It’s lights, camera and action for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this August, when a red carpet will be rolled out for a wall-to-wall celebration of International and Australian filmmaking.
With so much to see, we've cut through the curtain to unveil all it is you need to know.
What is the Melbourne International Film Festival?
One of the oldest film festivals in the world (along with Cannes and Berlin) MIFF is an annual festival held over three weeks throughout Melbourne. Founded in 1952, the festival presents a curated global program of screen experiences and the world's largest showcase of Australian filmmaking.
When is the Melbourne International Film Festival?
Running between August 3 and 20, MIFF will include 18 days of in-cinema programming with star-studded events, world premiere screenings, headline features and filmmaker talks.
What sort of things can we expect from the program?
Popcorn at the ready folks, as you can expect a line-up of 267 films from 70 countries worldwide.
MIFF headliners include a sizeable number of award-winning titles, including the Caméra d’Or winner Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell; the Palme d’Or-winning courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall; the winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes Monster; the film May December, where Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman unite in this camp melodrama; and Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex.
Included on an impressive slate of Australian films is The Rooster, a tale set in regional Victoria about two individuals navigating life's challenges starring Hugo Weaving; the first virtually-produced Australian feature Mercy Road; Jason Raftopoulos’ second feature Voices in Deep, a humanistic drama informed by his own Greek-Cypriot’s family’s experiences of migration; Matthew Adekponya’s Rose Gold, a film that will recount the history-making moment the Boomers won third place at the Tokyo Olympics; and the Melbourne-set queer drama Sunflower.
The latest batch of films join opening night's Shayda as well as the world premiere of Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story. Based on Noora Niasari's own upbringing, Shayda is a MIFF Premiere Fund-supported film that traces an Iranian woman and her young daughter as they escape oppression. The documentary Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story will make its world premiere a few days later in a special Music on Film event.
This year's MIFF will also include a number of first-look international features, such as the slow-burn heartwarmer The Adults, where Michael Cera stars as Eric, an awkward thirtysomething who returns home after a long time away; Past Lives, an intimate romance about a Korean-American woman who can't shake the memory of her childhood friend; and Passages, in which director Ira Sachs explores a love triangle brewing within the Parisian indie film scene.
How much are tickets for Melbourne International Film Festival?
A Share Pass to MIFF gives you 12 standard festival admissions, which you can enjoy by yourself or share with up to three friends per session. The full price for a share pass is $205. A Discovery Pass to MIFF gives you six standard festival sessions. The full price for a discovery pass is $115.
Also available to purchase is a U26 pass which is exclusively available to MIFF's U26 members and allows you to book three off-peak festival sessions for $30. Single session tickets are also available to purchase.
For information about the full program and how to get tickets, visit the MIFF website here.
