Tina Arena’s most revealing chapter yet is heading to the big screen
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03.08.2026

Tina Arena’s most revealing chapter yet is heading to the big screen

Words by staff writer

Tina Arena: Unravel Me lifts the lid on 50 years of one of Australia's most guarded pop icons.

Tina Arena: Unravel Me is heading to cinemas nationally, giving audiences an intimate look at the Melbourne music icon.

Directed by Adrian Russell Wills, Tina Arena: Unravel Me traces 50 years of a career that began when a young girl from suburban Melbourne stepped onto Young Talent Time. Wills, whose previous feature Kindred screened at MIFF in 2023, builds the film around a candid, dryly funny series of conversations.

The documentary splits its subject in two: Tina the icon, and the woman her Sicilian-Australian family still calls Pina. Along the way it weaves together new and archival interviews with CĂ©line Dion, Jessica Mauboy, Ronan Keating, Marc Anthony and Desmond Child, alongside Arena’s sisters and her Young Talent Time mentor Johnny Young.

Tina Arena: Unravel Me

  • Premieres 12 August, The Astor Theatre, Melbourne
  • In cinemas nationally – from 27 August

Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.

Arena’s story is one of near-constant reinvention. Her 1990 single I Need Your Body reintroduced her as an adult artist, a soaring run of 90s hits followed, and self-doubt and tall-poppy pressure eventually pushed her to rebuild abroad – recording and performing in English, Italian, French and Spanish across the UK and France.

The film lands as part of TINA 5.0, Arena’s 50th-anniversary rollout spanning 2026 and 2027, which also takes in domestic and international tours and a new EP, the first release on her POSITIVE DREAM Records imprint. With 25 albums behind her, she’s got no shortage of eras to draw on.

Arena and writer-producer Jessica Carrera will both attend the Melbourne premiere before the documentary opens around the country.

For more information, head here.