Film screenings and festivals in Sydney

Tuesday 6 Oct · 12:30pm – 1:10pm

We are happy to share the next event in the Eatalian Talks series at our institute, highlighting the Italian contribution to science fiction. Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival’s director Simon Foster will present an in-depth look at the two Italian films screening at the 2026 edition supported by Istituto Italiano di Cultura – Mario Bava’s 1965 masterwork Planet of the Vampires and Luciana Sympa’s digital rendering of the classic 1936 comic Saturn Against the Earth.

Thursday 8 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:55pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Friday 9 Oct · 2:30pm – 10:30pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Friday 9 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival delivers once again on its mission to provide the largest launching pad possible for ground-breaking speculative cinema from Australia and across the globe. This year, our celebration of visionary science fiction/fantasy works will be presenting the World Premieres of three Australian feature films - Enzo Tedeschi's generations-spanning drama RESONANCE; Steven Kastrissios' expansive, brooding, Albanian-set fantasy, SKYBREAKERS; and, Sean Bell's ode to our inner-city denizens of the future, ELECTRIC FEEL.

Saturday 10 Oct · 11:00am – 9:00pm

Australia's darkest film festival returns for one unmissable day - Saturday October 10 - in one of Sydney's best micro-cinemas - The Reservoir Cinema. The third edition of Dark Nights Film Fest - an annual celebration of independent horror and dark genre films and filmmakers and the community that surrounds them - is showcasing 30 new films from Australia and around the world.

Saturday 10 Oct · 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Ninety years ago, a young Cesare Zavattini, the father of Neorealism, imagined the future by creating the first Italian science fiction comic series – Saturno contro la Terra. It is a work that has become iconic in global graphic novel history. To celebrate its 90th anniversary, Italian digital craftspeople have brought the characters to life using cutting-edge animation technologies. This special event screening, brought to Event Cinemas as part of the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival in conjunction with The Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney, will also include an interview with Prof. Lorenzo Benadusi on the history and social impact of Italian science fiction over a century of cinema.

Saturday 10 Oct · 2:00pm – 10:55pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Saturday 10 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival delivers once again on its mission to provide the largest launching pad possible for ground-breaking speculative cinema from Australia and across the globe. This year, our celebration of visionary science fiction/fantasy works will be presenting the World Premieres of three Australian feature films - Enzo Tedeschi's generations-spanning drama RESONANCE; Steven Kastrissios' expansive, brooding, Albanian-set fantasy, SKYBREAKERS; and, Sean Bell's ode to our inner-city denizens of the future, ELECTRIC FEEL.

Sunday 11 Oct · 1:45pm – 10:50pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Sunday 11 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival delivers once again on its mission to provide the largest launching pad possible for ground-breaking speculative cinema from Australia and across the globe. This year, our celebration of visionary science fiction/fantasy works will be presenting the World Premieres of three Australian feature films - Enzo Tedeschi's generations-spanning drama RESONANCE; Steven Kastrissios' expansive, brooding, Albanian-set fantasy, SKYBREAKERS; and, Sean Bell's ode to our inner-city denizens of the future, ELECTRIC FEEL.

Sunday 18 Oct · 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Free Event. A celebration of inclusive filmmaking, sharing stories that challenge perceptions and celebrate the abilities of people with disability.

Wednesday 28 Oct · 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Waverley Library is excited to present a screening of the critically acclaimed documentary Ghost in the Machine (2026) as part of our Technocritical lecture and film series delving deeper into issues of technology and political economy prevalent in today's world. An official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, Ghost in the Machine is a gripping and urgently relevant investigative documentary that exposes the buried history of artificial intelligence, not as a neutral system of algorithms, but as a technology shaped by racism, misogyny, eugenics, and entrenched structures of power long before it entered everyday life.

Tuesday 17 Nov · 12:00am – 12:00pm

From 17 to 29 November 2026, the Japanese Film Festival (JFF) returns to Sydney to showcase the best of contemporary Japanese filmmaking, featuring Australian premieres, international festival favourites, award-winning features and box-office hits from some of Japan's leading directors. The festival opens with the Australian premiere of Look Back, the highly anticipated new title from acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. Other highlights include Tokyo Taxi from the legendary Yōji Yamada, Cannes-selected animated feature We Are Aliens, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's samurai drama The Samurai and the Prisoner, Berlinale prize winner AnyMart, Takashi Miike's SHAM, and the hit romantic drama 1st Kiss. In addition to its festival lineup, JFF 2026 presents a dedicated Animation Showcase, a free retrospective celebrating legendary composer Tōru Takemitsu, and a selection of the latest releases direct from the Japanese box office.