Sydney Film Festival is returning for its 72nd edition from 5–16 June, spreading across the city’s most iconic cinemas and cultural landmarks, including, for the first time, the Sydney Opera House.
With 201 films from 70 countries on offer – 137 of which are Australian premieres – this year’s program is an expansive, audacious celebration of cinema in all its forms. Under the guidance of Festival Director Nashen Moodley, the 2025 program features 15 Cannes selections, a slew of Sundance standouts, and the addition of new awards honouring First Nations and environmentally-led filmmaking.
Whether you're into haunted love stories, queer westerns, archival obsessions or just want to see Jacob Elordi in another cowboy hat, here are the highlights worth circling in your program. Consider this your shortcut to the good stuff.
1. The Mastermind
It’s 1970s LA. There’s an art heist. Josh O’Connor is scheming. Alana Haim is acting (again). Reichardt trades slow-burning Oregon forests for shag carpets and gallery walls in this sharp-edged character drama. Directed by Kelly Reichardt, the film premiered in competition at Cannes and arrives in Sydney with serious auteur weight.
2. On Swift Horses
Daisy Edgar-Jones. Jacob Elordi. Will Poulter. Queer tension on the racetrack. Adapted from Shannon Pufahl’s acclaimed novel, this sweeping, high-desire period romance smoulders beneath 1950s Americana. One to cry about.
3. Dreams (Sex Love)
This year’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner from director Dag Johan Haugerud is a hypnotic meditation on creativity, desire and transgression, it’s the kind of film that makes you rethink what intimacy means, and how far you’ll go for it.
4. Vie Privée
Jodie Foster plays a psychiatrist-turned-amateur-sleuth in this Paris-set murder mystery. There’s a dead patient, a red herring or two, and all the luxe interiors you’d hope for. Think The Undoing meets Call My Agent!.
5. Slanted
A biting satire about race, identity and who gets to tell what story – straight out of SXSW and made by debut Aussie director Amy Wang. It’s already being compared to Get Out meets White Lotus, with a streak of millennial existentialism thrown in.
6. Twinless
A queer bromance with a chaotic edge – Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney star as best friends tangled up in grief, sex and identity. It’s fast, funny and full of feels. Catch it before it becomes everyone’s new comfort watch.
7. The Life of Chuck
Tom Hiddleston plays three versions of the same man in this sci-fi drama based on a Stephen King novella. Equal parts cosmic and crushing, it’s one of those high-concept heart-breakers that gets under your skin.
8. The End
A dystopian musical starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon about the end of the world. You don’t need to know more. But if you do: it's Oppenheimer's fiction debut. It’s strange, operatic, and unforgettable.
9. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
From Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s visual collaborator Kahlil Joseph comes this genre-smashing collage of Black history, media, and myth. A mind-melter that plays like a broadcast from the future – if the future had better taste.
