Melbourne 2015: First Glance Posits New York And The U.S As Central Narratives

First Glace has arrived. Not a program section per-say but a taster of things to come across the broad spectrum of nigh 300 films that comprise MIFF. The spill of new program reveals highlight more information about the Premiere Fund films, some Australian spotlights, and everything else.

Strange then that most of everything else unveiled has a premium emphasis on New York, Manhattan, Brooklyn and generation Y America as key, reading like a SXSW meets Sundance mash-up. Coupled with news that the trendy experimental Vertical Cinema is also traveling to MIFF, it seems that now more than any other year the festival is embracing the hipster dollar, for hopefully sell-out sessions across our cool city. More information after the bump.

Celebrated films from the international festival circuit include Heaven Knows What; a ravishing, operatic love story between two addicts set in the streets of New York. Sebastián Silva's latest Manhattan-set Nasty Baby which stars TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and Kristen Wiig. The documentary The Wolfpack which traces the lives of six brothers living together in a Manhattan apartment with their controlling parents, and Iris; a documentary that captures the world of New York fashion icon Iris Apfel.

Other American tales announced include the bittersweet, subversive coming-of-ager, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, the new Guy Pearce-starring romantic comedy Results, Sean Baker's jacked-up iPhone shot film Tangerine, The Witch; the story of a puritanical family living in the mist-shrouded woods of New England in the 1630s, Queen of Earth; a psychological drama about an unraveling friendship between two women starring Elisabeth Moss from director Alex Ross Perry, The End of the Tour from director James Ponsoldt; a revealing take on writer Dave Lipsky's tour with literary legend David Foster Wallace, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal, and City of Gold; a portrait of the world's only Pulitzer prize-winning food writer and cult icon Jonathan Gold who journeys through LA's rich melting pot of international cuisine.

Closer to home, the much-loved Australian novel Holding the Man has been adapted to the screen and has been chosen as MIFF's Centerpiece Gala, marking the halfway point of the festival. The story of the author's long-term love for John Caleo, his Melbourne high school's football captain, Holding the Man charts their 15-year romance through passion, discrimination, illness and tragedy. Starring Ryan Corr and Craig Stott, the film also features Sarah Snook, Guy Pearce and Anthony LaPaglia.
Race relations remain prominent with the world premiere of Another Country, screening as part of a David Gulpilil retrospective, exploring the actor's local roots in the Ramingining Northern Territory community and the fundamental clash between the Indigenous way of life and Government policy.

Let us not forget this is an international festival however! Here are some great foreign language titles that have been announced for the festival.

Jafar Panahi's Taxi; featuring the director driving a cab around the streets of the Iranian capital. Pedro Costa returns with the visually striking Horse Money, and Lav Diaz (Norte, the End of History) delivers From What is Before; a deeply affecting social drama. Suspense abounds in Phoenix, a highly atmospheric noir thriller set in post-war Berlin, from director Christian Petzold. Larry Clark's The Smell of Us; with the director's focus shifting from America to explore teen alienation on the streets of Paris. The Look of Silence; the highly anticipated follow up to Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing, and Sherpa; an awe-inspiring documentary presenting the extraordinary pressures and politics of climbing the world's highest mountain from the Sherpa point of view.

Stay turned to ScreenAnarchy as more on the festival develops.