Explore: Experimental

Feature
Past Event

Abiding Nowhere

Tsai Ming-liang continues his meditative, monastic Walking series with another hypnotic shrine to seeking transcendence in a chaotic world.

Dir. Tsai Ming-liang / 2024 / 79 mins / USA, Taiwan / No Dialogue
Short
Past Event

Break No.1 & Break No.2

A thrillingly bold montage of still images and video work that pays tribute to memory and time.

Dir. Lei Lei / 2024 / 18 mins / China / Mandarin
Short
Past Event

Daphne was a torso ending in leaves

Winner of the KNF Award at Rotterdam, a playful and richly cinematic ode to the mythological Greek nymph.

Dir. Catriona Gallagher / 2023 / 13 mins / UK, Greece, Italy / No Dialogue
Feature
Past Event

Dream Team

If you think you’ve seen enough crime dramas that you can predict every twist, think again. This trippy investigation will keep you second-guessing.

Dir. Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn / 2024 / 91 mins / USA / English
Feature
Past Event

East of Noon

This dreamlike tale of youth and resistance set in a surreal modern-day Egypt is also a stirringly beautiful ode to creative expression.

Dir. Hala Elkoussy / 2024 / 109 mins / Netherlands, Qatar, Egypt / Arabic
Shorts Package
Past Event

Experimental Shorts

Unconventional cinema that tests the boundaries of form and function.

108 mins
Feature
Past Event

Film About a Woman Who...

Hailed as her masterpiece, Yvonne Rainer’s second feature explores the nature of artifice via a coolly simmering woman in a subpar relationship.

Dir. Yvonne Rainer / 1974 / 105 mins / USA / English
Shorts Package
Past Event

Fulldome Showcase 1

MIFF’s popular annual program of fulldome screenings at the Melbourne Planetarium returns for the 2024 festival.

Shorts Package
Past Event

Fulldome Showcase 2

MIFF’s popular annual program of fulldome screenings at the Melbourne Planetarium returns for the 2024 festival.

Short
Past Event

Grandmamauntsistercat

Winner of the Berlinale’s Teddy Award for Best Short Film, this story of a matriarchal family repurposes archival footage from communist Poland.

Dir. Zuza Banasińska / 2024 / 23 mins / Netherlands, Poland / Polish
Feature
Past Event

Histoires d'Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy

Chantal Akerman’s newly restored portrait embraces Jewish New York, from trauma and resilience to generous helpings of Borscht Belt jokes.

Dir. Chantal Akerman / 1989 / 92 mins / France, Belgium / English, Yiddish
Short
Past Event

Hito

A schoolgirl discovers the catfish she bought for dinner is a talking sentient bioweapon.

Dir. Stephen Lopez / 2023 / 22 mins / Philippines / English, Tagalog, Cebuano, Kapampangan
Feature
Past Event

The Hyperboreans

Showcased in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Beau Is Afraid’s breakout animators turn Chile’s Neo-Nazi history into a nightmarish stop-motion meta-movie.

Dir. Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña / 2024 / 71 mins / Chile / Spanish, German
Shorts Package
Past Event

International Shorts 1

An awarded and acclaimed cornucopia from directors known and new.

117 mins
Shorts Package
Past Event

International Shorts 2

Remarkable short-form favourites from Cannes, Berlin, Tribeca and more.

116 mins
Short
Past Event

It follows It passes on

Postwar memories of the Taiwanese Kinmen Islands are seen as if through broken glass, summoned by way of incense, ceramics, sand, light and shadows.

Dir. Erica Sheu / 2023 / 5 mins / Taiwan / Mandarin, Japanese
Short
Past Event

The Land at Night

An eerie trip across the landscape takes a dark turn into Australian Gothic.

Dir. Richard Tuohy, Dianna Barrie / 2024 / 14 mins / Australia / No Dialogue
Short
Past Event

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke

A hypnotic interplay between footage of fireworks shot during a Japanese summer festival.

Dir. Tomonari Nishikawa / 2023 / 6 mins / Japan / No Dialogue
Feature
Past Event

Lives of Performers

The genre-defying debut feature of legendary choreographer Yvonne Rainer, which heralded an experimental new cinematic voice.

Dir. Yvonne Rainer / 1972 / 90 mins / USA / English
Short
Past Event

Man number 4

Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photo on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.

Dir. Miranda Pennell / 2024 / 9 mins / UK / English
Feature
Past Event

The Man Who Envied Women

An acerbic, whip-smart account of a womanising professor at the breaking point of his marriage to a fed-up artist.

Dir. Yvonne Rainer / 1985 / 125 mins / USA / English
Feature
Past Event

MURDER and murder

Winner of the Berlinale’s 1997 Teddy Award for Best Documentary/Essay, Yvonne Rainer’s final feature is also her most personal and playful.

Dir. Yvonne Rainer / 1996 / 113 mins / USA / English
Short
Past Event

Nothing but Shadows

A superstitious widow confronts her mortality after human remains are discovered at her neighbour’s house.

Dir. Kathy Mitrani / 2023 / 18 mins / USA, Colombia / Spanish
Feature
Past Event

Pepe

The strange, tragic tale of the ‘cocaine hippo’ once owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar – narrated by the ghost of the beast himself.

Dir. Nelson Carlos De los Santas Arias / 2024 / 122 mins / Germany, France, Dominican Republic, Namibia / Spanish, German, Afrikaans, Mbukushu
Feature
Past Event

Privilege

In her idiosyncratically anarchic style, Yvonne Rainer tackles menopause, race and class with memoir, humour and the voices of many women.

Dir. Yvonne Rainer / 1990 / 103 mins / USA / English
Short
Past Event

Remains of the Hot Day

The Berlinale’s Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film) winner is a shrine to fading memories from the director’s own childhood.

Dir. Wenqian Zhang / 2024 / 24 mins / China / Mandarin, Wu Chinese
Short
Past Event

Rhythm

The movement of a train arriving at Tehran’s central station is edited in sync with a maestro percussionist’s mesmerising use of the zarb.

Dir. Manouchehr Tayyab / 1964 / 9 mins / Iran / No Dialogue
Short
Past Event

Single File

Time collides and collapses in this kaleidoscopic reflection on change in Hong Kong.

Dir. Simon Liu / 2023 / 10 mins / USA, UK, Hong Kong, Italy / English, Cantonese
Short
Past Event

Slow Shift

Monkeys overrun the remains of an ancient civilisation in this rich reflection on myth and reality.

Dir. Shambhavi Kaul / 2023 / 9 mins / USA, India / No Dialogue
Feature
Past Event

Stephen Cummins Retrospective

A crucial chapter in Australia’s queer history is brought to light in this National Film and Sound Archive restoration of Stephen Cummins’s films.

Dir. Stephen Cummins / 59 mins / Australia / English
XR
Past Event

Taiwan With a Twist

Two XR works – one portraying the trap of greener pastures, the other framing the body as landscape – present novel takes on the here-and-now.

20 mins / Taiwan
Feature
Past Event

Us and the Night

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

Dir. Audrey Lam / 2024 / 67 mins / Australia / English
Shorts Package
Past Event

WTF Shorts

Unfiltered and unapologetic. Not for the faint of heart.

99 mins
Feature
Past Event

You Burn Me

This phantasmagoric experimental drama puts Ancient Greek poet Sappho in conversation with the nymph Britomartis.

Dir. Matías Piñeiro / 2024 / 64 mins / Spain, Argentina / Spanish