Animals take an unexpected starring role in the newly revealed program for the 20th Byron Bay International Film Festival, with filmmakers from Australia and around the world using our relationships with animals to explore some distinctly human questions.
Across the festival’s 20th edition, stories involving foxes, storks, hens, horses and dingoes touch on survival, displacement, inequality, loneliness, cultural connection and resilience.
The thread begins on opening night with The Fox, featuring the voices of Olivia Colman and the late Sam Neill, and continues through films ranging from internationally awarded features to Australian documentaries.
From Oscar-nominated Honeyland director Tamara Kotevska, The Tale of Silyan follows Macedonian farmer Nikola, whose encounter with an injured white stork develops into an extraordinary companionship as economic hardship threatens his livelihood and separates his family.
The film won Best Feature Documentary and Best Cinematography at the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards and the Cinema & Arts Award at Venice.
In Hungarian director György Pálfi’s Hen, a hen, escaping an industrial farm, searches for somewhere safe to raise her chicks. Her struggle unfolds alongside the darker story of a Greek family caught up in people-smuggling, creating a provocative exploration of exploitation, survival and human behaviour.
Closer to home, Australian documentary Guided by Horses travels to the Kimberley, where Aboriginal researcher Professor Juli Coffin’s equine-assisted learning program works with young First Nations people. Developed in response to youth suicide in Indigenous communities, the program uses relationships with horses to create opportunities for reconnection, healing and hope.
Australian short documentary Ganibarra, co-directed by Jirrbal woman and cultural knowledge-holder Sonya Takau, and Alix Livingstone, explores the relationship between First Nations people and dingoes, drawing parallels between displacement from Country and the persecution of dingoes following colonisation.
Festival Director J’aimee Skippon-Volke said the recurring presence of animals across such different films was striking. ‘These aren’t simply films about animals. Through them, the filmmakers are exploring some very big human questions, about survival and displacement, inequality, loneliness, cultural connection, resilience and our responsibility to each other and to the world around us.’
The animal-themed films are part of a much broader program marking BBFF’s 20th edition, with the full 2026 program now available online. The Byron Bay International Film Festival runs from 16 to 25 October, with screenings and events in Byron Bay, Brunswick Heads, Ballina, Mullumbimby and Lismore.
Full program and tickets from BBFF.com.au.
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