The Travelling Film Festival returns to Toowoomba
Cinephiles unite! Here’s your chance to see films that may not make it to local cinemas otherwise – including winners from the Cannes & Sundance Film Festivals.
Updated October 2026
This October, the Travelling Film Festival (TFF), Australia’s longest-running travelling film festival, returns to Toowoomba with eight films direct from the Sydney Film Festival. Screening at BCC Cinemas Toowoomba Strand from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October, this year’s lineup brings together prize-winners from Cannes, Toronto and Sydney, including both the Palme d’Or and Grand Prix winners, plus two Australian short films.
The festival opens on Friday 23 October at 7pm with Whistle, an offbeat Aussie documentary that heads inside the world’s greatest whistling competition, where big personalities, devoted fans and bruised egos all collide. It’s a crowd pleaser and a fitting, feel-good start to the weekend.
Other highlights include Fjord, the Palme d’Or winner and English-language debut from Cristian Mungiu, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve; Minotaur, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s explosive thriller and winner of both the Cannes Grand Prix and the Sydney Film Prize; Bitter Christmas, the latest from Pedro Almodóvar; and La Bola Negra, a dazzling, decades-spanning story of queer desire in Spain featuring Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close and Julio Torres.
Also on the program are Silent Friend, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux; No Good Men, a sparkling political romantic comedy from Afghanistan; and The Cycle of Love, a heart-warming documentary from Oscar-winner Orlando von Einsiedel. Two homegrown shorts round out the lineup: Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling, an animated story about the Ntaria Choir from the Northern Territory, and A Grief Encounter, a dark romantic comedy starring Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair.
Sessions are already selling fast. A TFF Subscription gets you all eight films for $17 per film, or a Flexipass 5 lets you choose any five films for $18 each. Single tickets are $22 for adults and $20.50 for concession and under 26. Please note that from 2pm on Friday 23 October, all tickets must be purchased through the BCC Cinemas Toowoomba Strand website. Tickets and full program details can be found via Sydney Film Festival’s Travelling Film Festival page: here.
FRIDAY, 23 OCT 26
7:00PM – WHISTLE (Documentary)
An offbeat Aussie crowd pleaser that follows the world’s greatest whistling competition, from its eccentric competitors to its passionate devotees, as egos clash and notes soar. Toronto 2025.
Screens with: Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling (Short), an animated story charting the legacy of the Ntaria Choir, formerly known as the Hermannsburg Choir.
SATURDAY, 24 OCT 26
10:00AM – SILENT FRIEND (Feature)
Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux star in this wondrous new film from Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul, Sydney Film Prize 2017), weaving together three stories across different eras, all connected by a single tree.
1:15PM – BITTER CHRISTMAS (Feature)
Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Volver) delivers a vibrant film-within-a-film about a filmmaker whose hunt for inspiration raises thorny questions about the ethics of storytelling.
4:00PM – MINOTAUR (Feature)
Winner of the Cannes Grand Prix and the Sydney Film Prize, Russian master Andrey Zvyagintsev’s much-anticipated new film is a brave, taut thriller that fuses the personal and the political.
7:15PM – NO GOOD MEN (Feature)
In this sparkling political rom-com from Afghanistan, a camerawoman who has given up on love finds herself unexpectedly drawn to the country’s leading journalist. Screens with: A Grief Encounter (Short), a dark romantic comedy starring Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, in which a taxidermist’s flirtation with a customer turns into a reckoning with grief and loss.
SUNDAY, 25 OCT 26
12:30PM – LA BOLA NEGRA (Feature)
A major prize winner at Cannes, Sydney and Toronto, this exuberant and sensual exploration of queer desire in Spain spans decades and features Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close and Julio Torres.
4:15PM – THE CYCLE OF LOVE (Documentary)
The heart-warming true story of a Delhi street artist who sets out to cycle from India to Sweden to reunite with the love of his life, from Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel.
7:00PM – FJORD (Feature)
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, acclaimed director Cristian Mungiu makes his English-language debut with this thought-provoking family drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve.
