Tiriki Onus thought he knew his grandfather Bill, until an unearthed film reel suggests he might have been the first ever Aboriginal filmmaker.

Short films by emerging filmmakers from Australia participating in the MIFF Accelerator Lab 2021. See the work of tomorrow’s hottest directors today.

Short films by emerging filmmakers from Australia participating in the MIFF Accelerator Lab 2021. See the work of tomorrow’s hottest directors today.

In 1960s rural India, a village chief and his son resist the pressure of conforming to the new world of Christianity.

An unplanned pregnancy unites two very different Costa Rican women in unique ways.

A young Vietnamese-French woman is faced with the communist takeover of Saigon on 30 April 1975.

An African migrant living in Spain is confronted with the bitter meaning of ‘home’.

One of world cinema’s most famous locations becomes the backdrop for this intricate relationship drama by Mia Hansen-Løve.

The film that made Tom Hanks a genuine star is now roughly the same age as its grown-up lead was, yet it remains equally as innocent and charming.

In this timely and electric Un Certain Regard–premiering drama, a family must contend with the distressing prospect of being separated by immigration officials.

This complex, evocative period piece about human disconnection invites you to a party in 1990s Belgrade – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume optional.

A sweet, touchingly funny tale about a working-class teen whose newfound passion for singing helps her connect with her deaf family in new ways.

Two Fijian-Indian sisters escape their cousin’s wedding to get high on disobedience and drugs.

This hypnotic exploration of a family’s psychological turmoil under the shadow of Thai history won the FIPRESCI Prize in this year’s IFFR competition.

A real-life mother–daughter duo play a semi-fictional mother–daughter duo struggling to make ends meet in this charismatic feminist class comedy.

In this coming-of-age tale, which won Venice’s Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film, a Colombian 15-year-old born into privilege experiences a rude awakening.

An elegant, neorealist debut that captures the beating heart of Lagos in the stories of two local dreamers struggling with their city’s Kafkaesque capitalism.

Olivia Martin McGuire parallels a grandfather’s journey to safety during the Cultural Revolution with his granddaughter’s fight for freedom in Hong Kong today.

This Gen Z Before Sunrise finds tender romance in youthful self-discovery.

This true story of an acid attack survivor’s fight to alter her daughter’s destiny is an inspiring and heartwarming call-to-action.

Slow-cinema master Lav Diaz returns with another mordantly meditative piece – one that nabbed him Venice’s Orizzonti Best Director gong.

MIFF alumnus and Shorts Award winner Eddy Bell returns with an intimate and critical portrait of one of Australia’s worst droughts.

A man’s devotion to his wife is put to the ultimate test in this rare cinematic venture into the Horn of Africa.

Winning a Special Mention at CPH:DOX, this moving, poignant film is a love letter to a deaf and blind brother from his younger sister.

Selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, the debut feature by Jafar Panahi’s son Panah is a chaotic, tender road trip set against a rugged landscape.

Attempting to quell some tension, a mother and daughter head to the hot springs… but more heat isn’t what they need.

The campaign to free Julian Assange takes on intimate dimensions in this documentary portrait of an elderly man’s fight to save his son.

Constance Wu stars in this elegiac Hawaiian drama as the late wife of a man haunted by his past and slowly becoming a spectre in the present.

Ahead of her 100th birthday, Isey and her devoted son James prepare for the party of a lifetime.

Essie Davis is incandescent as a squeegee-wielding mama bear who won’t stop fighting for those she loves – even if it ruins her own life.

Prayers by day, dreams by night – a mother keeps her son safe.

This illustriously produced vigilante drama centres on a mother who will do anything to get her kidnapped daughter back.

Selected for Critics’ Week at Cannes, Spanish filmmaker Clara Roquet’s coming-of-age debut captures female desire and friendship on the lush coast of Catalonia.

Produced by Wang Yang and Palme d’Or winner Qiu Yang, Lili Alone is a beautifully mournful story about one woman’s sacrifice.

This story of a Syrian refugee awaiting resettlement on a remote Scottish island is at once heart-wrenching and humorous.

Co-written by Christos Tsiolkas, this period drama depicts a newly-single father’s efforts to weather the turbulence of change – in his life and in the world around him.

A lead turn reminiscent of Marlon Brando anchors this neo-realist look at the Maltese fishing industry.

Poised at the intersection of activism and art, wunderkind Fox Maxy’s TikTok-esque tapestry documents the injustice and legacy of colonisation.

Emma Dante adapts her own acclaimed play: a melancholy tale of five Sicilian sisters whose lives are forever changed by a trauma from their youth.

Göteborg’s 2021 Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award winner dives into personal memories that embody the persistence of life in the face of enormous tragedy.

Stunningly restored in 4K, the sagacious second feature from Senegalese author turned filmmaker Ousmane Sembène cements his legacy as the ‘father of African film’.

An elderly woman and her nephew wax nostalgic in this charming ode to times gone by.

In Jacqueline Lentzou’s exceptional feature debut, an already strained father–daughter relationship is put under pressure.

Two brothers with diametrically opposed approaches to their faith are pitted against one another in this tense family drama.

A timber feller, kept awake by his infant child’s cries of hunger, encounters something perturbing in the woods.

Michael Beets depicts an elderly woman enacting the titular Japanese death ritual for her husband.

Rachel Perkins’ affecting Aussie classic sees three estranged sisters reluctantly reunite for their mother’s funeral and grapple with long-suppressed family secrets.

A twentysomething has to grapple with the pressures of impending maturity as well as the ‘ninjababy’ that has snuck inside her seemingly undetected.

When the Victorian Government locks down his public-housing building, a teenager responsible for his mother’s welfare is pushed to the brink.

Maliciously outed after his death, musician Billy Tipton is now a transmasculine icon.

Part road movie, part video essay, this lyrical tour-de-force from Angelo Madsen Minax finds catharsis in confronting family drama.

The lives of Indigenous women collide in this powerful feature debut, which takes aim at poverty, prejudice and the patriarchy.

Melbourne’s iconic baroque homewares mogul, Franco Cozzo, is the subject of this delightful portrait that offers insights into furniture, family and the migrant experience.

A short-sighted boy uncovers family secrets in an intricate, Tim Burton–esque world.

Awarded IFFR’s top prize, this lean, arresting debut follows a primal father–son road trip across the arid landscapes of southern India.

Céline Sciamma returns with a delicate tale of childhood and an intergenerational connection that crosses through time.

Naina Sen explores the relationship between biracial identity and generational belonging through traditional Balinese dance.

This adaptation of Jennifer Clement’s bestselling novel explores the visceral impact of Mexican drug cartels on the lives of three young girls.

This gutsy and charming film about a young Ghanaian-American woman at a crossroads marks the arrival of a filmmaker with a fresh, unique vision.

A deeply personal portrait becomes a reflection on Iran’s turbulent political history in this striking, formally innovative memoir.

This Sundance 2020 Audience Award winner is a revelatory, immersive adaptation of Naoki Higashida’s memoir of a neurodiverse life.

Mads Mikkelsen headlines this ingenious, pitch-black Scandi revenge comedy.

Laura Dern is unforgettable in this 1986 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner – now digitally restored – as a teen who pursues experiences she’s not really sure she wants.

This DOK Leipzig Silver Dove for Short Documentary and Animated Film winner grapples with China’s one-child policy through a story about two friends.

Co-executive-produced by Ian Thorpe, this sports drama centres on a teenager fighting to stay afloat in the world of competitive swimming – and in his family life.

A middle-aged woman cares for her elderly father, whose will to live is on the wane.

From Palme d’Or winner Nanni Moretti comes this highly anticipated new drama of disparate lives in an Italian apartment complex.

Rising alt-comedy star Patti Harrison joins Ed Helms in this wry surrogate-pregnancy comedy that upends traditional gender dynamics and subverts expectations.

A tense mother–daughter survival story that paints an empathetic picture of outsider life across the subways and streets of New York City.

After her father unexpectedly hits her, a young girl decides to toughen up.

The darkly humorous 2021 Clermont-Ferrand International Competition Special Jury Prize winner pits a funeral custom against languishing olive trees.

A family unravels while road-tripping near Death Valley in the California desert.

Winner of the 2021 Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes, this Russian drama from the producers of Beanpole travels to the dark heart of an unusual family.

Starring Pamela Rabe, Margot Nash’s acclaimed first feature – now gloriously restored – is a must for the big screen.

A Noongar high school student struggles to perform a Shakespearean sonnet for her drama class.

Just your ordinary story of a girl who falls in love with a wolfman and raises their children – this anime classic celebrates difference and unconventional families.

On the cusp of turning 10, a Jamaican girl is about to learn how not to drown.

Yael Stone and Emily Barclay star as frenemy sisters in this sibling dramedy by Madeleine Gottlieb.

Winner of Best Short Film at the Swiss Film Awards, this documentary observes the impact of time – and historical trauma – on one commemorative street.