No. 026 - SXSW Sydney 2025

SXSW Sydney has been and gone for another year. If you missed out or want to re-live your favourite finds, check out the wrap up below.

The Weed Eaters (Callum Devlin, 2025)

Awarded Best Feature Film at this year's SXSW Sydney, The Weed Eaters is the micro-budget feature from five New Zealand friends about a New Year's Eve camping trip gone horribly wrong. After smoking weed that leads to a taste for human flesh, the group must find a way to cover up their crimes before being found out. Not only is this a hilarious 80 minutes but it looks incredible for a film made on only $20K, instilling small flourishes which help to build the subversive atmosphere. It moves efficiently, keeping you locked in as the narrative careens to its violent end.

Die, My Love (Lynne Ramsay, 2025)

Lynne Ramsay's latest feature, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, is a maddening, grating experience for all the right reasons. It follows Grace (Lawrence) who moves to a rural house in Montana with her partner (Pattinson) and battles with postpartum depression, placing pressure on their relationship. The editing, sound design and performances are designed to disrupt and irritate. They throw you off balance and never settle into a pattern. And yet, despite this abrasiveness, there is a tender and earnest core to this film, centred on the stellar performance from Lawrence.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (Mary Bronstein, 2025)

Keeping to the theme of the fears of parenthood is Bronstein's first film in almost 20 years. Led by Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs, sees Linda struggle with her daughter's illness, the absence of her husband and a non-receptive therapist. While many films have been compared to Uncut Gems in recent years this is perhaps the closest in its claustrophobic nature and unrelenting momentum to the end. An extended anxiety attack about motherhood, feeling like the entire world is against you, If I Had Legs sees Byrne delivering an exceptional performance, supported by captivating deliveries from Conan O'Brien and A$AP Rocky.

BMX Bandits Live Script Read

On a sidestep to the traditional screen programme was the live table read of Brian Trenchard-Smith's two-wheel-based 80s action, BMX Bandits, hosted by Alexei Toliopoulos and Gen Fricker. A very funny experience that made overt the Catholic and creepy undertones of many kids films from this era. The night was made a highlight by the very-against-the-rules Lime bike ride down the Dendy theatre steps.

Just Dropped

The programme for 'First Films' has just been released. Showcasing at Golden Age, 'First Films' is a film festival focussed on debuting the first works from emerging filmmakers from around the globe. Partnering with the likes of Queer Screen, the Greek Film Festival and Static Vision, this year's programme promises several 4K restorations and Australian premieres. Check out the full programme here.

Fleapit Pick of the Week

If you saw The Secret Agent at SFF this year, or Bacurau a few years ago, you might be familiar with Kleber Mendonça Filho's work. If not, Neighbouring Sounds is the perfect place to start - his first fiction feature. I recently watched Pictures of Ghosts, his documentary released last year about the lost cinemas of Recife, and it opens with a eulogy to his home apartment, the same one in Neighbouring Sounds.

Neighbouring Sounds is screening for free at the Art Gallery of NSW on Wednesday as part of the Brazil! Brazil! film series. Details and tickets are available here.

Screenings: Thursday 23 October - Wednesday 29 October

NEW RELEASES:
Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro, 2025)

Regretting You (Josh Boone, 2025)

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (Scott Cooper, 2025)

Twinless (James Sweeney, 2025)

The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025)

Cinema Astragale
Cinematic Rarities and Oddities - A Series of Short Films
incl. premiere of It's Late and the Walls are Thin (Mal Crenin, 2025)
Thursday

Inner West Libraries Film Club
Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)
Friday

Greek Film Festival | selected highlights
Cheap Smokes (Renos Haralambidis, 2000)
w/ Q+A
Friday

No Budget Story (Renos Haralambidis, 1997)
w/ Q+A
Saturday

Athens Midnight Radio (Renos Haralambidis, 2024)
Closing Night Event
Sunday

Pink Flamingo Cinema
Brain Damage (Frank Henenlotter, 1988)
Wednesday

Slippery Screenings
Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette, 1981)
Friday

VHS Fleapit
Don't Panic (Ruben Galindo Jr., 1987)
Tuesday

AFTRS Library
The Witches (Nicolas Roeg, 1990)
Tuesday

Hayden Orpheum | selected highlights
The Travellers (Bruce Beresford, 2025)
Daily (except Sunday & Monday)

Jurassic Park + Jaws Double Feature (Steven Spielberg)
Saturday

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)
50th Anniversary
Saturday

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
Saturday

Golden Age Cinema | selected highlights
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025)
Saturday

Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, 2025)
Sunday

Us And The Night (Audrey Lam, 2024)
w/ director Q+A
Sunday

Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997)
Monday

Ritz Cinemas, Randwick | selected highlights
The Travellers (Bruce Beresford, 2025)
Daily

Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
World Kangaroo Day Q+A
Friday

Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2025)
Preview Event
Wednesday

Jim Jarmusch Less Is More (link)
Night on Earth (1991)
Thursday

Cult Classics (link)
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
Saturday & Monday

Celluloid Film (link)
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
Friday

Classic Matinees (link)
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
Saturday & Monday

Make It Musical (link)
Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 1986)
Sunday & Wednesday

Meet Cute (link)
Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993)
Tuesday

Dendy Newtown | selected highlights
Marlon Williams - Two Worlds – Ngā Ao E Rua (Ursula Grace Williams, 2025)
Dendy Exclusive
Daily (except Thursday & Friday)

The Travellers (Bruce Beresford, 2025)
Thursday

The Lord of the Rings - Marathon - Extended Editions
Saturday

Cells Out (link)
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)
Thursday

Palace Cinemas | selected highlights
The Travellers (Bruce Beresford, 2025)
Daily

Cult Vault (link)
The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon, 1985)
Monday

Matinee Memories (link)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
Saturday

Museum of Contemporary Art
A series of short films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Saturday

Art Gallery of NSW
Film Series: Focus on queer 中文 cinema
Spring fever (Lou Ye, 2009)
Saturday

Film Series: Brazil! Brazil! A century of cinema
Hour of the star (Suzana Amaral, 1985)
Sunday

Neighbouring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2012)
Wednesday

Sydney Opera House
Max Richter's Sleep (Natalie Johns, 2019)
Tuesday

Depeche Mode: M (Fernando Frias, 2025)
Tuesday

Best of Bloodfest Shorts
Wednesday