With the beloved film festival set to take over cinema and lives across Melbourne (particularly ours), we thought we’d share the films we’ve seen and loved that are screening, and those we can’t wait to catch. Happy viewing!
And if you’re on standby for the hottest tickets at the festival, Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie or Weiner, we’ll be screening both this September.
James Hewison — Head of Film Programs
Staying Vertical — d. Alain Guiraudie | France (2016)
The most elliptical film screening in Cannes Competition this year was the most beguiling; it is a hypnotic, occasionally hilarious and frequently transgressive modern pastoral odyssey by one of France’s most important living filmmakers.
Joe Cinque’s Consolation — d Sotiris Donoukos | Australia (2016)
The much-anticipated debut feature film from local filmmaker Dounoukos (& MIFF Accelerator alumnus) adapted from Helen Garner’s much-awarded novel.
Fire At Sea — Gianfranco Rosi | Italy / France (2016)
How to make a film about the desperation of the global refugee crisis? Make it about ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances beyond their contyrol. Make it so you can feel their breath on your face. Rosi has made that film.
Kristy Matheson — Senior Film Programmer
Evolution — D Lucile Hadžihalilović | France Belgium Spain (2015)
Don’t read a thing, don’t watch a trailer, don’t trawl the internet for reviews and comments. If you are booked to see the second screening of this beauty of a film, be sure to cover your ears in cinema lines, bars and cafés because you don’t want any plot spoilers or heads up on Lucile Hadžihalilović’s wonderful follow up to her 2004 feature, Innocence.
I’m excited about all the wonderful retrospectives that MIFF has to offer this year but a few titles are just too good to miss.
Sleepwalk — Sara Driver | USA (1986)
A long held dream to see this film on a big screen, I can’t wait!
Tokyo Story / Early Summer / Late Spring — Yasujiro Ozu (1951, 1948, 1953)
Ozu films restored and on a big screen = cinema heaven
James Nolen — Film Programmer
I’m excited to see Isabelle Huppert at any time, but this year MIFF treats us to two of her more recent films — Paul Verhoeven’s Elle and Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things To Come. She can do no wrong in my book!
Can it really be true?! Twelve Jerry Lewis films in one festival. I’m sure I’ve seen many of them when midday movies were at thing, but this is a rare treat. And most, if not all, will be screened on film!! Thank you MIFF!
Roberta Ciabarra — Film Programmer
Weiner — d. Josh Kriegman | Elyse Steinberg | USA (2016)
“Pineapple is in front of the office”
Thanks to some spectacularly ill-judged sexts and a rapacious news cycle, no one is likely to remember that Anthony Weiner is the 7 term Democrat Congressman who took the Republicans to task for blocking healthcare for 9/11 rescue workers — a stunt the GOP pulled to block a corporate tax increase. To his (qualified) credit — the guy is clearly an over-sharer — Weiner gives filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg unprecedented access while he attempts to rehabilitate his political career in New York’s 2013 mayoral race. Don’t miss it.
Aquarius — d. Kleber Mendonça Filho | FranceBrazil (2016)
Brazilian director, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s follow up feature to 2012’s Neighbouring Sounds features Sonia Braga — reason enough to seek it out — in a contemporary story of a woman standing her ground in the face of pressures from within as well as without in the form of encroaching gentrification. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Moreland City Council).
Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie, Love Story and Weiner will be screening at ACMI in September.
Originally published at www.acmi.net.au.
