This year’s highlights include Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER and two revelatory new documentaries, SENTIENT and SILENCED.
Gus Van Sant’s nail-biting drama DEAD MAN’S WIRE to open the Festival on Wednesday 8 July
It’s set to be a journey of sophistication, emotion, new ideas, and change. The 2026 Revelation Perth International Film Festival has announced its full program, running 8 – 19 July at Luna Leederville, The Backlot, SAE Perth, Tribe Perth Kings Park and the State Library of Western Australia.
Boasting a lineup of over 50 features and documentaries and almost 100 short films, this year’s program is all about risk and adventure for the viewer and the creative community of Perth. From stories of social justice to high-end arthouse premieres and a strong multi-genre music component, to Trasaharama-agogo, the nastiest short Film Program in Oz, the free International Family Animation Explosion, tackling ageism in Life In Pictures and the return of the ever-popular City of Vincent Film Project, Revelation once again proves itself as a festival that initiates debate and dares to make a difference.
“Revelation is known for an independent spirit that is not afraid of issues, subcultures, adventurous art and culture and seeing how far it can take audiences and filmmakers,” says Festival Director, Richard Sowada. “It has flown the flag high for diversity in WA art and culture and while showcasing many enormously sophisticated films, it maintains a real sense of rock and roll and enjoys the power chords it plays.”
This year’s feature films pay testament to that spirit, kicking off with the Opening Night tour de force, DEAD MAN’S WIRE, Gus Van Sant’s dramatic adaptation of a real-life hostage situation. In 1977 Tony Kiritsis entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a "dead man's wire" from the trigger to Tony's own neck, demanding $5 million, no charges or prosecution, and a personal apology from the Halls for cheating him out of what he was “owed.” Rev will officially open with a screening of DEAD MAN’S WIRE on Wednesday 8th July at Luna Cinemas Leederville. Tickets available online.
Another big highlight of this year’s program is the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart (Twilight, On The Road, Loves Lies Bleeding), THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER. Adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s autobiographical bestseller, it follows Lidia’s journey as she finds her own voice in an exploration of how trauma can be transformed into art through re-possessing our own bloody histories, particularly those uniquely experienced by the bodies of women and girls.
The mockumentary LADY stars Sian Clifford (Fleabag) as Lady Isabella, an aristocrat who dreams of being in the spotlight, she’s rich and interesting and there’s a local talent show she can participate in. Filmmaker Sam (Lauroe Kynaston – The Sandman, Foll Me Once) has been hired to document her ‘creative journey’. Seen through a chicken's eyes, HEN follows an escapee to a decaying Greek seaside restaurant, protecting her eggs whilst observing the complexity of human lives.
Accompanied by a young boy, three unconventional nuns embark on a wild and chaotic road trip across New Zealand to retrieve the deeds to their convent in HOLY DAYS. Actress Nat Boltt delivers a joyous directorial debut with an all-star cast that includes Jacki Weaver, Miriam Margolyes and Judy Davis, alongside newcomer Elijah Tamati.
Another directorial debut comes from Brandon Daley who also wrote the screenplay for $POSITIONS in which blue-collar Midwesterner Mike Alvarado attempts to save his family from the throes of poverty by investing their savings into speculative cryptocurrencies. What could go wrong?
PENNY LANE IS DEAD is the rip-roaring debut feature from writer-director Mia Kate Russell that blends pitch-black ocker humour and blood-splattering horror with a distinctly Australian twist. It’s 1986, and Penny Lane and her best friends Toni and Amy head to a remote beach house to celebrate Penny’s recent university acceptance with a ‘no dick’ weekend of debauchery, durries and booze in tow. What begins as a weekend of fun soon devolves into a fight for survival.
Revelation favourite Ben Wheatley (A Field in England, High Rise, Free Fire, Kill List etc - all of which have screened at Rev) returns to his low budget roots with science fiction/action movie, BULK. A mysterious house, alternative dimensions, string theory, multiverses and a plot that keeps on twisting, this is a movie rich in imagination and with a genuine sense of the possibilities of low budget cinema.
BAD HAIRCUT is a horror comedy in which a college kid goes to a new place to get a haircut and discovers that his barber is a psychopath. IN COLD BLOOD tracks the 1959 murder of the Clutter family in rural Kansas, but its attention is as much on the perpetrators as the crime itself. Richard Brooks adapts Truman Capote’s landmark non-fiction novel with a rigour that resists sensationalism, instead constructing a film of unsettling clarity and restraint.
A rebellious drifter hitches a ride with a lone trucker in the Mexican feature ON THE ROAD, and as their intimacy deepens on the road, ghosts of the past catch up with them at each truck stop - and danger closes in.
New Zealand comedy MUM I’M ALIEN PREGNANT is the new body horror phenomenon that made everyone’s stomach turn at Sundance. Not only is this a distant relative to the early works of Peter Jackson, it also doesn’t show any visual restraint, while nicely tackling outdated clichés about motherhood. Set in the noughties, BRB follows camera-wielding 15-year-old Sam roadtrips with sister Dylan to meet a chatroom crush. Through detours, they face identity and truth: Dylan seeks love via reinvention, Sam finds courage to be seen, disability included.
An outrageous, biting satire on the absurdity of the patriarchal family, ROSEBUSH PRUNING follows a rich white American family living in hedonistic Catalonian isolation, seeking love and validation through one another, their designer wardrobes and pop music. When an outsider infiltrates the family, buried tensions surface and blood ties are severed.
There’s the erotic thriller BODY BLOW whereupon a young cop embarks on a risky undercover mission where he meets a captivating male sex worker controlled by a drug lord drag queen. He dives into a perilous world, getting entangled in a deadly police conspiracy.
Anthony Frith’s 2025 spin on THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT gleefully throws logic overboard and charges straight into chaos. Inspired (very loosely) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film strands a thoroughly mismatched bunch of humans on an island where evolution runs backwards, sideways, and occasionally trips over itself. It screens as a double feature with MOCKBUSTER, in which a struggling director documents his journey making a "mockbuster" in six days, descending into the chaotic world of low-budget filmmaking.
Another double bill pairs animated POV feature BIG CITY PIZZA with Archie Beaumont’s 13-minute Australian short, A TALE OF MANY LEGS in which Harry – a giant manspider – struggles to stay positive in the big city.
Set in the near future, DREAMQUIL follows Gary (John C Reilly) and Carol (Elizabeth Banks) who live in an apartment in a polluted city. Carol is unsatisfied by her life and, on the advice of a friend, embarks on a virtual wellness retreat in order to get her life back on track - but with nightmarish consequences.
APHELION is a dramatic feature told in real time in a single location. An anxious young junkie trapped in a co-dependent relationship with her increasingly abusive partner must find the courage to escape before he goes too far. If you want to experience what Australian cinema can be in an increasingly conservative creative environment, this is the one for you. It isn't an easy ride, but it rewards in aces.
Set against the neon-lit streets of Kuala Lumpur, BIRDBOY follows Calvin, the youngest son in a traditional Chinese family, as he struggles to conceal his sexuality while searching for connection in a city suspended between religious conservatism and modern desire. There, he meets Jerry, a Vietnamese massage boy working illegally, and together the pair drift through the city’s shadows dreaming of futures that always feel just out of reach.
Rev’s documentary program is as diverse and compelling as ever, searching for reasons and change. A bracing and ethically charged work, SENTIENT sees former ABC Q+A host Tony Jones move from political interrogation to something more elemental: the question of animal consciousness, and the systems that deny it. Tony will be in attendance for a special screening at Luna Leederville on Saturday 11th July.
After #MeToo broke the cultural silence on gendered violence, survivors swiftly found themselves facing a new kind of silencing and fear as defamation laws became weaponized against women for speaking out. From International Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Selina Miles and Blayke Hoffman, SILENCED is a powerful, emotional and urgent documentary that challenges the devastating flaws maintaining the status quo within the justice system.
A LIFE ILLUMINATED follows pioneering marine biologist Dr. Edith Widder’s lifelong quest to use the language of light to communicate with the most mysterious creatures in the deep sea. Now, she heads off on her greatest journey yet into the deepest depths of our ocean world to understand our biggest questions about bioluminescence and what it can tell us about the future of life on Earth.
Rev’s music-based documentary lineup is a kool thing to behold. Director Tamra Davis (Billy Madison) uncovers a box of tapes she shot on the 1995 Summersault festival tour. What Davis constructs - or resurrects - from this box of tapes is THE BEST SUMMER a rollicking found footage documentary featuring live performances and candid interviews with Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Beck, Pavement, Rancid, The Amps and Bikini Kill. You can just about smell the socks and cigarettes in this rare, backstage glimpse.
At just 21, Eddie Cochrane left behind a body of work that would inspire generations of musicians and artists. DON’T FORGET ME: EDDIE COCHRAN is an intimate portrait weaving never before seen archival material with powerful testimonies from some of the greatest names in music and culture, including Keith Richards, Sting, Sir Rod Stewart, Kiefer Sutherland, Alice Cooper, Linda Perry, John Waters, Stephen Sanchez, Yungblud, Ronnie Wood, Billy Idol, and the Cochran Family.
ROLL BUS ROLL spotlights the life and art of Jeffrey Lewis, one of the most prominent musicians associated with New York City’s anti-folk scene. We discover Lewis – who performed in Perth in March - on tour across cities and continents and come to see him via contrasting narratives: his own modest self-assessment, and the views of fans and fellow artists.
RAVE CULTURE – A NEW ERA is an electrifying journey into the heart of the rave revolution, from the first illegal beats in England to its global explosion. Through never-before-seen archival footage, interviews with the most underground pioneers, and a soundtrack that still resonates today, this documentary unveils the story of a movement that transformed music, culture, and the very essence of nightlife. SUN RA: DO THE IMPOSSIBLE dives into the groundbreaking work of the visionary jazz musician and Godfather of Afrofuturism. Featuring archival footage and stills, performance clips, and original interviews, this documentary is a kaleidoscopic view of the artist’s legacy
Groundbreaking filmmaker Barbara Hammer picked up a camera to document the lesbian community and her own life, producing a vast body of film and video works for five decades and creating her own queer aesthetic in the process. Debut-feature director Brydie O’Conner’s BARBARA FOREVER is rich in interviews and archive footage, and punctuated with clips from Hammer’s work, making it accessible for all.
Constructed from previously unseen footage, NOVA ’78 documents the Nova Convention, an event held in New York to celebrate William S Burroughs’ writing and influence on the counterculture and featuring a massive line-up of underground, counterculture and music luminaries gathered on the one stage for the first time. You'll experience performances by Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, John Giorno, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Zappa, and, of course, William S Burroughs.
In THE BIG JOHNSON award-winning director Lola Rocknrolla, making her documentary feature debut, looks at the life and untimely death of Dean Johnson, a creative and influential force in the New York LGBTQI+ community. It’s a powerful and deeply moving tale illustrated through animated diary entries, archive footage, and interviews.
Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water. From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa, TIME AND WATER is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.
From the streets of South Auckland to the world’s biggest rugby stages, LOMU traces the extraordinary rise, global impact and private struggles of the late Jonah Lomu - a Tongan New Zealander who transformed rugby forever, while carrying the weight of culture, faith and expectation few ever truly saw. Through intimate interviews with family and coaches, alongside archival footage of Jonah himself - including never-before-seen family video - the film reveals the personal cost of meteoric success.
A global love letter to nature, SUPER NATURE is an immersive exploration of our world today, filmed exclusively on the original home movie format, Super 8. Shot by people all over the world, the universal and the local combine in this intimate gaze on nature, with a transcendent score and sound design, and voices in many tongues.
After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel scours the depths of Vistula River, torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the hope that his son may still be alive. In CLOSURE director Michał Marczak intuitively lets his camera drift between the placid surface of Poland’s longest river and the murky secrets of its depths, mirroring the stoic facade and inner tumult of a father torn between hope and grief.
MINESHAFT: THE CRUISING MURDERS explores the 1980 William Friedkin thriller Cruising, examining the New York leather scene, its thematic roots in the 1977 murder of journalist Addison Verrill and the protests from the gay community against the film. What unfolds is a fascinating portrait of the era, of the queer community, of protests, of crime, and of cinema, as well as an examination of the reconsideration of Cruising amongst contemporary LGBTQI+ viewers.
Using excerpts from the esteemed writer’s works, including his powerful memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, Alex Gibney’s KNIFE: THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF SALMAN RUSHDIE is both a striking testament to freedom of expression and a defiant response to the attempt on Rushdie’s life in 2022.
Set within the confines of an exceptional construction site, CONSTRUCTION SITE (LE CHANTIER) paints a portrait of a miniature society, driven by a common goal: to build cinemas for the next century. From the architect to the journeymen carpenters, from the site manager to the head of the Pathé group, from the designer of the speakers to the future projectionists, the film paints a vivid portrait of this society at a human level.
COLOSSAL WRECK takes us on an odyssey inside the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. Are these enormous get-togethers all about false promises that hinder change? Or are they the only hope we've got for world-saving unity? With his innocuous selfie-stick, filmmaker Josh Appignanesi moves unnoticed through Dubai's seductive slickness to reveal the talks, meetings and elite backroom parties behind the strange mixture of global cry for help and political posturing that is a COP.
From the epicentre of metal music of all dark types, three young Norwegian women form a witch pact and start a black metal band - without knowing how to sing or play instruments. Driven by rage and sisterhood, they quickly go from zero to performing on the biggest stages, including Roskilde, before even releasing an album. HEX follows the band over three years but also functions as a trial where critics and audiences judge whether the members are visionaries or witches who deserve to be burned. A story about friendship, resistance, and carving out a space for yourself in a rigidly normative world.
PROMPT: MAKE A DOCUMENTARY explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping filmmaking, tracing cinema's history of technological disruption and questioning whether AI represents creative freedom or the mechanisation of imagination. Meanwhile, POST TRUTH is a fake film about the real world and the first AI-generated feature-length documentary in history. It explores our relationship with technology and examines how we arrived at a world where facts no longer matter.
AMERICAN DOCTOR is a vérité documentary following three prominent physicians - Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian - friends who couldn’t be more different but are bound by the shared oath to save lives. Together they fight to keep a promise to their Palestinian colleagues and patients, to continue the struggle where it matters most: the United States.
Documentarian and observational humour connoisseur John Wilson makes his feature directorial debut with THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE, a film that is effortlessly hysterical and genuinely hard to describe. The How to With John Wilson creator’s quick, permeating wit and boundless curiosity clock in, this time through the lenses of urbanism and, somehow, the institution of Hallmark.
An accumulating remix of 12 films (commissioned by the state of Western Australia in the 1960s and 70s) in 12 chapters phrases from the films’ original narration have been pulled on to highlight the ideological and material violence of the colonial project — unfolding through the banality of things like roads, railways, mines, agriculture, farming and the weaponisation of things we commonly hold dear, like “community” and “home”. DISPLACEMENT AND REPLACEMENT: A REMIXED NARRATIVE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA - is a history of WA we all know, but have never seen before.
Back for its sixth year, Revelation is proud to present Western Australia’s night of nights - the WA Screen Culture Awards. Join us as we celebrate innovation and achievement in the WA screen sector from over the last 12-months and across all moving image forms. The event embraces traditional narrative to documentary, short, student, games, television, moving image art and everything in between including a number of craft awards. Followed by our famous post-event celebration, the WA Screen culture awards is a fantastic coming together of the WA screen industry and a must attend event for emerging and established practitioners.
Revelation is dedicated to the acknowledgement, encouragement and support of the local screen sector, and we will celebrate this with the Get Your Shorts On: City of Vincent Film Project & Life in Pictures Closing Night on Sunday July 19th from 7pm. Annually we work with the City of Vincent and this year we’ve commissioned and executive produced two short documentaries shot in and around the City of Vincent. We also present the finalists of our Life in Pictures filmmaking competition designed to engage communities across WA in discussing positive ageing in the community. To wrap up the celebrations, we invite all audience members to join us for our famous Closing Night party.
Revelation also presents WA’s largest consolidated - and free - professional development program, Industrial Revelations. Taking place across locations in Leederville and Perth, Revelation is pleased to announce a new partnership with SAE in the presentation of around 16 workshops, masterclasses, panels and presentations on Saturday July 11th. Covering marketing, distribution, working with actors, ethics in documentary, horror and genre, animation and games and range of other activities.
“We’re very proud of our industry program which has been part of the event from its early days,” says Festival Director, Richard Sowada. “The contact with high-level business and creative people from around Australia and the world is a rare opportunity for local screen artists to create networks on their own terms and it’s fantastic to see it unfold.”
Industrial Revelations filmmaker development day takes place at SAE Northbridge on Saturday July 11th.
Revelation International Film Festival is almost here. Come join the conversation, be part of the moment and dive in as we begin again.