Accelerator Shorts 1
Short films by emerging filmmakers from Australia participating in the MIFF Accelerator Lab 2021. See the work of tomorrow’s hottest directors today.
Animation Shorts
Aurora
An unplanned pregnancy unites two very different Costa Rican women in unique ways.
Australian Shorts
Baltasar
An African migrant living in Spain is confronted with the bitter meaning of ‘home’.
Giants
MIFF alumnus and Shorts Award winner Eddy Bell returns with an intimate and critical portrait of one of Australia’s worst droughts.
Hot Mother
Attempting to quell some tension, a mother and daughter head to the hot springs… but more heat isn’t what they need.
International Shorts 1
James & Isey
Ahead of her 100th birthday, Isey and her devoted son James prepare for the party of a lifetime.
The Justice of Bunny King
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.
KKUM
Prayers by day, dreams by night – a mother keeps her son safe.
La Civil
This illustriously produced vigilante drama centres on a mother who will do anything to get her kidnapped daughter back.
La Verónica
Ema star Mariana Di Girólamo is magnetically front and centre – literally – as a dangerous wannabe social media influencer in this dark drama.
Lili Alone
Produced by Wang Yang and Palme d’Or winner Qiu Yang, Lili Alone is a beautifully mournful story about one woman’s sacrifice.
Luzzu
A lead turn reminiscent of Marlon Brando anchors this neo-realist look at the Maltese fishing industry.
Nafi’s Father
Two brothers with diametrically opposed approaches to their faith are pitted against one another in this tense family drama.
Nest
A timber feller, kept awake by his infant child’s cries of hunger, encounters something perturbing in the woods.
Ninjababy
A twentysomething has to grapple with the pressures of impending maturity as well as the ‘ninjababy’ that has snuck inside her seemingly undetected.
Pebbles
Awarded IFFR’s top prize, this lean, arresting debut follows a primal father–son road trip across the arid landscapes of southern India.
Petite Maman
Céline Sciamma returns with a delicate tale of childhood and an intergenerational connection that crosses through time.
Playlist
In this delightful slacker story, a young Parisian comic-book artist is on the hunt for stability, a career, self-confidence, love – but nothing seems to go her way.
Prayers for the Stolen
This adaptation of Jennifer Clement’s bestselling novel explores the visceral impact of Mexican drug cartels on the lives of three young girls.
Riders of Justice
Mads Mikkelsen headlines this ingenious, pitch-black Scandi revenge comedy.
Smooth Talk
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.
Step Into the River
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.
Sunset Country
A middle-aged woman cares for her elderly father, whose will to live is on the wane.
Together Together
Rising alt-comedy star Patti Harrison joins Ed Helms in this wry surrogate-pregnancy comedy that upends traditional gender dynamics and subverts expectations.
Topside
A tense mother–daughter survival story that paints an empathetic picture of outsider life across the subways and streets of New York City.
Tough
After her father unexpectedly hits her, a young girl decides to toughen up.
Trona Pinnacles
A family unravels while road-tripping near Death Valley in the California desert.