Melbourne International Film Festival has been kicking around since 1952, making it one of the oldest continuously running film festivals in the world, alongside Cannes and Berlin. It's not only one of the oldest film festivals in Australia, but it's also one of the most popular – and this year, it's turning 70.
To celebrate, MIFF returns to cinemas once again in 2022, after Melbourne was treated to an online edition due to Covid, with a huge lineup of 257 feature films, 102 shorts and 12 XR works. The Gala Opening Night will kick off the festival with the world premiere of Of An Age, from rising Australian filmmaker and MIFF Accelerator Lab alumnus, Goran Stolevski.
The Closing Night Gala will feature the Australian premiere of Clean – an inspirational story of how ‘trauma cleaner' Sandra Pankhurst turned a history of abuse, neglect, and abandonment into survival, which premiered at SXSW to critical acclaim.
The festival shows off both local and international features, arthouse films, documentaries and shorts. Kids aren't forgotten about either, with the festival regularly including family-friendly films from across the world. If you're just wanting to go watch that one special film then you can, but movie buffs are better off buying a festival pass to be granted entry to all showings.
There will also be a huge schedule of talks and in conversation sessions as part of MIFF – with more details on each seminar, and tickets available here. Highlights include the CEO of Film London and acclaimed film historian Adrian Wootton OBE delivering his Illustrated Film Talks, and the talented team behind MIFF Headliner, Sweet As, presenting movie making masterclasses in the MIFF Accelerator Lab’s Behind the Scenes Talks.
The festival runs from August 4 to 21 in theatres and August 11 to 28 online. For more information and to book tickets, check out the MIFF website. You can also check out our top ten recommendations for what to see at MIFF this year.