Every Australian Film Premiering At MIFF 2026

MIFF 2026 will once again showcase a huge selection of Australian films, from features and documentaries to world premieres.

Wicker is leading the festival as the opening-night premiere, which comes from Australian-born filmmaker Elanor Wilson alongside Alex Huston Discher. The film stars Olivia Colman alongside a star-filled cast.

And then the ‘MIFF Premiere Fund’ is bringing six other Australian films to the festival screen, including Mad Rush, a literal rush through Melbourne’s CBD; Sweet Milk Lake, about a trans man who finds his place within a community with a deep secret; and more.

Here are the details of all the Australian films in MIFF 2026.

Wicker

In a seaside village lost to time, a fisherwoman delivers the food relied on by the townsfolk, who barely tolerate her cantankerous presence. Unexpectedly named the next to wed and sick of the disdain, she commissions the local basketmaker to weave her the perfect husband, and he goes above and beyond. When you’re married to the hottest and handiest man around, however, jealousies inevitably flare up.

Digby & Camille

Archibald Prize–selected painter Digby Webster and his girlfriend, trainee chef Camille Collins, have been mutually smitten since they first met eight years ago in a Sydney pub. Living with Down syndrome and now in their thirties, they imagine a future of wedded bliss, children and a home of their own – but more difficult truths have to be embraced first, as they navigate the demands of jobs and devoted parents who tend to squeeze the brakes on their loftier ambitions. As the couple experience numerous small frustrations and triumphs from moment to moment, however, their passion for one another never wavers.

Mad Rush

Madisha’s morning couldn’t get any worse: a rootless Gen Z already struggling to find her purpose in life, she’s just learned that her housemate is ditching her and is still reeling from having lost her most recent job under cloudy circumstances. So when she gets a call advising her of fraudulent activity on her bank account and urgently requesting that she withdraw all of her money in cash, Madisha is sent on a panicked odyssey through the Melbourne CBD – a pursuit that leads her to ominous alleyways, busy street corners, an alcohol-soaked house party and, perhaps, the fledgling desire to take charge of her own life.

Sweet Milk Lake

City boy Jake is at a loose end. Unemployed, single and holed up in a granny flat behind his family home, he lives in the shadow of his cisgender twin brother, successful real estate agent Sam. On an impulse, he takes a trip to the remote country town of Sweet Milk, where his terminally ill, estranged father (Kieran Darcy-Smith) still lives, totally unaware that Jake has transitioned. When his dad mistakes him for Sam and Jake misses the moment to correct him, an unforeseen opportunity lands in his lap: to fit in as masculine in a place where nobody suspects he’s trans. Adopting Sam’s identity, he manages to connect with his father for the first time, while a budding romance with local Toby (Hunter Page-Lochard, Kid Snow, MIFF 2024) – himself an outsider in this macho setting – offers further reinvigoration. But the longer Jake spends in Sweet Milk, the more tangled the web he weaves. How long can he hold on to his secret, and what will happen if the truth gets out?

Jebediah: Are We Ok?

Perth alt rockers Jebediah were a breed apart in the halcyon days of the late-90s and early-2000s Australian indie music scene. In stark contrast to the often volatile and soon-to-splinter groups they toured with, the easygoing quartet – lead singer Kevin Mitchell (aka Bob Evans), his drummer brother Brett, bassist Ness Thornton and lead guitarist Chris Daymond – stuck fast to one another. Commanding national attention on triple j and soon channelling the cred of multiple studio albums into their own record label, Jebediah seemed like quintessential industry survivors. But as the band entered its third decade, the freewheeling lifestyle of their youth had begun to cast a shadow. With recreation shifting to addiction and connections fraying, will these lifelong friends and creative partners find a way to keep the music alive?

Death of a Shaman

In a village deep in the Amazon jungle, Indigenous shaman Chundarumi “Rafael” Yu practises the sacred customs of his ancestors. As this community elder approaches the end of his life, he hopes to pass his mantle on to his teenage grandson, a devoted student who is nonetheless torn between this heavy responsibility and the opportunities offered by Western education. What’s at stake here is more than just one community’s future, however: this crisis of succession occurs against the backdrop of rising economic pressures and a steady incursion of mining and oil corporations into the Amazon, granted a green light by Ecuador’s pro-market government. As the nation’s Indigenous peoples launch a countrywide protest that takes them to the streets of Quito and into violent conflict with armed forces, Rafael uses the traditional medicine of ayahuasca to seek answers from the spirit world.

Hard as Puck

The Perth-based Garden Island Pirates are the best para ice hockey team in Western Australia. There’s no competition … literally. A scrappy, mixed-gender group of amateurs, they strap on sledges to play against one another as stoically deadpan founder and would-be figure-skater Dan Perrett calls the shots from the sidelines. Booking the rink is half the trouble, and much of the group’s time away from it is spent negotiating volunteer committee positions and wrangling sponsorships. That all changes, however, when three women on the team earn the opportunity to represent Australia in its first ever appearance at the Women’s World Para Ice Hockey Championships in Slovakia. Scheduled to compete against heavyweights like Norway and the United States in a bruising, physically demanding sport, the newcomers aren’t given a snowflake’s chance in hell – but that doesn’t mean that they’re not about to go down swinging.

Wilderness

Affable oaf Nick (Jai Courtney, Felony, MIFF Closing Night 2014) cruises through life courtesy of his rich daddy’s money, and his fiancée Kori (Emily Browning, One More Shot, MIFF 2025) has just accepted his marriage proposal. But when he discovers she’s been cheating on him – with the husband of her best friend! – everything unravels. While out hunting one day, he catches a talking fox, who tells him there’s a magical pit in the forest that can fix all of his problems. Nick hatches a plan … but they don’t call foxes tricksters for nothing.

The Fox

Affable oaf Nick (Jai Courtney, Felony, MIFF Closing Night 2014) cruises through life courtesy of his rich daddy’s money, and his fiancée Kori (Emily Browning, One More Shot, MIFF 2025) has just accepted his marriage proposal. But when he discovers she’s been cheating on him – with the husband of her best friend! – everything unravels. While out hunting one day, he catches a talking fox, who tells him there’s a magical pit in the forest that can fix all of his problems. Nick hatches a plan … but they don’t call foxes tricksters for nothing.

Our Effed Up World

Sheri (Sara Thompson, One of Us Is Lying) hasn’t been okay since her beloved grandma (Kerry Armstrong, Lantana, MIFF 2001) died. She’s over her annoying boyfriend Harry (Jordan Dulieu, The Serpent’s Skin), and resents her astronomer dad Hank (Scott Major, Neighbours) for avoidantly watching the skies. When a glowing green meteorite crash-lands near their small town and its passenger starts melding gruesomely with locals, humanity’s last hope is Sheri, her dad and her Scooby Gang of mates: Poppy (Annapurna Sriram, Fucktoys), Ash (Karis Oka, The Deb) and Finn (Jess McLeod, One of Us Is Lying), whose run-down video store has become the alien’s lair.

Facing The Numbers

The numbers don’t lie: First Nations people are disproportionately more likely to be separated from their families, incarcerated as both youths and adults, and become victims of police brutality. But, as Facing the Numbers states on opening: “The statistics tell one story; we tell another.” Sharing the voices of members of the Stolen Generations, those who have lost family members to deaths in custody and survivors of violence in custody, this unique hybrid anthology – a mixture of memoir, music video, poetry, dance, journalism and activism – lends space to the personal stories behind experience of disadvantage and institutionalised violence.

Sentient

Dr Lisa Jones-Engel is a passionate primatologist who reflects, with a mix of sadness and horror, on her past work at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates. It was enough to turn her from animal tester to animal welfare advocate, as contemporary and archival footage – both personal and professional – relates. Through the perspectives of other frontline scientists discussing the fraught balance of human needs and animal rights, one compelling fact emerges: animal testing does psychological harm not just to its physical victims, but also to its human practitioners.

Time and Tide

When his father suffers a stroke, Melbourne-based filmmaker Vee Shi returns to his hometown, Longtian, Fuqing, in south-eastern China, a small rural community that he left behind when he was 13. As the family’s proud, stubborn patriarch struggles with his compromised health and need for care, his estranged wife and daughter – who, due to China’s one-child policy, was given up for adoption prior to the director’s birth – are suddenly entrusted with the duty, and burden, of looking after a man who has often treated them badly. These strained family dynamics evoke a bigger-picture portrait of changing Chinese society and social values, where the once-total dedication to family is falling away.

Replica

Disillusioned with her romantic and professional prospects, Qin embarks on a relationship with Mr Lu, a customisable AI lover who accompanies her everywhere – including (with help from a paid cosplayer) on physical dates. Pragmatic Sonya, meanwhile, is overwhelmed by big-city life and finds solace in Stephen, her virtual husband, who has even met her parents. And Muna, whose marriage has long gone sour, gets the devotion she seeks through a simulated companion on ChatGPT. Are these digital bonds just about escapism and desperation, or are they legitimate surrogates when real life falls short?

Tina Arena: Unravel Me

Tina Arena has been in the music business for 50 years; after 25 albums, she’s had enough eras to make other pop stars envious. Born in suburban Melbourne to Sicilian parents, Filippina Arena became Australia’s darling in 1976, aged eight, on Channel Ten’s prime-time variety show Young Talent Time. Her breakout 1990 pop single ‘I Need Your Body’ raunchily repudiated “Tiny Tina”, and she went on to score a soaring run of 90s hits … but self-doubt, misogyny and tall-poppy syndrome drove her to reinvent herself repeatedly in the UK and France: taking to the stage; seeking adventurous collaborations; and singing in Italian, French and Spanish.

Tickets for MIFF 2026 are on sale now. Are you planning on attending? Which films are you looking forward to checking out? Let me know in the comment section below.

[Descriptions have been provided by MIFF]