Programmer, Melbourne International Film Festival
Horror films are Kate Fitzpatrick’s thing. “They are the most fun to watch in a crowd of people. It’s great to be collectively scared and to laugh together.”
Australian horror films Late Night With The Devil and Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism were among her 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) favourites, alongside La Chimera, The Adults and Robot Dreams, which she had tracked for ages.
Fitzpatrick likes programming films she is passionate about, knowing her enthusiasm will encourage attendance, but also listens when her inner voice says, “This is not for me, but I think there’s something here that others will be drawn to.” The aspect of the role that most frustrates her is being told she cannot have a film because the local distributor “doesn’t think it fits with their release strategy”.
After dropping out of three university courses and watching a lot of movies, Fitzpatrick got her first film job in 2007 as film programme administrator at ACMI, Australia’s national museum of screen culture. There she met mentor Kristy Matheson and attended Matheson’s first BFI London Film Festival as director in 2023 (she is also a regular at Cannes and Berlin).
This year’s MIFF (August 8-25) will be Fitzpatrick’s fifth as a programmer, having first joined in 2012 as programme co-ordinator. MIFF Schools — which aims to expand students’ appreciation of foreign-language cinema — and MIFF XR also fall under her remit. Fitzpatrick is as happy taking visiting filmmakers to a football match as she is “nerding out” with others about films. “There’s a beautiful theatricality to sport,” she says.
Contact: Kate Fitzpatrick
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