Award

Award-winning Aussie and international film festival

The festival, which has toured Australia for more than 50 years, will present a program featuring films recognised at the Cannes and Sydney film festivals, alongside Australian documentaries, features and short films.

Joshua Forward, head of marketing at Travelling Film Festival, said Cairns had become a key destination on the national tour.

“Cairns is a major stop for us on the travelling film festival tour,” he said.

“We’ve been travelling around Australia for over 50 years now and Cairns is one of the locations where we have our biggest audience,” he said.

“We very often have sold-out screenings there, so it’s always great to know there’s a celebration waiting for us.”

This year’s Cairns program opens on 6 November with the Australian documentary ‘Whistle', which follows the competitors and personalities of the World Whistling Championships.

Another highlight is ‘Fjord’, directed by Cristian Mungiu and starring Oscar nominees Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve.

The 146-minute film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and will screen in Cairns on 8 November.

Mr Forward said festivals continued to offer audiences an experience distinct from watching films at home.

“I think it’s an opportunity for people who love film to carve out some time to express their love of cinema and also to push it a little bit further and challenge themselves to see a film they might not otherwise see,” he said.

The program also includes ‘Silent Friend’, ‘Bitter Christmas’, ‘Minotaur’, ‘No Good Men’, ‘Fatherland’, ‘La Bola Negra’ and ‘The Cycle of Love’.

The festival closes on 9 November with the Australian feature ‘The Fox’, starring Jai Courtney, Emily Browning, Olivia Colman and Sam Neill, who gives one of his final performances as the voice of a foul-mouthed magpie. The film won the 2026 GIO Audience Award for Best Australian Feature at the Sydney Film Festival.

Tickets are on sale for the Cairns program, running over four days at Event Cinemas Cairns Central: www.cnslocal.s.gy/y0bw5B