Adelaide Film Festival Unveils First Wave of 2026 Line-Up, Led by Cannes and Sundance Prize Winners
The first 10 titles include new films from Pawel Pawlikowski, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Sandra Wollner, alongside a 30th anniversary screening of Shine.
The Adelaide Film Festival has revealed the first 10 films for its 2026 program, offering an early glimpse at a line-up anchored by major Cannes, Sundance and Berlinale winners, acclaimed auteur directors and a strong contingent of emerging female filmmakers.
Leading the announcement is Austrian director Sandra Wollner’s Everytime, which arrives in Adelaide fresh from winning the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The haunting speculative drama explores grief through Wollner’s distinctive cinematic lens and continues the filmmaker’s relationship with the festival following The Trouble With Being Born, which screened at Adelaide in 2020.
Another major acquisition is Beth de Araújo’s Josephine, which swept both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance. Starring Gemma Chan alongside Channing Tatum in what is already being described as a career-best performance, the drama follows a family attempting to rebuild after a child witnesses a violent attack. The film has quickly emerged as an early Oscar contender.
Oscar-winning Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski returns with Fatherland, winner of the Best Director Award at Cannes, starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler. Set in post-war Germany, the film follows novelist Thomas Mannand his daughter Erika as they confront both a divided nation and fractures within their own family after years of exile in the United States.
Japanese auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, whose Drive My Car won the Academy Award for Best International Feature, is represented with All of a Sudden. The Cannes Best Actress winner follows an intellectual correspondence between two scholars—played by Virginie Efira and Okamoto Tao—that gradually evolves into an intimate meditation on mortality and human connection.
The festival’s emphasis on women filmmakers also extends to Anna Fitch and Banker White’s Yo (Love Is A Rebellious Bird), recipient of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Berlinale. Blending documentary, puppetry and miniature model-making, the film chronicles a friendship spanning more than two decades through the life story of a remarkable woman named Yolanda.
Music documentaries remain a cornerstone of Adelaide’s programming, with two headline titles joining the first announcement.
Grant Gee, best known for Joy Division, brings Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which earned him the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlinale. The documentary explores the legendary jazz pianist’s life following the death of bassist Scott LaFaro, tracing Evans’ personal struggles alongside his enduring musical legacy.
Joining it is the Australian premiere of Wolf, a portrait of British musician Patrick Wolf featuring conversations with longtime friend Tilda Swinton. Premiering after acclaimed screenings at Sheffield DocFest, the documentary examines Wolf’s creative evolution alongside the trauma, grief and addiction that shaped both his life and music.
Australian cinema is also represented by Josef Gatti’s ambitious experimental feature Phenomena, a visually immersive exploration of science and the natural world created entirely through practical photographic techniques. Featuring music by Nils Frahm and an original score from Rival Consoles, the film promises one of the festival’s most distinctive big-screen experiences.
Completing the first announcement is Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Luther Ford. Premiering in Competition at Cannes, the film is set against New York’s 1980s AIDS crisis and explores love, loss and artistic community.
The festival will also celebrate one of Australia’s most celebrated films with a 30th anniversary screening of Scott Hicks’ Shine. The special event will showcase a new 4K restoration of the Oscar-winning drama, with Hicks expected to attend to reflect on both the film’s enduring legacy and his international career. Geoffrey Rush’s Academy Award-winning performance, alongside Noah Taylor, Sir John Gielgud, Lynn Redgrave and Armin Mueller-Stahl, remains one of Australian cinema’s defining achievements.
Festival CEO and Creative Director Mat Kesting said the early line-up reflected cinema’s ability to transport audiences.
“Each year, as the AFF program begins to take shape, I am always struck by the incredible worlds where cinema takes us, and 2026 is no exception. Nothing can ever equal the magic of cinema. Come be a part of it. I am incredibly excited to announce these first 10 films and bring some of the most anticipated films to Adelaide for the first time.”
The remaining Adelaide Film Festival program will be announced in the coming months, with the event once again expected to showcase a mix of major international award contenders alongside Australian premieres and local productions.
AFF runs October 14 – 25, 2026