Marathon Summer of film screenings coming soon

Buckle up, Western Sydney – Made in the West is about to blow your minds in 2025!

After 14 years of celebrating our brilliant community of local filmmakers, we're taking our biggest leap yet. And trust us when we say this: you're going to want to be part of every single moment!

Here's the news that we've been absolutely dying to share with you: Made in the West 2025 is going LARGER, LONGER, and way more LOCAL than ever before.

We're talking about an entire summer of screenings from 1 December 2025 through to 28 February 2026, plus – wait for it – IRL pop-up screenings across Western Sydney for the very first time.

Let that sink in for a second. Made in the West is going to be screening in YOUR neighbourhood.

We're committed to showing films by our community, for our community. And this year's summer season is the stuff dreams are made of!

Since 2020, our MEGA Movie Marathon has been streaming stories from Western Sydney into lounge rooms across the globe, and it's been absolutely electric watching local talent reach international audiences.

That magic isn't going anywhere – the Online Festival will still be available throughout the summer, giving you three glorious months to watch, rewatch, and show off to your family and friends just how talented we are out West.

And remember, our annual People's Choice Award is voted for by our marathon viewers!

But this year, we're also bringing our marathon screening experience to EVERY corner of our fabulous city  – right across our region!!

That's right – this is the big news we've been waiting to share – we've secured six incredible venues across Western Sydney, and we'll be rolling out an additional16 pop-up screening events that will bring YOUR local stories directly to local audiences.

Because whilst streaming to the world is a huge opportunity for us all, there's something utterly wonderful about sitting in a cinema with your community, watching a film made by your mates, and feeling that collective gasp or laugh or cry ripple through the room.

Plus, built in to each 2-hour screening event comes an opportunity to meet the filmmakers and our festival team. Made in the West wouldn't be the same without our networking sessions – it's what we love about getting everyone together! So we've booked bevvies and bar space for us all to mingle and discuss the films after each event.

This new format has been made possible by two incredible new sponsors: Liverpool City Council and Penrith City Council.

Liverpool City Council is powering South-West Sydney’s creative rise as a hub for screen culture and film production. With its newly rebranded Liverpool Powerhouse as Home of the Arts & Creative Industries, Liverpool Council is rewriting the narrative around growth and community, championing local talent, creative innovation and inclusive cultural activation. Whether it’s facilitating film shoots, investing in precincts or partnering with creatives, Liverpool City Council is proud to build the ecosystem in which Western Sydney storytellers thrive.

Penrith City Council is committed to establishing Penrith as a major creative city — one where arts, culture and screen production are at the heart of its growth and identity. With its 'We Create Penrith' Cultural Strategy and a streamlined local filming and photography protocol, the Council makes space for creative voices and emerging filmmakers to flourish in Western Sydney’s dynamic environment. Penrith City Council is pleased to support Made in the West Film Festival as another platform amplifying region-based screen talent.

After our callout earlier in the year to find new sponsors and partners, and launching our first crowd funder to support an expanded format and event running costs, these two organisations heard our call and responded generously. We thank them very much!

There is still a couple more days before our crowd funder expires; if you're able to consider a donation, please do so. No amount is too small!

Here's what you can expect in this year's Festival program:

The 2025 festival will kick off with Opening Night at Event Cinemas Liverpool on Saturday 22 November, supported by Screen NSW Community Festival Opening Night Party Fund.

It'll be a night to remember! Complete with jury awards and all the red carpet glamour you've come to expect from Made in the West's flagship gala event each year.

Then Event Cinemas Liverpool will begin our Marathon Summer season with two double-header Sunday Cinema Sessions in December. We'll break for the Christmas / NYE holidays and then return with another full month of Sunday Sessions after the Australia Day long weekend – we're super excited to be spending Sunday summer arvo's with a stack of exceptional local filmmakers!

Event Cinemas Campbelltown is joining the party too, hosting weekly cinema screenings on Wednesdays throughout February. They've got a beautiful new renovated cinema and a Gold Class bar for us to enjoy, so whether you're a Campbelltown local or you're making the trek, these sessions are going to be absolutely buzzing!

Arts & Cultural Exchange Parramatta is also on board with Friday night screenings in February. Parramatta has always been a powerhouse of Western Sydney culture, and having Made in the West screen there feels like coming home. In fact, our very first festival was at the Roxy in Parramatta.

Here's something that's got us particularly excited: we're partnering with Street University Liverpool for a very special all-ages and youth-focused event on Wednesday 10 December. Finally, young creatives and families can experience Made in the West together!

We've always been an 18+ event, but this screening opens the doors to the next generation of Western Sydney storytellers, which we love.

And for the first time ever, Made in the West is coming to Bankstown! Bankstown Arts Centre will be hosting Saturday screenings in February, bringing films to the heart of one of Sydney's most vibrant creative communities. If you’re familiar with the work of our trailblazing Bankstown filmmakers, you know these sessions will be absolutely electric!

And finally, because we know how to throw a good party, we'll be closing out the festival in the most spectacular way possible: with our Closing Night Party at The Joan Penrith on Saturday 28 February. After three months of celebrating Western Sydney's finest filmmakers across all parts of Western Sydney, this summer-long celebration deserves an ending that matches the journey, and The Joan is the perfect place to bring it all together.

There, we’ll be announcing the winners of our Genre Awards, and NEW this year, we have some exciting Next Gen awards to share with you! All this, alongside our hotly contested People’s Choice Award as voted by our global online audience and in-person attendees at the local pop-up screenings.

Let's be real for a moment: Western Sydney artists have ALWAYS created work that rivals anything you'd see at fancy festivals around town. But for too long, our local communities haven't had easy access to see their own stories on the big screen.

That changes now.

With multiple screenings happening across six regions of the West, we're multiplying the opportunities for local artists to showcase their work, letting local audiences see themselves represented, and creating the magic that happens when filmmakers meet their community in person.

Invite everyone you know! Bring your friends and fam! Because you just HAVE TO BE THERE!!

We'll be announcing the full program and film line-up soon, so watch this space!

It's up to YOU to help us build up the audience for local films, help us celebrate the stories of our community, and help make these events as well attended as all Western Sydney film events should be.

And you know it'll be off the hook! Because if there's one thing Made in the West knows how to do, it's throw a celebration that honours the bold and authentic stories of Western Sydney filmmakers.

It’s all part of the vision and our work at Made in the West Creative.

Made in the West Creative exists to empower Western Sydney filmmakers by centering their voices, celebrating their craft, and creating pathways to sustainable creative careers. We're building a thriving and inclusive screen industry where diverse creatives are visible, valued, and supported to tell powerful stories on their own terms.

Everything we do is about lifting each other up, championing underrepresented voices, and proving that representation in storytelling drives real cultural change. We value collaboration over competition, because when we strengthen the creative ecosystem together, we all rise.

These pop-up screenings are part of how we're connecting filmmakers with local audiences through our content provision services. Since 2012, we've built an archive of over 300 films from Made in the West Film Festival, and we curate selections from this collection for events, gatherings, and organisations across the region.

It's about getting Western Sydney stories in front of Western Sydney people – whether that's at a community event, an arts centre program, or a local cinema session. Every screening is an opportunity for filmmakers to reach new audiences, for communities to see themselves on screen, and for the magic of local storytelling to do what it does best. 

So mark your calendars, start planning your summer, and GET READY to see your community's stories the way they deserve to be seen – larger than life, on the big screen, and surrounded by the people who made them and the people they were made for.

Are you ready for the biggest summer of local film you've ever seen? Because Made in the West 2025 is about to redefine what a film festival can be, and we’re inviting you along for the ride.

Stay tuned to our blog and social channels for screening schedules, program announcements, and everything else you need to know, coming soon.

Trust us, you're not going to want to miss a single moment of this.

Let's make summer 2025 one for the history books!