St Kilda Film Festival, Australia's longest-running short film festival, is back, and it's bringing almost 200 films, a record-breaking submission count, and a lineup that spans horror, comedy, animation and everything in between.
The St Kilda Film Festival (SKFF) takes over the suburb’s iconic venues from 4–14 June 2026, with screenings at the Palais Theatre, the Astor Theatre and St Kilda Town Hall.
This year’s program shattered submission records, pulling in 960 entries, seven per cent more than the previous year, with 15 awards on offer including an Academy Awards® qualifying Top Shorts competition.
The program is stacked with recognisable Australian talent. Hugo Weaving, Kat Stewart, Colin Lane and Sophie Wilde all appear across various films, while filmmaker and performer Ed Oxenbould and beloved animator Michael Cusack (of Smiling Friends fame) make appearances, with Cusack stepping into live-action for the first time.
St Kilda Film Festival 2026
- When: 4–14 June 2026
- Where: various venues across St Kilda (Palais Theatre, Astor Theatre, St Kilda Town Hall)
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The festival kicks off with a red-carpet opening gala at the Palais Theatre on 4 June, before heading to the Astor Theatre on 5 June for St Kilda Rocks, a double-bill documentary night focused on two legendary local music venues.
One film captures the Crystal Ballroom in its 1980s heyday, when the likes of Nick Cave, The Cure and the Dead Kennedys were passing through.
The other marks the 30th anniversary of a rare film documenting the final days of the Prince of Wales Hotel before its first major renovation. The night opens with a live PBS broadcast of Stone Love with Richie 1250 and closes with a filmmaker Q&A.
Other standout sessions include the Australian Comedy Showcase (5 June), which the festival notes is one of its fastest-selling events, a genre-blending session exploring AI and digital worlds called Tales of Mystery & Imagination: System Error (6 June), and the First Peoples Showcase: Black As (7 June) with acclaimed filmmaker David Batty.
The Live Cinema Experience on 8 June sees four teams create, edit and score short films in real time in front of a live audience.
Later in the program, Pride Without Prejudice (13 June) and Shifting the Gaze presented by WIFT Vic (13 June) celebrate LGBTIQ+ and women and gender-diverse filmmakers respectively, before the festival wraps with Made in VIC across 14–15 June.
Short film highlights across the program include Baby Shower, starring Hugo Weaving in a chaotic family gathering gone wrong; Faceless, an award-winning First Peoples film following an Indigenous man navigating three parallel lives along the Birrarung-Ga; and THE CEO, Michael Cusack’s live-action debut.
There’s also The Dysphoria, a Satanic horror short exploring trans identity, Calm the F**k Down, a documentary examining family violence through a role-reversal experiment, and The Shirt Off Your Back, from previous Best Director winner David Robinson-Smith.
The festival’s youth competition, Under the Radar, also returns for filmmakers aged 21 and under, drawing 135 submissions this year.
The Big Picture on 6 June offers a free filmmaker development day presented by JMC Academy, with 42 panels, workshops and networking events across the day.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with St Kilda Film Festival.
