The Sydney to Hobart yacht race occupies a rare place in Australian cultural history. It is one of the great ocean yacht races, and for several days each year the nation follows the sailor’s journey south to Tasmania. The country follows the fleet into the Bass Strait, one of the world’s most treacherous bodies of water, where shifting weather systems can turn elite competition into a fight for survival.

TRUE SOUTH marks 80 years of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and was filmed 25 years after its darkest chapter in 1998, when six sailors lost their lives. The film is a deeply human story of family, grief, endurance and friendship, told through the lived experience of the Winning and Dean families. The film centres on lifelong friends Herman Winning and Nathan and Peter Dean, whose bond was forged long before the sea would test it. The 1998 race changed everything for the families. A violent East Coast Low struck the fleet, generating 90-foot seas and claiming six lives, including John Dean, father to Nathan and Peter, and a deeply loved figure across both families. Twenty-five years later, Herman, Nathan and Peter return to the race together — an act of extraordinary bravery that becomes the emotional spine of the film.

TRUE SOUTH is directed by Dave Klaiber and created and produced by Will Alexander, founder of independent creative studio Heckler, who has been close friends with the Winning and Dean families since childhood. Alexander was entrusted to tell this deeply personal story because of that lifelong bond, a trust that defines the film’s emotional authenticity.

TRUE SOUTH is narrated by Sigrid Thornton AO, with an original score by Elena Kats-Chernin AO.

True South