The folks at Melbourne International Film Festival (August 3-20) must be mighty excited about their program – they've gone and let the cat out of the bag again.
A gold rush of 35 movies that screened in the recent Cannes Film Festival has been announced, along with the 31 sneak peek films already unveiled. (That brings the number of movies revealed to 66 – roughly one for every year MIFF has been in existence.)
New movies by Todd Haynes and Yorgos Lanthimos are among the announcements that include major Cannes award winners. Looks like it's going to be one hell of a show come August.
See below for Time Out's list of the 17 most exciting just-announced screenings. The full line-up will be revealed on July 11 and tickets go on sale July 14.
Wonderstruck
Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams star in the new film from Todd Haynes (Carol, I’m Not There), which concerns two deaf children who run away from home, 50 years apart. Based on the illustrated novel by Brian Selznick (Hugo), the film is a puzzle full of synergies and congruences.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
The new thriller by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Dogtooth, Alps) won an award for its screenplay at Cannes. Colin Farrell stars as a surgeon whose mysterious meetings with a teenage boy (Barry Keoghan) he keeps secret from his ophthalmologist wife (Nicole Kidman). A slow-burning shocker, it also features a memorable cameo by Alicia Silverstone (Clueless).
The Square
From Swedish director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure), The Square is a satire of the art world starring Dominic West, Elisabeth Moss and Claes Bang that took out the top prize, the Palme D’Or, at Cannes in May.
Good Time
Robert Pattinson (he's still a thing, right?) is getting rave reviews for his performance in heist-gone-wrong thriller Good Time, playing a man who attempts a bank robbery with his intellectually disabled brother. The film is being favourably compared to seminal ’70s thrillers Dog Day Afternoon and Taxi Driver.
Happy End
The new film from Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon, Amour, Hidden) concerns a wealthy family in Calais, close to the migrant camps, and portrays the blindness of those in the privileged world to the plight of others. Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant star.
Let the Sunshine in
Claire Denis, a French filmmaker better known for more intense dramas, got great reviews in Cannes for this romantic comedy starring Juliette Binoche about a divorced artist and the various men she beds in the search for love.
Loveless
Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev (Elena, Leviathan) contributes a powerful and despairing film in which the misery of a soon to be divorced couple is compounded by the disappearance of their son.
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
From Indonesia comes a modern-day feminist western in which a widow takes vengeance upon the bandits who threaten to take all her possessions and rape her. Visually impressive, it’s an interrogation of Indonesia’s gender politics.
Claire’s Camera
Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo directs Isabelle Huppert as a photograph-snapping teacher in a brief, modest film about some unexpected encounters at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the Fade
Diane Kruger won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her searing and layered portrayal of a German woman who pursues the racist killers of her Kurdish husband and child.
I Am Not a Witch
The Zambian satire involves an orphan accused of witchcraft who is exiled from her village and sent off to ‘witch camp’ who subsequently gains employment playing up to the role ascribed to her.
Brigsby Bear
Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney has co-written and stars in an oddball comedy about a young man whose unusual upbringing has made him obsessed with a cheaply made children’s show. The less you know about the plot going in the better, but the film features Jane Adams, Last Jedi Mark Hamill and Greg Kinnear.
Nothingwood
Prolific, flamboyant Afghani filmmaker Salim Shaheen has made 111 movies with war raging around him. This documentary profiles a schlockmeister who is revered in his home country (as well as one of his cross-dressing stars).
The Venerable W
Veteran filmmaker Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female) completes his ‘Trilogy of Evil’ with a documentary about Ashin Wirathu, the Burmese monk whose anti-Muslim tirades have been stoking ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
Tehran Taboo
This animated film details the sex lives of young Iranians in a society of strict religious laws and prohibitions.
Jupiter’s Moon
Many films this year tackle the Syrian refugee crisis but none quite like Jupiter’s Moon. A refugee crosses the border into Hungary, is wounded by a gunshot and realises that he has the power of levitation.
Blade of the Immortal
Finally, the prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike delivers his 100th movie, Blade of the Immortal. After a legendary battle a warrior is cursed with immortality – he cannot die until he has killed a very large number of evil men.
