At a glance…
- Tina Arena’s upcoming film Unravel Me is premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2026.
- Directed by Adrian Russell Wills, the documentary celebrates 50 years of Tina Arena in the spotlight.
- The film features interviews with the star as well as Céline Dion, Lionel Richie, Jessica Mauboy, and Ronan Keating.
- Unravel Me hits theatres across Australia on 27 August.
“People think they know me, but they really don’t know me at all,” says Tina Arena in the trailer of her upcoming documentary Unravel Me.
The film is premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival on 12 August before heading to theatres across Australia from 27 August.
“Art is risk on every level,” the “Unspottable” singer also says in the trailer.
Earlier this year, I spoke with the artist about a life-threatening illness that changed how she saw health, life and music itself.
“You’re not invincible,” she told me at the time. In 2023, Tina ended up in the hospital with severe kidney stones. It escalated into septicemia and required a life-saving blood transfusion. Since recovering, she has become more mindful of her well-being. “Music has always been a beautiful way of healing. I think music really heals.”
Living out the majority of her life in the public eye was a strain. She shares in the trailer that she never wanted fame nor cared for the scrutiny that came with it. When we last spoke, Tina and I discussed ageism and women in the industry.
“It’s exceptionally boring, and it’s an exceptionally short-sighted [view] that anybody would think that a woman of a certain age has nothing to contribute,” she told me. “There’s a lot to be learnt from assertiveness and experience… Society misses out on a lot of things if you take perspective and experience out of the equation.”
“I believe that in order for stories and things to be understood, you need somebody that has lived a life of sorts to be present. You can’t ignore them.”
It appears we are going to learn just how much in her upcoming documentary.
Filippina Arena (known to family as Pina and to us as Tina) was first put on the national map when she appeared on Channel 10’s Young Talent Time. She was just eight years old. Her breakout single ‘I Need Your Body’ in the 1990s led to a series of number one hits. However, she continuously reinvented herself abroad, collaborating with numerous artists and releasing 25 albums over five decades with songs in English, Italian, Spanish and French.
Unravel Me, directed by Adrian Russell Wills, promises to go behind the curtain of the performer and see the real Tina Arena. Plus, there will be new (and archival) interviews with friends and collaborators of Tina’s, including Céline Dion, Jessica Mauboy, Ronan Keating, and The Veronicas.
Tina Arena will be attending the MIFF premiere of the documentary on Wednesday, 12 August at the Astor Theatre. You can buy tickets here. Following which, Unravel Me will head to cinemas around Australia from 27 August.
