The winner of the 2023 Cannes Short Film Palme d’Or is a colourful orgy of ennui and desire.

In Christian Petzold’s Silver Bear–winning drama, a summer getaway on Germany’s Baltic coast unravels against the backdrop of looming wildfires.

Virtual and real-world violence blur in this terrifying, Sundance award-winning short.

Portuguese director Pedro Costa merges cinema, music and theatre for this tale of three sisters separated by an erupting volcano.

Relive the most thrilling moments of Australia’s beloved tennis tournament in this chronicle of its ascent to top-seed status on the global stage.

Established feature directors return to the short form to play with time and experiment with structure.

In this chilling political coming-of-age film, a young housekeeper is drawn into the sinister orbit of his influential boss.

A collection of the best short films from the festival, as chosen by the MIFF Shorts Awards jury and the MIFF Shorts programmers.

Argentinian auteur Lucrecia Martel weaves economic struggle, thriller and diva melodrama into a stunning exercise in bodily language.

For the first time, MIFF Talks heads out of Melbourne to highlight the local filmmaking talents based in Victoria’s Goldfields region.

Frederick Wiseman’s third foray into dramatic features centres on Sophia Tolstoy’s complicated marriage to her novelist husband.

Oscar-winning Amy and Senna director Asif Kapadia fuses horror and expressionistic dance in this haunting ballet inspired by Woyzeck and Frankenstein.

In this gently surreal, formally bold Argentinian take on the heist film, two bumbling bandits try to buy their liberty.

Pioneering sexologist Shere Hite is rescued from history’s margins in this fascinating portrait from Oscar-nominated documentarian Nicole Newnham.

This account of an elderly woman’s nerve-racking journey across Manhattan is a heart-stoppingly sharp indictment of the US healthcare system.

A maximalist mixtape of videogames, pop music and red paint, at once joyous and disruptive.

An engrossing moral thriller set against a nation torn in two, which won the inaugural Un Certain Regard Freedom Prize.

A 10-year-old girl becomes newly aware of her cultural identity in this impressive debut that received a Tribeca Narrative Short Special Jury Mention.

Tensions rise along with the temperature gauge in this blistering snapshot of sibling rivalry.

The winner of the Rotterdam Ammodo Tiger Short Competition’s top prize is a touching portrait of shared uncertainty.

Hit the town and seek out the next illegal rave in this euphoric, multisensory joyride about the 1980s Acid House movement.

An awarded and acclaimed cornucopia from directors known and new.

From Cannes Critics’ Week comes a masterful portrait of an ostracised immigrant searching for salvation.

Tracing her stratospheric rise, this portrait of the legendary folk singer and civil rights activist reveals a rich life not without its struggles.

Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Elma Kris and Waangenga Blanco lead this film about a Torres Strait Islander woman whisked away from her thankless job.

Mark Coles Smith (Sweet As) faces down a traumatic event from his past in the hope of helping young First Nations men in the Kimberley.

A preternaturally skilled archaeologist goes on an Orphean quest for his lost love in Alice Rohrwacher’s latest and most romantically bewitching film.

Amat Escalante’s follow-up to The Untamed is a stunningly visualised crime thriller that lays bare the class conflict and vice within modern Mexico.

This Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film) and Teddy Award for Best Short Film winner depicts a Yankunytjatjara man’s search for belonging.

Forbidden desire, memory, revolution, and cinema collide in this queer feminist gem from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Scissors out! Someone literally slays at a hairdressing competition in this exuberant one-take murder mystery.

Revered filmmaker Jeni Thornley (Maidens, MIFF 1979) composes an immersive cine-poem from her extensive super-8 archive spanning three decades.

This poetic, visually striking meditation on growing up under apartheid in South Africa is unlike any documentary memoir you’ve seen before.

The thrilling, debauched and frequently hilarious adventures of the legendary Melbourne post-punk band, in their own words.

In this gripping blend of fact and fiction, revered Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi (3 Faces, MIFF 2018) decides whether to cross a line for his beliefs.

In this triumphant return to narrative film, Wim Wenders tackles life’s little details – mess and all – with his trademark meditative movement.

Oozing blood, shapeshifting and a serial killer on the loose – this high school body horror is a feminist-charged frenzy, starring Alicia Silverstone.

In this beautifully bittersweet hand-drawn ode to friendship, a dog must find new meaning when misfortune separates him from his robot buddy.

A grieving girl connects with her estranged father in this Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize–winning debut infused with warmth and light.

As much an ode to the daily creative grind as it is to the creative partnership between director Kelly Reichardt and actor Michelle Williams.

Obstinacy and recklessness lead a team of fishermen out into dangerous waters.

Bong Joon-ho protégé Jason Yu’s clever horror debut stars South Korean favourites Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite) and Jung Yu-mi (Train to Busan).

In the southern Estonian woods, a group of women talk and embrace the soul-cleansing power of steam in this Sundance award-winning documentary.

Music video auteur, photographer and Control director Anton Corbijn takes history for a spin, demystifing the vinyl record artwork of the masters.

The supernatural encroaches on a woman’s simple existence in this FIPRESCI Prize–winning tale of folklore, deception and retribution.

A Gen Z woman contends with shifting cultural values and the one-child policy’s lasting impacts to understand her place in the world.

Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal play reunited lovers in Pedro Almodóvar’s sensual queer western, direct from Cannes.

A ragtag cast and crew of theatre nerds bring extra drama to save their beloved summer camp in this uproarious mockumentary.

A cast of neurodivergent teens prepare to come of age and hit the stage in their school’s time-travelling, John Farnham–themed musical.

From Cannes comes the final work by the late, legendary genius Jean-Luc Godard – a dazzling glimpse into a feature film that never came to be.

Telling four stories (or maybe just one) over four storeys, Hong Sang-soo’s latest MIFF entry is a shrewd chamber play set within a single building.

In this gorgeous new 4K restoration, Hungarian slow-cinema master Béla Tarr finds metaphysical horror in a nascent revolution.

Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang quietly contemplates life in the mountains, reflecting on chairs, cats and portraits of his muse, Lee Kang-sheng.

From Star Trek to actual space travel, 92-year-old William Shatner has done it all. Alexandre O. Philippe beams us up with this touching tribute.