One More Shot (2025 film)

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One More Shot
Promotional release poster
Directed byNicholas Clifford
Screenplay byAlice Foulcher
Gregory Erdstein
Produced by
  • Virginia Whitwell
  • Jim Wright
  • Elise Trenorden
  • Nick Batzias
Starring
CinematographySimon Ozolins
Edited byJulie-Anne De Ruvo
Music byJustin Stanley
Production
companies
  • Stan
  • GoodThing Productions
  • Truce Films
Distributed byONE12 Productions
Release dates
  • March 7, 2025 (2025-03-07) (SXSW)
  • October 12, 2025 (2025-10-12) (Stan)
Running time
91 minutes[1]
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

One More Shot is a 2025 Australian time-loop comedy directed by Nicholas Clifford and written by Alice Foulcher and Gregory Erdstein. The film stars Emily Browning.

On New Year's Eve of 1999, Minnie Vernon discovers a bottle of time traveling tequila. Each shot takes her back to the start of the night, giving her a bottle's worth of shots to win back her old flame Joe and change the course of her millennium life.[2]

It had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival and was released on Stan on October 12, 2025.

Plot

On New Year's Eve 1999, Minnie Vernon is in her mid-30s. A hospital anaesthesiologist, she sees her ex-fiancé Cameron, whom she had split from after many years. Because he is there for his child's birth, she is shocked, as he had not wanted kids. Cameron reminds Minnie that they broke up because she had slept with Joe, her former university boyfriend.

Dissatisfied with her life, as everyone seems to be doing better than she (lately she has been living on Flick and Max's sofa bed), she unenthusiastically accompanies them to Rodney's New Year's party, as she discovers Joe is back from NYC. Minnie brings a 10-year-old bottle of tequila with her, which she later discovers causes time travel. Pia, Rodney's IT wife, fears the Y2K bug, which Rodney teases her about. Minnie is shocked to meet Joe's American girlfriend, Jenny.

Not feeling support from Flick-Max after whining to them on the balcony about Jenny, Minnie tries to stomp back into the party. Oblivious to the sliding-glass door's being closed, she slams into it. Joe hurries to her aid. As he is helping Minnie in the bathroom, he almost kisses her but she pulls back. When she then tries to kiss him, Joe pulls back.

Back at the party, three of the former university mates (Rodney, Joe, and Flick) reminisce about their decade-ago Mexico trip. At the countdown to midnight, the lights go out at 12. Pia panics, then Rodney jokingly turns the electricity back on. Minnie unhappily realizes Joe is proposing to Jenny.

Minnie takes a swig of tequila, ending up at the door of the house again. As scenes repeat over again, she realizes that each shot restarts the night. Therefore, Minnie calculates, she has a bottle's worth of shots to change her millennium life's trajectory by winning back Joe.

However, try as she might, Minnie never can repeat exactly the parts of what she remembers in her favor. Every time, different factors come into play and the outcome gets weirder and weirder. Once, Joe confesses to Minnie that while in the States he experienced alcohol poisoning from partying too hard. Hence, he has been sober for more than three months.

In yet another iteration, Minnie lies down shortly after arriving. She wakes directly after Rodney pranks Pia via the Y2K bug and the proposal. When Jenny reveals her pregnancy, Minnie "loses it," then discovers that no one wants her there.

Dejected, Minnie takes Flick's car keys and soon gets pulled over by the police. The breathalyzer registers the over half-bottle of tequila in her system, so they start to arrest her. Realizing they will confiscate the bottle of tequila, leaving her stuck in this timeline, Minnie takes one of their guns. She forces them to return the bottle so she can restart the evening.

Minnie restarts even more recklessly, dumping Pia's life savings for everyone and having sex with C-Word. This time Rodney sees the tequila, recognizing its power. He tries to take it from Minnie, but she resets the timeline again, then immediately goes to Rodney, insisting he explain about the tequila.

Rodney confesses that many times in his life he did redos. He repeated his university exams and redid parts of his relationship with his now-wife, Pia. Rodney has not touched the tequila since before his daughter's birth. As he wants to remember what has transpired between them, he insists they share the last of the tequila.

Finally in the last timeline, Minnie decides to right many of her wrongs. She fetches the ice she was meant to have brought. Rodney overdrinks, so Minnie acts as his buffer. The moment she lowers her guard, he lunges for the worm. Pia comes in and supports him.

This time, Joe smashes into the sliding door so Minnie looks after him in the bathroom. They have a good closure chat, sealing it with a kiss. Jenny sees, getting the wrong impression. In front of the whole group, Minnie almost eats the worm but then chooses to talk things out. Saying she and Joe were each other's backup, she insists Jenny is the real deal.

In the morning, all of the old friends and their partners are enjoying themselves. C-Word, having always been in the background, swallows the worm and disappears definitively.

Cast

Production

The film is directed by Nicholas Clifford. The script is from Alice Foulcher and Gregory Erdstein, with Virginia Whitwell and Nick Batzias producing for GoodThing Productions, alongside Truce Films' Jim Wright and Elise Trenorden. Protagonist Pictures joined the project in February 2025.[3]

The cast is led by Emily Browning and also includes Aisha Dee, Sean Keenan, Pallavi Sharda and Ashley Zukerman.[4]

Principal photography took place in Victoria, Australia, and was completed by early 2025.[5]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival.[6] It also featured at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival.[7] The film was released on Stan on October 12, 2025.[8]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 18 critics' reviews are positive.[9]

On Screen Anarchy, Peter Martin calling it "an entirely satisfying experience" and describied Emily Browning performance as "effervescent".[10] On The Guardian, Luke Buckmaster rated it 3/5 stars, writing that "there's nothing tremendously exciting or distinctive about One More Shot – but (...) It’s pleasantly derivative."[11]

Awards

Emily Browning was nominated for the 2026 AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in Film.[12]

Writers Alice Foulcher and Gregory Erdstein were nominated by the Australian Writers' Guild at the 58th AWGIE Awards for Best Original Feature script.[13][14]

Natalie Wall was nominated at the 2025 Casting Guild of Australia Awards for Best Casting in a Feature.[15] [16]

See also

References

  1. "One More Shot (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 24 September 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  2. Abdullah, Immy (18 February 2025). "Stan celebrates 10 years of original Australian entertainment with monumental line-up of new shows and movies". Nine. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  3. Slatter, Sean (8 February 2025). "Protagonist Pictures boards Nicholas Clifford's 'One More Shot', starring Emily Browning". If.com. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  4. Whittock, Jesse (17 February 2025). "Stan Slate: Lydia West, Liv Hewson & Brooke Satchwell Leading Originals For Australian Streamer". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  5. "One More Shot: Stan's Australian time-travel romcom finishes shooting". Screenhub.com. 11 January 2025. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  6. Tabbara, Mona (7 February 2025). "Protagonist Pictures boards SXSW romantic comedy 'One More Shot' starring Emily Browning (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  7. "STAN Original Rom-Com ONE MORE SHOT starring Emily Browning, Aisha Dee and Pallavi Sharda". Filmink.com.au. 9 February 2025. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  8. "A TIME-TRAVELLING BOTTLE OF TEQUILA? IT'S PARTY TIME". Stan. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  9. "One More Shot". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  10. Martin, Peter (7 March 2025). "SXSW 2025 Review: ONE MORE SHOT, Emily Browning vs. Time Traveling Tequila". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  11. Buckmaster, Luke. "One More Shot review – what if you could turn back time … via a magical tequila?". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  12. "All the nominees for the 2026 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards". Vogue Australia. 5 December 2025. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  13. "AWGIE nominations for 'Together', 'The Roses' as final seasons of 'Bump', 'The Newsreader' recognised". IF Magazine. 21 January 2026. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  14. "58th Annual AWGIE Award nominees". FilmInk. 22 January 2026. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  15. "2025 Casting Guild of Australia award nominees revealed". Cinema Australia. 4 November 2025. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  16. "Awards". Casting Guild of Australia. 22 January 2026. Retrieved 23 January 2026.