By FilmInk Staff
The Revelation Perth International Film Festival has just announced its full programme of films and events for 2025…and it’s literally packed with cinematic goodies.
“As usual, we’ve gone all the way in bringing the very best new and classic international cinema to WA audiences,” says Revolution Perth International Film Festival director, Richard Sowada. “This year’s program features everything from sweaty punk realism and psychedelic cult journeys to iconic restorations to animations exploding with colour and power and some of the most acclaimed films direct from the international festival scene. It’s a global conversation told through the language of film.”
Always a fascinating entry on Australia’s busy national cinematic calendar, The Revelation Perth International Film Festival’s position way out west gives it an instant point of difference; Revelation just looks, sounds and feels different from the many other film festivals in the country. Revelation has always taken a different creative route, not solely going to the deep, impressive well of overseas film festivals like Cannes and Berlin for its content (though there are usually at least a couple of major festival titles in the mix), instead taking a more inspired and free-form approach to its sense of curation.
2025 is set to be another fascinating year for The Revelation Perth International Film Festival, with the full details of its programme just being made available to the public. There are cinematic jewels aplenty here, and the good folk of the west are once again spoiled for choice when it comes to original, unusual and utterly compelling film experiences.
The biggest and most exciting inclusion this year is unquestionably the hotly debated neo-western Eddington from director Ari Aster, who has shocked and delighted audiences with his films Hereditary, Midsommar and Beau Is Afraid. Set in fictional Eddington, New Mexico, during the Covid pandemic, the film explores themes of political polarisation, misinformation and societal unrest, and boasts the too-cool-for-school cast of Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler.
Revelation will proudly fly its WA flag with screenings of the locally-shot Aussie classics Fran (1985), starring Noni Hazlehurst in one of her most important roles, and 1988’s Shame, a shocking take on small-town crime and horrific gender politics starring Deborra-lee Furness. The revivals continue with a special celebration of the great Wim Wenders via restored prints of the classics Alice in the Cities (1974) and The American Friend (1977), while Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City (1945) will also screen. Film lovers will also likely be lining up for Mr. Burton, a biopic on the early life of hard-living late Welsh actor Richard Burton.
The cutting edge, however, is where Revelation really lives, and there are a large number of idiosyncratic wonders on offer this year, including a dark, horror film that evokes the work of Shirley Jackson and Stephen King (Ariane Labed’s September Says), a science fiction comedy (U Are The Universe), a Norwegian animated musical comedy (Spermageddon); a post-apocalyptic musical drama (Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End); full-tilt genre-benders (Transcending Dimensions, Pater Noster and the Mission of the Light); stunning local titles (Skeleton Girls A Kidnapped Society, School Of Hard Knocks); docos (Starman), music films (Eno, Pavements, Marlon Williams: Two Worlds, Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me); and a host of shorts.
Backed up with special events and Q&A screenings, The Revolution Perth International Film Festival 2025 is all set to deliver the cinematic goods once again.
For all ticketing, venue and programming details, head to the official site.
