The Antenna Documentary Film Festival returns to Sydney from 5 to 15 February 2026, bringing to Australian audiences a selection of international auteur documentaries with strong narrative and visual impact. The festival celebrates the power of documentary cinema to tell authentic stories, explore collective memories, and engage with pressing social and cultural issues.
The Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney is collaborating on the initiative by supporting the participation of two Italian films.
The Castle
Directors: Danny Biancardi, Stefano La Rosa, Virginia Nardelli
Duration: 70 minutes
Genre: Documentary (Italy/France, 2025)
The film follows the lives of Angelo, Mery, Rosy, and Giada, four eleven-year-olds living in Danisinni, an old and isolated district of Palermo. In the middle of the main square stands an abandoned kindergarten, avoided by everyone and used as a dumping ground. The children explore it and decide to transform one of the rooms into a secret refuge: a space that becomes increasingly clean, decorated, and intimate, where they can share fears, games, and imagination without judgment. Through the eyes of the children, the film reveals the dynamics of a community where dreams confront social and material challenges.
Screening: Friday, 6 February 2026
Time: 8.15 PM
Cinema: Dendy Newtown, Sydney
Screening: Sunday 15 February 2026
Time: 6.30 PM
Cinema: Dendy Newtown, Sydney
Tickets available HERE
Fiume o Morte!
Director: Igor Bezinović
Duration: 112 minutes
Genre: Documentary (Croatia/Italy/Slovenia, 2025)
The film offers an original portrait of the occupation of the city of Fiume by Gabriele D’Annunzio and his legionaries between 1919 and 1920. Director Igor Bezinović combines the voices of contemporary Rijeka residents with archival footage and reenactment sequences, in which the citizens themselves interpret events from that historical period. The result is a reflection on memory, the social construction of reality, and the relevance of the past in the present, with a perspective that blends history, irony, and collective reconstruction.
Screening: Saturday, 7 February 2026
Time: 7.00 PM
Cinema: Dendy Newtown, Sydney
Screening: Saturday, 14 February 2026
Time: 6.00 PM
Cinema: Ritz Cinema Randwick, Sydney
Tickets available HERE