Here’s A First Glance At The 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival Program
Including Louis Theroux's Scientology doco, secret "endurance tickling" communities and a nude Tom Hiddleston!
It’s that time of year when the Melbourne International Film Festival gives us a tiny taste of their upcoming program, drip feeding you the highlights so you can avoid the last minute “Oh god, what do I go and see?!” group text when the full program is released.
This year MIFF has announced a new ‘Headliners’ category which will include “a selection of striking works from gifted filmmakers with star studded casts and standout performances” and a specially curated virtual reality program, in which punters will be able to actually strap on a VR helmet and… well, do something. Whatever it is, it sounds exciting!
A handful of films from the 2016 program have been announced today, so here’s a selection of the one’s we’re already jazzed about (note: not all tickets have gone on sale yet, so keep this list handy in a couple of weeks):
Down Under
Director: Abe Forsythe
Plot: A black comedy set just after the 2005 Cronulla Riots, this is a “story of two carloads of hotheads from both sides of the fight destined to collide”. Down Under is the Centerpiece Gala and is bound to be the talk of the festival (so don’t miss out on the Twitter conversation, yo!).
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Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie
Director: John Dower
Plot: Journalist Louis Theroux is unable to get access to the Church of Scientology, so he does the next best thing: hires actors to play influential Scientologists such as Tom Cruise and leader David Miscavige and stages re-enactments of events in the church’s history with the help of former second-in-command, Mark “Marty” Rathbun.
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High-Rise
Director: Ben Wheatley
Plot: Billed as a “grown up Lord of the Flies” this adaptation of JG Ballard’s 1975 classic book stars Tom Hiddleston as Dr Robert Laing, a physiologist who moves into a sleek apartment block that soon descends into class war. Sounds weird, but in a great way!
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The Family
Director: Rosie Jones
Plot: An investigation into ‘The Family’ one of the most notorious cults in Melbourne during the 1960s and ’70s. Led by the charismatic criminal Anne Hamilton-Byrne, Bryne convinced her followers that she was a living god.
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Kate Plays Christine
Director: Robert Greene
Plot: In 1974, television reporter Christine Chubbuck took her own life during a live news broadcast, becoming the first person in history to commit suicide on air. In Kate Plays Christine actor Kate Lyn Sheil prepares to play the part of the troubled journalist in a version of her story — basically, it’s documentary about an actor trying to play a role simply so we may better understand the mysterious person she’s emulating.
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In Jackson Heights
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Plot: A documentary about the creeping threat of gentrification in Jackson Heights, Queens, one of the most culturally diverse neighbourhoods not only in New York, but the entire world.
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Zero Days
Director: Alex Gibney
Plot: A documentary about the Stuxnet virus, which in 2010 disabled enrichment centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant and eventually infected the Bank of America. This led to the corruption of systems all over the world. Be too afraid to ever use a computer again!
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Tickled
Director: David Farrier and Dylan Reeve
Plot: Journalist David Farrier discovers a community of “competitive endurance tickling”, but as soon as Farrier begins to look into this world, he receives intimidating responses and legal threats. This seems like a very strange documentary and I’m already obsessed with it.
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Weiner
Director: Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg
Plot: Remember that American congressman Anthony Weiner who was caught sexting nudes to multiple women? Well, this is a documentary about him. Don’t bring your mum.
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You can check out the Melbourne International Film Festival program here. The full program will be announced on Tuesday 5 July with public tickets on sale Friday 8 July.