The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) returns to cinemas 3-20 August for its 71st edition. The festival includes film competition which features a fresh suite of films appearing In Competition, representing the best and brightest new filmmaking talents from across the globe.
In honour of the Bright Horizons competition, we’ve created a capsule collection of past festival favourites that were early releases from award-winning filmmakers in the SBS On Demand MIFF Retrospective Collection:
Attenberg (MIFF 2011)
MA15+
Greece, 2010
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: Greek, English, French
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari
Starring: Ariane Labed, Vangelis Mourikis, Evangelia Randou
In Athina Rachel Tsangari's second directorial feature, 23-year-old Marina (Ariane Labed) is stuck in her boring factory town and at the mercy of both her father's impending death and her distaste for other humans. She would prefer to watch Sir David Attenborough documentaries and her sex education comes from her only friend, Bella (Evangelia Randou). A stranger (Yorgos Lanthimos) comes to town and she starts a relationship with him. Caught between two men and her friend Bella, Marina investigates the mystery of the human fauna. Erotic and eccentric this is a new spin on the arthouse coming-of-age drama told through the eyes of a female director.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Attenberg
By The Time it Gets Dark (MIFF 2017)
M
Thailand, France, Qatar, Netherlands, 2016
Genre: Drama
Language: Thai
Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong
Starring: Arak Amornsupasiri, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Achtara Suwan, Visra Vichit-Vadakan
Anocha Suwichakornpong's 2016 film follows a young film director as she researches a project about the 1976 massacre of Thai student activists at Thammasat University in Bangkok. The audience is taken on a dreamlike and conceptual journey where conventional forms and linear storytelling are left at the door. Suwichakornpong explores an important and shocking historical event and the art and purpose of filmmaking. Winner of 3 awards at Thailand's National Film Association Awards you don't want to miss this spellbinding film.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
By the Time It Gets Dark
Children of the Mist (MIFF 2022)
M
Vietnam, 2021
Genre: Documentary
Language: Hmong, Vietnamese
Director: Hà Lệ Diễm
In the misty mountains of North Vietnam, 12-year-old, Di, walks the thin line between childhood and becoming an adult. She belongs to the Hmong ethnic minority where women get married very young, enduring the controversial tradition of “bride-kidnapping”. Over a period of three years, we follow Di and the girls in her minority who are forced to lose their innocence, discover the traps of seduction and fight for their independence. Diễm tells a story about the clash between ancient customs and modern values, her first full-length documentary is a riveting and emotional story about a teenager with a strong character, who is not just a victim.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Children of the Mist
Clara Sola (MIFF 2022)
M
Costa Rica, France, Belgium, Sweden, USA, 2021
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
Starring: Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza
In a remote village in Costa Rica, Clara, a 40-year-old woman, takes off on a journey to break free from social and religious conventions and to become the master of her sexuality and newfound powers. Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s first feature is hard to define, it's neither a comedy nor a horror freak-out. Set in a rural village and cast with non-actors, led by an untamed performance from dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya, the drama occupies its own territory, tinged with magical realism and deeply immersed in the sensory world. It’s also a vivid reminder that even a matriarchy can be paternalistic.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Clara Sola
Daisies (MIFF 2015)
M
Czechoslovakia, 1966
Genre: Drama
Language: Czech
Director: Vera Chytilová
Starring: Jitka Cerhová, Ivana Karbandova, Julius Albert
"Nothing matters, just so long as it's a joke." Vera Chytilová's second film and Czechoslovak New Wave classic was listed in , coming in at number 28. Two teenage girls, both named Marie, decide that since the world is spoiled, they will be spoiled too. They embark on a series of destructive pranks to rebel against a materialistic society. But what happens when the fun is over? This feminist milestone is an anarchic comedy of subversion with a psychedelic miasma of colours and shapes that Chytilová described as, “A philosophical documentary in the form of a farce.”
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Daisies
La Pointe Courte (MIFF 2013)
PG
France, 1956
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Agnès Varda
Starring: Sylvia Monfort, Philippe Noiret
Agnès Varda's La Pointe Courte is a stunning directorial feature debut garnering rave reviews like “Romantic documentary? Experimental film? A poem in pictures? It is a film, in any case, which should not only be seen, but which should be talked about. "(J-L BORY, L'Express, January 1956)
A penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the inhabitants of Sète in the South of France.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
La Pointe Courte
Malcolm (MIFF 2022)
M
Australia, 1986
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: English
Director: Nadia Tess
Starring: Colin Friels, John Hargreaves, Lindy Davies, Chris Haywood, Bud Tingwell, Beverly Phillips, Judith Stratford
This Australian cult hit and winner of 12 AFI Awards was written and directed by husband-and-wife team David Parker (writer) and Nadia Tass (in her directorial debut). Malcolm Hughes is a chronically shy mechanical genius who has just been fired for building his own tram. He takes in two new roommates to help pay the rent. His life is changed with the discovery that his new roommates happen to live a criminal lifestyle, and Malcolm's inventive nature helps his new friends plan and execute an elaborate bank heist. Their newfound adventure leads to an unlikely and heartwarming friendship.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Malcolm
Moja Vesna (MIFF 2022)
M
Australia, Slovenia, 2010
Genre: Drama
Language: English, Slovenian
Director: Sara Kern
Starring: Loti Kovacic, Mackenzie Mazur, Gregor Bakovic
Moja lives with her grief-stricken Slovenian dad and pregnant twenty year old sister Vesna in an outer suburb of Melbourne. After her mother’s sudden death, ten-year-old Moja becomes the unexpected grown-up of her fragmented family, trying to bring her troubled sister and distant father together. After meeting Miranda and her quirky daughter Danger, a family very different to her own, Moja’s world begins to open. This is a family story, and the family is a migrant family. Writer/director Sara Kern (in her directorial debut) draws from her own experiences being a migrant to Australia to create this emotional and honest film.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Moja Vesna
The Eagle Huntress (MIFF 2016)
PG
UK, Mongolia, USA, 2016
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Director: Otto Bell
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Aisholpan Nurgaiv, Rys Nurgaiv
Aishol-pan, a 13-year-old girl, challenges tradition and gender barriers to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter, a position handed down from father to son for centuries. After discovering Aishol-pan's story via an online photo essay, documentarian Otto Bell graduated from short films to his first feature-length offering to capture her inspirational efforts. The Eagle Huntress combines soaring cinematography with a spirited account of convention-defying empowerment to introduce and celebrate cinema's newest teenage heroine.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
The Eagle Huntress
Zola (MIFF 2021)
"Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” From writer/director Janicza Bravo this film is based on a true story, well more specifically, the twitter thread containing 148 tweets written by A’Ziah “Zola” King that went viral in October 2015. Zola, a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani, who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of “hoeism” rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters and other unexpected adventures in this wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale.
STREAM FREE AT SBS ON DEMAND
Zola
The 2023 Bright Horizons winner will be chosen by an expert independent jury panel composed of Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, co-directors of last year’s Bright Horizons-winning Neptune Frost, revered documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe, and former Camera d'Or winner Anthony Chen.
Presented by VicScreen, the Bright Horizons competition awards a $140,000 prize to the winning filmmaker, making it one of the most substantial film prizes in the world.
Shayda Credit: Jane Zhang
Sundance Audience award-winner, Shayda, by Australian-Iranian filmmaker Noora Niasari.
The Rooster from actor turned writer-director Mark Leonard Winter.
Banel & Adama - the first longform work by Franco-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
The revelatory drama How to Have Sex, from writer-director Molly Manning Walker.
The Sweet East from famed indie creative Sean Price Williams.
Animalia - Director Sofia Alaoui’s comment on class, religion and gender roles in Morocco.
Pham Thien An’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell – a debut feature that follows a young man’s mystical journey across rural Vietnam.
Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama - a delicate, absorbing portrait of motherhood set against the fallible US foster-care system.
Ama Gloria - a tender portrait of a French girl’s bond with her nanny, from director Marie Amachoukeli.
Tótem - a child’s-eye view of love, loss and life from Mexican actor turned director Lila Avilés.
Giacomo Abbruzzese’s sensorially and emotionally arresting debut dramatic feature, Disco Boy.
