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Adelaide Film Festival 2025 spotlights SA made films

10 September 2025
SA made feature films in the AFF 2025 program (clockwise from top left): Jimpa, The Fox, We Are Not Powerless, Diabolic, Iron Winter, Penny Lane is Dead, Mockbuster, The Run.

South Australia is set to shine on screen once more at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival (AFF), with the newly unveiled 2025 program featuring a huge selection of South Australian made films, including eight SAFC supported feature films — the most ever in an AFF program — and fourteen shorts.

The festival’s 2025 program, which was revealed at a special launch event at the Capri Theatre on 9 September, showcases an exciting array of outstanding SA made and SAFC-supported productions across feature films, documentaries and shorts.

First look photo for Sophie Hyde's "Jimpa", John Lithgow and Olivia Colman (2024)

Opening Night Gala – Jimpa

Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa will kick off the festival with a bang as the Opening Night Gala film, with the filmmaker and guests in attendance for the pink carpet premiere.

Starring Academy Award winner Olivia Colman, Golden Globe winner John Lithgow and SA’s own Aud Mason-Hyde in their feature debut, filming took place in South Australia, including at the SAFC’s Adelaide Studios, with the support of the SAFC and AFF Investment Fund (AFFIF). Additional filming took place in Amsterdam and Helsinki ahead of post-production , completed in Adelaide by Closer Productions and KOJO Studios.

Jimpa is the latest feature from acclaimed SA writer/director/producer Sophie Hyde, teaming up with SA writer and frequent collaborator Matthew Cormack and producers Liam Heyen, SA’s Bryan Mason and Marleen Slot.

Inspired by Hyde’s own life, the film follows an Adelaide filmmaker and their non-binary teen as they reconnect with the family’s flamboyant patriarch (“Jim-pa”) in Amsterdam. Jimpa has won the hearts of audiences following its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, with TheWrap praising it as “not just incisive and compassionate, but fully attuned to the rhythms of this modern family.”

Tickets for the Opening Night Gala are on sale now — book here.

Will you outsmart The Fox?

The Fox promises a darkly comedic folktale from SA writer/director Dario Russo in his feature film directorial debut.

Supported by the SAFC and AFFIF, The Fox tells the story of an ordinary bloke and the fox who offers to solve all his problems. Produced by frequent SA collaborators Sam Jennings and Kristina Ceyton of Causeway Films and SA producer Carly Maple, the film features an all-star cast headed by Jai Courtney and Emily Browning, with the voices of Olivia Colman and Sam Neill.

Russo is best known for SA made and SAFC supported comedy series Danger 5, and he brings the same (very funny) sensibility to this exploration of the struggle between domestication and the wild and primal desire for freedom, novelty and lust.

Tickets are on sale now — book here.

Mockbuster enters The Asylum

Go behind the scenes of exploitation filmmaking for the world premiere of Mockbuster, a meta documentary that sees first time SA director Anthony Frith land a shot at glory with Hollywood’s kings of B-movie schlock, The Asylum, the studio behind Sharknado.

Tasked with directing a lost world dinosaur film, The Land That Time Forgot, in suburban Adelaide on a seemingly impossible six-day shoot and shoestring budget, he also turns the camera on himself, filming a behind-the-scenes documentary. Between LA execs, a bewildered cast and his own self-doubt, both productions push their director to the brink.

This unexpectedly tender film is written by Anthony Frith and SA’s Sandy Cameron, produced by David Elliot-Jones, Sandy Cameron and Naomi Ball with support from the SAFC and AFFIF. Tickets are on sale now — book here.

On Sunday 26 October you can also catch a very special double feature of Mockbuster and The Land That Time Forgot, with a cast that includes SA actor Lauren Koopowitz. — book here.

Penny Lane is Dead but punk lives on

Award-winning Australian writer and director Mia’Kate Russell delivers a bold, blood-soaked genre piece with Penny Lane is Dead, which will have its world premiere at AFF 2025.

Set in 1986, a beach party held by Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding) and her best friends is derailed when Penny’s volatile cousin arrives uninvited with her seedy boyfriend and his crew. Penny Lane is Dead is a punk-fuelled, blood-soaked survival thriller laced with dark comedy and gendered rage.

Produced by award-winning SA producer Julie Ryan, Ari Harrison, Andre Lima and SA’s Carly Maple, the film has been supported by the SAFC and AFFIF, with post-production through South Australia’s KOJO Studios.

Tickets are on sale now — book here.

We Are Not Powerless and the power of refugees

This moving feature documentary sees SA filmmakers Jolyon Hoff and Muzafar Ali team up once more, following on from their beautiful 2022 SAFC and AFFIF supported film Watandar, My Countryman.

We Are Not Powerless follows Muzafar Ali and his wife Nagina, who escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2012. They found themselves living in Indonesia as refugees when Australia ‘stopped the boats’. Determined to do something, they started a small two room school which soon became a community hub.

Minister for Arts Andrea Michaels MP said: “I’d love for as many people as possible to see the work of Jolyon Hoff and Muzafar Ali.”

Again supported by the SAFC and AFFIF, We Are Not Powerless is produced by SA’s Jolyon Hoff, Muzafar Ali and Hamish Gibbs Ludbrook and tells the story of what happens when people refuse to give up on each other. The filmmakers will be in attendance for the world premiere — book here.

Diabolic — a devilish delight

The world premiere of SA writer/director Daniel J. Phillips’ homegrown horror is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Supported by the SAFC, Diabolic is produced by Daniel J. Phillips and SA’s Mark Patterson, Silvio Salom, Grant Hardie and Vasili Papnicolou.

A troubled young woman’s hope for a miracle cure turns into a nightmare when she confronts the vengeful spirit of a cursed witch, determined to claim her as a vessel for her evil power.

Tickets are on sale now — book here.

The Run delivers a dystopian world

Don’t miss the world premiere of SA writer/director Stephen De Villiers‘ dystopian thriller The Run, produced by SA’s Chloe Gardner of Arterial Films and supported by the SAFC.

In a dystopian, post-pandemic world crippled by a global fertility crisis, human reproduction is a thing of the past. Ageing smuggler Mac forms an unlikely alliance with Aliah, the last mother in Australia, as they desperately seek to elude a relentless pursuit with Aliah’s newborn baby.

Tickets are on sale now — book here.

Iron Winter braves the cold

Fresh off of screenings at the prestigious Visions du Réel and Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), Iron Winter is a striking feature documentary about Mongolian herders from SA producers Ben Golotta and Morgan Wright of Repeater Productions, producer Chris Kamen, director Kasimir Burgess and SA writer Ed Cavanough with Enebish Sengemugaa.

Supported by the SAFC’s Matched Market Development Fund, the film follows two young men who are handed the responsibility of reviving their culture’s tradition. For generations, the Mongols of the bitterly cold Tsakhir Valley have amassed a giant herd of horses to protect them from the cold. Now young friends Tsagana and Batbold must face the deadliest winter on record and preserve an ancient way of life.

Tickets are on sale now — book here.

(L-R) Catching Mumoo, The Secret, The Mysterious Maiden of Montefiore, Second Chance

First Nations Premiere Shorts

Presented by the SAFC, First Nations Premiere Shorts on Saturday, 18 October at The Mercury will showcase four exciting new short films from up-and-coming SA First Nations talent.

The event will include the world premiere of two shorts made under the second round of the SAFC’s First Nations Short Film Initiative: The Secret from writer/director Lilla Berry and producer Piri Eddy and Catchin’ Mumoo from writer/director Dylan Coleman and producer Gregory Read.

They will be screened alongside two shorts produced through The Mercury’s Quicksilver short film production fund: The Mysterious Maiden of Montefiore from writer/director Travis Akbar and producer Adam Gerard and Second Chance from writer/director Thibul Nettle and producer Tim Harkness.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with NITV’s Dena Curtis in conversation with director and former SAFC First Nations Screen Strategy Executive Pauline Clague (The Colleano Heart) and SA First Nations filmmaker Dylan Coleman.

Tickets for First Nations Premiere Shorts are on sale now – find out more about the films and book tickets here.

Made in SA shorts showcase

The Made in SA shorts showcase features eight short films from exciting South Australian filmmakers:

Tickets for Made in SA are on sale now, with two dates to choose from.

Other SA made shorts in the program include Guts from SA writer/director Scarlett Scherer and SA producer Ben Golotta, which was produced through The Mercury’s Quicksilver initiative with support from the SAFC and screens before feature film Fwends; Hannah Moore’s Fear of Songs, which was produced through the Hanlon Larsen Screen Fellowship supporting ambitious avant-garde screen-based work and screens as part of the Australian Shorts showcase; and Boyish from writer Luke Wiltshire, director Scarlett Scherer and producers Luke Wiltshire and Scarlett Scherer, which screens as part of the Queer Shorts showcase.

More SA program highlights

Also on AFF’s packed 2025 program you’ll find a range of talks and Q&A sessions including:

And of course, the program also features a huge range of exciting new films from around Australia and the world!

The Adelaide Film Festival runs from 15 — 26 October, 2025. Tickets to all sessions are on sale now — go to adelaidefilmfestival.org for more information.

The SAFC is a proud Industry Partner of the Adelaide Film Festival 2025.

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