The Birthday Trip + Q&A
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Turning 30 can be confronting. Watching someone else do it can be hilarious.
When three couples head to a luxury Southern Highlands retreat for a joint birthday celebration, a weekend of good food, flowing drinks and carefully maintained appearances quickly unravels. Old resentments surface, loyalties shift, and uncomfortable truths emerge, exposing the cracks beneath seemingly successful lives.
The debut feature from James Robert Woods, The Birthday Trip is a wickedly funny Australian black comedy that skewers privilege, ambition and millennial self-importance with sharp wit and uncomfortable precision. Featuring standout performances from an outstanding ensemble cast, it's a painfully recognisable portrait of friendship, relationships and the stories you tell yourselves about who you've become.
Following the screening, stay for a special Q&A with writer-director James Robert Woods and producer Stephanie Jane Day. Together they'll discuss the making of the film, its biting take on contemporary Australian culture, and the challenges of bringing this chaotic, character-driven story to the screen.
Funny, awkward and all too relatable, The Birthday Trip is a sharply observed comedy about what happens when a milestone birthday forces everyone to take a hard look at where their lives are really headed.
