Fantastic Film Festival Australia Has Unveiled Its Weird, Wonderful and Sometimes-Nude 2022 Lineup

Strip off to see 'The Full Monty' in the buff — or check out a viking epic starring Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman — at this Sydney and Melbourne film fest.

Sarah Ward
Published on March 25, 2022

Turning your phone off during a movie is cinema etiquette 101. Not kicking the seat in front of you, or talking during the film, or taking in food with aromas so pungent they stink out the whole theatre — they're all on the list as well. Usually, so is wearing clothes; however, the returning Fantastic Film Festival Australia is making attire optional for some of its 2022 sessions.

One of Australia's film fests dedicated to weird and wonderful cinema — a tranche of flicks so glorious that several events celebrate them — FFFA is back for another year, screening at the Ritz Cinema in Randwick in Sydney and Lido Cinemas in Hawthorn in Melbourne from Thursday, April 21–Friday, May 6. It has just unveiled its full 2022 lineup, too, and its naked screening certainly deserves attention. The fest debuted the concept last year, and it's bringing it back this year. Even better: you'll be getting your kit off to mark the 25th anniversary of The Full Monty.

Stripping off while seeing a classic movie about men stripping isn't the only highlight of this year's program, of course — and yes, if you want to see Robert Carlyle and company while remaining dressed, you can leave your hat on (and the rest of your clothing as well). The attire-optional session sits alongside other standouts such as opening night's viking epic The Northman, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman, and directed by The Witch and The Lighthouse's Robert Eggers; closing night's New York Ninja, which was shot in 1984, only finished in 2021 and follows a vigilante tale; and a 4K restoration of the inimitable 1981 great Possession starring a young Sam Neill and always-wonderful Isabelle Adjani (The World Is Yours).

In total, 22 features and eight shorts and special events sit on this lineup of strange, surreal, out-there and purposely offbeat flicks. We're All Going to the World's Fair arrives from Sundance, combining psychological horror with a coming-of-age story — and a storyline about an online roleplaying game — while French film After Blue is a sci-fi western fantasy about a mother and daughter tracking a killer in toxic forests.

There's also indie animation Absolute Denial, which has been compared to Frankenstein but in a digital world; Agnes, which explores a case of demonic possession in a convent; Japan's Dreams on Fire, featuring acclaimed dancer Bambi Naka in her first lead role; Norwegian nightmare The Innocents, as directed by The Worst Person in the World co-writer Eskil Vogt; and The Timekeepers of Eternity, which is adapted from Stephen King novella The Langoliers.

On the events bill, FFFA is hosting Music Video Blind Date, to connect Melbourne musos with filmmakers in the hopes of making music video magic — and, thanks to an evening called Cinema 1 Nightclub, it's getting DJ Female Wizard to spin tunes inside a theatre while artist Baben Shin provides the visuals.

And if you're keen to celebrate the launch of the program, the fest is also hosting a sneak-preview session of Michelle Yeoh-starring multiverse gem Everything Everywhere All At Once in advance — on Saturday, March 26.

Fantastic Film Festival Australia runs from Thursday, April 21–Friday, May 6 at Ritz Cinema, Randwick in Sydney and Lido Cinemas, Hawthorn in Melbourne. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the FFFA website.

Published on March 25, 2022 by Sarah Ward