As a result of the current COVID situation in Melbourne, the team at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) have decided to cancel the in-cinema component of this year’s event.
Despite this, the festival will continue the delivery of the MIFF Play programme – the festival’s streaming platform. It has been beaming into living rooms across the country since last Thursday (5 August).
“MIFF’s heart was in a return to cinemas this year, and this is a goal that we have pursued with determination to this point. It is with deep sadness and profound frustration that we must take the step of cancelling our Melbourne cinema-based screenings for 2021.
“From the outset of a volatile year, we designed the festival to be scalable and adaptable — a festival that could change with these uncertain times to meet audiences where they are,” MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar says.
'Rehana Maryam Noor'
“Despite the duress of this moment, we are proud that elements of our programme can still continue; that our commitment to regional audiences will be fulfilled through the delivery of in-cinema programming across Victoria; through our XR platform, global audiences anywhere can continue their season of MIFF’s exciting range of immersive experiences; and, centrally, through MIFF Play we can continue to deliver the very best Australian and international films to audiences not just in Melbourne but right around the country, at a time that it’s most needed.”
A further 30 plus films have been added to the MIFF Play programme, which will now feature close to 100 films. This includes direct-from-Cannes titles like ‘The Hill Where Lionesses Roar’, ‘La Civil’, ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ and ‘Babi Yar. Context’.
Additional MIFF Play Titles
AblazeAll Light, Everywhere
Black Audio Film Collective
Center Stage
Chef Antonio’s Recipes for Revolution
Dear Comrades!
Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions
Disobedient Muses: Jackie Raynal, Les Insoumuses and Barbara Cleveland
Faya Dayi
Gaza Mon Amour Hopper/Welles
I Was a Simple Man La Civil
Little Tornadoes New Order
Night of the Kings Notturno
Paper City
Playlist
Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time Psychomania
Queen of Glory
Rehana Maryam Noor
Riders of Justice
Sanrizuka – Peasants of the Second Fortress
Stray
Sun Children
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World
The Night
The Nowhere Inn
The Wasteland
Wojnarowicz
Wolf Children
Word Is Out: Stories Of Some Of Our Lives
Yugantar Film Collective
MIFF Play will be available nationwide until 22 August. MIFF XR will be available globally until 22 August.
