by FilmInk Staff
There’s something fitting about a film called All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane refusing to leave Brisbane.
Louise Alston’s independently made romantic comedy-drama has now secured an eleventh week in the city, moving from its remarkable ten-week run at Five Star Cinemas New Farm to a new season at Regal Graceville.
For a locally made film operating on a limited, curated theatrical release, the extended Brisbane season is an unusually strong result. The film began its local journey with a sold-out world premiere at the Gold Coast Film Festival, where it subsequently won the PKF Best Queensland Feature Film award.
Written by Stephen Vagg and directed by Alston, All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane follows Cris (Nelle Lee), a Brisbane lawyer who returns home from London after her engagement falls apart, only to find herself working alongside her former boyfriend Scooter (Andrew Steel), now married with a child. The film is a spiritual successor to the pair’s 2007 Brisbane cult film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane.
The new film has also travelled well beyond Queensland. It has screened at the Burbank International Film Festival in Los Angeles and had its European premiere at the 2026 London Australian Film Festival, where it was presented as part of the festival’s program of new and cult Australian cinema.
But perhaps the most distinctive part of the film’s release has been the decision to make the theatrical experience feel less like a conventional screening and more like an event. Alston and Vagg have regularly appeared in person for introductions and Q&As, with the filmmakers personally presenting the film to audiences. Earlier in the run, Alston described the approach as effectively turning the movie into a “part-live show”.
That strategy seems to have struck a chord. Rather than relying on a conventional national release campaign, All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane has built its audience one screening at a time — with the filmmakers in the room, the audience laughing together, and the city itself providing much of the film’s appeal. “We have a marketing budget of nil dollars, so we do what we can,” laughs Alston.
Now, after ten weeks at New Farm, Brisbane audiences get another chance to see what has become something of a local cinema endurance story.
The friends, it seems, aren’t leaving Brisbane just yet.
https://www.fivestarcinemas.com.au/regal/movie/all-my-friends-are-back-in-brisbane
