MIFF Blog

Making his feature debut after several short films, Accelerator Lab alumnus Rodd Rathjen combines an edge-of-your-seat, high-seas thriller with the stark reality of the modern-day slave trade in Buoyancy. He spoke with MIFF about bringing this important story to global audiences.

In celebration of singular British director Peter Strickland’s newest work of art, In Fabric, MIFF is proud to present a retrospective of his feature films accompanied by a mini program of shorts and features that have inspired the director – selected by Strickland himself especially for MIFF audiences.

We sat down with MIFF Accelerator Lab alumnus John Sheedy, director of the MIFF 2017 Best Australian Short Film Mrs McCutcheon and this year's Family Gala film, the sunny and buoyant coming-of-age tale, H is for Happiness.

Starring Ryan Corr and Anthony LaPaglia, Below is a pitch-black comedy that dances a fine line between satire and hard-hitting truths about the global refugee crisis and the conditions in detention. We asked director Maziar Lahooti why he wanted to make this film, and how he hopes audiences will react.

No Time for Quiet directors Hylton Shaw & Samantha Dinning discuss making their film with an all-female cast and crew, the benefits of music for people living with mental illness and the importance of representation.

The feature-film debut from MIFF Accelerator Lab alumus Jayden Stevens, A Family is an offbeat comedy about a lonely man who hires actors to play his parents, brother and sister. We caught up with Stevens for a chat about shooting a film in a language you don't speak and creating a showcase of the bizarre and the unfamiliar.

Following the critically acclaimed Pawno, director Paul Ireland moves from Footscray to Prahran’s commission flats for this contemporary re-interpretation of Shakespeare. MIFF caught up with Ireland to chat about adapting the Bard, casting the city of Melbourne as a character, gangster stories and love stories.

Presented by MIFF 37ºSouth Market & Accelerator Lab, Adrian Wootton OBE returns exclusively to Melbourne for another series of his acclaimed Illustrated Film Talks, this year focusing on musical movie legends Sammy Davis Jr, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe. Wootton will recount these unique stars’ enthralling life stories and career highs, accompanied by swathes of film clips and images from their personal and professional histories.

On 5 April, MIFF Chair Claire Dobbin AM was recognised with the 2019 Jill Robb Award for outstanding leadership, achievement and service to the screen industry.

Curious about the submission process? Want to know what the MIFF programming team is looking for? We've gone straight to the source and collated the most commonly asked queries directed to our programming team about the MIFF submission process.