Queens of the Dead
Five Star Cinemas, New Farm, Thu Nov 27, 7.45pm
Dendy Coorparoo, Fri Nov 28, 8pm
Drag queens and club kids join forces to combat flesh-eating zombies at a Brooklyn warehouse party. If that’s not recommendation enough, the film is directed by Tina Romero, daughter of zombie movie legend George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead).
Flathead
Five Star Cinemas, New Farm, Fri Nov 28, 1pm
An acclaimed film from Queensland director Jaydon Martin, Flathead is a beautiful docufiction in black and white about two unforgettable characters in Bundaberg. Cass is an elderly man in declining health who is discovering religion, while local fish and chip shop owner Andrew is using Buddhism to help deal with the loss of his father.
No Other Choice
Five Star Cinemas, New Farm, Thu Nov 27, 7.30pm
Reading Newmarket, Fri Nov 28, 7.25pm
Palace Barracks, Sat Nov 29, 4.30pm
Korean auteur Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) directs this darkly comic story about a man who can’t get a job to save himself and resorts to increasingly violent and unhinged acts to reduce the competition.
Rose Byrne, whose character fights to get her impounded car back in Tow.Credit: Courtesy BIFF
Tow
Five Star Cinemas, New Farm, Fri Nov 28, 5.15pm
Rose Byrne stars as a homeless woman who fights to have her impounded car returned. Renowned US TV director Stephanie Laing will visit for the international premiere of her timely drama.
Bring It On
The Star Leisure Deck, Fri Nov 28, 6pm
Live cheerleaders and a visit by big-name Hollywood director Peyton Reed (Ant-Man) are just two of the reasons to attend this 25th anniversary screening of the Kirsten Dunst teen comedy that’s also a sharp satire. You can get a meal and a welcome drink for an extra $30.
Retreat is a thriller made by deaf filmmakers starring a deaf cast.Credit: Courtesy BIFF
Retreat
Palace Barracks, Fri Nov 28, 8pm
Reading Newmarket, Sat Nov 29, 5pm
Maybe you’ve seen plenty of foreign language films, but have you ever seen a film in British Sign Language? Retreat is a chiller by deaf director Ted Evans set in a Berlin deaf community.
M*A*S*H
Palace Barracks, Sat Nov 29, 2pm
Robert Altman’s landmark 1970 war comedy made a star of the late Donald Sutherland and inspired one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. It’s been selected by Mad Max filmmaker George Miller, who is returning to BIFF as its patron for the first time in 20 years.
The gala screening of A Life Illuminated will include a panel with director Tasha Van Zandt and a performance by Dead Puppet Society puppeteers.Credit: Courtesy BIFF
A Life Illuminated
The Star Leisure Deck, Sat Nov 29, 6pm (gala)
Palace Barracks, Sun Nov 30, 5.10pm
This documentary concerns marine biologist Dr Edith Widder, who explores the ocean pursuing bioluminescence – sea creatures that create their own light. The gala event has a panel with director Tasha Van Zandt plus Dead Puppet Society puppeteers bringing the underwater world to life in the open air.
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley will be followed by a concert starring Katie Noonan.Credit: Courtesy BIFF
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley
South Bank Piazza, Sun Nov 30, 6pm
Thirty years after the release of Jeff Buckley’s album Grace, filmmaker Amy Berg (and producer Brad Pitt) have made a powerful documentary tribute to the troubled singer, with a wealth of footage. After the film, sit back and hear a live track by track performance of Grace sung by Jack Carty, Asha Jefferies, Jaguar Jonze, Moreton, Mark Moroney, Katie Noonan, Tyrone Noonan, Sue Ray and Jude York. Don’t forget the tissues.
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Ten more highlights
Prize-winning thrillers from this year’s Cannes Film Festival are screening. Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident is a low-budget effort from Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi. Wagner Moura (Narcos) stars in an epic political thriller from Brazil, The Secret Agent; and the devastating Sirat has a father and daughter searching Morocco for a missing family member.
From Japan, prolific cult director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) directs a prison crime film about aspiring MMA fighters, Blazing Fists, while the liminal horror of video game Exit 8 is adapted to a film in which an office worker navigates an endless subway.
Satirical horror is showcased in an irreverent take on Dracula made in Transylvania, while Thailand’s A Useful Ghost has a dead woman’s spirit inhabiting a vacuum cleaner.
Happy Birthday, which centres on an eight-year-old girl, exposes classism, poverty, and child exploitation.Credit: Courtesy BIFF
In Happy Birthday, an eight-year-old maid’s efforts to organise her employer’s party exposes class divides in Egypt. Learn the story of Asian-American burlesque film star Tura Satana (Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) in Tura!; while Imagine is a futuristic animated film by Australian First Nations filmmakers.
BIFF 2025 runs November 27-30.
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