Beloved cultural event, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), has tonight shared its impressive 2024 program of over 250 features, shorts and XR experiences landing across Melbourne, around Victoria and online Australia-wide this August. Running 8-25 August, this year’s film line-up boasts a world class roster of international features, an assembly of stellar World Premiere local titles and a comprehensive shorts collection alongside immersive XR experiences, curated retrospectives, insightful talks, one-off special events and international guest appearances.

Following tonight’s Program Launch event presented by Yering Station, Artistic Director, Al Cossar, said: “Here it is – the big moment of our annual reveal, packed with anticipation, discovery, a celebration of all things cinema. This year’s MIFF program features over 250 films, with more than 400 sessions across 18 days, bringing together incredible Australian filmmaking, world cinema, drama, comedy, horror, animation, bold experimentation – things you’ve been waiting months to see, and others you never thought you’d get a chance to. The MIFF program thisyear, like every year, is a multi-faceted festival of cinematic excess, designed todelight, and sure to bring out the best in your imaginations. We’re thrilled towelcome audiences back – come along and settle in for all too many movies atMelbourne’s favourite binge this Winter!”

This evening’s announcement has also revealed the full slate of films screening incompetition for MIFF’s flagship prize, the MIFF Bright Horizons Award, presentedby VicScreen. Recognising first and second-time filmmakers, the prize awards$140,000 to a filmmaker on the ascent, making it the richest feature film prize in theSouthern Hemisphere. Across a prize pool of over $300,000, the MIFF Awards andMIFF Shorts Awards include a number of further categories with nominees to berevealed later this month. 

Alongside many of the Bright Horizons competition directors, MIFF will host visiting creatives from Australia and around the world to introduce and discuss their films at in-cinema Q&A sessions, panel events and other public appearances. 

As previously announced, Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail will make its Australian Premiere as the Opening Night Gala feature film on Thursday, 8 August. Returning to MIFF some twenty odd years since winning his Oscar for Harvie Krumpet – and twenty one years since that same short opened MIFF in 2003 – Elliot’s latest hand-made wonder is a fitting hometown curtain raiser. 

With a cavalcade of local stars including Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver lending their voices to the production, the much anticipated claymation was recently named Best Feature at this year’s Annecy International Animation Festival in France. 

Watch the teaser trailer for Adam Elliot’s highly anticipated stopmotion feature, Memoir of a Snail

Other special events include the MIFF Family Gala presentation of Robert Connolly’s Magic Beach, adapted from the Alison Lester classic; the Music on Film Gala showcase of Warren Ellis documentary Ellis Park by Justin Kurzel; and the inaugural MIFF Premiere with Purpose presented by DECJUBA which will debut Shannon Owen’s Left Write Hook. 

Popping up in theatres statewide, the MIFF Regional showcase brings some ofthe festival’s must-see titles to audiences further afield across the weekends of 16-18 August and 23-25 August. Meanwhile, MIFF Online – streaming via ACMI offers digital access Australia-wide to a limited selection of festival highlights from 9-25 August. 

Alongside MIFF Premiere Fund supported titles Memoir of a Snail, Left Write Hook, Ellis Park and Magic Beach, the 2024 PFF line-up will include female-fronted skateboarding doco, Queens of Concrete directed by Eliza Cox and presented by Rydges Melbourne; Natalie Bailey’s pitch-black comedy Audrey; and the World Premiere of the Charles Williams-directed prison drama, Inside, which will also screen in competition as part of Bright Horizons.

Jai Courtney, Celeste Barber, Jack Thompson and Deborah Mailman star in the heartwarming and hilarious adaptation of Craig Silvey’s bestselling Runt, which is set to make its World Premiere at MIFF. Ignoring the age-old axiom not to work with children or animals, director John Sheedy (H Is for Happiness, MIFF 2019) rose to the challenge to do both, with magnificent results. Newcomer Lily LaTorre delivers a charisma-fuelled performance as Annie, while the notable Australian cast bring to life this upbeat underdog tale for the whole family.

First trailer drops for highly-anticipated family film Runt. 

A disturbing secret threatens a couple’s relationship in the Australian eco-thriller, In Vitro, starring Succession ’s Ashley Zukerman. Writer-directors Tom McKeith and Will Howarth (Beast) also worked with co-writer and star Talia Zucker on their thought-provoking screenplay that was developed after being selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Meanwhile, cinematographer Shelley Farthing-Dawe imbues a haunting energy to the plains around Cooma and Goulburn in New South Wales, which serve as the moody backdrop to this tense, outback-set sci-fi nail-bitter.

Interview: Will Howarth and Tom McKeith

World Premiere feature Voice offers an inspirational insider’s look at the Indigenous-run collective Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG) as they embark on a 3,000 kilometre cross-country roadtrip to gather support for the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. But while they seek to inspire a new future, the resulting votes seemingly bring another fight for recognition to a close. Directed by Krunal Padhiar alongside DIYDG co-founder and chair Semara Jose as co-director, this observational film is the first major Australian documentary to chronicle the journey of the Voice referendum in 2023. 

Twilight Time is the gripping profile of Australian academic, agitator and surveillance expert Des Ball – the man who counselled the US against nuclear escalation in the 1970s and was subsequently hailed by former president Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world.” Employing a wealth of archival footage, veteran documentarian John Hughes (Senses of Cinema, MIFF 2022) has captured a timely look at Australia’s complicated involvement in global strategy, defence policy and mass surveillance. 

Shot in and around Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the latest fiction feature from director Paul Goldman (Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story , MIFF 2023) explores a mostly untold chapter of Australia’s national narrative in the true story of Irish tent boxer, Kid Snow. British actors Billy Howle and Tom Bateman star alongside a sterling local cast that includes Phoebe Tonkin, Mark Coles Smith, Tasma Walton and Hunter Page-Lochard. As punches are thrown, Kid Snow is ultimately a story of hope and the redemptive power of love. 

Interview: Paul Goldman

Co-directed by Danielle MacLeanh and Sal Balharrie, Like My Brother is an inspiring World Premiere documentary about four young women from the Tiwi Islands who all dream of playing professional footy in the AFLW. But while dreaming is one thing, achieving it is another as they each navigate the hardship of leaving loved ones, the strain of distance and homesickness and the barriers faced by many First Nations young people. 

MIFF 2024 runs 8 – 25 August. Full details here. 

Here’s your guide to all Australian films screening at this year’s MIFF

Audrey

Directed by Natalie Bailey
Written by Lou Sanz
Produced by Diya Eid, Dan Lake, Shannon Wilson-McClinton and Michael Wrenn
Starring Jackie van Beek, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Josephine Blazier and Hannah Diviney

In this brutally hilarious black comedy, an Aussie teen’s coma is her family’s time to shine.

Eighteen years ago, Ronnie Lipsick was poised for acting success … until her daughter Audrey came along. Ronnie has lavished years – and the family’s finances – on moulding the boisterous, petulant teenager into the star she almost was, ignoring her sexually frustrated husband Cormack and her younger daughter Norah’s interest in wheelchair fencing. When Audrey has the absolute gall to fall into a coma, Ronnie decides to impersonate her, stepping in to all of Audrey’s auditions and acting classes. Meanwhile, Cormack embraces his tastes for religious-themed kink, and Norah finally gets her sport rolling (while also cosying up to Audrey’s boyfriend). It’s amazing what the Lipsicks can achieve with their disagreeable golden child out of the way!

Penned by multi-award-winning screenwriter Lou Sanz, the feature debut from director Natalie Bailey (Retrograde; The Thick of It), which world-premiered at SXSW, is a deliciously dark comedy about a dysfunctional family trapped in the web of lies they’ve woven to fabricate happiness. As Ronnie, Kiwi funny-woman Jackie van Beek (Nude Tuesday; The Breaker Upperers) leads a game cast who embrace the deviousness of this satire about the clash between obligation and self-actualisation, and how opportunity can be mined from misfortune. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Audrey audaciously dramatises the lengths some are willing to go to follow their dreams.

Aquarius

Directed by Wendy Champagne
Written by Karin Steininger and Wendy Champagne
Produced by Sam Griffin

The age of Aquarius floods into Nimbin in this radical, love-fuelled documentary exploring the lasting impact of a 1970s counterculture crucible.

Back in 1973, the Northern Rivers town of Nimbin, New South Wales, was a blip on the map with a population of around 300. Then, in May, 10,000 students, mystics, hippies and counterculture leaders descended on the small dairy town, bringing their hopes for peace, love and a lot of dope (and other substances) to the 10-day Aquarius Festival. In their multitude, the audacious revellers not only faced down the cops but also transformed the town forevermore, with many never leaving.

Director Wendy Champagne (BAS! Beyond the Red Light) stitches together interviews with festival founders Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan, festival-goers looking back from 50 years on and an incredible wealth of archival footage from this once-in-a-lifetime event – scooped up from forgotten home videos, unprocessed camera negatives and newspaper reports. In a time when protests have erupted across Australia and faced considerable pushback, this spirited documentary about the conflict between the establishment and the alternative feels resoundingly prescient.

The Cars That Ate Paris

Directed by Peter Weir
Written by Peter Weir
Produced by Jim McElroy and Hal McElroy
Starring John Meillon, Terry Camilleri, Kevin Miles, Max Gillies, Bruce Spence, Chris Haywood and Melissa Jaffer

Peter Weir’s classic comedy of the macabre – one of the most influential movies of the 70s Australian New Wave – returns in an immaculate, all-new 4K restoration co-presented by the National Film and Sound Archive.

“148 people live in the township of Paris, and every one of them is a murderer.” So went the tagline to master Australian filmmaker Weir’s 1974 cult classic, in which the oddball residents of an outback town – named after but distinct from the French capital – subsist by luring unsuspecting passers-by into grisly car crashes. When they’re not salvaging the wreckage for profit, the townsfolk are harvesting the body parts of accident survivors for medical experiments. But when one hapless outsider is invited into the community, he soon notices something is very, very amiss.

Shot in rural New South Wales, Weir’s demented feature debut – which the director promoted by driving a porcupine-spiked Volkswagen Beetle up and down the Cannes Croisette – received mixed reviews from local critics at the time of its release, but has since gained a reputation as a visionary original work. An unforgettable blend of black humour and surreal horror, Cars had a major influence on producer Roger Corman’s 1975 film Death Race 2000 and the original Mad Max (a debt George Miller acknowledged in the vehicle designs for Fury Road), while Weir would go on to make Picnic at Hanging Rock the following year; the rest is history.

Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie

Written and directed by Jenny Hicks
Produced by Sarah Beard and Jenny Hicks
Featuring Dale Frank and Roslyn Oxley

The greatest look yet at a well-known artist very few have seen up close, as the titular visionary recluse invites us into his home.

A prolific force of nature within the realm of abstract art, rule-bending Australian artist Dale Frank has left his wildly untamed mark on canvases, sculptures, film, his body and more. Recognised worldwide as a boundary-pushing practitioner whose oeuvre includes intimate performance pieces and large-scale paintings with structural elements, his multidisciplinary output has exhilarated audiences since the late 1970s. But Frank is neurodivergent and has always lived with social phobia, and now must contend with a degenerative illness – all while he works towards his 35th solo exhibition.

Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie follows the artist in the lead-up to this latest show, held at Sydney’s Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, unveiling the burdens and brilliance behind such a renowned figure. Australian director Jenny Hicks’s debut documentary feature offers a remarkable glimpse into not only Frank’s unruly yet generative process, but also the restoration of his beautiful home in the Hunter Valley and astonishing botanical garden.

The Demon Disorder

Directed by Steve Boyle
Written by Toby Osborne and Steve Boyle
Produced by Ally Muller and Steve Boyle
Starring John Noble, Charles Cottier, Dirk Hunter, Christian Willis and Tobie Webster

Australian make-up and VFX veteran Steve Boyle (Star Wars: Episode II; Daybreakers; Jungle, MIFF 2017) makes his directorial debut with this grisly body-horror creature feature.

Isolating himself from the world in his garage workshop and estranged from his brothers, Graham Reilly receives an unshakeable wake-up call upon discovering that his youngest sibling is showing signs of being possessed by their deceased father George (John Noble, The Lord of the Rings). When all three Reilly boys come together for the first time after their dad’s death, they must confront a restless night of dread and revenge.

Melding early Cronenberg craft with contemporary horror themes, the local genre technician masterfully flexes his skills with a frightening combination of practical and digital effects, gruesome gore, and a terrifying but thrilling story that gets under the skin. Executive-produced by the Spierig brothers (Predestination, MIFF 2014; Undead, MIFF 2003), The Demon Disorder is a visceral journey into a hellish vision that will leave audiences entertained, grossed out and maybe even a little bedevilled.

Ellis Park

Written and directed by Justin Kurzel
Produced by Nick Batzias and Charlotte Wheaton
Featuring French Stewart

Legendary Australian musician Warren Ellis takes us on a guided tour through his world and one very special animal sanctuary.

A key member of iconic Australian bands The Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as well as a prolific film score composer (The Proposition; Hell or High Water, MIFF 2016), multi-instrumentalist Ellis has cut a brilliant and unorthodox figure in Australian music for over three decades. Far from the international concert halls in which he has plied his craft, however, lies a very different passion project: a wildlife sanctuary in the forests of Sumatra. Co-founded by Ellis and spearheaded by the indomitable Femke den Haas, whose dedicated team of conservationists rescues trafficked and mistreated animals and then devotes years to nursing them back to health, Ellis Park is a beacon of kindness in a world that sometimes has precious little of it to spare.

Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Ellis Park follows its subject from his childhood home in Ballarat – where he encounters formative sites and spends a tender afternoon in the company of his elderly parents – to his first, long-awaited visit to the park that bears his name. Along the way, it delves into Ellis’s expansive love of music and artistic history, illuminating the parallel evolutions in his multifaceted creative practice and commitment to the conservation cause. Directed by acclaimed Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Nitram, MIFF 2021; Snowtown), this fly-on-the-wall documentary offers both a deeply personal insight into one artist’s life and an inspiring reminder of how much humans can achieve while working together.

Every Little Thing

Written and directed by Sally Aitken
Produced by Anna Godas, David Guy Elisco, Alan Erson, Michael Tear, Oli Harbottle, Sean B Carroll and Sean B. Carroll

In this big-hearted, visually dazzling documentary, a Los Angeles teacher takes time off to nurture injured hummingbirds and finds herself on an uplifting journey.

Since 2008, UCLA English teacher Terry Masear has dedicated herself to caring for and rehabilitating wounded hummingbirds – impossibly delicate and fragile creatures brought to her by residents all over Los Angeles. Inspired by Masear’s 2015 book Fastest Things on Wings, Australian filmmaker Sally Aitken decided in 2022 to set up her cameras in Masear’s homespun hospital, watching with fascination as the Hollywood bird whisperer nursed her charges back to life.

Having previously surveyed colourful creatures in Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles and Playing With Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story, Aitken now gives audiences an indelibly wondrous, bird’s-eye view of Masear’s diminutive patients. There are magical macro shots that imbue the hummingbirds with rich, distinctive personality, while elegant drone footage evokes the vastness and glamour of LA’s natural beauty. Throughout it all, the film charts Masear’s personal growth and transformation as she marvels at the resilience of nature – and at its precarious coexistence with humanity.

Flathead

Directed by Jaydon Martin
Written by Jaydon Martin and Patrick McCabe
Produced by Patrick McCabe
Starring Cass Cumerford and Andrew Wong

Now in his 70s, country bloke Cass Cumerford returns to his hometown of Bundaberg seeking enlightenment. Having weathered a life of drugs, tragedy and, now, an illness, he follows his intrigue to evangelical Christians. Meanwhile, when Andrew Wong isn’t fronting his late father’s iconic fish-and-chip shop – the same one that allowed his family to send him and his sisters to school – he’s working out and musing on Buddhism in his own pursuit of meaning.

Executive-produced by Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hail, MIFF 2012; Bastardy, MIFF 2008), Jaydon Martin’s directorial feature debut scooped a Special Jury Award as part of Rotterdam’s Tiger Competition. Shot in an alluringly cinematic black-and-white, this intimate portrait blurs narrative and nonfiction to memorialise a working-class community and their dealings with loss, masculinity and faith. With its spirited insights into humanity and solidarity, Flathead is at once contemplative and compassionate.

Fungi: Web of Life

Directed by Gisela Hoffman and Joseph Nizeti
Written by Catherine Marciniak and Joseph Nizeti
Produced by David Gross, Jo-Anne McGowan and Sarah Noonan

It’s difficult to summarise the far-reaching properties of fungi, even though just under 10 per cent of the millions of species that exist have been described. For one, life on Earth would not be possible without them. They help plants and trees survive, and their great potential is being harnessed to help break down plastic and produce medicine. As UK biologist Dr Merlin Sheldrake traverses Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest, he guides us through the usually unseen network that keeps more than just this forest alive in a world facing climate threat and unsustainable destruction.

With mesmerising time-lapse footage by Stephen Axford, Patrick Hickey and Wim van Egmond, Fungi: Web of Life follows Sheldrake on a mission to educate the population about fungi’s possibilities, advocate for their preservation and, in his own words, give this kingdom of life “a kingdom’s worth of attention”. Lulled by the soothing narration of Björk – a fellow fungi lover – the 3D documentary comes courtesy of Australian production house Stranger Than Fiction Films, including executive producer Jennifer Peedom (River, MIFF 2021; Sherpa, MIFF 2015). Prepare for a journey that’s both meditative and awe-inspiring.

Future Council

Directed by Damon Gameau
Written by Jimmi James Wright and Damon Gameau
Produced by Quintin Baker, Anna Kaplan and Damon Gameau
Featuring Clemence ‘CC’ Currie, Skye Neville, Joaquin Minana, Karla Albjerg, Hiva Tuki Grube, Joseph Wijaya, Aurvi Jain, Damon Gameau and Ruby Rodgers

Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film; 2040) takes eight kids on the ultimate school excursion: a road trip across Europe to seek solutions to the climate crisis.

Inviting eight schoolchildren from around the globe to take a ride on his vegetable-oil-powered, bright-yellow school bus, Gameau sets out to make a movie that plays as “School of Rock meets An Inconvenient Truth”. Travelling across Europe, this colourful touring party confront multinational uber-polluters, talk to politicians, discover cutting-edge work at eco-minded organisations and marvel at the natural splendour of some of the continent’s most beautiful forests and lakes – a coming-of-age journey that dares to imagine a brighter future.

Continuing the socially driven work of his previous films, Gameau delivers a rousing tribute to youthful spirit. Future Council gathers a host of inspiring young minds – including singer/songwriter Ruby Rodgers, the granddaughter of rock legend Jimmy Barnes – who are frustrated by societal inaction, and shepherds them into the offices and meeting rooms of those in positions of power. It amounts to an optimistic portrait of what could be possible if adults actually listen to the kids set to inherit the (increasingly unhabitable) Earth.

He Ain’t Heavy

Written and directed by David Vincent Smith
Produced by Jess Parker
Starring Leila George, Sam Corlett and Greta Scacchi

Animal Kingdom star Leila George rejoins her mother Greta Scacchi (The Player, MIFF 1992; Looking for Alibrandi) in this devastating Australian drama about a family riven by drug addiction.

Pushed to the limit by years of trying to safeguard against the mayhem of her meth-addicted brother Max (Sam Corlett, The Dry), Jade (George) snaps one fateful night. Following a car crash that nearly claims the life of their mother Bev (Scacchi), she kidnaps him and retreats to the empty home owned by their grandparents in the desperate hope that this dramatic intervention will force a circuit-breaking rehabilitation. But when Bev arrives unannounced, bearing terrible news, this already-bubbling-over pressure cooker explodes.

Expanding on his short film I’m Not Hurting You, the gripping debut feature from Perth-based writer/director David Vincent Smith packs a punch because it’s informed by his own experience of navigating the trauma of addiction within his family. As is often the case when cinema bares the soul of its filmmakers – and as evidenced by He Ain’t Heavy having won four WA Screen Culture Awards, including Innovation in Narrative Feature Film and Outstanding Achievement in Performance (for Corlett) – such potent vulnerability makes for compelling viewing.

Inside

Written and directed by Charles Williams
Produced by Marian Macgowan and Kate Glover
Starring Guy Pearce, Cosmo Jarvis, Vincent Miller

Guy Pearce stars in this prison-set portrait of institutionalisation and salvation – the feature debut from Short Film Palme d’Or winner Charles Williams.

When Mel Blight (Vincent Miller) is transferred from juvenile detention to a maximum-security adult jail, he’s assigned to share a cell with one of Australia’s most infamous inmates, Mark Shepard (Cosmo Jarvis, Shōgun). Seizing an opportunity, the hardened Warren Murfett (Pearce, The Shrouds, MIFF 2024) recruits Mel to kill Mark, who has a contract on his head. As Warren nears parole and a reunion on the outside with his son Adrian (Toby Wallace, Acute Misfortune, MIFF 2018), the relationship between the three men grows more entangled and intimate. Who can make amends for their crimes? And who is beyond saving?

Executive-produced by Thomas M. Wright (The Stranger, MIFF 2022) and supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Inside is the impressive first feature from ascendant filmmaker Williams, whose drama All These Creatures (MIFF 2018) won the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes. Shot in Melbourne and regional Victoria, the film showcases a trio of powerhouse performances – from Miller in his debut role, to a transformative turn from Jarvis, to Pearce conveying both hope and hopelessness as a prison lifer – and poignantly examines the complex interplay between incarceration, rehabilitation and remorse.

In Vitro

Directed by Will Howarth and Tom McKeith
Written by Tom McKeith, Will Howarth and Talia Zucker
Produced by Will Howarth, Lisa Shaunessy and Bec Janek
Starring Ashley Zukerman, Talia Zucker and Will Howarth

A disturbing secret threatens a couple’s relationship in this rural-set sci-fi thriller starring Succession’s Ashley Zukerman.

Like many farmers tending to land and livestock around the country, Layla and Jack live an isolated existence. While their son is away at boarding school, Jack experiments with biotechnology to breed cattle, and Layla quietly laments her child’s absence and her strained relationship with her husband. When Jack is injured during a storm-induced blackout – in what he dismisses as an incident with the cattle – Layla begins to probe the true nature of his experiments. As Jack’s controlling behaviour intensifies, an upsetting discovery ruptures the monotony of their rural idyll.

Writer/directors Tom McKeith and Will Howarth have teamed up once again following their warmly received 2015 debut feature Beast. Co-written with star Talia Zucker (Lake Mungo, MIFF 2024) – who plays Layla alongside Zukerman’s Jack – their thought-provoking screenplay tackling the dynamics of possession and manipulation was developed after being selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2016. Meanwhile, cinematographer Shelley Farthing-Dawe imbues a haunting energy to the plains around Cooma and Goulburn in New South Wales, which serve as the moody backdrop to this tense, outback-set sci-fi thriller.

Kid Snow

Directed by Paul Goldman
Written by John Brumpton and Stephen Cleary
Produced by Lizzette Atkins, Bruno Charlesworth and Megan Wynn
Starring Billy Howle, Phoebe Tonkin and Tom Bateman

Centring on the titular tent boxer, this is a stunningly shot, epic drama featuring groundbreaking performances from critically acclaimed director Paul Goldman.

Deeply connected to Australian folklore, tent boxers crisscrossed the vast continent to bring entertainment and excitement to the outback for over 70 years. In 1971, thirtysomething Irish tent boxer Kid Snow is struggling – not just to make ends meet, but with the weight of past mistakes that ended his father’s life and his brother’s promising career. When Kid gets a rare shot at a comeback match, his lifelong goals seem suddenly within reach. But his deepening relationship with Sunny, a single mother and grifter who will do whatever it takes to provide for her son, promises to derail his ambitions.

Showcasing the breathtaking landscape of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, and lensed by veteran DOP Garry Phillips, the latest fiction feature from Goldman – who helmed Suburban Mayhem (MIFF 2006) and Australian Rules (MIFF 2002) – is set within the carnivalesque but brutal world of tent boxing, where Aboriginal boxers shared pride of place. It stars renowned British actors Billy Howle and Tom Bateman alongside an outstanding ensemble cast that includes Phoebe Tonkin, Mark Coles Smith, Tasma Walton, Shaka Cook and Hunter Page-Lochard. Michael Karaitiana, who was born and bred in the boxing tent, contributed to ensuring the film’s authenticity, while the score by Peter Knight and Warren Ellis (subject of Ellis Park, MIFF 2024) adds a haunting dustiness. A work of intimate beauty and cinematic sweep, Kid Snow is at heart a story of hope and the redemptive power of love.

Lake Mungo 4K

Written and directed by Joel Anderson
Produced by Georgie Nevile and David Rapsey
Starring Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe and Talia Zucker

One of Australia’s greatest cult classics – a mockumentary that is equal parts ghost story and family drama – screens for the very first time in a previously unseen, glorious new 4K restoration.

Alice Palmer was like most 16-year-olds, living in quiet suburbia with her parents and brother. But she had a dark side, and it’s only after her mysterious death that the secrets she held inside could be released. Told through the format of a television documentary, Alice’s story threatens to haunt her family for all time – figuratively and literally. Is it really her ghost that her loved ones see in photos and videos? Or just the memories of a desperate young girl? It isn’t until a terrifying discovery at Lake Mungo that all is clarified … or so they believe.

Released to little fanfare in 2008, Joel Anderson’s debut feature eventually amassed a reputation as an unmissable classic of Aussie horror; with its intricate central puzzle, unsettling atmosphere and ominously subdued score, some even regard it as one of the scariest films ever made. Anderson has since worked as executive producer on Late Night With the Devil (MIFF 2023) and as script editor for Netflix hit Clickbait, but the mesmeric pull of his sole directorial feature only continues to grow. Now stunningly restored in 4K, this masterpiece can leave even more audiences gripped, potently getting under their skin.

Left Write Hook

Directed by Shannon Owen
Produced by Donna Lyon, Shannon Owen, Alice Burgin and Gal Greenspan
Featuring Donna Lyon, Dove, Claire Gaskin, Gabrielle, Julie, Lauren, Nikki and Pixied

For eight survivors of childhood sexual abuse, a groundbreaking program that combines boxing and creative writing turns into a journey of recovery, transformation and friendship.

“Feel it, express it, heal it.” For the regulars of Mischa’s Boxing Central, the weekly pilgrimage to the gym for the experimental Left Write Hook program goes beyond simply strengthening the body. Guided by coach and academic Donna Lyon, participants Nikki, Dove, Pixie, Gabrielle, Claire, Julie and Lauren learn not just to box but also to recast the darkest chapters of their pasts into poetry, a powerfully cathartic exercise in reclaiming their life narratives. What begins as an eight-week commitment expands into a relationship of 18 months as the women deepen their bonds and decide to present their work to the wider world – ultimately in hopes of puncturing the shroud of silence and shame, and reassuring others like them that they’re not alone.

Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Shannon Owen’s intimate observational documentary invites viewers to sit among the women and listen to their stories, pulling no punches as they let their guards down in the spirit of radical acceptance and creative vulnerability. Affirming the now-established knowledge that trauma resides in both memory and muscle, Left Write Hook is a moving account of wounded individuals overcoming their troubled pasts, as well as of the healing that survivors can derive from solidarity and fearless storytelling.

Like My Brother

Written and directed by Sal Balharrie, Danielle MacLean
Produced by Tony Wright, Petrina Dorrington, Tammy Abala, Shane Tipuamantamerri, TicTac Moore and Sal Balharrie
Featuring Freda Puruntatameri, Julie Kerinauia, Jess Stassi and Arthurina ‘Rina’ Moreen

From the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne and back again, four young women who seek to make it in elite sport must face uncertain futures.

Although Rina, Freda, Juliana and Jess hail from the Tiwi Islands – at the opposite end of Australia’s sporting capital, Melbourne – they all dream of playing professional footy in the AFLW. But while dreaming is one thing, achieving it is another. They soon discover that nothing about this pursuit will be easy as they each navigate the barriers of urban modernity faced by many First Nations young people. These include, most significantly, the hardship of leaving loved ones and the strain of distance and homesickness, especially on the isolated and vulnerable.

This coming-of-age documentary shot in the Northern Territory and Victoria is the feature debut of Luritja and Warumungu filmmaker Danielle MacLean, who previously directed an entry in the anthology film We Are Still Here (MIFF 2022) and has written for Mystery Road; she co-directs here with Sal Balharrie. Confronting the universal themes of family, ambition and sacrifice through the specific lens of sport, Like My Brother is an inspiring film that will open viewers’ eyes not just to the realities of life in the Tiwi Islands but also to the resilience required to find success as an outsider.

Magic Beach

Directed by Robert Connolly
Written by Robert Connolly, Susan Danta, Pierce Davison, Guy Howett, Jake Duczynski, Emma Kelly, Anthony Lucas, Simon Rippingale, Kathy Sarpi, Kate Harris, Marieka Walsh, Eddie White and Lee Whitmore
Produced by Liz Kearney, Robert Connolly, Kate Laurie and Chloé Brugalé
Starring Rylee Chuck, Luka Sero, Azania Molefi, Flynn Wandin, Frankie Pollard, Summer Jeon, Elliott Hayes, Monty Newton Welsh and Spencer Ellis-Anderson

Ten animators bring Alison Lester’s beloved children’s book to the screen, crafting a magical mixture of live action and animation that is destined to become a family favourite.

As children hear the enchanting words of Lester’s illustrated classic Magic Beach, they slip into spellbinding worlds of dream and whimsy. Now translated into animated form – covering traditional 2D, claymation, stop-motion and more – it can captivate a whole new generation of youngsters while evoking wonder in the already-familiar. From a host of undersea adventures, tall tales of salty smugglers and escalating sandcastle wars, to sibling-stealing seaweed monsters, psychedelic coral forests and a dog’s dream of shoals of ‘sausage fish’, everyone will find their own fantastical adventure within.

First published in 1990, Lester’s rhyming shrine to imaginative play has found its way into the hearts of countless Australians, from wide-eyed kids to the parents who’ve read it at bedtime more times than they can remember. To adapt it for the screen, Robert Connolly (Paper Planes, MIFF 2014; Balibo, MIFF 2009) enlisted 10 of Australia’s most talented animators – Susan Danta, Pierce Davison, Jake Duczynski, Emma Kelly, Simon Rippingale, Marieka Walsh, Eddie White, Lee Whitmore, Kathy Sarpi and Oscar nominee Anthony Lucas – to render a host of incredible, wildly diverse environments. Delivering an incandescent take on a revered Aussie work, the MIFF Premiere Fund–supported Magic Beach is a film of widescreen delight.

Memoir of a Snail

Written and directed by Adam Elliot
Produced by Liz Kearney and Adam Elliot

Starring Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Tony Armstrong, Paul Capsis, Bernie Clifford, Davey Thompson, Charlotte Belsey, Mason Litsos, Nick Cave and Jacki Weaver

Sarah Snook lends her voice alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver in the stunning second Claymation feature from Oscar winner Adam Elliot.

Sarah Snook lends her voice alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver in the stunning second claymation feature from Oscar winner Adam Elliot, which won Annecy’s Cristal Award for Best Feature Film.

Her life may be a mess, but Grace Pudel (Snook, Succession; Predestination, MIFF 2014) does derive pleasure from three things: her snail collection, romance novels and her guinea pigs. As children, she and twin brother Gilbert (Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog; Slow West) eked out a modest existence with their paraplegic father, a has-been performer gripped by alcoholism and grief after their mother’s death. When he, too, passes away, the siblings are split up by child services: Grace is sent to Canberra, and Gilbert, to Perth. Isolated and depressed, Grace retreats behind a carapace – much like her snails – and fills her emotional void through compulsive hoarding. That is, until she finds a fourth source of joy: a friendship with outrageous octogenarian Pinky (Weaver, Animal Kingdom; Silver Linings Playbook).

This exquisitely hand-crafted stop-motion wonder from the auteur behind the multi-awarded feature Mary and Max, Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet (MIFF 2003) and AFI-lauded short Ernie Biscuit (MIFF 2015) is an affecting coming-of-age tale like no other. As it traces one downtrodden young woman’s journey to overcome loss and embrace herself, this bittersweet yet uplifting film also unfolds as a family saga across 1970s Australia on an intimate scale. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Memoir of a Snail is an indelible reminder that while the turmoil of life may force us into our shells, all it takes is a little bravery to break free.

The Moogai

Written and directed by Jon Bell
Produced by Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings and Mitchell Stanley
Starring Shari Sebbens, Meyne Wyatt and Tessa Rose

Jon Bell expands his MIFF 2020 Best Australian Short Film winner into a feature-length horror steeped in the trauma of the Stolen Generations.

Ensconced in a comfortable life with her husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt, We Are Still Here, MIFF 2022) and young daughter Chloe, successful city lawyer Sarah (Shari Sebbens, The Sapphires, MIFF 2012) is initially sceptical of her Indigenous birth mother’s cultural practices and shuns her heritage. After a difficult delivery with her second kid, however, Sarah is swamped with terrifying hallucinations and eerie visions of a storied child-stealing creature lurking in the shadows.

Having written for TV series such as Redfern Now, Cleverman and Mystery Road, Bell makes his feature directorial debut with this elaboration of his 2020 short film of the same name, which garnered accolades at MIFF and SXSW (Jury Prize – Midnight Shorts) and a nomination at the AACTA Awards (Best Short Film). Driven by robust and resonant central performances from Sebbens and Wyatt, who reprise their roles from the short, The Moogai is rich with symbolism – the pale monster is depicted as two-faced, with long arms evoking the long arm of the law – and rife with pain. It is an unshakeable cry of rage contained in genre form.

The Organist

Directed by Andy Burkitt
Written by Xavier Nathan, Andy Burkitt and Jack Braddy
Produced by Jack Braddy and Andy Burkitt
Starring Luke Fisher, George Goldfeder, Lena Moon, Garth Edwards and Jack Braddy

A man discovers he’s been feeding a cannibal in this deliciously macabre Melbourne-shot indie black comedy.

“Eating people is wrong!” At least, that’s what Graeme Sloane believes upon discovering that the organ-procurement business he works for – which ostensibly sources and delivers organs for rich patients in need – is, in fact, a sort of ‘farm’-to-table establishment for a wealthy cannibal. This charismatic Hannibal Lecter type has invited poor Graeme over for dinner, and his surprise at the situation leads to one of those unfortunate meetings with HR where he’s forcibly put on a path of ethically questionable compliance. When he meets his next donor target, though, the pair concoct a plan to make things right.

Andy Burkitt’s feature directorial debut, while morbid and murderous, is also charming and unexpectedly quirky, entertaining just as much with its absurd high concept as with its made-in-Melbourne bona fides. While each unsettling plot reveal warps The Organist into an ever darker and more deeply twisted tale, the energy of the game local cast and the unshakeable urge to find out what happens next keeps audiences from looking away.

Queens of Concrete

Directed by Eliza Cox
Produced by Gena Lida Riess and CJ Welsh

Three Australian girls seek the ultimate success in the world of competitive skateboarding while sliding into an adolescence without handrails.

It’s 2016, and talented young skateboarders Hayley, Ava and Charlotte – aged 14, 13 and nine, respectively – have their sights set on one goal: to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. But this is no mere half-pipedream. Already nationally recognised as being among the best competitors in their age groups, they’re buoyed by the news that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be the first ever to feature competitive skateboarding – a sport where the usual rules of gravity don’t seem to apply, and where there’s no safety net to break your fall.

Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Queens of Concrete charts the trio’s highs and lows as they face the immense physical and emotional demands of daily training regimens, fraught relationships with coaches, and intensive preparations for high-stakes events. Shot over seven years, including the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Eliza Cox’s coming-of-age documentary provides a gripping and at times devastating look into the challenges these girls must endure while navigating the complexities of growing up. The successes and setbacks that Hayley, Ava and Charlotte encounter along the way may place their dreams in jeopardy, but they might also just help these bright sparks discover who they are and what they want from life.

Rewards for the Tribe

Written and directed by Rhys Graham
Produced by Molly O’Connor and Philippa Campey
Featuring Antony Hamilton, Benjamin Hancock, Charlie Wilkins, Cody Lavery, Darcy Carpenter, Jianna Georgiou and Michael Hodyl

An intimate and uplifting dance documentary that ponders human connection and perfection, featuring Chunky Move and Restless Dance Theatre.

Chunky Move is an acclaimed contemporary dance company; Restless Dance Theatre is a groundbreaking troupe of disabled dancers. What happens when you bring these two Australian ensembles together? Six dancers are asked to develop a brand-new work that will take them from their Adelaide homes to Melbourne and then the UK. In the process, Jianna Georgiou, Michael Hodyl, Charlie Wilkins, Benjamin Hancock, Darcy Carpenter and Cody Lavery must carve out a collaborative movement language – a task that sees them contemplate group dynamics and society’s pursuit of excellence.

Rhys Graham (Galore, MIFF 2013) expands on the groundwork laid in his dance-based short film Multiply (MIFF 2021) with this invigorating and boldly cinematic feature documentary. As well as a tribute to the two world-class companies at its core, the film is also a remarkable insight into the world of artists: its subjects generously reflect on practice and performance, and sometimes even break into dreamlike choreographic sequences. Rewards for the Tribe is at once a celebration and a revelation of kinetic expression and harmony.

Romulus, My Father (Restoration)

Directed by Richard Roxburgh
Written by Nick Drake
Produced by Robert Connolly and John Maynard

Starring Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Eric Bana and Franka Potente

Eric Bana and Kodi Smit-McPhee star as father and son in this emotionally textured, AFI Award–winning drama based on the acclaimed memoir – now lavishly restored.

In a rundown farmhouse in 1960s country Victoria, Raimond (Smit-McPhee) lives with his father Romulus (Bana), an immigrant from Yugoslavia. His mother (Franka Potente, Run Lola Run, MIFF 1999) is weighed down by depression and mostly absent, save for the occasional visit, and she eventually leaves them for a family friend – although Romulus holds on to hope with every return. The toll of battling for daily survival amid fractured relationships, trauma and mental illness affects most of the adults around Raimond, who must learn what it takes to wade through adversity and find a way forward.

Driven by stirring performances from Bana and then-10-year-old Smit-McPhee – who each scooped AFI Awards for acting (and who both voice characters in Memoir of a Snail, MIFF 2024) – Romulus, My Father was the first film directed by theatre and screen actor Richard Roxburgh. An adaptation of philosopher Raimond Gaita’s eponymous memoir, the project attracted an esteemed team including producer Robert Connolly (The Magic Beach, MIFF 2024; Paper Planes, MIFF 2014) and cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson (Oscar and Lucinda; Shine, MIFF 1996), and went on to win the 2007 AFI Award for Best Film. It’s quietly stirring and ends, as the real-life Raimond puts it, “rightly, in the key of hope”.

Runt

Directed by John Sheedy
Written by Craig Silvey
Produced by Jamie Hilton and Cody Greenwood
Starring Jai Courtney, Celste Barber, Deborah Mailman, Matt Day, Jack Thompson, Lily LaTorre and Jack LaTorre

Jai Courtney, Celeste Barber and Deborah Mailman star in the heartwarming and hilarious adaptation of Craig Silvey’s bestselling novel about a girl and her dog who set out to save the family farm.

They say a dog is man’s best friend, but it also happens to be Annie Shearer’s. The 11-year-old lives in the country town of Upson Downs with her canine companion, a stray dog called Runt. When the Shearers’ farm comes under threat from drought and a local landowner, Annie concocts a plan to salvage it: by putting Runt’s herding talents to good use in the Agility Course Grand Championships at the Krumpets Dog Show in London.

Silvey, who also wrote the novels Jasper Jones and Honeybee, won a slew of Australian literary awards upon Runt’s release, including the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year for Young Readers. Ignoring the age-old axiom not to work with children or animals, director John Sheedy (H Is for Happiness, MIFF 2019) – who has overseen stage adaptations of Silvey’s books – rose up to the challenge to do both, with magnificent results. Newcomer Lily LaTorre delivers a charisma-fuelled performance as Annie, while the notable Australian cast (including Squid the rescue dog!) bring to life this upbeat underdog tale for the whole family.

Twilight Time

Written and directed by John Hughes
Produced by Philippa Campey and John Hughes
Featuring Desmond Ball, Raelene Ball, Brian Boyd, Daniel Ellsberg, Kieran Finnane, Kristian Laemmle-Ruff, Hamish McDonald, Bill Robinson, Richard Tanter, Phil Thornton and Ken White

A gripping profile of Australian academic, agitator and surveillance expert Des Ball – the man who counselled the US against nuclear escalation in the 1970s.

Hailed by former US president Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”, Ball was an ‘insurgent intellectual’ who emerged as a key figure in the turbulent political landscape of the Cold War. The Australian scholar and security expert’s theories on the fallacy of nuclear action and his advice to the US Department of Defense played significant roles in the de-escalation of global conflict during the 1970s, while his investigation of controversial US military base Pine Gap during the 80s enraged ASIO – which kept a security file on him. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ball offered guidance on signals intelligence in Burma and Thailand, and his work in East Timor gave the public a taste of secrets the government would prefer to remain hidden.

Employing a wealth of archival footage, veteran documentarian John Hughes (Senses of Cinema, MIFF 2022) captures the heated atmosphere of late-20th-century geopolitics through a distinctly Australian lens, bearing witness to events such as Harold Holt’s ‘peppercorn’ speech at North West Cape, Gough Whitlam’s infamous dismissal from office and the civil unrest that rocked the nation during the Vietnam War. Twilight Time is a rich – and tremendously timely – look at Australia’s complicated involvement in global strategy, defence policy and mass surveillance

Us and the Night

Written, directed and produced by Audrey Lam
Starring Umi Ishihara and Xiao Deng

Ten years in the making and shot on transcendent 16mm, this is an unconventional love story for every book-loving introvert.

Umi and Xiao work in their university’s library. Their paths cross night after night through the stacks of books – the perfect setting for this film’s own tale of curiosity and adventure. Interacting entirely within the one location, these two characters share wordplay, tour the globe and make music. But where will all of this take them, and why is it so hard to say the things that the books do so easily?

Much like the novels and fictions that occupy every frame of Us and the Night, which premiered at New York’s experimental documentary and avant-garde film festival Prismatic Ground, director Audrey Lam plays with language, soundscapes and imagery. As its protagonists explore and discover the hidden worlds of the library, Lam finds rhythm and poetry in the fluorescent lights, the surprising architectural patterns of the building and the shelves lined with accounts of humanity’s history. Expanding on the mystique of her acclaimed short films Faraways (MIFF 2013), Magic Miles (MIFF 2014) and A River Twice (MIFF 2017), this is a beguiling debut feature that is an entirely unique take on what an Australian film can be.

Voice

Directed by Krunal Padhiar and Semara Jose
Written by Krunal Padhiar
Produced by Shannon Wilson-McClinton, Ben Lawrence and Leeanne Torpey
Featuring Semara Jose, Stacee Ketchell, Daniel Rosendale, Billie-Jade Braund, Manny Williams, Nicole Caelli, Trinity Clark, Mikayla-Haze Adams, Tyrese David Sabatino, Hannah Hagan, Shannon Hagan, Littiah Billy, Laschaya Body, Serena Rae, Regan Lane, Shonteia Warradoo, Vivian Mook, Dean Parkin, Thomas Mayo, Senator Pat Dodson, Noel Pearson, Senator Nita Louise Green, Paul Kelly and Eric Avery

An inspirational insider’s look at a youth-led cross-country road trip to gather grassroots support for the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.

Cairns in Far North Queensland is the traditional home of the Yidinji and Yirrganydji peoples. From there, a group of volunteers – the Indigenous-run collective Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG) – decide to mount a grassroots campaign advocating for the ‘Yes’ vote to parliament. They set out in a minibus to commemorate a historic 1966 civil rights victory and partake in an annual pilgrimage to the Freedom Day festival some 3000 kilometres away; en route, they share yarns about their lives and those of their families with the folks they encounter. But while they seek to inspire a new future, the resulting votes seemingly bring another fight for recognition to a close.

Produced by Ben Lawrence – who won the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Ghosthunter (MIFF 2018) and the 2022 AWGIE Award for Documentary – Public Broadcast for the Julian Assange biography Ithaka (MIFF 2021) – this heart-filling portrait of a generation of young Indigenous leaders is also the first major Australian documentary to chronicle the journey of the Voice referendum. Co-directed by Krunal Padhiar and DIYDG co-founder and chair Semara Jose, this observational film lets its subjects offer building blocks for ongoing conversation and envisage the path ahead for First Nations people.

You Should Have Been Here Yesterday

Written and directed by Jolyon Hoff
Produced by Craig Griffin, Hamish Gibbs Ludbrook, Jolyon Hoff
Featuring Tim Winton, Wayne Lynch, Bob McTavish, Albe Falzon, Evelyn Rich, Maurice Cole

Be swept up in this stunning homage to the birth of Aussie surf culture, compiled from over 200 hours of home movies, iconic documentaries and restored 16mm footage.

In the 60s and 70s, when Australian films were beginning to make waves worldwide, a band of filmmakers turned their cameras to the burgeoning counterculture set among the country’s beaches. Whether they were hippies with hair turned bleach-blond or rat-racers seeking to connect with nature, surfing became an integral part of their lives. In turn, the chroniclers were there every step of the way, shooting the sun, surf, sand and the scene that grew around them.

Morning of the Earth, Crystal Voyager and Women of the Surf are just some of the now-famous films produced during this era, and Jolyon Hoff brings them together with a wealth of meticulously restored 16mm footage. This totally radical documentary shares the bold artistic vision of Moonage Daydream (MIFF 2022) in its melding of archive, commentary and music – culminating in a truly experiential sense of a moment in culture – coupled with the influence of local icons Albie Thoms and Tim Winton (the latter appearing here alongside Wayne Lynch, Bob McTavish, Alby Falzon, Evelyn Rich and Maurice Cole). Capped off with a downright killer score from Headland, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday will take audiences on a trip down the Aussie coast of years gone by.