Overview
Korean television made history in 2025, when season three of Squid Game broke Netflix viewership and ranking records. Parasite, Korea's big Oscar-winner, is in the spotlight at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival courtesy of new big-screen sessions with composer Jung Jae-il conducting and performing its score live. That movie's director Bong Joon-ho released his first feature, Mickey 17, since his most-acclaimed picture. They're just some of the ways that 2025 has already been excellent if you love Korean film and television.
Here's another: from August–October, the Korean Film Festival in Australia is returning for its latest run. Back in 2010 when it debuted, it did so in Sydney. The Harbour City remains the event's main home in 2025, too. As the fest did in 2024, however, it's also taking the show on the road to regional locations — and when the KOFFIA Touring Program hits up Benalla, Toowoomba, Parramatta, Alice Springs, Victor Harbour and The Whitsundays, it will be free.
Accordingly, the Korean Film Festival in Australia has a date with Event Cinema George Street from Thursday, August 21–Tuesday, August 26, kicking off its lineup of ten titles. Then, the KOFFIA Touring Program will visit Benalla Cinema in Victoria across Saturday, September 13–Sunday, September 14; The Strand Cinemas in Toowoomba for the first of its Queensland stops on Sunday, September 14; and Riverside Theatres in Parramatta over Friday, September 26–Saturday, September 27.
In October, Alice Springs Cinema will play host from Friday, October 3–Sunday, October 5; Victa Cinema in Victor Harbour gives the event a South Australian location across Saturday, October 4–Sunday, October 5; and Proserpine Entertainment Centre in The Whitsundays will close out the tour, and add a second Sunshine State trip, over Saturday, October 11–Sunday, October 12.
The schedule does mean that if you're in Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide and you want to attend KOFFIA in 2025, you do need to head out of town. At every stop that the festival makes, though, Hear Me: Our Summer is on the bill — including opening Sydney. The romantic drama co-stars former Iz*One member Kim Minju, remakes Taiwan's Hear Me and sees a love story blossom via Korean Sign Language.
Sydney audiences can also catch the South Korean spin on 2011 Colombian film Hidden Face, with Parasite's Cho Yeo-jeong among the cast; see a new take on Mary Shelley's masterpiece via Frankenstein Father; watch more K-pop stars, including An So-hee leading the Seoul-set The Daechi Scandal and EXO's Doh Kyung-soo feature in Secret: Untold Melody; and get a dose of crime thrills via Dirty Money. A 4K restoration of 1999's spy thriller Shiri is showing in the Harbour City as well.
If you're keen to hear more about a number of titles on the lineup in Sydney, Hear Me: Our Summer director Jo Seon-ho, Hidden Face helmer Kim Dae-woo and About Family's Yang Woo-seok are all attending the fest — and so is The Noisy Mansion's Lee Lu-da, plus actor Gyeong Su-jin.
The last of those two movies are also on the touring program, with About Family a dramedy about a chef discovering that he might have grandchildren, and The Noisy Mansion focusing on a tenant and her neighbours trying to discover why their building is plagued by strange sounds. Sydney and regional audiences can catch Forbidden Fairytale, too, about a children's book author who starts ghostwriting online erotica.
Korean Film Festival in Australia 2025 Dates
Korean Film Festival in Australia
Thursday, August 21–Tuesday, August 26 — Event Cinema George Street, Sydney
KOFFIA Touring Program
Saturday, September 13–Sunday, September 14, 2025 — Benalla Cinema, Benalla
Sunday, September 14, 2025 — The Strand Cinemas, Toowoomba
Friday, September 26–Saturday, September 27, 2025 — Riverside Theatres, Parramatta
Friday, October 3–Sunday, October 5, 2025 — Alice Springs Cinema, Alice Springs
Saturday, October 4–Sunday, October 5, 2025 — Victa Cinema, Victor Harbour
Saturday, October 11–Sunday, October 12, 2025 — Proserpine Entertainment Centre, The Whitsundays
The Korean Film Festival in Australia 2025 runs in Sydney from Thursday, August 21–Tuesday, August 26, with the KOFFIA Touring Program hitting Benalla, Toowoomba, Parramatta, Alice Springs, Victor Harbour and The Whitsundays between September–October. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the KOFFIA website.