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Warburton Film Festival
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Friday 12th June - Sunday 14th June, 2026
Arts Centre Warburton
The Program
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Friday 12th June |
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6:30 pm
Festival Opening
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7:30 pm
But Also John Clarke
(Australia, 2025, M, 103m)
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But Also John Clarke is an exuberant, intimate documentary about New Zealand-born satirist John Clarke (1948-2017). Directed by his daughter Lorin Clarke and structured around a series of interviews she conducted with him, But Also John Clarke revisits his iconic character Fred Dagg and his mock interviews alongside Brian Dawe as colleagues share their fond memories. Lorin leads a tribute to an irreverent but warm man who made Aussies laugh and politicians squirm.
Directed and written by Lorin Clarke
Nominee: AACTA Award - Best Documentary
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Saturday 13th June
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9:45 am
From Hilde, With Love
(Germany, 2024, MA, 125m)
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From Hilde, With Love is a gently devastating historical biopic about Hilde Coppi (Liv Lisa Fries), a medical assistant in 1942 Berlin who joins the Red Orchestra resistance movement against the Nazi regime and marries a man named Hans Coppi (Johannes Hegemann). Picturesque and equal parts tender and hardhitting, From Hilde, With Love affirms the value of love and defiance, and how deeply intertwined they are, even in the darkest times.
Directed by Andreas Dresen
Winner: German Film Awards - Best Actress
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12:00 pm
Lunch Break
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1:15 pm
Touch
(Iceland/UK, 2024, M, 121m)
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Touch follows Icelander Kristofer (Egill Ólafsson), an elderly man with limited time, as he revisits his past in the hope of reuniting with his old love Miko (Yoko Nagahashi). Driven by love, longing, what ifs, and trauma from Hiroshima, Touch is a globetrotting multicultural drama.
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Winner: Edda Awards, Iceland - Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Cinematography, among others
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3:30 pm
Afternoon Break
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4:15 pm
Goodbye Julia
(Sudan, 2023, M, 120m)
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Goodbye Julia portrays the complicated friendship between Muslim North Sudanese singer Mona (Eiman Yousif) and Julia (Siran Riak), the Christian South Sudanese woman she hires as her maid. Goodbye Julia is tense, nuanced and beautifully-shot. The film is set just before the 2011 separation of South Sudan, but its call for reconciliation should resonate across the globe.
Directed by Mohamed Kordofani
Winner: Cannes Film Festival - Freedom Award (and the first Sudanese film presented at Cannes)
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6:30 pm
Festival Dinner
Pre-booking essential
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8:00 pm
I Swear
(UK, 2025, M, 120m)
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I Swear is a scrappy, endearing British biopic that shines a sympathetic light on Tourette syndrome. Robert Aramayo delivers a dynamic, committed performance as John Davidson, a young working-class man with Tourettes who overcomes his condition with the help of nurse Dottie (Maxine Peake) to aid and advocate for others with his condition.
Directed by Kirk Jones
Winner: BAFTA - Best Leading Actor, and Best Casting; British Independent Film Awards - Best Leading Performance
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Sunday 14th June
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9:30 am
It Was Just An Accident
(Iran/Luxembourg, 2025, M, 103m)
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A darkly funny Iranian thriller, It Was Just An Accident (2025) follows a group of former political prisoners as they contemplate revenge on Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who they suspect of being their captor under the Iranian regime. It Was Just An Accident is a deeply personal film for Panahi, who has been imprisoned several times by the Islamic State and bravely made this film without official permission.
Directed by Jafar Panahi
Winner: Cannes Film Festival - Palme D’Or
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11:30 am
Lunch Break
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12:45 pm
Show Us Your Shorts
Presentation & Winners
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The art of the short film is on display in this session which features the announcement and screening of the major prize winners in our “Show Us Your Shorts” competition, including the $1000 Golden Shorts Award.
2026 Judges: Maggie Sail, Meg Urquhart, Sarah Sloan, Aroon Naidoo, and Regan Wood.
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1:30 pm
The Stolen Painting
(France, 2024, M, 103m)
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The Stolen Painting (2024) is a brilliant, confidently-crafted French drama based on a true story, in which ambitious art appraiser André (Alex Lutz) and his ex-partner Bettina (Léa Drucker) find an exceptionally valuable painting long believed to have been destroyed by the Nazis. The Stolen Painting is a sharp, quick-witted glimpse into the cutthroat art world and how something as simple as a painting can be an emblem of past evils and send the art-dealing world into a frenzy.
Directed by Pascal Bonitzer
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3:00 pm
Afternoon Break
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3:30 pm
Uproar
(New Zealand, 2023, M, 110m)
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Uproar (2023) is a funny, socially-aware New Zealand drama about Josh (Julian Dennison), a bullied student of mixed Māori descent (mother played by Minnie Driver), who gets into acting and activism amid the controversial 1981 Springboks rugby tour. Dennison comes into his own as a strong dramatic actor in a sensitive, compelling drama with firm political conviction, loosely based on Middleditch’s own teen years.
Directed by Paul Middleditch and Hamish Bennett
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