Following the stars to the Festival des Antipodes – All is in Saint-Tropez.
From across the seas, following the stars, the best of Australian and New Zealand cinema comes to the Star Cinema in Saint-Tropez. While work continues on the future La Renaissance Cultural Center, a renovation that will provide a magnificent setting for cinema and the arts on the legendary Place des Lices, the 28th edition of the Festival des Antipodes will offer an equally rich and eclectic program at the Star Cinema in 2026. Ideally located near the superb Gendarmerie and Cinema Museum, you can follow Louis de Funès in The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez, stroll along the port of Saint-Tropez with Claude Chabrol's Les Biches or dance wildly with Brigitte Bardot in And God Created Woman. And upon leaving the Museum, you can head straight to the ends of the earth to explore a little-known film industry and let your curiosity lead you to discover Australian and New Zealand cinema, the immensity of this Terra Australis, and the raw energy of the land of the long white cloud through a wide range of feature films and short films, documentaries, meetings, and of course, a beautiful exhibition curated by Céline Emery-Demion (Red Dunes Gallery) featuring an eclectic and refined selection of Aboriginal art, housed in a charming and historic location: the Vasserot wash house.
To whet your appetite, let's share a few details about the 2026 edition. A cornerstone of the program, the Antipodes Juniors selection will once again offer around fifteen short films in competition, judged by nearly one hundred high school students from schools such as the Lycée du Golfe de Saint-Tropez, the Lycée de Lorgues, and the Lycée de Saint-Raphäel. These students traditionally form a serious jury, fully aware of their responsibility in choosing the recipient of the Nicolas Baudin Prize.
Among the films arriving in Saint-Tropez, allowing you to travel to Australia, is The Canary by Emily Lowe. This first feature film from Western Australia, set in the 19th century, tells the story of a heroine alone with a canary on a rowboat in the open sea, braving the ocean and the rugged coastline. Zoe Pepper's Birthright, a dark comedy where parents find their son and his pregnant wife, recently evicted from their home, suddenly arriving at their villa, much to their dismay. Jonathan Teplitzky's Spit, a slapstick comedy where David Wenham reprises the role of Spit, a naive and mischievous con man who, upon returning to Australia, finds himself locked up in a migrant detention center. Not forgetting The Run a captivating thriller where a young mother and a smuggler (a remarkable Callan Mulvey, whom we welcomed to the festival in 2000) flee through a quarantined Australia ravaged by a mysterious infertility. From New Zealand, Fiona Samuel's Piece of My Heart, which will be in residence in Menton in October, is a work inspired by Renee Taylor's 1995 novel that tells the story of young single mothers in 1960s New Zealand, facing stigma and the adoption of their children.
Not forgetting the documentaries, including The Dark Emu Story by our 2024 jury president, Aboriginal filmmaker Allan Clarke, about the controversy surrounding Bruce Pascoe's bestseller, which prompted Australia to re-examine its history; Emily: I am Kam by Danielle MacLean, about the great Aboriginal painter Emily Kam Kngwarray; and Welcome to Babel by James Bradley, which follows the Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei Shen during the creation of a monumental 130-square-meter painting depicting the tumultuous history of communism.
But shh, we won't give everything away! So, see you in Saint-Tropez from October 15th to 18th at the Star Cinema for an exceptional 28th edition of the Antipodes Film Festival.
Bernard Bories AM
President of Cinéma des Antipodes
