Despite its flaws, The Deb is a very solid Aussie crowd pleaser that will hopefully reach more audiences as the years go on. 

The film being the winner of the Enrico Fulchignoni Award, an award given at the Venice Film Festival to films that best represent UNESCO values, is perhaps the best summation of what this film strives for.

I can appreciate Afternoons of Solitude’s honesty and Serra’s immersive style, but this film has left me with the horrific imagery of life draining from the eyes of multiple bulls.

Trifole is 100 minutes of genre-bending Italian heartache.

It is clear that Cloud is a well-made film with effective cinematography and performances. It’s just a shame that the narrative isn’t stronger and more confident in what it is trying to do or say.

Serpent’s Path is filled to the brim with such evocative images of mundane criminality and the bleak and brooding horror of industrial spaces, seen so often in crime films but rarely shot as atmospherically as with Kurosawa’s hand.

Shelby Oaks is a fine horror film with flashes of promise, but too many inherited ideas and not enough discernible passion.

Diamonds is about ambition, love and community. It celebrates the many hands that sew our lives together and work to create the art we pride ourselves on as a society. 

Sketch is a charming, chaotic blend of fantasy, gateway horror, and emotional earnestness - heartfelt and imaginative, leaving one with the sense that your own little creative scribbles might be worth keeping.

The Thread is an understated courtroom drama that is guaranteed to leave you questioning absolutely everything by its end.

Chain Reactions is a celebration of the 50 year anniversary of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Musicals and apocalyptic fiction don’t make for particularly common genre pairings, but in his debut fiction work, aptly titled The End (2024), Joshua Oppenheimer fuses the two to Frankensteinian effect. 

On Swift Horses explores the intersecting relationships of its principal characters but proves too ambitious, stringing together more narrative threads than its two-hour run time can support.

Marco, the Invented Truth is a stunning, modern drama with award-worthy acting that immerses you into this true, scandalous story.

Brando With a Glass Eye is a confused work.

The Shrouds presents potential by reeling in its audience at the beginning, but then loses its grip on them far too soon.

The Story of Souleymane is ultimately exhilarating in its revelation of the hardships of illegal French immigrants, with its immersive nature making for an intense cinematic experience.

The restoration of Charis and George Schwarz’s work is a wonderful reclamation of a peculiar piece of Australian cinematic history.

The people of Palestine need more than words, what is depicted in From Ground Zero makes that abundantly clear.  

The Code is an earnestly off-kilter, free-wheeling journey down the rabbit hole.