The Travelling Film Festival will be returning to Wagga in August with some of the best independent movies of the year. Photo: #VisitWagga.
Following the highest-selling event in its history, Sydney Film Festival is taking some of the biggest independent offerings of 2025 to eight regional cinemas around NSW, including Wagga Wagga from 29 to 31 August at Forum 6 Cinemas.
The Travelling Film Festival was founded by movie critic David Stratton in 1974 and looks to bring some of the most acclaimed productions of each year to regional areas that may not have access to independent films.
Festival manager Betrix Brady said the event was an epic celebration of cinema, featuring prize winners from the Cannes, Sundance and Sydney film festivals.
“Going for more than 50 years, the Travelling Film Festival is going as strong as ever, as we even expand to two new destinations in 2025,” she said.
“The TFF is about community – and not just the unbeatable shared experience within the cinema, but also connecting audiences to stories from around the world, rooted in deep empathy and connection.
“This is a chance for people to be transported, inspired, maybe even challenged a little bit – but also gloriously entertained.”
Opening the festival, and sure to leave audiences beaming, will be the Sundance Audience Award winner DJ Ahmet, which follows a teenage sheep farmer who discovers a love of music after stumbling across a dance party near his North Macedonian farm.
“More feel-good flicks filling the weekend include the delightful The Ballad of Wallis Island, starring Carey Mulligan as one half of a former folk duo duped into reconciliation by a quirky lotto winner; and the charming documentary Agatha’s Almanac, which celebrates the small joys of life and the power of living simply and sustainably,” Ms Brady said.
“TFF audiences will be some of the first in the world to see new films, including the 2025 Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, It Was Just an Accident, which also went on to win the Sydney Film Festival in June.
“This searing drama from Iran will have audiences gripped as it follows a group of survivors of imprisonment by the Iranian regime who stumble upon an opportunity for retribution … or forgiveness.”
Also from Cannes is the Grand Jury Prize winner Sentimental Value, starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning; the delightfully oddball The Love That Remains, from Iceland; and the touching Camera d’Or winner from Iraq, The President’s Cake.
Other major prize winners touring NSW include the Slamdance-winning sports comedy Racewalkers, and the Australian-made documentary about the world porridge-making championships, The Golden Spurtle, which was the runner-up for the Audience Award at the recent Sydney Film Festival.
The full festival list is: DJ Ahmet, Agatha’s Almanac, The President’s Cake, Mango Seed, Sentimental Value, The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Golden Spurtle, The Love That Remains, Baggage, Racewalkers, It Was Just an Accident and Interview with a Hero.
