How to Make Gravy Gets Its US Premiere in New York

There’s a decent chance you’ve cried to this song in an airport. How to Make Gravy, the film built out of Paul Kelly’s 1996 song, is getting its United States premiere at the Australian International Screen Forum in New York. Filmmakers Nick Waterman and Meg Washington will be there for a Q&A afterward.

If you’ve wanted to watch this one from over here, you haven’t been able to. The film has never had a US release, and there’s no streaming home for it in America. This screening is the way to see it.

What it is

The song is a letter. Joe, in prison, writes to his brother Dan four days before Christmas, worrying about who’ll make the gravy now that he can’t. It’s been an Australian Christmas fixture for thirty years, and fans mark December 21 as Gravy Day because that’s the date in the lyrics.

The film takes that letter and builds the whole family around it. Daniel Henshall plays Joe. Hugo Weaving, Brenton Thwaites, Kate Mulvany, Damon Herriman and Agathe Rousselle round out a family preparing for their first Christmas without him.

It was BINGE’s first original feature, produced by Warner Bros. International Australia and shot on the Gold Coast, Queensland. The soundtrack won Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album at the 2025 ARIA Awards.

The Q&A

Nick Waterman directed and co-wrote it with Meg Washington, who’s also a musician and his partner in real life. The adaptation took them about five years.

They’ll both be there for a conversation after the screening, which makes this more than a screening. Two people spent half a decade turning four minutes of song into a feature film. Having them in a room taking questions won’t happen again in New York.

Why go

Here’s the thing about watching this film in America.

It’s a story about a bloke who can’t get home for Christmas, and a family carrying on without him. Watch it in Australia and it’s a lovely, sad, funny film. Watch it in a room full of Australians who’ve had a Christmas on the wrong side of the Pacific, and it lands somewhere else entirely.

Bring tissues.

Tickets are available through Eventbrite.