All Films
Independent Cinema
A Ghost Story
An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, and a wholly-unique experience that lingers long after the film credits roll.
Asia in Focus, Documentary
A Memory in Khaki
In 2009, the streets of Damascus teemed with people and markets brimmed with life. This is a lyrical documentary about the Syrian Civil War that weaves five personal stories about life under the Assad regime, highlighting years of silence, fear and terror.
Special Event
Australian Cinematography Society NT Awards
Hosted by Ray Martin this gala evening features the best TV, short films, music videos and documentaries shot by NT cinematographers in the past two years. Join us for a 3 course dinner or come for the film program only; either way this will be one of the highlights of the festival. Dinner and Show…
Animation
Best of Annecy
Annecy International Film Festival traverses the world far and wide with its Best of Annecy 2017 program combining a selection of prize-winning shorts from the latest festival.
Animation
Best of Annecy Kids 2017
From houseproud hedgehogs to pocket-sized musicians, Best of Annecy Kids 2017 is a special program for younger fans of animation.
Indigenous Visions
Best of Territory Shorts
Discover some of the best new shorts, made right here in the Territory.
Eurocentric
BPM
Set in 1990s Paris to a thumping house music score, BPM is both a powerful film about people politicised by a disease and a highly acclaimed drama that tackles the illness with passion, humour and sensitivity.
Asia in Focus, Documentary
Burma Storybook
This documentary circles around the story of the country’s most famous dissident poet alive today, Maung Aung Pwint, as he recounts a life spent in exile and in jail and waits for his long-lost son to return home.
Documentary, Independent Cinema
Chauka – Please Tell Us The Time
Over a period of several months, Iranian journalist and Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani had access to a phone. In secret, and with help from Iranian-Dutch filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani, Boochani created a film which portrays what he describes as “the coarsening banality and repetition” of indefinite detention.
Indigenous Visions, Special Event
CLOSING NIGHT FILM: The Song Keepers
In the obscure churches of remote Central Australia, a hidden musical legacy of ancient Aboriginal languages, sacred poetry and baroque music is being preserved by the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir.
Independent Cinema
Ellipsis
Set in Sydney over the course of one night, Ellipsis is a portrait of the city, celebrating the distinct nature and idiosyncrasies of the people that live and work there.
Independent Cinema
Endless Poetry
Through Alejandro Jodorowsky’s autobiographical lens, Endless Poetry narrates the years of the artist’s youth during which he was introduced into the foremost bohemian artistic circle of 1940s Chile.
Special Event
Fury Road: Black & Chrome & POST-APOCALYPTIC COSTUME PARTY!
Ditching the vibrant colours of the 2015 cinema release, this black-and-white version is director George Miller’s preferred vision of his post-apocalyptic world.
Independent Cinema
Good Time
Good Time recalls the grit and urgency of ‘70s New Hollywood films such as Taxi Driver, Mean Streets and Dog Day Afternoon. The new unpredictable thriller from white-hot indie directors the Safdie brothers.
Animation
Ivan Tsarevitch and the Changing Princess
The latest film from virtuoso silhouettist Michel Ocelot is a visually sumptuous journey through four wildly different worlds of imagination and intrigue.
Documentary
Keepers of the Magic
Celebrating the breathtaking cinematic moments that have transfixed audiences around the world, this documentary explores our fascination with moving images and provides insight into how cinema’s most iconic moments came to be.
Asia in Focus
King of Peking
Set in 1990s Beijing, this film follows the story of a former projectionist feeling the impacts of the home entertainment industry. Together with his young son, he starts creating and selling pirated bootlegged DVDs.
Asia in Focus
Lipstick Under My Burkha
Set in the crowded by-lanes of small town India, Lipstick Under My Burkha chronicles the secret lives of four women in search of a little freedom.
Animation, Eurocentric
Loving Vincent
Loving Vincent is the world’s first fully painted feature film, using 125 oil paint artists to help bring together the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to tell his extraordinary life story.
Independent Cinema
Manifesto
From acclaimed visual artist Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto features a chameleonic Cate Blanchett in 13 distinct, must-see vignettes that incorporate timeless manifestos from 20th century art movements.
Documentary
Mountain
Why do mountains now hold us spellbound, drawing us into their dominion, often at the cost of our lives? Mountain explores this question in a cinematic and musical collaboration featuring the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Eurocentric
November
A potent, heady mixture of magic, black humour and romantic love smouldering persistently against the cold muddy toil of serfdom.
Asia in Focus, Comedy, Drama, Special Event
OPENING NIGHT GALA: Lipstick Under My Burkha
Set in the crowded by-lanes of small town India, Lipstick Under My Burkha chronicles the secret lives of four women in search of a little freedom.
Asia in Focus, Comedy
Pop Aye
A road movie, set in Thailand. It tells the story of Thana, a disenchanted architect, who bumps into his long lost childhood elephant on the streets of Bangkok.
Comedy, Eurocentric
Rock’n Roll
Featuring Canet as himself and real-life partner Marion Cotillard as herself, Rock’n Roll pushes the celebrity satire genre to new extremes.
Documentary
Score – A Film Music Documentary
What makes a film score unforgettable? Hollywood’s elite composers give viewers a privileged look inside the musical challenges and creative secrecy of the world’s most international music genre.
Independent Cinema
Song to Song
In this modern love story set against the Texas music scene, two couples chase success through a rock ‘n’ roll landscape of seduction and betrayal.
Independent Cinema, Special Event
SPARK – Short Film Showcase
The SPARK Short Film Initiative guides local emerging filmmakers from script to screen, premiering these shorts at DIFF.
Animation, Asia in Focus
Tehran Taboo
The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician intersect in this portrait of Tehran as a schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious law.
Indigenous Visions, Special Event
The Documentary of Dr G Yunupingu’s Life
A soaring, evocative audio-visual journey into the life, culture and landscapes of one of Australia’s most beloved singers – Dr G Yunupingu.
Asia in Focus, Documentary
The Opposition
This investigative documentary follows activist Joe Moses as he battles the courts and risks to his own life to save 3,000 people from being forcibly and even violently evicted from their homes.
Eurocentric
The Square
A poignant satirical drama reflecting our times and the confused identity of the modern male.
Indigenous Visions
Westwind: Djalu’s Legacy
Djalu is an aging tribal elder, a yidaki master and custodian of an ancient dreaming. Feeling he has no-one to inherit his sacred and esoteric traditional songlines, Djalu seeks a solution.