The Fox: An Advance New York Screening of Australia’s Strangest New Film

A talking fox voiced by Olivia Colman. A gossiping magpie voiced by Sam Neill. Jai Courtney as a small-town fox hunter who makes an extremely poor decision.

The Fox is getting an exclusive advance screening in New York as part of the Australian International Screen Forum, ahead of any wider US release.

What it is

Nick, played by Jai Courtney, is a decent enough bloke. He works on his dad’s farm and looks forward to schnitty night. His fiancée Kori, played by Emily Browning, is having an affair with her boss.

Everyone in town knows. So do the animals, who talk, and who are all a bit embarrassed for him.

One night while hunting, Nick meets a fox with a deal. She can give him the perfect partner, loyal only to him. He takes it. Things get considerably worse from there.

It’s the feature debut of Dario Russo, the man behind the cult Australian spy satire Danger 5. He wrote, directed, edited and scored it himself. It draws on Japanese and Korean folktales alongside his own upbringing in the Adelaide Hills. The animals are animatronic rather than CGI, which somehow makes them funnier.

Alongside Courtney and Browning, the cast includes Damon Herriman, Claudia Doumit, Miranda Otto, Kim Gyngell and Zlatko Burić. Colman and Neill handle the voices.

The film premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2025 and had its international premiere at SXSW earlier this year.

Fair warning

This is a dark comedy and it earns the dark. The central premise involves a man magically stripping his fiancée of her own will, and the film goes to some uncomfortable places with it. Reviews have split down the middle, which usually means a film is doing something rather than nothing.

Leave the kids at home. Bring someone whose sense of humor you trust.

Why go

Australian film rarely screens in New York before it’s had a US release. A talking-animal folktale set in the Adelaide Hills is about as far from Hollywood as you can get.

Tickets are available through Eventbrite.