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.
Accent on Asia
As our resident Asian film editor James Marsh so rightly put it; 2015 has been a really disappointing year for Asian film so far. MIFF's yearly let-down stream Accent on Asia may buck this trend however, with a diverse array of genre-fuelled delights.
India has two of the most powerful contenders with the brilliant dark neo-noir Sunrise (read Pierce's review here) and Court; a searing indictment on the caste system, bureaucracy and justice through bias eyes in the always thrilling court room setting.
Japan impresses with two new films from master auteurs Sabu and Takeshi Kitano with Chasuke's Journey and Ryuzo and his Seven Henchmen respectively. No Sono though; a director who is usually a MIFF staple, so that is disappointing given his output of cinema so far. Miike's latest explosion of genre madness Yakuza Apocalypse joins the Night Shift segment.
Outside Japan, get excited for Christopher Doyle again as Ruined Heart makes its way to the festival! Set in the Phillippines this wordless punk rock musical features legendary Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu and is hopefully the pure passionate return to form for one of the world's most incredible visual talents. Check the insane trailer here.
China gives us perhaps the only Jia Zhangke film i've ever been excited about with Mountains May Depart. Joining this auteur are two others with can't miss entries; Peter Chan's devastating Dearest (my review here), and Hou Hsiao-hsien's patient poetic swordplay epic The Assassin.
South Korea seems to have the weakest entries of the lot for the first time in many considering MIFF's prior focus on strong Korea content. Coin Locker Girl (Pierce's review here) will at least be worth the watch.
David Gulpilil Retrospective
MIFF will welcome Yolngu dancer, musician and Aboriginal Australian film icon David Gulpilil to the festival for a look back at his filmic career.
The retrospective will include screenings of Ozploitation cinema loved by Tarantino; Mad Dog Morgan and Dark Age which Quentin himself lent the festival. Rolf de Heer’s Ten Canoes, and the world premiere of Another Country, directed by Molly Reynolds. Both Rolf and Molly join the festival’s guest line-up.
Australian Showcase
The following films supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund will receive their world premieres at the festival: Grant Scicluna’s Downriver, the story of one man’s path to redemption; Neon, a documentary celebrating the beauty, romance and art of neon lighting, directed by Lawrence Johnston; Richard Lowenstein's Ecco Homo, a portrait of provocateur, artist and performer Troy Davies; and Nicole Ma’s Putuparri & The Rainmakers, a documentary exploring one man’s struggle to fulfil his destiny.
Additional guests from the Australian Showcase section include: Brodie Higgs, with his culture-mashing feature debut Elixir; photojournalist George Gittoes with the world premiere of Snow Monkey, his riveting first-hand journey through Afghanistan; and Jennifer Peedom, director of Sherpa, an awe-inspiring documentary about climbing Everest.
Continuing the bumper year for Australian Showcase, MIFF will also welcome director Kriv Stenders and leading-man Alex Dimitriades on behalf of the accomplished TV drama The Principal; debut feature filmmaker and Accelerator alumnus Ben Chessell and beloved comedian Lawrence Leung with the coming-of-age story Sucker; actors Ewen Leslie and Odessa Young starring in Simon Stone’s debut feature The Daughter, an adaptation of the award-winning play The Wild Duck, and Margot Nash focuses on the unspoken secrets and tragedies of her childhood in the documentary The Silences.
Culinary Cinema
With the global phenomenon of people visually documenting their meals via Instagram firmly entrenched in our lives, MIFF recognises that food on film has become more enticing than ever and will celebrate this with a selection of mouth-watering films in Culinary Cinema.
As part of this new program, Jonathan Gold – the world’s only Pulitzer prize-winning food writer and the subject of the foodie tour through Los Angeles City of Gold – will be a guest of the festival.
Witness to the Fact – True Crime on Film
New program sections for MIFF in 2015 include True Crime on Film, featuring stories from the underbelly of bad behaviour offering timely lessons about the messy realities of crime and punishment.
Cartel Land (Jason's review here), Amy Berg's Prophet's Prey and the excellent twisty Welcome to Leith are just a few of the chilling yet fascinating documentaries on offer.
Documentaries
MIFF’s Documentaries program returns with films that will incite anger, passion and so much more. Guests include Crystal Moselle with her Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning film The Wolfpack (read Dustin's review here; and Du Haibin with his artistic study of ideological existentialism in A Young Patriot. MIFF audiences can also encounter Joshua Oppenheimer with The Look of Silence, the follow up to The Act of Killing; and the Oscar-winning director of The Cove, Louie Psilhoyos, whose latest film Racing Extinction presents an impassioned call to action for the future of the planet.
International Panorama
This year’s International Panorama is bigger than ever, bringing the best of global cinema to Melbourne direct from the world’s most prestigious film festivals and pre-eminent film-makers. MIFF will welcome Iranian director Nima Javidi to the festival with her feature film, Melbourne, a psychological drama in which good people are forced to confront troubling circumstances. Other gems from International Panorama include Miguel Gomes’ ambitious and multi-faceted breakdown of modern-day Portugal in his trilogy Arabian Nights, comprising Volume 1, The Restless One; Volume 2, The Desolate One; and Volume 3, The Enchanted One.
There are so many diverse offerings in this stream, but here are a few more that spring to mind; The technical masterpiece Victoria, the German crime film shot in one-take which our review described as "a poem in action";
Josh & Benny Safdie
MIFF will present the first Australian retrospective of brothers Josh & Benny Safdie, who will both be guests of the festival. The brothers’ mainly New York City-set films capture the energy and unpredictability of modern life, showing beauty and absurdity in the small, quotidian moments of their memorable characters. This retrospective program takes a tour of life as seen through the Safdie’s eyes, and includes their latest feature, Heaven Knows What, a selection of their short films, and the documentary Lenny Cooke, focusing on the world of American basketball.
Night Shift
Pleased as punch to state that MIFF's Night Shift is the best it has been in years, taking films that fit the late night mould, keeping you awake from sheer adrenalin rush and fear alone. Excellent films from this program include Jason Lei Howden's Deathgasm, the Austrian chiller Goodnight Mommy, Wingard's magnificent Gothic action film The Guest (finally), Henry Rollins as an immortal in He Never Died, a scary doco with The Nightmare, the Cthulhu-esque horror romance Spring and the BMX apocalypse fantasy Turbo Kid! Check our site for reviews on almost all of these!
Psychedelic!
Lastly on my tour of MIFF's top programming streams comes Psychedelic! Psychedelic!, a mind-bending and eye-popping global tour of psychedelic films encouraging audiences to free their minds including the feminist fun Czech mind-melter Daisies, Noe's nightmarish Enter The Void, The Monkees and The Beatles on more acid than you can fathom with Head and Yellow Submarine respectively, and Jodorowsky's essential The Holy Mountain, among many more.