The 70th Melbourne International Film Festival (August 4-28) has unveiled the 11 titles set to compete in its first ever international competition.
The MIFF Bright Horizons competition has a focus on first and second features, and a prize of A$140,000 ($94,000) – the biggest film prize in Australia.
Scroll down for full list of titles
MIFF artistic director Al Cossar’s line-up includes several debut features from female directors including Aftersun from UK director Charlotte Wells and magical realist eco drama The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future from Chilean filmmaker Francisca Alegría.
Further first features from women in the competition have already won prizes on the festival circuit. These include Natalia López Gallardo’s Robe Of Gems, which won the Silver Bear jury prize at the Berlinale; Martika Ramirez Escobar’s filmmaking comedy drama Leonor Will Never Die, which received a Sundance special jury award; and Laura Wandel’s bullying drama Playground, winner of the Fipresci prize at Cannes, where it played in Un Certain Regard. Another UCR winner selected for the competition is Lola Quivoron’s coming-of-age feature Rodeo, which received the Coup de Coeur Award.
Two local contenders are both second films. The Stranger, starring Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris, marks Thomas M Wright’s follow up to Acute Misfortune while Alena Lodkina’s Melbourne-set drama Petrol is her second feature after Strange Colours.
Fresh from Cannes
Launched this evening at Melbourne’s Plaza Ballroom, the programme will include 257 features of which 18 are world premieres and a record 61 titles are fresh from Cannes. These include Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave, Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Tori And Lokita, and Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s Camera d’Or winner War Pony.
The festival return to in-person screenings for the first time since 2019, after being forced to shift online for the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. An online component, MIFF Play, will run August 11-28.
A record 11 films with MIFF Premiere Fund support are in the programme, including opening night film Goran Stolevski’s Of An Age and Kasimir Burgess’ Franklin, the story of one of Australia’s most significant environmental battles and the first night film at MIFF’s nine-town regional programme. Stolevski, Burgess and Lodkina went through the Accelerator Lab, a talent development workshop, which is also part of MIFF’s extensive industry offerings.
Eventts celebrating the festival’s 70th edition include a Melbourne on Film retrospective, a performance by Orchestra Victoria of beloved local film scores, tributes to the festival especially made by filmmakers Justin Kurzel and Ivan Sen, and the launch of a book of essays, Melbourne on Film: Cinema That Defines Our City.
There is also a collection of work that seeks to celebrate, protect and understand the natural world, and director-in-focus programmes on Hungarian auteur Márta Mészáros and French-Bosnian writer and director Lucile Hadžihalilović.
As well as the flagship Bright Horizons award, the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award of A$70,000 ($47,000) will be presented to an Australian director, creative lead or cinematographer at MIFF’s award ceremony on August 20, and the MIFF Audience Award has also been reintroduced.
MIFF 2022 competition titles
Aftersun (UK-US)
Dir. Charlotte Wells
Domingo And The Mist (Costa Rica-Qat)
Dir. Ariel Escalante Meza
Leonor Will Never Die (Phil)
Dir. Martika Ramirez Escobar
Mass (US)
Dir. Fran Kranz
Neptune Frost (Rwanda-US)
Dirs. Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman.
Petrol (Australia)
Dir. Alena Lodkina
Playground (Bel)
Dir. Laura Wandel
Robe Of Gems (Arg-Mex-US)
Dir. Natalia López Gallardo
Rodeo (Fr)
Dir. Lola Quivoron
The Stranger (Australia)
Dir. Thomas M Wright
The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future (Chile-Fr-US-Ger)
Dir. Francisca Alegría
No comments yet