Gold Coast Film Festival Unveils 2026 Lineup Featuring Cannes, Sundance and Berlinale Standouts

The Gold Coast is staking its claim alongside the world’s major film festival circuit.

From Cannes to Sundance, Berlin to Venice, the 2026 Gold Coast Film Festival is bringing a global slate of acclaimed titles to Queensland, unveiling a 12-day program that blends international heavyweights with a strong showing of Australian and local filmmaking.

Running April 22 to May 3 across HOTA, Home of the Arts and Dendy Southport, this year’s lineup pulls together buzzy festival titles from across the globe, including The AI Doc: How I Became an Apocaloptimist — one of Sundance’s most talked-about documentaries — alongside Connemara, which premiered to strong notices on the Croisette, and Paolo Strippoli’s Venice-debuted horror The Holy Boy. The Berlinale selection Islands and Agnieszka Holland’s Kafka drama Franz, which screened at Toronto, further underscore the festival’s international reach.

Opening night will see Warwick Thornton’s Wolfram take centre stage following its Berlin reception, anchored by a powerful performance from Deborah Mailman in a story of resilience and connection. The festival will close with the Australian premiere of Don’t Be Prey, an endurance-driven adventure charting marathon swimmer Mark Sowerby’s attempt to conquer the Oceans Seven.

Among the headline local productions is Beast, the adrenaline-fueled MMA drama directed by Tyler Atkins and starring Daniel MacPherson, Luke Hemsworth and Russell Crowe. The film will receive a special red carpet screening, sitting alongside a slate of Australian features including Stephen De Villiers’ dystopian thriller The Run and James Litchfield’s unsettling Alphabet Lane. Queensland-shot documentary A Moment in the Sun also features in the lineup.

The festival continues its commitment to homegrown storytelling, with seven Queensland titles highlighted across the program. Among them is the world premiere of romantic comedy All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, directed by Louise Alston and written by Stephen Vagg, alongside Rafael Star’s Manhunt and Haruki Ryles’ dystopian action film 100% Pure Rage. Other local entries include Tristan Barr’s Deathkeeper, Blair Moore’s Badland Rising, Derek Yang’s micro-budget feature Violet and Clint Cure’s student project Dracula Revamped.

Internationally, the drama slate ranges from the New Zealand true story Pike River, recounting the 2010 mining disaster, to Tow starring Rose Byrne, and Glenrothan, directed by and starring Brian Cox alongside Alan Cumming. Other highlights include Viktor, following a deaf man navigating the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and This Bloody Country, a character-driven Western starring Martin Dingle Wall.

Comedy offerings include How to Talk Australians: Highway to Hell, a feature expansion of the viral web series, while horror fans are catered for with Dead Eyes and The Holy Boy. The documentary strand spans from the AI-focused The AI Doc to Mockbuster, a behind-the-scenes look at a chaotic low-budget dinosaur film shoot in suburban Adelaide.

Music documentaries also feature prominently, including Tenor: My Name Is Pati, charting the rise of Samoan opera stars Pene and Amitai Pati, and That Half Barbaric Twang, following The Number 4 Band across remote Australia.

Celebrating cinematic milestones, the festival will also host anniversary screenings of Zoolander and The English Patient, alongside a robust shorts program that includes the EMERGE! Student Short Film Gala and the popular SIPFest: Shorts in Paradise competition.

Beyond the screen, the festival’s industry program returns with key events including the Women in Film Lunch, presented by Screen Queensland, featuring BBC Studios Australia executives Sophia Zachariou and Kylie Washington. The Gold Coast Film Festival Awards Gala will also see Thornton honoured with the Chauvel Award, recognising his contribution to Australian cinema.

“This year’s programme is a true celebration of storytelling in all its forms,” said festival CEO Luke Wheatley. “From globally acclaimed films direct from the world’s leading festivals to bold, homegrown Australian stories, we’re proud to deliver a lineup that is more diverse and inspiring than ever.”

Screen Queensland CEO Jacqui Feeney added that the festival reflects the growing strength of the state’s screen sector, bringing together global titles with Queensland-made stories in what she described as an “energetic and bold storytelling showcase.”

With tickets now on sale, the 2026 edition positions the Gold Coast not just as a production hub — but as an increasingly vital destination on the international festival map.