Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger give a beautiful authenticity to Australian director Sophie Hyde’s adaptation of the acclaimed novel that Caitlin Moran described as "Withnail & I for girls".

Grainger and MIFF 2018 guest Shawkat (Blaze, Duck Butter) star as best friends Laura and Tyler. They’re either side of thirty, and have spent the better part of the last decade indulging their every hedonistic whim, arm in arm, to an almost co-dependent level. But their bond begins to crack under the weight of looming adulthood when Laura meets and falls for teetotal pianist Jim.

Following her award-winning films Life in Movement (MIFF 2011) and 52 Tuesdays, Adelaide’s Sophie Hyde returns with a nuanced, honest and non-judgemental look at contemporary female friendship. Scripted by Emma Jane Unsworth, who also wrote the 2014 novel of the same name, Animals upends expectations and doesn’t pull its punches. Set (and gorgeously shot) in Dublin, it’s a visceral, bittersweet and charming examination of modern love, wherever it’s found.

“A wonderful, utterly lived-in film about two women at a crossroads … There’s rich detail and truth underpinning this gloriously untamed study of friendship, one that refuses to play by the rules.” – The Guardian