About

The Royal Hotel takes the familiar down under backpacker hair-raiser and flips it on its head, examining drinking culture, toxic masculinity and gender politics through a distinctively female lens.

Searching for adventure and strapped for cash, US backpackers Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) take jobs and accommodation at a remote outback pub, The Royal Hotel. Relentless heat, unglamorous booze in a box, and lack of wi-fi don’t paint the idyllic picture of an Aussie holiday the friends had envisioned, but the real threat grows increasingly intense and volatile as they become acquainted with the town’s primarily male residents.

Programmer's note: Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel is a deft reworking of the ‘Aussie outback thriller,’ reoriented with a female gaze. The film takes deliberate stabs at the more toxic shadows of the genre, and our culture, in sophisticated but ever entertaining ways. Kitty is a local luminary who is gaining international acclaim as a writer-director with a fearless vision for nuanced storytelling and this film is the perfect opener to the Screen Festival, which seeks to amplify and celebrate bold voices in film.
—Ghita Loebenstein

Director Kitty Green will be in attendance for our Opening Night screening of The Royal Hotel.
Doors open at 4pm, with event commencing at 5pm.

After the screening, join us at Tumbalong Park for the official Opening Party of the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival. Featuring food trucks and drinks from Young Henry’s Bar, plus DJ sets from the always-uplifting Go-Jo and Melbourne mega-producer Harvey Sutherland, kick off SXSW Sydney’s inaugural Screen Festival in style!



Australian Premiere