Melbourne International Film Festival unveils 2024 program

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is back with a vengeance for its 2024 edition, showcasing more than 250 features, shorts, and XR experiences.

Artistic director Al Cossar promises a “multi-faceted festival of cinematic excess,” designed to delight and ignite the imaginations of all attendees.

“The MIFF program this year, like every year, is designed to delight and sure to bring out the best in your imaginations,” said Cossar, who also announced the 10 films selected for the festival’s Bright Horizons competition.

Competing for the $140,000 prize—the richest purse for any competitive program in the Southern Hemisphere—are anticipated debuts such as India Donaldson’s Good One, Luna Carmoon’s Venice prizewinner Hoard, Pulitzer winner Annie Baker’s Janet Planet, and hometown helmer Charles Williams’ prison drama Inside.

MIFF’s headliners include some of the year’s most talked-about titles from celebrated auteurs.

Among them are Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Megalopolis, Payal Kapadia’s Cannes breakout All We Imagine as Light, Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-starrer The Substance, and new offerings from art-house darlings Jia Zhang-ke (Caught by the Tides) and Hong Sang-soo (A Traveler’s Needs).

Australian cinema is also well-represented. Claymation maverick Adam Elliot will open the festival with Memoir of a Snail, marking his first MIFF appearance since his Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet kicked off the 2003 edition.

Other local heroes include Robert Connolly, whose Magic Beach adaptation will unspool at the Family Gala, and Indigenous filmmakers Krunal Padhiar and Semara Jose, whose Voice will world premiere following the Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good’s headline-making cross-country campaign.

The documentary front offers cinephiles a wealth of choices, with offerings ranging from Benjamin Ree’s moving The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, about a young man’s virtual world exploits amid a battle with a degenerative disease, to Jeff Dupre’s all-access look at rock royalty The Black Keys.

MIFF’s shorts, experimental, and XR programs promise a treasure trove of discoveries, led by boundary-pushing works such as Cannes prizewinner The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent and the deeply personal First Nations piece “kajoo yannaga (come on let’s walk together).

Festivalgoers looking to expand their horizons should also explore MIFF’s retrospective lineup.

This year, the focus will be on the Iranian New Wave of the 1960s-70s, the avant-garde dance films of Yvonne Rainer, and the overlooked Aussie queer cinema of Stephen Cummins—not to mention a kaiju-sized 70th-anniversary tribute to Godzilla.

As always, there will be plenty of action on the sidelines, with the MIFF Talks series set to draw some of the industry’s biggest names, Melbourne’s top restaurants offering special “food and film” pairings, and the Campari Cinema Lounge keeping the party going late into the night. The festival runs from August 8 to August 25.

You can find the full program here.