Cinephiles to rejoice as Melbourne film fest goes national

Melbourne’s loss will be Australia’s gain when the country’s biggest and longest-running film festival goes digital this year.

The Melbourne International Film Festival usually brings together thousands of cinephiles over nearly three weeks in August, but when the southern capital went into COVID-19 lockdown in March along with the rest of Australia, the hugely popular arts event looked like it was on the ropes. The difficult decision — not knowing what cinemas would look like in August — was taken in April to pivot to an online version of the event, a move that has been vindicated with the city now enduring its second lockdown.

Thanks to the most significant philanthropic gift from a private donor in the festival’s 68-year history and a generous donation from Melbourne-based film producer, businesswoman and philanthropist Susie Montague, MIFF 68 ½ will now run as digital film festival from August 6-23, featuring 113 films.

While organisers admit they would

obviously rather not be in this situation, they are turning a negative into a positive, given that the festival program can now streamed from anywhere in Australia — not just other capitals, but also regional and rural centres that rarely get these kind of arts events.

“That is such a positive for us this year,” MIFF artistic director Al Cossar says.

“It’s the first MIFF in history that all of Australia can attend and there is something really special about that. And also the idea that regional communities who might be one step removed from metropolitan arts or film-based events, that they have the same degree of opportunity and access, is really wonderful.”

And in the age of Zoom calls and virtual gigs, Cossar says the organisers have been able to secure talent for special Q&A events or table reads who might not otherwise be willing to jump on a plane and fly to the other side of the world. One such virtual guest will be acclaimed filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, whose drama First Cow will be the festival’s opening night film, while the cast of beloved Aussie black comedy Death In Brunswick, will also reunite for a table read.

Cossar says there will be something for everyone in this year’s program, from longawaited dramas to Oscar-bound documentaries. He says he’s particularly looking forward to closing night film Ema, directed by Pablo Larrain and starring Gael Garcia Bernal, and Wendy, Benh Zeitlin’s follow-up to his 2012, Oscar-nominated Beasts Of the Southern Wild. Comedian Aubrey Plaza’s career-best performance in Black Bear and actor-rapper Riz Ahmed’s in Mogul Mowgli are also worth checking out, he says.

Director of the acclaimed basketball doco Hoop Dreams Steve James returns with a powerful four-parter on Chicago politics, and ’80s band the Go-Gos also get the doco treatment tracing their extraordinary journey from punk trailblazers to pop darlings.