Sydney Underground Film Festival Announces 2025 Festival Program
The leading festival for cult and underground film, the Sydney Underground Film Festival (SUFF) hits Sydney next month, celebrating bold, boundary-pushing independent cinema at Dendy Newtown from the 11th to 14th September.
Venue: Dendy Cinemas
Address: 261-263 King St Newtown 2042
Date: 11-14 September 2025
Time: See website for screening times
Ticket: From $15 and 3, 5 and 10 film passes available
Buy / Ticket: https://www.suff.com.au/
Web: https://www.suff.com.au/
Address: 261-263 King St Newtown 2042
Date: 11-14 September 2025
Time: See website for screening times
Ticket: From $15 and 3, 5 and 10 film passes available
Buy / Ticket: https://www.suff.com.au/
Web: https://www.suff.com.au/
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Established in 2007, SUFF has become a cornerstone of Sydney's cultural scene with its eclectic program showcasing the best in independent, experimental and provocative filmmaking.
The 2025 Festival program features a diverse lineup of feature films, documentaries, and shorts that challenge the status quo and explore the fringes of cinematic expression.
Festival Director Nathan Senn said “Underground film at its best doesn’t just break rules — it reimagines what cinema can be. This year, SUFF celebrates the artists who are doing just that: fearless female filmmakers, radical Australian auteurs, and emerging voices who aren’t asking for permission — they’re forging new cinematic languages. The films in this year’s program are provocative, unruly, visionary; they unsettle and electrify in equal measure. At a time when sameness dominates, SUFF takes pride in being a home for the strange, the subversive, and the gloriously unclassifiable.”
Closing Night presents the Australian Premiere of the award-winning Fucktoys (2025) with special post-screening Q&A from director/writer Annapurna Sriram, a candy-coated descent into chaos that proves sexploitation can have heart, glamour, and soul – while still being totally unhinged. Shot on lush 16mm soaked in pastel grit, Fucktoys reimagines the Tarot’s Major Arcana through the cursed journey of AP – a sweetly naïve hustler in search of salvation. Told she must sacrifice a baby lamb and cough up $1000 to lift a spiritual hex, AP hits the streets of ‘Trashtown’ on her scooter, diving headfirst into a seedy and absurd underworld of debauchery and spiritual desperation.
After the success of 2024’s Female Trouble scratch n’ sniff experience, SUFF and co-presenters Scented Storytelling and Snivure are bringing back scented cinema with the cult classic that’s just as funny (and bizarre) today as it was in 1989, Jay Levey’s wacky cult comedy UHF (1989). Starring “Weird Al” Yankovic as George Newman, a dreamer with a wild imagination and zero direction – until he’s handed the keys to a failing UHF television station, UHF is a glorious celebration of creativity, underdogs, misfits and the golden age of weird TV.
The vibrant and timely documentary directed by Amber Fares Coexistence, My Ass!, following Israeli-Persian actor-turned-activist-comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, as she crafts her brave one-woman show of the same name amidst a deepening Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Roller-disco renegade and Olivia Newton-John devotee MAYNARD presents the 45th Anniversary special remastered screening of psychedelic fantasy Xanadu (1980). Starring Australia’s own radiant Olivia Newton-John as Kira, the celestial muse who roller-skates down from Olympus to inspire two creatively blocked blokes – one being none other than Gene Kelly in his final big-screen hurrah, the other Michael Beck, fresh off The Warriors. Together they dream up a nightclub that’s half disco, half art deco, and 100% what-the-heck-o.
Celebrating 30 years of Tom DiCillo’s Living in Oblivion (1995), SUFF presents a special Movie Bingo screening of this sharp, surreal satire of indie filmmaking gone hilariously off the rails. Starring Steve Buscemi as Nick Rave, a director desperately trying to hold his low-budget movie together as everything around him falls apart, Living in Oblivion is a hilarious, painfully accurate portrait of creative ambition gone sideways, and essential viewing for cinephiles, dreamers, and anyone who’s ever yelled “quiet on set!”.
Documentaries celebrating fearless voices, radical creativity, and untold stories that challenge the status quo including Yellow House Afghanistan (2025), capturing art’s survival under Taliban rule, The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan (2025) resurrecting grindhouse icon Andy Milligan in a special double-feature, Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt (2024) diving into punk chaos, Food Delivery 2025) revealing frontline defiance in the West Philippine Sea, and Exorcismo (2024) exploring Spain’s taboo-smashing cinema.
Boundary-pushing features including the rarely seen full-length feature by Sydney-based erotic artist George Schwarz About Love (1973), making its public debut at SUFF following last year’s showcase of his Lost Sex Films of Kings Cross; Anything That Moves (2025), a wild, psychosexual dark comedy thriller soaked in sex, style and splatter; and blood-drenched and brain-melting retro exploitation horror Pater Noster and the Mission of Light (2024).
Australian Premieres including Craig Alexander & Shelly Higgs’ ambitions and unique dark comedy Snatchers (2025), Yoshihiro Nishimura’s explorative fever dream of Japan’s darkest urban legend Tokyo Evil Hotel (2024); Jim Hosking’s surreal odyssey of absurdity and chaos Ebony And Ivory (2024); and Joe Begos’ hallucinatory grindhouse inspired splatterfest Jimmy And Stiggs (2025).
NSW Premieres of Perth filmmaker Richard Eames’ debut Skeleton Girls: A Kidnapped Society (2025), plunging into a neon-lit, punk-infused dystopia, and Braden Sitter Sr.’s guerilla-style odyssey inspired by a strange but true story The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man (2024).
This year's festival also brings to the big screen some incredible short films, including shorts to warp your mind and tickle your weird bone in LSD FACTORY, a package of madcap shorts not for the faint-of-heart in WTF!, expressions of sexuality in all its forms in LOVE/SICK, genre-crossing shorts from the vanguard renegades of Australian independent cinema in HOMEBAKED SHORTS, the year’s most eye-opening bite-sized documentaries that traverse the personal to the global in STRANGER THAN FICTION, and the return of the much-loved TAKE48 Film Challenge for its seventh year, putting filmmaker's abilities to the test to create a short film in only 48 hours!
Dates: Thursday 11th – Sunday 14th September 2024
Venue: Dendy Cinemas - 261-263 King St Newtown 2042
Available to watch: www.suff.com.au
Tickets: From $15 and 3, 5 and 10 film passes available
The 2025 Festival program features a diverse lineup of feature films, documentaries, and shorts that challenge the status quo and explore the fringes of cinematic expression.
Festival Director Nathan Senn said “Underground film at its best doesn’t just break rules — it reimagines what cinema can be. This year, SUFF celebrates the artists who are doing just that: fearless female filmmakers, radical Australian auteurs, and emerging voices who aren’t asking for permission — they’re forging new cinematic languages. The films in this year’s program are provocative, unruly, visionary; they unsettle and electrify in equal measure. At a time when sameness dominates, SUFF takes pride in being a home for the strange, the subversive, and the gloriously unclassifiable.”
2025 Festival highlights include:
Opening Night kicks off with the Australian Premiere of Queens Of The Dead (2025), from breakout director Tina Romero (daughter of zombie cinema royalty George A. Romero), a riotous, blood-splattered horror-comedy that slays with equal parts camp, rage, and community. When a Brooklyn warehouse drag party spirals into chaos with cancelled acts and flaring egos, the night takes a darker turn: a zombie outbreak crashes the party and it’ll take every ounce of glitter, guts, and glam to fight off a dance floor full of flesh-eaters! This outrageously fun glitter-soaked gorefest features a scene-stealing ensemble including Katy O’Brien, Jaquel Spivey, Nina West, Tomás Matos, Margaret Cho, Jack Haven, Cheyenne Jackson, and Riki Lindhome.Closing Night presents the Australian Premiere of the award-winning Fucktoys (2025) with special post-screening Q&A from director/writer Annapurna Sriram, a candy-coated descent into chaos that proves sexploitation can have heart, glamour, and soul – while still being totally unhinged. Shot on lush 16mm soaked in pastel grit, Fucktoys reimagines the Tarot’s Major Arcana through the cursed journey of AP – a sweetly naïve hustler in search of salvation. Told she must sacrifice a baby lamb and cough up $1000 to lift a spiritual hex, AP hits the streets of ‘Trashtown’ on her scooter, diving headfirst into a seedy and absurd underworld of debauchery and spiritual desperation.
After the success of 2024’s Female Trouble scratch n’ sniff experience, SUFF and co-presenters Scented Storytelling and Snivure are bringing back scented cinema with the cult classic that’s just as funny (and bizarre) today as it was in 1989, Jay Levey’s wacky cult comedy UHF (1989). Starring “Weird Al” Yankovic as George Newman, a dreamer with a wild imagination and zero direction – until he’s handed the keys to a failing UHF television station, UHF is a glorious celebration of creativity, underdogs, misfits and the golden age of weird TV.
The vibrant and timely documentary directed by Amber Fares Coexistence, My Ass!, following Israeli-Persian actor-turned-activist-comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, as she crafts her brave one-woman show of the same name amidst a deepening Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Roller-disco renegade and Olivia Newton-John devotee MAYNARD presents the 45th Anniversary special remastered screening of psychedelic fantasy Xanadu (1980). Starring Australia’s own radiant Olivia Newton-John as Kira, the celestial muse who roller-skates down from Olympus to inspire two creatively blocked blokes – one being none other than Gene Kelly in his final big-screen hurrah, the other Michael Beck, fresh off The Warriors. Together they dream up a nightclub that’s half disco, half art deco, and 100% what-the-heck-o.
Celebrating 30 years of Tom DiCillo’s Living in Oblivion (1995), SUFF presents a special Movie Bingo screening of this sharp, surreal satire of indie filmmaking gone hilariously off the rails. Starring Steve Buscemi as Nick Rave, a director desperately trying to hold his low-budget movie together as everything around him falls apart, Living in Oblivion is a hilarious, painfully accurate portrait of creative ambition gone sideways, and essential viewing for cinephiles, dreamers, and anyone who’s ever yelled “quiet on set!”.
Documentaries celebrating fearless voices, radical creativity, and untold stories that challenge the status quo including Yellow House Afghanistan (2025), capturing art’s survival under Taliban rule, The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan (2025) resurrecting grindhouse icon Andy Milligan in a special double-feature, Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt (2024) diving into punk chaos, Food Delivery 2025) revealing frontline defiance in the West Philippine Sea, and Exorcismo (2024) exploring Spain’s taboo-smashing cinema.
Boundary-pushing features including the rarely seen full-length feature by Sydney-based erotic artist George Schwarz About Love (1973), making its public debut at SUFF following last year’s showcase of his Lost Sex Films of Kings Cross; Anything That Moves (2025), a wild, psychosexual dark comedy thriller soaked in sex, style and splatter; and blood-drenched and brain-melting retro exploitation horror Pater Noster and the Mission of Light (2024).
Australian Premieres including Craig Alexander & Shelly Higgs’ ambitions and unique dark comedy Snatchers (2025), Yoshihiro Nishimura’s explorative fever dream of Japan’s darkest urban legend Tokyo Evil Hotel (2024); Jim Hosking’s surreal odyssey of absurdity and chaos Ebony And Ivory (2024); and Joe Begos’ hallucinatory grindhouse inspired splatterfest Jimmy And Stiggs (2025).
NSW Premieres of Perth filmmaker Richard Eames’ debut Skeleton Girls: A Kidnapped Society (2025), plunging into a neon-lit, punk-infused dystopia, and Braden Sitter Sr.’s guerilla-style odyssey inspired by a strange but true story The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man (2024).
This year's festival also brings to the big screen some incredible short films, including shorts to warp your mind and tickle your weird bone in LSD FACTORY, a package of madcap shorts not for the faint-of-heart in WTF!, expressions of sexuality in all its forms in LOVE/SICK, genre-crossing shorts from the vanguard renegades of Australian independent cinema in HOMEBAKED SHORTS, the year’s most eye-opening bite-sized documentaries that traverse the personal to the global in STRANGER THAN FICTION, and the return of the much-loved TAKE48 Film Challenge for its seventh year, putting filmmaker's abilities to the test to create a short film in only 48 hours!
Tickets to all films and events are available at: www.suff.com.au
19th Annual Sydney Underground Film FestivalDates: Thursday 11th – Sunday 14th September 2024
Venue: Dendy Cinemas - 261-263 King St Newtown 2042
Available to watch: www.suff.com.au
Tickets: From $15 and 3, 5 and 10 film passes available