by FilmInk Staff
Art that breaks, expands and reimagines the Australian screen
The Sydney Opera House today announced AU.X Screenworks, a new four-day program of experimental screenings and events from boundary-pushing Australian voices which will take place in the Studio from 30 November to 3 December.
Showcasing vanguard filmmakers, thinkers, choreographers and creative technologists, the season features world premiere screenings of new short film commissions, feature films by innovative auteurs and live “expanded cinema” presentations. Highlights include: Frame Shift 2026, a showcase of ten short films made by Australian artists with disability; BIO:MASS and Decipher, two live presentations that merge poetry, dance and film to explore cultural conversations around climate change and machine surveillance; the Sydney premiere of Philip Philadelphia, an unconventional and provocative film by Adam C. Briggs; French Girls, Hyun Lee’s riveting exposé of Sydney’s fashion world; and a collection of Sydney Underground Film Festival’s most mind-melting, hilariously twisted and deliciously depraved short films from the past 20 years.
Stuart Buchanan, Head of Screen at Sydney Opera House, describes: “AU.X’s inaugural season spotlights an emerging cohort of Australian artists pushing the boundaries of experimental, screen-based media. We’re looking to rewire what the Opera House represents – centring artists who disrupt narratives and rewrite the rules of the medium.”
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Feature Films
Phillip Philadelphia + Q&A with Adam C. Briggs || 30 November
In its Sydney premiere following a successful debut at the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival, Phillip Philadelphia is the latest warped comedy from trailblazing independent filmmaker Adam C. Briggs. A queer melodrama and absurdist romp, Briggs’ fourth feature examines the dislocation of a British screenwriter as he languishes in the curdled quagmire of vapid opulence of an old Gold Coast motel.
French Girls + Q&A with Hyun Lee || 1 December
Fresh from sold-out screenings at the Sydney Film Festival, Hyun Lee’s micro-budget debut feature French Girls explores the struggle to find ways to be ourselves in environments that relentlessly push us away. Newcomer and model Mia Kidis stars as Mia, an aimless construction worker scouted by an agent and parachuted into Australia’s absurd fashion scene.
Short Films
Sydney Underground Film Festival: WTF! Australian Shorts || 30 November
Do you like your films freaky, fantastic and not for the faint of heart? Celebrating 20 years of fearless filmmaking, Sydney Underground Film Festival enters the hallowed halls of the House for a victory lap, screening a collection of their strangest, most transgressive and downright weird Australian short films.
Frame Shift 2026: Short Films from Accessible Arts || 3 December
Made in collaboration with Accessible Arts, Frame Shift is a curated selection of groundbreaking films and video artworks by artists with disability or who are d/Deaf in celebration of International Day of People with Disability. The second edition of this biennale film series features ten original short films that explore themes of intersectional identity, creative expression and social connectedness, including three commissioned works by Bria McCarthy, Jeremy Lowrenčev and Kieran Hugues Butler. All works will be captioned, Auslan-interpreted and audio-described.
Expanded Cinema
BIO:MASS by M@ Cornell || 1-2 December
Combining live dance and experimental film, BIO:MASS is multidisciplinary cinema that contemplates scale, temporality, cycles, change, perspective and endurance. Choreographed and directed by Matt Cornell, three dancers perform live in tandem with film vignettes of speculative far futures. Depicting an enigmatic monument of suspended plant material sealed in water, scenes zoom in on the tiniest details of life and zoom out on the passing of time while dancers spiral in and out of sync, striving for a physicality to help them thrive in a changed future.
Decipher by Junior Major || 2-3 December
Created by Sydney technologists Junior Major and spoken word artists, Decipher is a live experimental performance that explores the dissonance between human expression and machine surveillance. Using a bespoke audio-visual system, the work attempts to decode a poet’s live performance in real time. Because language models struggle to parse spoken word, this hungry machine mines biometric data, camera feeds, heatmaps and heart rates to classify the work. In response, the artists use their craft to actively confuse the algorithm’s predictions, exposing the behind-the-scenes mechanics of automated classification.
