The AACTA best-debut-feature list this year contains eleven films. Three of them, in the view of the selection committee members interviewed for this piece, are properly good.
Watchlist
The first is Rachel Ward's return to directing with 'The Coast', a slow-burn drama set on the NSW mid-north coast. The second is a first feature from documentary filmmaker Danny Ben-Moshe, whose narrative debut has been quietly gaining international festival attention. The third is a locally-produced horror film with an unusually confident opening act that has surprised industry viewers.
The three films sit at very different price points and target very different audiences. What they share, on the selection committee's view, is a maturity that first features often lack. Australian film in 2026 is not, at least in this small sample, in the trouble the industry conversation sometimes suggests it is.
