After exploring films only in French and multilingual titles that include French, this final chapter of our Adelaide Film Festival 2026 series focuses on French-linked works that tell their stories entirely in languages other than French. These films take us into: a technicolour storybook world of gauchos, puppets and painted sets where a magical bracelet offers escape; an exclusive Manila golf club that’s an immaculate playground for the wealthy; a marriage in Russia where suspicion spirals into violence as corporate expediency and state coercion close in; the lives of an Irish Traveller family eking out an existence in a tiny mobile home; and a family pilgrimage to visit nine Buddhist temples in a single day; and a look at the booming plastic surgery business in Iran.
At a competitive boarding school, teenage girls train for careers as professional mermaids in the world’s grandest aquariums. We join a bootcamp for ASL translators learning to reveal the heart of a song beating between the lyrics, from classical music to EDM. Unpredictable undercurrents form between textile workers in a Myanmar torn apart by brutal violence. Five lifelong friends hit thirty and find adulthood hasn’t delivered what it promised. A 16-year-old swimmer hopes to kiss a boy at a party she attends with her best friend. A Hungarian tourist park scattered with communist-era statues becomes a playground of memory and myth for four child interviewers; and a sister who left Iran for France travels to see her brother, who stayed behind and later exiled in New York, reconnecting through backgammon and road trips. Finally, sweeping mountain winds and distant military explosions shape daily life for a woman and a teenager living beside a NATO training ground.
Read on to explore all of these films below.
MULTINATIONAL FILMS NOT IN FRENCH AT ADELAIDE FILM FESTIVAL 2026
Director: Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Countries: Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Qatar
Language: Thai
When a fortune teller predicts that their elderly grandmother may soon die, nine members of a Thai family set out to visit nine Buddhist temples in a single day. Their pilgrimage becomes a gently funny procession of rituals, squabbles and competing obligations, revealing the rhythms of family life and contemporary Thailand.
Director: Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León
Countries: Chile, France, Germany, Netherlands & Uruguay
Language: Spanish
Princess Diana inhabits a Technicolour storybook world of gauchos, puppets and painted sets, until a magical bracelet offers escape. As fantasy fractures and new realities emerge, this shape-shifting Chilean tale asks whether freedom can ever release us from the bonds of love and obligation.
Director: Rafael Manuel
Countries: France, Netherlands, Philippines, Sinfapore, United Kingdom
Languages: English, Filipino & Iloko
At an exclusive Manila golf club, 17-year-old Isabel is one of the workers maintaining an immaculate playground for the wealthy. As her fascination with the club’s president draws her beyond its rigid social boundaries, the resort’s postcard beauty gives way to a darker world of privilege and power, revealing the club as a microcosm of the Philippines itself.
Director: Aung Phyoe
Countries: Czech Republic, France and Myanmar
Language: Burmese
A deep bond with unpredictable undercurrents forms between textile workers San Kyi and Theint Theint Oo. Is there a chance for something deeper between them or is the inexorable pull downwards inescapable in a Myanmar torn apart by brutal violence? Aung Phyoe’s heady drama dances between doom and desire.
I see buildings fall like lightning
Director: Clio Barnard
Countries: France, United Kingdom, United States
Language: English
Five lifelong friends hit thirty and find adulthood hasn’t delivered what it promised. Anthony Boyle, Lola Petticrew, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo and Daryl McCormack form an electrifying ensemble in Clio Barnard’s funny, bruising portrait of friendship and precarious Britain. Based on the novel by Keiran Goddard.
Director : Andrey Zyvagintsev
Countries: France, Germany, Latvia
Language: Russian
In 2022 Russia, marital suspicion spirals into violence as corporate expediency and state coercion close in. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s darkly majestic modern noir finds the same dehumanising logic at work in marriage, business and government.
Director: Fernanda Tovar
Countries: France and Mexico
Language: Spain
Sixteen-year-old swimmer Paula crushes on Daniel, hoping to kiss him at a party she attends with her best friend, La Maestra. But excitement turns to dread in the days that follow, during a sweltering summer in Mexico City. A deft exploration of consent that every teenager should see.
Director: Afsaneh Salari
Countries: France, Iran, Sweden
Language: Farsi
As women fight for their independence in Iran, the plastic surgery business is simultaneously booming in the nation’s capital, a place whose very architecture is likewise torn down and rebuilt on repeat. Afsaneh Salari’s tender, unjudgmental documentary, heading straight to Adelaide from Toronto International Film Festival, asks what lies behind this social phenomenon.
Directors: Vanessa Joo Dumont and Nicolas Davanel
Countries: France and United States
Language: English
A deaf person can feel music’s beat through their feet. Powerhouse Amber Galloway reckons the community deserves more. Join her bootcamp for ASL translators, teaching them to reveal the heart of a song beating between the lyrics, and the wordless highs and lows from classical music to EDM in this SXSW highlight.
Director: Alexander Murphy
Countries: France and Ireland
Language: English
Alexander Murphy’s intimate observational documentary takes us into the lives of an Irish Traveller family, eking out an existence in a tiny mobile home. The ten children frolic in the fields and prepare for their elaborate communions attuned to but still free of the challenges their parents face on the fringes of an Irish village.
Director: Konstantina Kotzamani
Countries: France, Germany, Greece, Romania and Spain
Language: Japanese
At a competitive boarding school, teenage girls find friendship and first love while training for careers as professional mermaids in the world’s grandest aquariums. In this mesmerising pop infused fantasy, Konstantina Kotzamani (What Mary Didn’t Know) again shows she has a wonderful eye for lyrical images and for truly original female coming-of-age stories.
Directors: Biljana Tutorov & Petar Glomazić
Countries: Croatia, France, Montenegro, Serbia & Slovenia
Language: Montenegrin
Sweeping mountain winds and distant military explosions shape daily life for Gara and teenage Nada in the potent and transportive To Hold a Mountain. Living beside a NATO military training ground in Montenegro’s mountains, the pair face the threat of displacement as another danger looms: Nada’s father is soon to be released from prison.
SHORT FILMS FROM BELGIUM NOT IN FRENCH
Director: Thais Fernandes
Countries: Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Portugal
Language: Hungarian
In a Hungarian tourist park scattered with communist-era statues, four children become an interviewing team, trying to discern the line between memory and myth.
This film screens with other short films in the World Shorts program.
FROM FRANCE BUT NOT IN FRENCH
Director: Mahsa Karampour
Country: France
Language: Persian
Mahsa Karampour left Iran for France. Her brother, Siavash, stayed and became an underground punk-rocker, later exiled to New York. Years on, Mahsa travels to reconnect – through backgammon, road trips and a very personal voiceover in Persian – in a film as much about her as him.
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Together, these works ask whether freedom can ever release us from the bonds of love and obligation; reveal a darker world of privilege and power in a microcosm of the Philippines; dance between doom and desire in a Myanmar torn apart by violence; and deliver a funny, bruising portrait of friendship and precarious Britain. They find the same dehumanising logic at work in marriage, business and government in 2022 Russia; offer a deft exploration of consent as a teenage swimmer’s hopes turn to dread; insist the deaf community deserves more than feeling music through their feet; and take us into the lives of an Irish Traveller family on the fringes of an Irish village. They sweep us into a mesmeric, pop‑infused fantasy of teenage mermaids training in the world’s grandest aquariums; frame the threat of displacement beside a NATO training ground in Montenegro; let children in a Hungarian statue park try to discern the line between memory and myth; and follow siblings separated by exile who reconnect through backgammon and road trips.
KEY INFO FOR ADELAIDE FILM FESTIVAL 2026
WHAT: Adelaide Film Festival 2026
WHEN: 14-25 October 2026
WHERE: Various cinemas in Adelaide
HOW: Purchase your tickets via the links above. Or, if you want to see multiple films, or there are several of you going to any one film, you may wish to purchase a Film Pass.
HOW MUCH:
Individual ticket prices are as follows:
Standard Screenings (exclusive of booking fee):
- Adult $25
- Concession $20
Saturday Night Party (exclusive of booking fee)
- $74 Full Price
- $64 Concession
Film Pass pricing (exclusive of booking fee):
3 Film Pass – $59 Full Price, $49 Concession
Valid for 3 standard screenings, or can be used for up to 3 tickets for a single session.
5 Film Pass – $95 Full Price. $79 Concession
This pass is valid for 5 standard screenings. Book up to 3 tickets per session.
10 Film Pass – $175 Full Price, $145 Concession
This pass is valid for 10 standard screenings. Book up to 4 tickets per session
Gold Pass $299 Full Price, $255 Concession.
1 ticket to all standard screenings, standby priority and an official AFF Lanyard
NOTE: You still need to book your spot in each session you wish to attend – the pass alone does not guarantee a seat
Platinum Pass $599 Full Price, $525 Concession.
The blockbuster of passes!
1 ticket to all standard screenings and galas, select party and event invitations, standby priority, concierge booking service, and an official AFF lanyard.
Pass benefits are non-transferable and tickets must be booked to guarantee a seat.
OTHER TICKET OPTIONS
Pay what you can – students, Centrelink Health Care and Pension card holders
Equity ticketing is available for weekday sessions before 4pm. You can purchase them in the app or online and simply pay how much you choose to.
AFF Rushes
$10 tickets will be released at midday every day of the festival on the AFF app.
