The Melbourne International Film Festival program has been announced – boasting 341 films, 17 program strands, 28 world premieres and 168 Australian premieres.
“With new venues and a broader footprint over our wonderful CBD, 2014 sees a new MIFF with more sessions giving the ravenous film-goer greater choice than ever,” says Artistic Director Michelle Carey. “To close it off in style, we are thrilled to present the Australian Premiere of FELONY, directed by Melbourne filmmaker Matthew Saville, written by and starring Australian acting icon Joel Edgerton alongside Melissa George, Tom Wilkinson and Jai Courtney.”
FELONY explores the actions of three detectives around an accident which leaves a child critically injured. One is guilty, another tries to hide it, and the third attempts to reveal the truth.
Australian thriller Predestination, created by the Spierig Brothers will open the festival. Many of the starring films are thrillers, including the world premiere Centrepiece Gala screening of Cut Snake, from director Tony Ayres.
The Australian Showcase includes three Premiere Fund films receiving a world premiere at MIFF this year: Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films; The Legend Maker; and My Mistress.
The Melbourne Stories mini-program is new to the festival, and includes Don’t Throw Stones, a documentary based on rock‘n’roll icon Stephen Cummings’ memoir and Curtain Call, the story of Terry and Carole Ann Gill, the couple behind the Tivoli.
Another new program addition is I Dream of Genius: Science & Technology on Screen, which showcases the practical, philosophical and potential facets of science and technology. Films include Web Junkie – a look inside one of China’s rehabilitation camps for internet-addicted teens; and Happiness – following the introduction of television into a remote Bhutan village.
India in Flux: Living Resistance is a program of documentaries focused on India including: Invoking Justice, an intimate look at Muslim sisterhood and collective action; and multi-award-winning Jai Bhim Comrade, looking at centuries-old caste conflict in Mumbai.
The extensive program includes strands for television in Big Scene, Small Screen, a showcase of films shot on 35mm in Celluloid Dreams: Films Shot on Film, music, in Backbeat, treasured films in Masters and Restorations, Italian comedy in Commedia all’italiana, blood and weirdness in Night Shift, children’s films in Next Gen and the best of Hong Kong horror in A Perfect Midnight: Haunted Hong Kong.
A retrospective on Jean-Pierre Léaud co-curated with Philippa Hawker includes screenings of François Truffaut’s classic film, The 400 Blows and Out 1 – Noli me tangere, a mostly improvised 12-and-a-bit-hour serial set in the studios, cafés and streets of Paris.
The Documentaries program boasts Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s long-awaited documentary The 50 Year Argument.
The Accent on Asia section brings Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner Stray Dogs to the screen, a reflection on the people who fall through society’s cracks, together with the practically without dialogue, meditative, Journey to the West.
International Panorama is the annual program of best of world cinema. James Gray’s The Immigrant, Catherine Breillart’s Abuse of Weakness and Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior and comedy drama Fantail, from first-time director and MIFF Accelerator graduate Curtis Vowell will be popular choices.
MIFF venues for 2014 include Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall; Forum Theatre; Kino Cinemas, a Palace Cinemas Partner; ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image; Hoyts Cinemas, Melbourne Central; Treasury Cinema; and RMIT Capitol Theatre.
Opening Night and multiple show tickets are on sale now and single pass tickets will be on sale on 11 July 2014.
The MIFF program will be online at miff.com.au on 11 July 2014
