The Brisbane International Film Festival 2025 brings a diverse, daring and deeply human selection of French and Francophone cinema to Brisbane screens over the next four days. From Cannes award-winners to visually audacious experiments and intimate character studies, this year’s program spans searing political thrillers, poetic documentaries, imaginative animation and modern tales of love, loss and reinvention.
Audiences can step into the moral maelstrom of Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, witness the tender resilience of the young women in the Dardenne brothers’ Young Mothers, follow Sergi López on a desert search for his missing daughter in Oliver Laxe’s Sirat, and marvel at Momoko Seto’s genre-defying, dialogue-free Dandelion’s Odyssey. Add to that the dazzling operatic reimagining of Orpheus in The Opera!, the warm wit of Eric K. Boulianne’s Follies, the powerful portrait of Senegalese dance icon Germaine Acogny, Isabella Huppert in Flora Lau’s Paris-set Luz, the heartfelt humour of Anne Émond’s Peak Everything, and the wonderfully weird charm of A Useful Ghost, Brisbane International Film Festival 2025 promises four days of cinema that is bold, beautiful and truly boundary-pushing.
FILMS FROM FRANCE IN FRENCH AT BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Countries: France,
Language: French
Director: Laura Wandel
Opened Critics’ Week at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival
The family court has ordered a restriction on Adam’s visiting hours from his own mother, Rebecca. Adam is a malnourished young boy in hospital care under the supervision of the head nurse, who can’t get him to eat unless his mother is by his side. Despite the insistence of the law and Rebecca’s unhealthy level of control over Adam’s diet, head nurse Lucie bends to rules to allow Rebecca to be a key part of young Adam’s recovery.
FRENCH LANGUAGE FILMS FROM FROM BELGIUM & CANADA
Country: Canada
Language; French
Director: Eric K. Boulianne
After sixteen years and two kids, François and Julie’s spark is fading. Desperate to reconnect and inspired by their much younger friends, they decide to open their relationship with the vaguest of hopes that new sexual experiences will lead to self-discovery. As their experience grows and their inhibitions shrink, their journey of (re)discovery brings unexpected but perhaps not unwelcome complications.
Writer and director Eric K. Boulianne, starring opposite Catherine Chabot, delivers the rarest kind of romantic drama – a candid and honest sex comedy full of empathy for its characters as they try and fail to find and then articulate what they truly want. A big-hearted look at the messy beauty of modern love, and life.
Country: Belgium
Language: French
Director: Dardenne brothers
The Dardennes return with another superbly affecting drama, about five young mothers housed in a Belgian shelter. Winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes. In their latest work – also one of their most acclaimed – the revered Belgian filmmakers, explore the hopes and vulnerabilities of five young mothers at a shelter in Liège with tender clarity. Jessica craves the acceptance of her own mother, while Perla hopes that a baby will draw her delinquent boyfriend closer. Recovering addict Julie sees a brighter future for herself as a mother alongside her caring fiancé, but Ariane feels desperately unprepared for the challenges ahead. Single mother Naïma, meanwhile, is newly employed and hopes to repair relations with her disapproving family. Working from observations of a real shelter, the Dardennes skilfully interweave these narrative strands into a beautifully observed study of motherhood’s upheaval and the precious fragility of humanity.
MULTILINGUAL FILMS AT BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Germaine Acogny: The Essence of Dance/L’essence de la danse
Country: Australia
Languages : French, English, Fon, Wolof.
Director: Greta-Marie Becker
This feature documentary celebrates Germaine Acogny – the pioneering Senegalese dancer and choreographer whose groundbreaking Acogny Technique became the first African dance method recognised in the world of modern dance. Blending traditional African rhythms with Western contemporary forms, the “Mother of African Contemporary Dance” forged a new movement vocabulary that speaks to freedom, identity, and resilience.
Through intimate encounters and archival footage, the film traces her remarkable journey revealing a woman who has continually redefined independence: as an artist, as a woman, and as a Black African voice shaping the world of dance.
Peak Everything/ Amour Apocalypse
Country: Canada
Language: English, French
Director: Anne Émond
Adam, a kind-hearted kennel owner, has long suffered from anxiety and depression. He purchases a light-therapy lamp to try and heal, but instead falls for Tina, the girl on the other side of the supplier’s tech support line. When a natural disaster strikes, Adam must face his own fears of isolation and the outside world in order to find her. Peak Everything premiered at Cannes, was selected to close TIFF 2025 and won the Grand Prize at Cabourg, cementing its reputation as one of the most heartfelt and ambitious rom-coms of the year.
Country: France, Spain
Languages: Spanish; French; English; Arabic
Director: Oliver Laxe
A father (Sergi López) and his son arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. They’re searching for Mar, daughter and sister, who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties. Surrounded by electronic music and a raw, unfamiliar sense of freedom, they hand out her photo again and again. Hope is fading but they push through and follow a group of ravers heading to one last party in the desert. As they venture deeper into the burning wilderness, the journey forces them to confront their own limits.
A PARIS SET FILM WITH A FRENCH STAR
Country: China
Languages: Chinese, French, English
Director: Flora Lau
SET IN PARIS AND STARRING ISABELLE HUPPERT
From writer‑director Flora Lau comes a haunting dual‑journey through VR and reality that traces two broken families. Wei, in an animated neon‑soaked Chongqing, who aches to reconnect with his estranged daughter Fa, and Ren, in real life Paris, who is becoming unhappy by the growing distance with her terminally ill stepmother, Sabine. Their lives intertwine through an immersive virtual world and an allusive mystical deer who reveals hidden truths, forcing the pair to confront love, loss and what it means to heal. Luz premiered in competition at the 2025 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition and earned praise for its mesmerizing visuals and thematic ambition.
NO DIALOGUE
Countries: Belgium, France
No dialogue
Director: Momoko Seto
Dandelion’s Odyssey follows a non-dialogue narrative starring four Dandelions surviving a catastrophic nuclear attack on Earth, propelling them into a grand outer space adventure in the search for a new home. Each Dandelion – Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto, and Taraxa – has distinct personalities that director Momoko Seto shows subtly through the rustling of a stalk or shake of a pappus. Skillfully crafted across Japan, France and Iceland, this piece expands the boundaries of animation by blending live-action, stop motion and computer-generated composition.
FRENCH CO-PRODUCTIONS NOT IN FRENCH AT BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Afternoons of Solitude/ Tardes de soledad
Countries: France, Portugal, Spain
Languages: Spanish, Portuguese
Director: Albert Serra
Golden Shell for Best Film at San Sebastián 2024
Afternoons of Solitude offers a meditative, immersive portrait of Peruvian matador Andrés Roca Rey, following fourteen brutal yet ritualistic bullfights without narration or commentary. Through quiet preparation and visceral in‑ring sequences, we get to intimately know Rey’s day to day and have an exclusive insight into his after thoughts. The documentary allows audiences to draw its own conclusions on topics of Toxic Masculinity, Narcissism, Cultural Practice and Animal Cruelty through it’s brutal and unedited depictions of Spanish bullfighting.
A Useful Ghost/Un fantôme utile
Countries: Thailand, Singapore, Germany, France
Languages: Thai, English, Lao
Director: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
After Nat dies from dust poisoning, her ghost takes over a vacuum cleaner made in her mother-in-law’s factory. She uses her new form to try to reconnect with her grieving husband, March, both emotionally and physically. But March’s family is horrified. They never liked Nat when she was alive, and they like her even less as a household appliance. Hoping to win them over, Nat sets out to prove she can be a “useful ghost” by cleaning up the spirits of dead workers who now haunt the factory’s machines. Nat’s story sits at the heart of a wild, funny and surprisingly moving mix of horror, romance and comedy from filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. With dry humour and incisive social satire, A Useful Ghost will appeal to fans of Yorgos Lanthimos or Aki Kaurismäki.
It Was Just An Accident/Un simple accident
Countries: France, Iran
Language: Farsi
Director: Jafar Panahi
Winner of the 2025 Palme d’Or. France’s entry for Best International Feature at the Oscars.
Eghbal’s car breaks down after an accident while driving at night with his wife and daughter. Looking for a mechanic to fix his car he meets Vahid, a former political prisoner. Vahid believes Eghbal is the officer who once tortured him. Consumed by revenge, Vahid kidnaps him but doubts start creeping in, as he never saw his torturer’s face.
Jafar Panahi’s urgent, politically charged road movie thriller melds moral dilemmas, tension and humour to create an extraordinary critique of oppression, righteousness and retribution.
Country: France, Italy
Language: Italian
Directors: Paolo Gep Cucco and Davide Livermore
This musical adventure is a daring, visually audacious retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, directed by Paolo Gep Cucco and Davide Livermore. After Eurydice is tragically killed on her wedding day Orpheus ventures into the surreal underworld, reimagined as the old grand Hotel Hades, to find her. Blending traditional arias with modern electronic sound, fashion, CGI crafted virtual sets and symbolic imagery, The Opera! premiered at the Rome Film Festival to strong critical praise for its daring ambition and breath-taking spectacle of colours.
—
Whether you’re drawn to stories of fractured families searching for connection, mothers navigating hope and hardship, lovers losing and rediscovering themselves, or visionary artists pushing film into new realms, the Brisbane International Film Festival 2025 offers something to surprise and stir every kind of cinéphile. With a lineup featuring Cannes winners, celebrated auteurs and unforgettable performances—from malnourished Adam in Adam’s Sake to the mystical worlds of Luz and the heartfelt humour of A Useful Ghost—this year’s festival is a chance to immerse yourself in the most exciting voices of contemporary global cinema. With just four days to savour these standout stories, now is the moment to secure your seats and experience the richness, risk and resonance of Brisbane International Film Festival 2025.
KEY INFO FOR BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
WHAT: Brisbane International Film Festival 2025
WHEN: 27-30 November
WHERE: Various cinemas in Brisbane
HOW: Purchase your tickets via the links above
HOW MUCH: Individual film ticket prices are as follows:
$26 Full price adult or child over 12
$23 Concession card holders
$22 Children under 12
You may also be interested in the 6FLIX pass, which allows you to book 6 tickets for $119 (you can book up to 6 tickets per session with this pass).
Please note: a booking fee between $1 and $4.50 applies to all paid orders. Bookings over $80.00 also incur a credit card fee of up to 1.5682%.
Which film(s) are you planning to see at Brisbane International Film Festival 2025?
