Overview
Film festival lineups are only ever truly complete when the event is over for the year, because new movies and sessions can join the program right up until the curtains fall. 2025's Sydney Film Festival runs in June, for instance, and unveiled the bulk of its its roster to start May — but it still keeps expanding, including by scoring the Australian premiere of Ari Aster's Eddington.
Fresh from announcing that DEATH STRANDING and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has joined the 2025 program to get chatting with Mad Max and Furiosa director George Miller, SFF has now revealed that one of this year's most-anticipated movies — that wasn't already on its bill — is also heading to the Harbour City across Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15. Eddington joins the fest's straight-from-Cannes contingent, with the news coming just days after the film debuted at the prestigious French festival.
"With Eddington, Ari Aster turns his razor-sharp gaze to the fractured heart of America, and perhaps the world, in a film that is provocative, urgent and completely gripping. This is a compelling work that speaks to the chaos and contradictions of our times — and one that will spark passionate conversation," said SFF Festival Director Nashen Moodley, announcing the movie's addition to SFF's 2025 program.
"We are delighted to present its Australian premiere at Sydney Film Festival and offer Sydneysiders the chance to be some of the very first
people in the world outside of Cannes to see this incendiary film."
Arriving two years after Aster first stressed out Joaquin Phoenix in Beau Is Afraid, Eddington has more tension and chaos in store for the Oscar-winning actor. The pair reunite for a trip back to 2020, to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to the movie's eponymous New Mexico location as it attempts to cope with the abrupt change to life as its citizens know it. Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux) portrays the small town's sheriff — with Emma Stone (Kinds of Kindness ) as his wife, Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) as the loyal mayor and Austin Butler (The Bikeriders) as the charismatic Vernon Jefferson Peak.
The storyline: putting Joe and the mayor on a collision course, which unsurprisingly causes ripples throughout Eddington, in a tale that's set to see townsfolk clash in a period that we all know couldn't have been more heightened. Aster is back cultivating unease, then, as he did so expertly in Hereditary in 2018, then Midsommar in 2019, then Beau Is Afraid in 2023.
If you can't see Eddington at SFF, it releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday, July 24 — the same day as the also Pascal-starring Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Check out the trailer for Eddington below:
Sydney Film Festival 2025 takes place from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 at various cinemas and venues around Sydney. For more information and tickets, head to the festival's website.