Our Top 14 Picks From The 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival Program

Film festivals! They seem to get bigger and bigger each year, and the Melbourne International Film Festival is no different. They have a schedule of 345 titles so it is literally impossible to not find something you don’t want to see. Last night the MIFF crew unveiled their 2016 program and we’ve perused it to give you a heads up on what to look out for.

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The Neon Demon (dir. Nicholas Winding Refn)

The director of Bronson, Drive and Only God Forgives is building a reputation as notorious as his controversial Danish counterpart (and arch nemesis) Lars Von Trier. Whenever either of these directors have a film at MIFF they promise an entertaining night out. Even if the movies are awful, the crowd reactions of them (screams! walk outs! inappropriate laughter!) are typically a story to tell your friends.

This year Refn offers up a critique of the L.A. fashion scene in the gruesomely gory The Neon Demon. It features Aussie actors Abbey Lee and Bella Heathcote alongside stars Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves, and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and is described as an “intoxicating eyegasm”. Reviews out of Cannes and after its recent release in America have been all over the shop, but it’ll be an unrepeatable experience to see it with a sold out crowd at MIFF.

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Personal Shopper (dir. Olivier Assayas)

A whole swag of Cannes’ biggest titles are to be shown at the festival – including the aforementioned Neon Demon plus the most excellent Aquarius about one woman’s war against gentrification in Brazil, Paul Verhoeven’s Elle with Isabelle Huppert, and Kelly Reichardt’s powerful Certain Women – but one we’re super curious about is the second collaboration between French director Olivia Assayas and star Kristen Stewart after the sublime Clouds of Sils Maria.

This ghost story stars Stewart as a, you guessed it, personal shopper in Paris who believes she has a connection to her dead twin brother. A wildly mixed response in Cannes only made the anticipation grow with many critics giving it one star and many more giving it five. If you want to read some of the best film criticism around, Vanity Fair’s review of the film may just get you weeping as well as eagerly awaiting Personal Shopper.

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Christine (dir. Antonio Campos) and Kate Plays Christine (dir. Robert Greene)

Two films that go hand-in-hand are these two wildly different takes on the story of Christine Chubbuck, a Florida news anchor who shot and killed herself live on air. In Campos’ drama, Rebecca Hall stars and reportedly gives the performance of her career as a woman on a precarious edge of suffering. The director previously directed the off-kilter Simon Killer and produced cult-drama Martha Marcy May Marlene so we’re in good hands.

In Robert Greene’s film, however, the director of the bizarre Actress takes a pseudo-documentary glance on Chubbuck’s story and examines the process of actor Kate Lyn Sheil as she goes about getting into the mental headspace of the character as she prepares to play Chubbuck in a movie-within-the-movie. Both sound fascinating, disturbing, and essential examinations of the media.

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The Death and Life of Otto Bloom (dir. Cris Jones)

The festival’s opening night choice appears to be an odd one. We don’t mind that, actually. No real word yet on what the movie is actually about, but from the pre-screening buzz and the teaser trailer suggest the world premiere of this new Australian film involves something about a time-travelling freak of nature (played by Xavier Samuel) who experiences time backwards while remembering the future.

Look, we don’t claim to be crystal balls here, but it sounds nifty and new and something a little different so hopefully it was a good choice to kick off the festival. Featuring Rachel Ward, Matilda Brown, and with echoes of other films like The Infinite Man and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it’s sure to be a much-discussed festival title.

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Slack Bay (dir. Bruno Dumont)

Whatever adjective you throw at Bruno Dumont isn’t likely to stick very long since his films are so often wildly divergent from one another. In his latest, he has cast Juliette Binoche and Valerie Bruni Tedeschi (so excellent in Human Capital if you ever get the chance) in a high-farce slapstick beachside comedy.

Set in 1910 – so beautiful upstairs-downstairs costumes await if that’s your thing – Slack Bay thankfully isn’t as long as the last time he went absurd (the 206-minute P’tit Quinquin) but promises just as many laughs. There may even be some cannibalism, because what prestige French period film is complete without it?

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Kubo and the Two Strings (dir. Travis Knight)

MIFF’s offerings for youth audiences are always stellar and this year is no different, but the big gala presentation of the bunch is for this computer-animated adventure. Kubo and the Two Strings comes from the studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls (so, three of the best animated movies of the last decade) and features a voice-cast including Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, George Takei, and Rooney Mara.

The story of a young Samurai descendant finding the strength and the magic within (thanks to his two-stringed instrument, a shamisen) to do battle with an ancient spirit hell-bent on fulfilling a vendetta against him is sure to amaze youngsters as well as adults.

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Little Men (dir. Ira Sachs)

Ira Sachs’ last film, the delicately observational gay marriage drama Love is Strange, was such a wonderful work of art that anything this openly gay American filmmaker chose to do next would be anticipated. Word on the street is that his follow-up, Little Men, is just as great.

Starring Greg Kinnear, Alfred Molina, and Pauline Garcia, and featuring a star-making turn from newcomer Michael Barbieri (he has since been cast in Dark Tower and Spider-Man: Homecoming), this look at class and gentrification in modern New York is sure to speak to Melbourne audiences.

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Toni Erdmann (dir. Maren Ade)

It’s not too often that you get to recommend a nearly three-hour German comedy with hints of Mrs Doubtfire, and yet here we are. The overwhelming critical hit of the Cannes Film Festival (it ultimately didn’t win anything despite being the favourite to win the Palme d’Or) comes to MIFF alongside director Maren Ade’s first two films, Everyone Else and The Forest for the Trees.

Toni Erdmann is a screwball comedy about a divorced, middle-age music teacher who seeks to reconnect with his daughter by dressing up in disguise and performing a series of elaborate practical jokes on her – I guess it makes sense in context so don’t question it – and has been hailed a masterpiece of absurdity. Sure to be one of the most talked about films of the year.

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Everything is Copy (dir. Jacob Bernstein)

Yes, this documentary about the late Nora Ephron is directed by her own son so it often ventures far too close to fawning hagiography. However, that doesn’t stop it being as poetically and vividly entertaining as its subject. Ephron was the author of novels like Heartburn, the two-time Oscar nominated screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, and the director of You’ve Got Mail. She was also a newspaper columnist and a frequent talk-show guest, of which many clips are shown. So, yes, this film has plenty of wit.

Featuring cameos by many artists like Lena Dunham, Gaby Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon, Meg Ryan who were influenced by Ephron’s talent doing readings of her books and columns, and some touching glimpses into why she kept the illness that took her life a secret, Everything is Copy (the title comes from Ephron’s mantra in which everything is fodder for your work as a writer) is a slight step above the usual celebratory documentary.

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Helmut Berger, Actor (dir. Andreas Horvath)

Iconic Pink Flamingos and Serial Mom director John Waters put this film at no. 1 of his top ten of 2015 article in Artforum magazine. You would have been forgiven for having never heard of it. Nevertheless, just read what he said about and try to convince me it doesn’t sounds absolutely fascinating:

“Maybe the best motion picture of the year is also the worst? One-time dreamboat movie star and lover of Visconti, Helmut Berger, now seventy-one and sometimes looking like Marguerite Duras, rants and raves in his ramshackle apartment while the maid dishes the dirt about his sad life.”

Yes please.

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Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson)

So many more great documentaries at this year’s MIFF and I’m not even spotlighting the 190-minute ode to NYC’s most ethnically diverse suburb In Jackson Heights (dir. Frederick Wiseman), the energetic drag ball scene doc Kiki (dir. Sara Jordeno), and the inspirational racial and gender conquest of The Eagle Huntress (dir. Otto Bell).

I am most eager, however, for Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, which has been wowing critics at festivals since its Sundance premiere earlier this year. Johnson is a big name in contemporary documentary filmmaking having done the cinematography for movies as acclaimed (and beautiful) as Citizenfour, The Invisible War, Darfur Now, and This Film is Not Yet Rated and in her directorial debut she has assembled a travelling diary of sorts. A visual memoir filmed across the globe during production of other docs as Johnson finds herself immersed in some of the most dangerous regions of the world for the sake of art and truth. An untraditional autobiography done with a new and invigorating flare.

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The Family Fang (dir. Jason Bateman)

Nicole Kidman reportedly saw Arrested Development star Jason Bateman’s director debut, the foul-mouthed spelling bee comedy Bad Words, and requested he direct the feature adaptation of Kevin Wilson’s bestselling novel The Family Fang in which she was set to star. Bateman decided to take a role as Kidman’s sibling and the rest is history.

Appearing to be somewhat in the Wes Anderson realm of dysfunctional whimsy, The Family Fang follows the two children of famous performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang (played here by Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett). When Caleb and Camille go missing, the children believe it to be a hoax, but causes them to re-evaluate their lives under the unhinged humour of their artist parents.

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The Entire ‘Gaining Ground’ Retrospective

It was impossible to pick just one title from this six-film package of independent films directed by women in New York City of the 1970s and ‘80s. How could I not recommend Girlfriends (dir. Claudia Well) that has influenced the likes of Lena Dunham and Greta Gerwig? How could I not mention Losing Ground (dir. Kathleen Collins) which was considered lost before being restored and rightfully hailed a masterful work of African American cinema?

And what about Smithereens (dir. Susan Seidelman) with its destructive look at ‘80s punk on the down and dirty streets of NYC before its director went on to make Desperately Seeking Susan with Madonna, the queer classic Born in Flames (dir. Lizzie Borden), Sleepwalk (dir. Sara Driver) with its trance-like narrative, and A New Leaf (dir. Elaine May) that stars Walter Matthau and May herself in a tale of class excess. Other retrospectives include Jerry Lewis, the Escuela de Barcelona movement, and Setsuko Hara, but for me this is the one to not miss.

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Emo: The Musical (dir. Neil Triffett)

It’s a musical about emos and religious fanatics and it looks like it could be completely terrible, but it could also be sweet and amusing? We’ll see.

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The Melbourne International Film Festival runs from 28 July – 14 August. Check out the full program here. MIFF members can purchase tickets now, everyone else can do so from this Friday.