ACCELERATOR 1

(92 min)

A compelling session of shorts created by talented emerging filmmakers from Australia and New Zealand.

All Accelerator filmmakers are guests of the Festival. More >

ACCELERATOR 2

(90 min)

A compelling session of shorts created by talented emerging filmmakers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

All Accelerator filmmakers are guests of the Festival. More >

The Accordion

(Iran, 9 min)

The Accordion tells of the human drive for material survival against a backdrop of religious intolerance. Two young street performers in Tehran, a boy and a girl, have their accordion confiscated following an incident, which they must learn to accept in order to survive.

In 2010, dissident director Jafar Panahi received a six-year jail sentence in Iran and was forbidden from making films or giving media interviews for 20 years. More >

ADRIAN WOOTTON ILLUSTRATED FILM TALKS -…

Adrian Wootton, a long-time Frank Sinatra admirer, gives an overview of Sinatra's 60-plus years in showbiz and the more than 50 films in which he appeared, ranging from classic musicals to his Oscar-winning performance in From Here to Eternity, interspersed with plenty of anecdotes and affectionate stories.

Book tickets for this talk at www.wheelercentre.com More >

ADRIAN WOOTTON ILLUSTRATED FILM TALKS -…

Just more than 50 years after his death, legendary American crime scribe Raymond Chandler, whose seven completed novels featuring laconic detective Phillip Marlowe (including The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye), remains a profound influence on crime fiction and crime movies. Not only were all of his novels adapted for the screen, but Chandler himself became a screenwriter of note, working with Billy Wilder on 1944's Double Indemnity, in which he had a small acting cameo and with Alfred Hitchcock on Strangers on a Train.

Adrian Wootton's lecture gives insights into the development of Chandler's writing and his fascination with the crime genre, an overview of reclusive life in the UK and USA, and his adventures in Hollywood and the many movies he worked on. More >

ADRIAN WOOTTON ILLUSTRATED FILM TALKS -…

Best known as one of the greatest English novelists of the 20th Century, penning such masterpieces as Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The End of the Affair, Burnt Out Case and The Honorary Consul, as well as short stories, noted plays and children's book, Graham Greene's contribution to cinema is less well known.

On the 20th anniversary of Greene's death, Wootton, author of the forthcoming The Films of Graham Greene, gives an illustrated lecture highlighting Green's long and rich relationship with the cinema - from his time as a film critic through scriptwriting to adaptations of his books and even acting. More >

ADRIAN WOOTTON ILLUSTRATED FILM TALKS -…

Adrian Wootton, who was one of the producers of the BBC/BFI documentary Howard Hawks: American Artist, chronicles the fascinating life and range of work from one of America's most respected directors.

A born storyteller, Hawks worked his way up from assistant prop man to become a screenwriter, director and producer in the silent movie era and went on to become one of the most commercially successful independent directors of the age. He was responsible for movies such as The Big Sleep, Scarface, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and the John Wayne classic Rio Bravo. More >

ADRIAN WOOTTON ILLUSTRATED FILM TALKS -…

Adrian Wootton, an Elivis aficionado who was intimately involved in curating film and TV celebrations of Elivis's Hollywood career for the BFI and Turner Classic Movies, recounts the history of Elvis Presley's extensive career on the silver screen.

Book tickets for this talk at www.wheelercentre.com More >

AFRAID OF EVERYTHING: HAS HORROR GONE T…

Join festival guest Ti West (director, The Innkeepers, The House of the Devil), Rachel Cotra (Director, Hello Darkness Film Festival), Emma Westwood (author of Monster Movies), Lee Gambin (Fangoria), Neil Foley (Monster Pictures), and moderator Guy Davis as they talk about the limits of horror, and where the extremes really lie in horror films when it comes to menacing an audience.

Monday 25 July
5.30pm – 6.15pm More >

AFRICA UNITED (M)

(UK/South Africa, 88 min)

A story of joy, laughter, hope and generosity. And football.

When Fabrice, a young Rwandan with dreams of being a football star, is given the chance to audition for the 2010 World Cup, he sets off on a ramshackle journey across Africa, his self-appointed 'manager' Dudu and his sister Beatrice in tow. Their haphazard expedition sees them encounter former child soldiers, slave owners and others determined to help them on their way to Johannesburg. More >

Air

(Australia/USA, 21 min)

A traveller and a strange young boy meet on a Texas road. A film by Candy author Luke Davies, starring Andrew Garfield (The Social Network).

D/S Luke Davies P Sara Cline TD betacam sp/2010 More >

ALEX GIBNEY: DIRECTING DOCUMENTARY MAST…

Renowned documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, an Oscar nominee for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and an Oscar recipient for Taxi to the Dark Side, discusses his approach to non-fiction filmmaking with Rachel Landers, AFTRS Documentary Lecturer, going behind the scenes with his new films screening in MIFF 2011: Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, surrounding the undoing of a former New York governor, and Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place, a true story of American counterculture.

All Flowers in Time

(USA/Canada, 14 min)

Tarnation director Jonathan Caouette delivers an eerie and surreal fusion of video art, suburban gothic and monster movie. Featuring Chloë Sevigny.

D/S Jonathan Caouette P Tarnation Films/Phi Films WS Danny Lennon TD digibeta/2010 More >

American, The

(Australia, 13 min)

Would a James A. Fitpatrick travelogue today see Melbourne today as it was in 1959?

Directed by Darryl Wardle (1959) More >

ANIMATION SHORTS

(90 min)

A selection of innovative shorts, animated with techniques ranging from stop-motion to ‘clay painting’.

ANOTHER EARTH

(USA, 92 min)

"Sundance can boast of another discovery... science fiction at its best." - Hollywood Reporter

On the night that a duplicate Earth is discovered in our solar system, astrophysics student Rhoda drives into an oncoming car, killing a mother and child and leaving the father in a coma. When she's released from prison, Rhoda goes to find the father, determined to do penance and, perhaps, to escape her past in the parallel world floating above. More >

Another Occupation

(USA, 15 min)

Underground filmmaker Ken Jacobs (Capitalism: Slavery, MIFF 2008) explores colonialism and industrialisation via an imagined train journey through a militarised Southeast Asian country.

D/P Ken Jacobs TD digibeta/2011 More >

THE APPLE

(Iran, 85 min)

"Potent symbolism linked to a bizarre story rooted in fact, set in Iran and laden with political, social and generational overtones." - New York Times

A truly remarkable achievement, The Apple (MIFF 1999) was directed by Samira Makhmalbaf at the age of 17 using leftover film stock from her father's (filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf) previous production. Upon its release in 1998 it won multiple festival awards and helped shine a light on a remarkable true story, acted out by the actual family at the centre of the controversy. More >

ARMADILLO

(Denmark, 101 min)

"Moving, complex and brutal... an outstanding film about men at war." - Empire

In forward operating base Armadillo, a posting of young Danish soldiers are on campaign against the Taliban. Gaining incredible access, director Janus Metz chronicles six months of their everyday lives in Afghanistan, creating a confronting, uncompromised and close-up view of modern warfare. More >

ARTAVAZD PELECHIAN SHORTS

(104 min)

With Jean-Luc Godard and Aleksandr Sokurov citing him as a major influence, the work of Artavazd Pelechian is becoming recognised as being of central importance to the history of filmmaking. This screening showcases his 'contrapuntal montage' approach that redefined the boundaries of cinema.

We (1969) traces the resonances of the 1915 Armenian genocide in late 1960s Soviet society. More >

Astor Place

(Austria, 10 min)

Eve Heller’s Astor Place poses the question of who is watching whom by positioning an observational camera in a modern urban thoroughfare in a film that pays homage to early cinema.

Eve Heller, 10 mins, 1997, 16mm, B&W, Silent More >

AT ELLEN'S AGE

(Germany, 95 min)

Eat, pray, whatever.

Idling through her forties, Ellen's life is about to hit the brakes. Losing her job, partner and mind all in the same week, she embarks on a bizarre anti-journey of self-discovery that finds her wandering through endless hotel-room corridors, living in squalor with self-righteous animal activists and, later, performing nude street theatre. More >

At The Formal

(Australia, 8 min)

Slow motion and an extended long take are used to make the ritualised dynamics of a high school formal increasingly sinister and disturbing.

D/S Andrew Kavanagh P Ramona Telecican WS VCA School of Film & Television L no dialogue TD HD Cam/2010 More >

Attach Boat to Motor

(Australia, 15 min)

The events of a day in the country lead a young man to follow his own path.

D/S Nathan Lewis P Colin John Elphick L no dialogue TD digibeta/2010 More >

ATTENBERG

(Greece, 95 min)

Sex, death and nature documentaries.

Marina, a 23-year-old sexual innocent and general misanthrope, is both intrigued and repelled by the idea of physical intimacy. While helping her philosophical father prepare for his imminent death, she finds herself awkwardly beginning her first sexual relationship. More >

AUSTRALIAN SHORTS

(94 min)

A healthy crop of homegrown shorts, featuring all filmmakers as guests of the Festival.

AUTOLUMINESCENT: ROWLAND S. HOWARD

(Australia, 100 min)

"Rowland was Australia's most unique, gifted and uncompromising guitarist." - Nick Cave

Guitarist, songwriter and artist Rowland S. Howard was an instrumental figure in the Australian rock scene, particularly renowned for his role in seminal post-punk outfit The Birthday Party. In a career spanning 30 years Howard worked with the best artists of his generation, including Henry Rollins, Lydia Lunch and Ollie Olsen. His was a singular talent, cut short by an untimely death in 2009. More >

AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (G)

(Japan, 112 min)

"In its exquisite refinement of Ozu's style and themes, and its general air of nostalgia and loss, An Autumn Afternoon does in fact feel like a summation of his career." - Criterion

Hirayama (Ozu regular Chishu Ryu), an aging widower living with his two grown children, is forced to consider marrying off his daughter before she falls into a life of spinsterhood in Yasujiro Ozu's 1962 classic, An Autumn Afternoon. With a family bond that edges toward a deep co-dependence, the notion of separation strikes Hirayama as simply another death in the family. More >

Aww Jeez

(Australia, 6 min)

A stop-motion animated sitcom about a slacker named Jesus, his father God and his babysitter Satan, a recovering alcoholic. Special cameo by Richard Dawkins.

Michael Greaney is a guest of the Festival. More >