The 2026 MELBOURNE SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL will setdown at CINEMA NOVA from MARCH 6-8, 2026.
Nine spectacular sessions from some of the world’s greatest speculative storytellers are set to unfold at Melbourne’s premiere arthouse multiplex, Cinema Nova in Carlton, as part of the 2026 Melbourne Science Fiction Film Festival. The fifth annual festival will happen March 6-8, 2026, and boast seven feature films and 22 short films from nations as far afield as Ecuador, Mexico, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Chile, The Netherlands, India and, of course, Australia.
Opening Night will be the Victorian Premiere of Chilean auteur Javier Cutrona’s breathtaking fantasy, FISHGIRL, direct from winning Best Film and Best Actress honours at the recent 2025 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival. From Mexico comes ITU NINU, a poignant love story set against a future world of climate decay. And the centrepiece of the Animation Celebration session, in addition four visionary shorts, will be the first animated feature to be produced in North Macedonia, the Looney Tunes-inspired deep space action comedy, JOHN VARDAR VS THE GALAXY, from one of Europe’s hottest young animators, Goce Cvetanovski.
The prime Saturday evening slot will be filled by Kazakhstan’s biggest domestic hit of 2025, celebrity director Yerden Telemissov’s hilarious and heart-warming extra-terrestrial drama, SASYQ. A special treat will be it’s pairing with Danielle Weinberg’s brilliantly funny INVASION ‘53, a Twilight Zone-type riff on an alien invasion starring iconic horror star, Jeffery Coombs, of RE-ANIMATOR fame. The festival is especially proud to be presenting the Melbourne Premiere of COSMOGRAPHIES, Juan Francisco Salaza’s transformative docu-drama hybrid film that draws from modes of speculative fiction, observational and poetic documentary, activism, and Indigi-queer perspectives.
Currently winning hearts and minds on its international festival roll-out is Jeffery Morris’ celebratory factual film THE EAGLE OBSESSION, a captivating look at the impact of the iconic series SPACE 1999 on a generation of fans. Including the selection of short films playing with the features, there are two full sessions of short-form narratives in which to indulge - the International Short Film line-up, with works from such visionary sectors as France, South Korea and Singapore, and an Australian Shorts selection, which includes the theatrical premiere of Melbourne-based Odin Jurray’s challenging drug- and psychosis-fuelled ‘romance’, PARALLAX OF THE LIMINAL VOID. Closing Night will be a Special Presentation screening in honour of the late Val Kilmer of his insane (and insanely entertaining) creature feature, THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU. Not to be missed on the big-screen!
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we live, learn and work, and pays respect to Elders of all generations, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival celebrates the history and contemporary creativity of the world’s oldest living culture.