Melbourne 2015: Program Guide Reveals An Electric Array Of Cinematic Gold

Editor; Australia (@Kwenton)
The Melbourne International Film Festival media and MIFF members program guide launch happened last night, and it happened big with easily the best launch event of its kind since the current artistic director took curator-ship. The wait for the printed guide itself is an annual slog, sitting through dull speeches with specks of finger food and maybe one glass of wine. This year however the event started with mingling, drinks flowing and delicious canapés.

When it did come time for the speeches there was no delay. The pacing was perfect and the program was quickly introduced with some key trailer highlights, jokes and assured confidence that this year's MIFF was going to be a blast. The night was capped off with MIFF's advertising and thematic message for the year; 'watch how you feel'.

Click through for more on the introduction and for the highlights of each stream.


Pierce Conran, James Marsh, , J Hurtado, Dustin Chang and Shelagh Rowan-Legg contributed to this story.

An ad played showing people's facial muscles being zapped by an 'emotion simulator' representing happy, sad, excited, angry and scared. To everyone's surprise after the ad concluded a curtain was drawn revealing a man in the experimental chair and a doctor experimenting on him. It was a surreal way to cap off a pretty spectacular evening, but then the coup de grâce arrived in the form of the guides themselves.

The focus has certainly changed in 2015; from protecting film as a medium, highlighting its patient essence and mediating on time, to forward thinking new and innovative technologies; film shot on iPhone, the Vertical Cinema experience, a focus on the psychedelic, true-crime that has popularized the Zeitgeist and the television medium and many more.

Here is my twelve hour synopsis of the pick of the litter for ten of the program arenas from this glorious guide. Stay tuned to ScreenAnarchy for plenty of MIFF reviews.

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Melbourne International Film Festival 2015Preview

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