Festivals: MIFF
Melbourne 2022: The Winners of the Inaugural MIFF Awards
The Melbourne International Film Festival have announced the inaugural MIFF Awards recipients. The newly introduced MIFF Awards, which include the Bright Horizons Competition and Award and the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, were launched as part of the 70th...
Melbourne 2022 Review: MILLIE LIES LOW, Bad Deceptive Decisions and Cringe Comedy
Millie Lies Low is a dryly funny deadpan character study of the titular deeply troubled sociopath, and her faux journey to a New York architecture firm Internship placement. Having recently beaten her best friend (Jillian Nguyen) and fellow classmate for...
Melbourne 2022 Short Review + Q&A: VICTIM Resonates Well After viewing
An ominous voice-over, scenes of suburban decay, dour grey skies and desolate exterior shots. This is how Director Robin Summons' latest short Victim is introduced; a moody landscape to paint the equally stormy relationship between a mother and son. The...
Melbourne 2022: The Winners of the 61st MIFF Shorts Awards
Although this is the Melbourne International Film Festival's (MIFF) 70th outing, the low-key prestige of the MIFF Shorts Awards are a tad younger. This year the 61st MIFF Shorts Awards provided a special glass trophy and cash prize with...
Melbourne 2022: MIFF's 70th Outing Highlights the Titular City's Filmic History
Having endured lock-down for essentially two years, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) returns with a strong outing covering metro, regional and of course streaming. In addition to this, the festival will use cutting edge technology and installations to broaden...
Melbourne 2021 Review: THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER, Purposely Pretentious Chamber Piece Still Captivates
The second film in a loosely planned trilogy about 'human togetherness', The Girl and the Spider begins with the literal construction of a contemporary chamber piece, a very busy apartment move-out and later a similar apartment's move-in. The first film...
Melbourne 2021: Engaging and Eclectic MIFF Lineup Revealed
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) returns for a very nice sixty-ninth time in selected cinemas and at home via a streaming pass system this year. It initially feels quite piecemeal, making your way through the guide to work out...
Melbourne 2020 Review: BLACK BEAR, a Gaslight Meta Nightmare
Black Bear could be a Hitchcock inspired-indie thriller that opens with actor--director-writer Allison (Aubrey Plaza), collecting her towel from a lake’s small dock, making her way inside a cabin where she sits, notebook and pen at the ready; a title...
Melbourne 2020 Review: SHIVA BABY, a Self-serving Schmear of Awkwardness
This acerbic feature, adapted from the short of the same name expands on the original with further complications, but the aesthetic of this chamber-piece remains equally grounded and squeamishly uncomfortable over the course of a socially excruciating afternoon. Uncomfortable in...
Melbourne 2020 Review: WET SEASON, Intricate Drama in the Monsoons
Singapore Director Anthony Chen returns after six years with his sophomore feature Wet Season. His first film Ilo Ilo (2013) is a tender masterfully shot race-class drama set during the 90s Asian recession. It follows a Malaysian native maid and...
Melbourne 2020 Review: Allison Chhorn's THE PLASTIC HOUSE, Experimental Meditations of Loss and Loneliness
There are no specifics on the where or when of it, and yet Director Allison Chhorn’s personal doco-fiction hybrid film The Plastic House remains confident of its place. The Plastic House is a quiet ode to an immigrant family-owned farming...
Melbourne 2020: Australia-Wide Digital Showcase Infuses Streaming
The impact of Coronavirus left little doubt the annual slate of festivals that kept every type of cinema across metropolitan Melbourne engaged would be severely impacted this year. Thankfully we adapt, and as streaming, and the proliferation of media available,...
Melbourne 2019 Review: MATTHIAS ET MAXIME, Xavier Dolan's Intimate Epic
French-Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan (there is no other word to describe him) has had a busy year. He has two films releasing in 2019, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan with a top-billed cast, and this far more...
Melbourne 2019 Review: NINA WU, A Clumsy #MeToo Psychological Drama
It would be a disservice to decent thrillers everywhere to give this Taiwanese Cannes entry the same genre label. It is a drama at best, and a very dour one that is devoid of any kind of spark, or thrill....
Melbourne 2019: ScreenAnarchy Reviews First Glance Features
Now for something a little different. The Melbourne International Film Festival, like every year, has revealed its First Glance titles. These are a hodgepodge of different program streamed films and documentaries to whet the appetite prior to the full guide...
Melbourne 2019: Premiere Funded Australian Films Break Records
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is changing hands this year. No longer will long-standing Artistic Director Michelle Carey be steering the ship (into Francophile waters), instead Al Cossar (former festival programmer) presents a no-doubt well curated program with,...
Melbourne 2018 Review: TRANSIT Disorients and Compels as Unique Wartime Noir
Director Christian Petzold’s (Phoenix) unique adaptation of the same name brilliantly twists the time and place of World War II events. The decision to depict a War narrative in this way disorients the viewer as there is no exposition to...
Melbourne 2018 Review: GIRLS ALWAYS HAPPY, Yang Mingming's Biting Dysfunctional Family Film Debut
Girls Always Happy proves anything but in Yang Mingming’s feature film debut. She both directs and stars as Wu, the troubled daughter and one-half of the powerfully dysfunctional family dynamic that anchors the film. The other half is her mother...
Melbourne 2018 Review: PIERCING, Sharp, Sweet and To The Point
From the same deranged brilliant mind behind Japanese horror novel Audition comes Ryu Murakami's latest adaptation from page to film. The short novel Piercing has been given a smart and frantically fun screenplay by Nicolas Pesce, who has a unique take...
Melbourne 2018 Review: WRATH OF SILENCE Violently Twists and Turns an Epic Tragedy
Genre influenced festival fare from China keeps on impressing, and Wrath of Silence may be the best, and most commercially friendly of recent efforts yet. This is the kind of film that grips you, and long after seeing it, parts...
