Our Top 13 Picks From The Melbourne International Film Festival Program

Today was a great and glorious day for film-loving Melbournians. Not only did we get the full announcement of the Melbourne International Film Festival; we got to shove it in Sydney’s face. This morning MIFF dropped their largest-ever program featuring a whopping 370 titles — which is 100 more than the Sydney Film Festival last month. Not that we’re counting.

Having already trawled through the whole damn thing, here are our picks of the best places to hide out from July 30 — August 16:

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Mistress America, dir Noah Baumbach

Mumblecore icon Noah Baumbach has already done the impossible this year, by making us enjoy a film in which Ben Stiller wears a fedora — and now he’s going back to his roots. Teaming up again with Frances Ha collaborator and real-life partner Greta Gerwig, Baumbach returns to explore the lives of young, quirky and slightly confused women in New York City.

As the pair’s second writing collaboration, Mistress America almost looks like a sequel or a satire of their first. The lead character played by Gerwig is a Frances from a slightly alternate universe: a purposely frustrating goofball who drifts through life much more confident than her predecessor, with much less justification to be so.

For fans of: Frances Ha, Woody Allen, pretending you’re in New York.

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Holding The Man, dir. Neil Armfield

This film has literally decades of hype. Stemming from Timothy Conigrave’s groundbreaking memoir of his 1970s romance with his high school sweetheart-cum-longterm partner John Calleo, the story has since become a critically-acclaimed theatrical work, and gained worldwide notoriety.

Getting its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival last month, the first filmic adaptation looks to do the story justice. With a masterful screenplay from the writer behind the stage show Tommy Murphy, and affecting performances from Ryan Corr and Craig Stott, the film was described by our reviewer as “a masterpiece of performance, writing and direction [that you won’t] shake for a week.”

For fans of: Love stories, queer rights, sobbing with reckless abandon.

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The Overnight, dir. Patrick Brice

Adam Scott. Taylor Schilling. Jason Schwartzman. Judith Godrèche. An 80-minute sex party. Full-frontal. This film sells itself.

Though only the second feature film for its director Patrick Brice, The Overnight has been met with much excitement and overall positive reviews from the US festival circuit. Most headlines may have focused on its use of prosthetic penises (sorry, I guess it’s not full frontal), but with the Duplass brothers behind it as executive producers, the film also seems to have a welcome depth, promising an uproariously funny indie gem that delivers a bold and offbeat look at sex, upper-middle-class romance and the dwindling taboo of kink.

It’s essentially what Roman Polanski’s Carnage would have been if Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reily and Julianne Moore had just given in to all that delicious sexual tension.

For fans of: Celebrity crushes, sex, tiny plastic penises.

Bonus stuff: If you’re still after more Jason Schwartzman, MIFF will also be screening 7 Chinese Brothers — a film we previewed from SXSW in which he literally just hangs out with his dog.

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Another Country, dir. Molly Reynolds

The third instalment of the Country suite (Still Our Country — Reflections on A Culture and Charlie’s Country), Another Country sees critically-acclaimed actor and Indigenous rights activist David Gulpilil return to take us on a journey of contemporary Indigenous Australia.

Exploring Gulpilil’s own community of Ramingining in the Northern Territory, the film offers a necessary first-hand account of the so-called “lifestyle choices” of those in the area, and the various clashes of culture still present in our nation today. At the festival program launch it was described as “a film every Australian needs to see”, and with conflicts continuing on the issues discussed therein, that seems to be pretty damn accurate.

For fans of: Indigenous rights, David Gulpilil, feeling slightly more distraught about #Auspol than usual.

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Nasty Baby, dir. Sebastián Silva

Starring Kristen Wiig and Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio, this strange and intriguing film focusses on a gay couple (played by Adebimpe and the director himself) and their journey to parenthood with their best friend. Far from the expected surrogate situation, they instead have a three-way family dynamic and capitalise on their experiences in an eponymous art project.

Yes, it’s set in Brooklyn.

Though the drama’s been heralded as a fresh and stimulating examination of parenthood, and took out the award for Best Queer Film at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, an unexpected twist apparently takes thing in a pretty dark direction. Indiewire claim it “challenges notions of violence, morality [and] innocence” so… y’know, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For fans of: Unconventional families, Kristen Wiig being serious, guessing all the twists to annoy your friends.

Bonus stuff: The film will be part of a larger retrospective of films from Sebastián Silva, including Crystal Fairy and the Magic Cactus: a film in which Michael Cera goes on a quest for a mythical cactus. Silva will be a guest of the festival if you happen to have any questions about that.

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The End Of The Tour, dir. James Ponsoldt

With the weight of the beloved author’s fresh legacy placed squarely on his shoulders, Jason Segel breaks through with what appears to be a charming and spot-on portrayal of David Foster Wallace. Based on a memoir recounting DFW’s shared book tour with journalist David Lipsky, this is likely one you’ve already had pencilled in for the past year or so.

For fans of: David Foster Wallace, great American road trips, films where Jason Segel doesn’t show you his penis.

Bonus stuff: To coincide with the film, the Wheeler Centre will be hosting a panel discussing portrayals of the author in popular culture. Our editor Steph Harmon will be speaking on it and it’s free, so you should go say hi.

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Gayby Baby, dir. Maya Newell

With arguments against marriage equality still being inconveniently shotputted to us by conservative politicians, Maya Newell’s crowdfunded documentary is still as relevant as ever. Debunking the oft-cited myth that children of same-sex parents are disadvantaged in some way, Newell takes a first-hand look at the families themselves, to wonderful effect.

After its premiere in Sydney last month, our reviewer declared it a film to “make you un-hate Australia”, a sentiment which seems more relevant than ever. “Gayby is destined to succeed as a social conscience film of this very moment in political time, and as a strong contemporary piece of documentary filmmaking in and of itself,” she wrote. Read the whole thing here.

For fans of: Social justice, artful docos, conversations with children who have massive emotional intelligence quotients.

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The Wolfpack, dir. Crystal Moselle

An incredibly surreal documentary, The Wolfpack follow the lives of six brothers homeschooled and confined to their small New York apartment by their controlling father. Over more than four years, director Crystal Moselle explores their strange behaviours and relationships largely informed by their love of and dependence on film and fantasy.

From rave reviews in the US, it looks to be one of those films that will lurk around your mind for weeks.

For fans of: Shocking docos, fandom itself, alternate realities in all their many forms.

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The Lobster, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

This dark and very dry satire takes on romance and loneliness in an absurd world where single people are herded into remote hotels to meet their mate. If they fail to do so in 45 days, they’re literally turned into an animal of their choosing and hunted in the woods.

I mean, holy shit. How much do you want to see this film? With an A-grade cast including John C. Reily, Colin Farrell and Ben Whishaw, it’s getting loads of love overseas and has already taken out the Cannes Jury Prize.

For fans of: Dark comedy, surrealism, Colin Farrell absolutely losing his mind.

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Sleeping With Other People, dir. Leslye Headland

Okay, it may not be as unique or divisive as other films on the program. Yeah, it might be a little corny and predictable. But at the tail-end of a festival stacked with important documentaries and heavy dramatic fare, the thought of Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis flirting for 95 minutes is gonna sound pretty good.

For fans of: Rom-coms, sexy times, Jason Sudeikis incessantly smirking.

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Racing Extinction, dir. Louie Psihoyos

Following on from his seminal 2009 doco The Cove, the Academy Award-winning Louie Psihoyos is back with another tale of environmental hardship. Broadening the scope from just dolphins to ALL OF THE ANIMALS, Racing Extinction is to biodiversity what An Inconvenient Truth was to climate change.

But as it explores illegal trade, carbon emissions, and humanity’s general shittiness towards the entire animal kingdom, I can’t say it’ll leave you feeling great about yourself.

For fans of: Environmentalism, stunning photojournalism, not murdering adorable animals.

Bonus stuff: If you’re a fan of hard-hitting docos, Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act Of Killing) will also be at the festival speaking about his latest film The Look Of Silence. A sequel to the former, its focus on Indonesian genocide isn’t really gonna brighten your day either.

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The Daughter, dir. Simon Stone

In his very first time behind the camera, respected Australian theatre-maker Simon Stone is tackling a modern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, a text he originally re-worked for Belvoir Theatre in 2011. A dysfunctional family drama centred around a teenage girl, The Daughter explores the boundaries between childhood and adulthood, and all the moral and emotional complexities therein.

As per any of Simon Stone’s productions, it’s stacked with impressive local creatives too: Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush and Miranda Otto all deliver predictably solid performances

For fans of: Australian theatre, Simon Stone, stalking Geoffrey Rush (he is the loved and revered God of all that is MIFF; he’ll be there).

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Heaven Knows What, dir. Josh and Benny Safdie

An assault on all your senses, this intense story of love and drug addiction in a dystopian vision of the Upper West Side is also a totally true story. Former heroin addict Arielle Holmes wrote the screenplay true to her own experiences, and stars in the lead role as a fictionalised version of herself.

The New Yorker has recently deemed it “a masterwork of geographical cinema” but it also looks a bit like all the most horrific moments of Requiem for a Dream stitched together ad infinitum.

For fans of: Irrevocable emotional suffering.

Bonus stuff: This is part of a three-part retrospective of the work of the Safdie brothers. Enjoy!

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The Melbourne International Film Festival is on from July 30 – August 16. MIFF passes are on sale now, but general tickets will be available from July 10. Check out the full program here.