Austin Butler Is Coming to Australia for the Sydney Film Festival Premiere of 'The Bikeriders'

Austin Butler will be in the building at Sydney Film Festival 2024. After scoring an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for playing the king of rock 'n' roll in Elvis, which was shot in Australia, the actor has locked in a visit to the Harbour City to launch his latest movie The Bikeriders at the State Theatre.

When the full 2024 SFF program was announced, The Bikeriders was among its big-name titles. It stars not only Butler, but also Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Tom Hardy (Venom: Let There Be Carnage) and Mike Faist (Challengers), so that's understandable. But the movie's place on the lineup is now even heftier with Butler hitting the fest and the country in person. He'll be at the session — complete with a red carpet event — on Thursday, June 6.

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, in what marks the Take Shelter, Mud and Midnight Special filmmaker's first feature since 2018's Loving, the picture casts Butler as Benny, a member of The Vandals, a midwestern motorcycle club. It's the 60s in Chicago, and Comer's Kathy is the audience's guide through the movie. She's also Benny's wife.

Hardy plays The Vandals' leader, while Benny is the gang's newest member — and if you've seen a tale of a motorcycle club on-screen before (American TV series Sons of Anarchy and Ryan Corr-starring Australian drama 1% might come to mind), you'll know that loyalty tend to play significant parts in the story.

Michael Shannon (The Flash), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), and Australians Toby Wallace (The Royal Hotel) and Damon Herriman (The Artful Dodger) also feature. If you can't make it to SFF, the film will hit Aussie cinemas in general release on Thursday, July 4.

On Sydney Film Festival's guest lineup, Butler is joined by the members of Midnight Oil for opening night's world-premiering documentary The Hardest Line, New Zealand director Lee Tamahori for The Convert, Jemaine Clement for The Moon is Upside Down, Rachel House in filmmaker mode for her directorial debut The Mountain and Aussie icon Peter Weir for a retrospective session of The Cars That Ate Paris — and plenty more, of course.

Check out the trailer for The Bikeriders below:

Sydney Film Festival 2024 takes place from Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16 at various cinemas and venues around Sydney. For more information and tickets, head to the festival's website.

Images: Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.