July 2025 on SBS on Demand – highlights include Under the Bridge, The Sommerdahl Murders, Yellow House Afghanistan, The Cranes Call, The Embers, SurrealEstate, The Good Ship Murder, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Snowpiercer and Great Australian Road Trips.
True crime drama series
Under the Bridge
Stream free Box Set Drop
Tuesday 1 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (Eight episodes)
Under the Bridge is based on acclaimed author Rebecca Godfrey’s book on the true story of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk who went to join friends at a party and never returned home.
Through the eyes of Rebecca (Riley Keough) and local police officer Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone), the series takes us into the hidden world of the young girls accused of the murder — revealing startling truths about the unlikely killer.
The cast includes Vritika Gupta as Reena and Archie Punjabi as her mother Suman.
Episodes will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand in English, with subtitles available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Arabic and Korean.
Nordic not noir crime series
The Sommerdahl Murders S1-5
Australian Premiere Box Set Drop
Thursday 17 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (40 episodes)
In a lovely Danish, coastal town, DCI Dan Sommerdahl (Peter Mygind) investigates murders with his best friend Detective Flemming Torp (André Babikian) and his wife Marianne (Laura Drasbǽk), a forensic technician. But Dan’s years of devotion to the job have hurt his marriage and Marianne wants a divorce. Dan also has a rival for Marianne’s affections and it is none other than his best friend. They must all still work together to solve crimes.
Each mystery unfolds across two episodes.
Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2: Dan and Marianne Sommerdahl’s 25th wedding anniversary is interrupted when a Slavic woman is found dead on the beach next to the Kronborg Castle. The woman has given birth recently and now every minute counts in the search to find the baby.
The Sommerdahl Murders will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand in Danish with English subtitles.
Location location:
The series is shot on location in the Danish town of Helsingør – also known as Elsinore and the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
George Gittoes & Hellen Rose documentary
Yellow House Afghanistan
Australian Premiere
Thursday 17 July 2025 on SBS On Demand
Australian artists and film makers George Gittoes and Hellen Rose, who set up their studios along with an Arts and Film school in Afghanistan in 2010, return to their “Yellow House” under Taliban Rule determined to prove that “Where War Falls, Art Wins!”
Gittoes began working in Afghanistan in 1999 and in 2007 made the film The Miscreants of Taliwood as a protest against the Taliban attempting to destroy the Pashto Film Industry. Since then, together with his wife he has made two more documentaries there Love City, Jalalabad and Snow Monkey and created the Yellow House Arts Centre.
Gittoes says:
“What makes this film different to any of my previous documentaries is that I have used time as a plastic element. Yellow House Afghanistan has become a TIME MACHINE with characters who were teenagers in 2011 participating as adults in 2024. In one case a 13-year -old, first-time-filmmaker, sees himself, in Love City as a newborn baby. In my own case I transform, on camera, from middle age to a 75-year-old. It has been a long journey. Our aim with Yellow House Afghanistan is to show how art and communication can succeed when war has failed.”
SBS On Demand Collection:
To align with the premiere of Yellow House Afghanistan, SBS has relicensed The Miscreants of Taliwood, Love City, Jalalabad and Snow Monkey so all four films will be available as a collection to stream free on SBS On Demand.
War crimes investigation documentary
The Cranes Call
Australian Premiere
Thursday 24 July 2025 on SBS On Demand
The Cranes Call is the heart pounding story of a mission to secure accountability for war crimes in Ukraine.
In this real time crime thriller set in a war zone, director Laura Warner embeds with war crimes investigator Anya Neistat and her team as they track down a group of survivors bold enough to take a stand against those accused of committing the most heinous crimes of rape, torture and murder against their families.
Working with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, led by Amal and George Clooney, Anya joins forces with Solomiia Stasiv, a young Ukrainian woman just entering the field after witnessing the brutal invasion of her homeland. Together, they document evidence of human rights abuses in the fight to bring Russian commanders and soldiers to trial, and justice to the Ukrainian people. ,
Directed by Laura Warner. Produced by Evan Williams.
Executive producers Siobhan Sinnerton , Amy Flannagan, Evan Williams, Johnny Webb, Liev Schreiber, Nevine Mabro, Malinda Wink and Jaka Bizilj.
Australian Evan Williams has worked as a print, radio and television journalist and producer for over three decades. Amongst his extensive list of international assignments and achievements is winning the 2018 Walkley Documentary Award category for Myanmar’s Killing Fields on SBS Dateline. He produced the film with Eve Lucas and Georgina Davies.
French crime drama
The Embers
Australian Premiere Box Set Drop**
Thursday 24 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (Eight episodes)
In 1995. Lidia (Mouna Soualem), an ambitious young detective, is sent to the small town of Péranne in the hinterland of the French Riviera to investigate the brutal murder of an imam, found scalped in his mosque. She must team up with Jean (Olivier Rabourdin), a disillusioned local cop haunted by his memories of the Algerian war.
Twenty-five years later, Lidia is at the height of a seemingly impeccable career, but Jean’s sudden disappearance and a series of gruesome murders eerily similar to the 1995 case prompt Lidia to return to Péranne. The past, thought to be buried forever, resurfaces…
The series is set in a fictional town outside Marseille, caught between sun-drenched fields and suburban sprawl. The series creators and writers, Thomas Bidegain and Thibault Vanhulle, built the narrative on a dual timeline, intertwining past and present through masterful storytelling while inviting audiences to reflect on the weight of history and things left unspoken.
The Embers will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand in French with English subtitles.
Supernatural mystery drama
SurrealEstate S3
Australian Premiere Box Set Drop**
Thursday 24 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (10 episodes)
The story picks up three years after the events of the previous season. Real estate agents Luke Roman (Tim Rozon), Susan Ireland (Sarah Levy) and their team continue to help clients buy and sell metaphysically engaged properties (haunted houses), even as Luke is stalked by an old, demonic childhood nemesis who threatens Luke and everyone he cares about…dead or alive.
Season 3, Episode 1: A face from Luke’s childhood returns, even as the staff of Roman/Ireland has to overcome some bad information on one haunted house and investigate a ghostly cowboy in another.
Sunny crime drama
The Good Ship Murder S2
Australian Premiere Weekly Drop
Friday 25 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (Eight episodes)
Sun, sea and murder. Jack Grayling (Shayne Ward) is an ex-copper now moonlighting as a cabaret singer on board a luxury Mediterranean cruise ship, where he finds himself solving a wave of murder mysteries. Working alongside the ambitious, and uptight, female First Officer Kate Woods (Catherine Tyldesley) and cheerful waiter Jamil Al-Rashid (Zak Douglas), they are a formidable team of detectives.
Season 2, Episode 1: Jack and the crew are back at sea, docking first in Dubrovnik for the most wonderful time of the year! Jack and Kate try to find time together now that Kate and Piers are over, but first, they need to find Santa to save the ship’s Christmas and Bev’s sanity. When they find comedian Buddy, it looks like a Christmas miracle but when Buddy is found dead, the evidence is pointing towards an elf having killed Santa. New head of security Frankie makes her presence known and Bev receives a very special Christmas present, allowing her to leave the ship on sabbatical. Piers looks like he’s making a departure too, but the new Captain Marlow might have other thoughts.
Other episodes this season are set in Rome, Gran Canaria, Madeira, Gozo, Alexandria, the Côte d’Azur and Athens.
The Good Ship Murder S1 is already available to stream free on SBS On Demand.
The Good Ship Murder S2 will premiere 30 July on SBS and SBS On Demand. New episodes will drop weekly on Fridays on SBS On Demand and at 7.30pm on SBS.
Genre-bending adaptation of Nordic Noir bestseller
Smilla’s Sense of Snow
World Premiere Weekly Drop
Wednesday 30 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (Six episodes)
Smilla’s Sense of Snow is a thrilling and genre-bending series set in 2040 where society is monitored through drones and body cams, energy is a privilege, and political tensions run high.
The television adaptation of Peter M’Barek and Henry Lloyd-Hughes Høeg ’s worldwide bestseller stars Filippa Coster-Waldau, Elyas and is directed by BAFTA Winner Amma Asante.
Smilla Jaspersen (Coster-Waldau), a smart and wealthy woman in her twenties, lives in a social housing complex in Copenhagen.
She is alone and leads a solitary life until she meets a young Inuit boy who finds a way to her heart. When the boy suddenly dies in mysterious circumstances, Smilla wants to know why. Her search for answers leads her to the icy scenery of Greenland and right to the centre of dangerous political power games. Smilla’s extraordinary abilities are the key to the truth – about the boy and her own identity.
Smilla’s Sense of Snow is a Constantin Film production in co-production with Viaplay, ARD Degeto Film and Baltic Film Services and in cooperation with Netflix DACH and in association with and distributed by ITV Studios. The series is directed by BAFTA Winner Amma Asante, who is also an executive producer alongside Oliver Berben, Robert Kulzer, Pipaluk K. Jørgensen and Tina Hastings. Produced by Alicia Remirez,
Smilla’s Sense of Snow will premiere 30 July on SBS On Demand and SBS. New episodes will drop weekly on Wednesdays on SBS On Demand and at 9.30pm on SBS.
Episodes will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand in English, with subtitles available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Korean and Vietnamese.
More about the cast and director of Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Danish actor Filippa Coster-Waldau has had leading roles in two Nordic series Salsa and Where Were You?.
She is the eldest daughter of actors Nikolaj and Nukȃka Coster-Waldau.
Elyas M’Barek is one of Germany’s most popular film actors. His credits include Turkish For Beginners, the Fack Ju Goehte trilogy, The Collini Case, Nightlife, Das Perfekte Geheimnis and A Thousand Lines. He is also the German voice of the Paddington character in the films of the same name.
Henry Lloyd-Hughes is a British actor with film credits including The Inbetweeners, Chevalier and Now You See Me 2. His television credits include We Were the Lucky Ones, Marriage, Mammals, Ragdoll, Archie, The Pale Horse, The English Game, Killing Eve, Indian Summers and the upcoming Thursday Murder Club.
Amma Asante MBE is multi-award-winning writer and director. In 2004, she won a BAFTA for her first film A Way of Life. Subsequent films include Belle, A United Kingdom, Where Hands Touch and the upcoming The Billion Dollar Spy.
She has directed episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and Mrs. America.
For Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Amma is the director and is a co-writer of the series together with Tanja Bubbel, Clive Bradley, Tina Hastings, Rebecca Martin, Julie Nørgaard Jensen, Keith Hodder, Sonya Desai and Pipaluk K. Jørgensen. She is also one of the executive producers.
Dystopian drama
Snowpiercer S4
Australian Premiere Box Set Drop
Thursday 31 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (10 episodes)
Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly lead the cast of this futuristic thriller exploring class warfare, social justice and the politics of survival.
Snowpiercer S4 is an Australian premiere on SBS On Demand with S1-3 also becoming available to stream free.
Based on Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 movie, the Snowpiercer series begins seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, completely unliveable and still. It centres on the remnants of humanity, who inhabit a gigantic, perpetually moving train, the Snowpiercer, that circles the globe. Aboard the hulking, relentless train exists an entire ecosystem, the last of the human race trying to survive.
Across the seasons, key cast includes Sean Bean, Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Iddo Goldberg, Roberto Urbina, Lena Hall and Rowan Blanchard.
Season 4, Episode 1: When a rocket crashes nearby, Melanie (Connelly) sends Till (Sumner) and Ben (Goldberg) to investigate. Nine months later, Layton (Diggs) and the others in New Eden face uncertain times and unknown adversaries.
Snowpiercer S1 – 3 will also become available to stream free on SBS On Demand on 31 July.
The first season will air from 31 July, Thursdays at 9.30pm on SBS.
SBS Original Series
Great Australian Road Trips
Australian Premiere Weekly Drop
Thursday 31 July 2025 on SBS On Demand (Six episodes)
Great Australian Road Trips puts Claudia Karvan, Melissa Leong, Nazeem Hussain and Steph Tisdell in the driver’s seat, taking viewers on six epic journeys celebrating the country’s natural beauty and cultural treasures.
From the dirt tracks of the Red Centre Way in the Northern Territory to the Great Barrier Reef Drive in northern Queensland, Kangaroo Island in South Australia to the waterfalls and windswept beauty of Tasmania’s western coast, iconic Grand Pacific Drive south of Sydney to the nerve-jangling drive across the East Alligator River, this is the ultimate open road enthusiast’s guide to Australia.
Actor/producer Claudia Karvan and writer/performer Steph Tisdell are one driving duo and food critic/writer Melissa Leong and comedian/writer Nazeem Hussain are the other. Each episode focuses on a driving adventure with one pair.
While the destinations are majestic, the real joy for viewers is coming along for the ride to experience the camaraderie and confessions in the car, the people on the road and the stories they share. The series is produced for SBS by Mint Pictures.
Episode 1: Red Centre Way Mel introduces Naz to the magic and mystique of the Aussie outback on the iconic Red Centre Way from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon.
Episode 2: Great Barrier Reef Drive Steph takes Claudia to her Country – on an iconic road trip through Far North Queensland from the Atherton Tablelands to the Daintree Rainforest.
Episode 3: Wild West Coast Mel takes Naz to Tasmania to experience the wild West Coast, from the mining town of Queenstown to pristine wilderness of Cradle Mountain.
Episode 4: Adelaide to Kangaroo Island Steph and Claudia embark on a vibrant road trip from Adelaide to Kangaroo Island, uncovering the heart and soul of South Australia through its people, landscapes and stories.
Episode 5: The Top End Naz takes Mel on a wild ride from Darwin to Arnhem Land, a roadie that’s been on Naz’s bucket list for years.
Episode 6: Grand Pacific Drive Claudia is in the driver’s seat for this New South Wales adventure from Sydney to Jervis Bay via the Royal National Park, over the famous Sea Cliff Bridge and the quaint town of Berry.
Great Australian Road Trips launches 31 July on SBS On Demand and SBS.
New episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays on SBS On Demand and at 7.30pm on SBS.
Episodes will be available to stream on SBS On Demand with subtitles in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. All episodes will also be available on SBS On Demand with audio description.
July 2025 on SBS on Demand
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July 2025 on SBS on Demand
