This August sees the return of the annual Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), one of the world’s oldest film festivals and the world’s largest showcase of Australian filmmaking.
Screenings will take place across Melbourne cinemas from Thursday, August 6, to Sunday, August 23, including through regional venues, and selected highlights will be available to stream across Australia. With critically acclaimed features regularly taking centre stage at MIFF, the films that make up this year’s 300+ film program are in great company – including the WA-made features making their premiere.
Two WA-made feature documentaries are set to premiere as part of the prestigious MIFF Premiere Fund 2026 lineup – Jebediah: Are We Ok? and Hard As Puck.
One of Perth’s most iconic rock acts, Jebediah, feature in the deeply intimate documentary Jebediah: Are We Ok?, which juxtaposes three decades of unseen personal archives, home videos and interviews.
Director Arlo Dean Cook spoke to Screenwest about the film – “Ever since I started filming with [Jebediah] in 2015, I’ve felt welcomed into their community. Documenting the band in their hometown was always a joy, from the first three sold-out shows at the Astor to the final shoot at the Rosemount Hotel. Aside from music venues and their homes around Fremantle, Bull Creek, and Como, we captured beautiful moments in Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough, and Pemberton. The film turned out far better than I could have ever imagined, and I can’t wait to celebrate it soon in front of their hometown audience.”
The film is WA-made through and through, produced by award-winning Western Australian producer Brooke Tia Silcox, with Jebediah’s music and reimagined interpretations from the indie music community, including WA product The Panics as the soundtrack. Post-production was completed in Perth also.
Hard As Puck follows WA’s best and only para ice hockey team, The Garden Island Pirates. The documentary exposes the politics, people and the drama behind grassroots sporting clubs as they vie for sponsors and endure setbacks and personal clashes. The Isaac Elliot-directed feature was the winner of the 2024 Brian Beaton Award, reserved for documentary filmmakers that share meaningful Western Australian social impact stories.
Another WA-focused documentary making its world premiere at MIFF is Guided By Horses, following Aboriginal scientist and researcher Professor Juli Coffin and her pioneering horse sanctuary in the Kimberley. After her life was saved by a horse, Coffin began her unique program where vulnerable young people are paired with horses to promote positive mental health outcomes in remote WA.
Debuting director and Walyalup/Fremantle creative Peter Firebrace’s micro-budget horror film Of Womb premieres at MIFF on August 15, shot entirely in a heritage-listed South Fremantle house and in a Chittering farm. Described as a “visually stunning psychological fever dream,” akin to previous MIFF entries like Dogtooth, The Witch and Picnic at Hanging Rock, Firebrace’s debut is set to not only disturb as good horror does, but also hail a new Western Australian voice in cinema.
The short film G.O.A.T. will represent WA in the Accelerator Shorts 2 program. The comedy-drama short directed by Yawuru, Bardi and Kija filmmaker Kimberley Benjamin follows a queer Indigenous woman in Broome, struggling to reconcile her queerness with her regional hometown. When she falls for her new co-worker, the traditional workplace comedy is turned upside down in a breath of fresh air for the comedy genre.
MIFF 2026 runs from Thursday, August 6, to Sunday, August 23. Keep up to date with our film guide to see when these films screen in Western Australia.
