Gus Van Sant’s nail-biting drama Dead Man’s Wire will open the 2026 Perth Revelation International Film Festival on Wednesday 8 July.
The latest work from the director of My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, Elephant, Milk and To Die For premiered at last year’s Venice International Film Festival. Van Sant’s new film is a dramatic adaptation of a real-life hostage situation.
In 1977, Tony Kiritsis entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a so-called dead man’s wire from the trigger to Kiritsis’s own neck. He demanded $5 million, no charges or prosecution, and a personal apology from the Halls for cheating him out of what he claimed he was owed.
The film stars an ensemble cast including Al Pacino, Colman Domingo, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Bill Skarsgård, Kelly Lynch and WAAPA graduate Dacre Montgomery.
The festival will run from 8 to 19 July across Luna Leederville, The Backlot, SAE Perth, Tribe Perth Kings Park and the State Library of Western Australia.
Boasting more than 50 features and documentaries and almost 100 short films, this year’s program embraces risk and adventure for audiences and Perth’s creative community.
The lineup spans social justice stories, high-end arthouse premieres and a strong multi-genre music component, alongside Trasaharama-agogo, described as the nastiest short film program in Australia, the free International Family Animation Explosion, explorations of ageing in Life In Pictures, and the return of the popular City of Vincent Film Project. Revelation once again positions itself as a festival that aims to spark debate and drive cultural conversation.
“Revelation is known for an independent spirit that is not afraid of issues, subcultures, adventurous art and culture, and seeing how far it can take audiences and filmmakers,” says Festival Director Richard Sowada. “It has flown the flag high for diversity in WA art and culture and while showcasing many enormously sophisticated films, it maintains a real sense of rock and roll and enjoys the power chords it plays.”
Also screening is Birdboy from Hong Kong director Tianpei Hu. Set against the neon-lit streets of Kuala Lumpur, the film follows Calvin, the youngest son in a traditional Chinese family, as he struggles to conceal his sexuality while searching for connection in a city suspended between religious conservatism and modern desire. There he meets Jerry, a Vietnamese massage worker living illegally, and together the pair drift through the city’s shadows, dreaming of futures that always feel just out of reach. Hu will attend the festival and take part in a post-screening Q and A.
The 1967 classic In Cold Blood will also return to the big screen. Richard Brooks’s adaptation of Truman Capote’s landmark non-fiction novel has stood the test of time. The film chronicles the 1959 murder of the Clutter family in rural Kansas, but its focus is as much on the perpetrators as the crime itself. Brooks fragments the narrative by interweaving past and present, memory and action, creating a psychological landscape that is as unsettling as the act it explores.
The film was recently discussed on the podcast What Went Wrong, where hosts Chris Winterbauer and Lizzie Bassett noted its enduring visual power and contemporary relevance. Capote’s literary journey is also depicted in the 2005 film Capote and the 2006 production Infamous.
Eduardo Cubillo Blasco’s documentary Rave Culture examines the explosion of Britain’s rave scene under the Thatcher government. At a time of social repression, a generation found refuge and expression through music. In abandoned factories and hidden fields, underground raves emerged as explosive gatherings of sound and light driven by breakbeat, a genre that fused the intensity of Detroit techno, the warmth of Chicago house and the edge of New York hip hop.
The Big Johnson is a documentary that takes us to New York’s queer scene in the late 1970s and into the next decade.
Dean Johnson was a creative force in the New York LGBTQI+ community from 1979, when he first arrived in town, onwards. Amongst other things he performed with Dean and the Weenies and the Velvet Mafia, produced club and music events at CBGBs dedicated to gay and transgender bands and contributing to the emergent queercore scene.
Dean was also a drag performer at Wigstock, he performed at legendary nightclubs such as the Pyramid and Danceteria, and hung out with Keith Haring and Andy Warhol In The Big Johnson, award winning director Lola Rocknrolla, making her documentary feature debut, tells Dean’s story, in a powerful and deeply moving tale illustrated through animated diary entries, archive footage and interviews.
The film is the first documentary from filmmaker Lola Rocknrolla who has previously made a many camp short films.
With so many films in the program you’ll definitely find something of interest, but Revelation is a great festival to just dive in an see films that you’ll never get to see anywhere else.
