The Sydney Morning Herald logo
The Sydney Morning Herald logo

Film Festivals

Advertisement
Senuri Chandrani in Mad Rush, screening at MIFF 2026.

Is this how it feels to be young, broke, scammed and cast out on the street?

The new film Mad Rush, premiering at Melbourne International Film Festival, is urgent and powerful – and couldn’t be more relevant to many young people.

  • Karl Quinn

Latest

Star will lose control of its Brisbane casino and resort due to its financial troubles triggered by the events examined in ASIC’s case.

Brisbane International Film Festival cancelled for 2026, ‘new operating model’ sought

Screen Queensland has revealed BIFF will be “paused” and its executive director has departed.

  • Nick Dent
The Birthday Party’s Phill Calvert (left), Mick Harvey, Nick Cave and Tracy Pew in the documentary Mutiny in Heaven.

Two rarely screened documentaries capture St Kilda’s sticky carpet heyday

Punkline and Last Drinks are love letters to the once-thriving music and punk scenes of the south-side suburb.

  • Kylie Northover
Cristain Mungiu acknowledges the award on Saturday night.

No Berlin-style fracas, but at Cannes, the politics were on screen and off

A film about political polarisation has won the festival’s top prize – a fitting choice given the temper of the times.

  • Stephanie Bunbury
Bella Hadid, Demi Moore and Kristen Stewart at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

Sneakers and sheer gowns: The celebs who broke all the rules at Cannes

Bella Hadid and Demi Moore were among the most rebellious celebrities at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Plus, all the best red carpet moments.

  • Damien Woolnough
Samuel Felinton, the eponymous Talented Mr F.

He stole their film – so they made a movie about him as revenge

When two young filmmakers in Germany discovered an American was passing off their work as his own, they confronted him – with the cameras rolling.

  • Karl Quinn
Advertisement
Ella Bleu Travolta and her dad, John Travolta.

John Travolta flags Australian visit after donating ‘majestic’ Boeing 707 to museum

The veteran star was in Cannes for the premiere of his directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach when he delivered an update on the future of the plane.

  • Stephanie Bunbury
John Lennon and Yoko Ono in New York, 1980.

Why John Lennon’s son Sean watched Steven Soderbergh’s latest film with a lawyer

The director’s film John Lennon: The Last Interview uses a conversation conducted hours before the musician’s death in 1980. But that’s not what has observers feeling anxious.

  • Stephanie Bunbury
Cate Blanchett in Cannes on Sunday. She has taken aim at how quickly the #MeToo movement faded away.

Cate Blanchett laments that #MeToo movement ‘got killed very quickly’ in Hollywood

The Oscar-winning Australian star was speaking in Cannes when she took aim at how little has changed on film sets, despite the #MeToo movement.

  • Chris Hook
Adam Driver has responded to allegations made by his Girls co-star Lena Dunham in her memoir Famesick.

Adam Driver responds to Lena Dunham’s memoir allegations

Dunham accused her Girls co-star and on-screen love interest of behaving “something feral … half-man, half-beast” on set. Now he has broken his silence.

  • Chris Hook