Ozzy Osbourne’s final concert became a farewell on his terms. The film Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning captures that choice up close: Sharon Osbourne says the camera reveals the strain of his illness alongside the resolve that carried him onto the stage. Watching it remains painful, she says, but it also preserves the joy he felt at being able to perform for his fans one last time.
The nearly two-and-a-half-hour film arrives in more than 15,000 theaters across 132 countries on Oct. 28, through Trafalgar Releasing and Mercury Studios. It documents the July 5, 2025, concert at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s hometown. Ozzy died 17 days later at age 76.
A performance with no guarantees
Ozzy’s appearance was uncertain until he rose from beneath the stage, seated in a throne. The entrance echoed his 2024 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, but the stakes were different: by then he was dealing with Parkinson’s, emphysema and other health problems. Sharon says there were moments when he doubted he could make the show at all.
Two weeks before the concert, British doctors warned him that performing could bring on a fatal heart attack, Sharon recalls. He died of a heart attack on July 22. For Ozzy, the choice came down to whether the risk was worth taking to perform and say goodbye. As Sharon describes it, he knew his life was unlikely to continue for long either way. He had spent seven years in agony and wanted one more chance onstage. She accepted his decision.
That context shapes the film’s most intimate images. Sharon says seeing Ozzy on a big screen is difficult because the close-ups show the pores on his face and every expression in his eyes. She remembers him struggling to breathe and says she was struck by the strength it took to get through the performance. The film makes the physical cost visible, while also showing what the concert meant to him.
Keeping Ozzy present throughout the film
Back to the Beginning was a 10-hour celebration featuring musicians whose work has been shaped by Osbourne and Black Sabbath. Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer and Pantera were among the performers. The lineup also included David Draiman of Disturbed and Yungblud, whose version of Black Sabbath’s “Changes” later won a Grammy Award for best rock performance.
Director Ben Wainwright-Pearce had to shape the day’s performances into a feature-length film without leaving out the people who had volunteered their time. Cinematographer Tim Van Someren recorded roughly 200 hours using more than 20 cameras, and also interviewed every participant. Wainwright-Pearce says Sharon’s early request was that everyone who contributed to the concert appear in the film.
The solution was to distribute Ozzy’s five songs across the running time instead of placing them together. Wainwright-Pearce wanted viewers to keep returning to Ozzy as the concert unfolded, maintaining a connection to the reason for the event. The arrangement also gives the film a view of his experience across the day, rather than presenting his contribution as a single isolated set.
Sharon says Ozzy was overwhelmed by the turnout and delighted to be there. In her recollection, the concert left him buoyant through the final days of his life. That feeling sits alongside the visible evidence of his illness, giving the footage a complicated emotional weight: it records both how hard performing had become and how much the chance to do it still mattered to him.
Interviews shaped by his death
The film pairs concert footage with commentary from performers and other participants. Many were interviewed again after Ozzy died, and Sharon and her son Jack Osbourne were the last people filmed for the project. Wainwright-Pearce describes those conversations as moving and sensitive, while producer and Mercury Studios executive Daniel Seligman says the team felt responsible for honoring an artist who had inspired so many people.
That responsibility informed the editing as well as the interviews. The filmmakers had to condense a full day of performances while accounting for the people involved and the significance the event took on after Ozzy’s death. The result is not a complete record of the 10-hour concert: some performances were shortened for the theatrical cut, and the film’s structure keeps bringing viewers back to Ozzy.
More footage and projects ahead
Mercury Studios plans to release a home-media box set on Dec. 11. Seligman says it will include full versions of some performances that were cut down for theaters, along with an audio companion. Releasing the entire day has been discussed, but no decision has been made.
Sharon also confirmed that another Black Sabbath album had been discussed, following comments from producer Andrew Watt. Drummer Bill Ward, who performed at Back to the Beginning, couldn’t commit to the project. Sharon says there are also unreleased Ozzy solo songs, which are set to feature in a biopic now in pre-production.
The biopic has a script, and the Osbourne camp is looking for directors. Sharon says she has two actors in mind for the role of Ozzy but isn’t naming them yet. She sees his story, from his beginnings to worldwide fame, as material suited to a film.
Sharon says she plans to share more details soon about Ozzfest’s return, with dates planned in the U.K. and U.S. for 2027. She also says she still intends to name the band that was disinvited from Back to the Beginning after apparently asking for payment when others performed for free, but she’s postponing that disclosure. For now, the film and its expanded home release offer a more immediate record of what the concert meant: one final performance, preserved in the detail Ozzy’s family and fans can see for themselves.
