephen King called it “thoughtful, textured, and scary as hell.” Filmed right here in SA with Sally Hawkins in the lead, Bring Her Back has racked up an 89 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes and cemented the RackaRacka duo’s status as horror’s new royalty. If you missed it in cinemas (or want to relive the terror), you can buy it now on Amazon or AppleTV.
Adelaide Film Festival 2025: World premieres, wild rides and one cursed beach house
From 15-26 October, AFF is bringing together bold new work from Australia and beyond – opening with the Australian premiere of Jimpa, from acclaimed SA writer/director Sophie Hyde. Starring Olivia Colman, John Lithgow and SA’s Aud Mason-Hyde, and based on Hyde’s own life, this is a poignant family drama about an Adelaide filmmaker, their teenager, and a gay grandfather reuniting in Amsterdam, reigniting buried tensions and unexpected bonds.
Other SA made films on the program include Penny Lane Is Dead, the blood-soaked 1980s horror shot in Adelaide and making its world premiere on home turf; and The Fox, a darkly comic folktale from SA writer/director and Danger 5 creator Dario Russo.
Also screening: The Colleano Heart, a powerful documentary about circus, identity and connection from First Nations director Pauline Clague; Edge of Life, a lyrical and deeply human exploration of death, healing and plant medicine from filmmaker Lynette Wallworth; and Journey Home, David Gulpilil, following the late actor’s family as they honour his final wish to return to Country.
There’s also Fwends, a tender indie debut from Sophie Somerville that’s already won over Berlin, and It Was Just An Accident, the latest from Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi – and winner of the 2025 Cannes Palme d’Or.
Check out the full AFF program – including a whole lot of SA-made premieres – or download the app here.
Why it’s an exciting time to be watching SA
From gritty docos and blood-splattered horrors to prestige period dramas and queer animated adventures, the sheer range of stories being told in SA right now is staggering. It’s a thrilling time to be watching what South Australia is putting on screen.
And these projects aren’t just great to watch – they’re also delivering real impact. My Brilliant Career alone is expected to inject $17 million into the local economy and create more than 450 South Australian jobs, while RFDS is anticipated to generate an economic investment of $10 million and just as many opportunities to local crews, and regional and metro small businesses.
What ties all these voices and stories together is the backing of the South Australian Film Corporation. It’s the behind-the-scenes force empowering projects to get made, careers take off, and big ideas land on screens here and around the world.
They’re joined by the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF), which has helped bring more than 150 projects to life since 2003, including some of Australia’s most acclaimed films of the past two decades.
Whether you’re on set or in the audience, there’s never been a better time to be part of South Australia’s screen story.
Want more? To stay up-to-date with local productions and where to stream them, visit the SA Film Corporation’s SA Made Showcase here.
