A Grand Mockery

Victorian Premiere

"A Buñuelian nightmare deep fried in red wine, A Grand Mockery is a luminous exploration in absurdism and the decay of self. Avant-garde cinema at its finest." – Jaydon Martin, director of Flathead (2024)

"A wholly singular earthy, (sub)urban strand of Australian avant-garde filmmaking, A Grand Mockery is alive with a kind of pure, youthful energy that is far too rare.” – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

A Grand Mockery is one of the most exciting examples of truly independent filmmaking to come out of Australia in recent memory.

Shot on soft, luminous Super 8 film, it follows Josie, a young man leading a life of passive mundanity in Brisbane. Slowly but surely, his psychic ills start to become more and more disturbing, so he sets out to roam the rainforest hinterlands of Queensland.

Winner of Best Feature Film at SXSW Sydney, A Grand Mockery stars co-director Sam Dixon and Kate Dillon (also known as Babyshakes Dillon of the Brisbane rock band Full Flower Moon Band). Structured as a diptych, the film is tonally playful, beginning as a work of morbid comic realism before it transforms alongside Josie himself. It’s simultaneously singular and a flashback to underground filmmaking before it became codified.

Festivals & Awards
SXSW Sydney 2024 – Winner, Best Feature Film

Select session include a Q&A with filmmakers Adam C. Briggs & Sam Dixon. See here for more details.