Explore: Experimental
Abiding Nowhere
Tsai Ming-liang continues his meditative, monastic Walking series with another hypnotic shrine to seeking transcendence in a chaotic world.
Break No.1 & Break No.2
A thrillingly bold montage of still images and video work that pays tribute to memory and time.
Daphne was a torso ending in leaves
Winner of the KNF Award at Rotterdam, a playful and richly cinematic ode to the mythological Greek nymph.
Dream Team
If you think you’ve seen enough crime dramas that you can predict every twist, think again. This trippy investigation will keep you second-guessing.
East of Noon
This dreamlike tale of youth and resistance set in a surreal modern-day Egypt is also a stirringly beautiful ode to creative expression.
Experimental Shorts
Unconventional cinema that tests the boundaries of form and function.
Film About a Woman Who...
Hailed as her masterpiece, Yvonne Rainer’s second feature explores the nature of artifice via a coolly simmering woman in a subpar relationship.
Fulldome Showcase 1
MIFF’s popular annual program of fulldome screenings at the Melbourne Planetarium returns for the 2024 festival.
Fulldome Showcase 2
MIFF’s popular annual program of fulldome screenings at the Melbourne Planetarium returns for the 2024 festival.
Grandmamauntsistercat
Winner of the Berlinale’s Teddy Award for Best Short Film, this story of a matriarchal family repurposes archival footage from communist Poland.
Histoires d'Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy
Chantal Akerman’s newly restored portrait embraces Jewish New York, from trauma and resilience to generous helpings of Borscht Belt jokes.
Hito
A schoolgirl discovers the catfish she bought for dinner is a talking sentient bioweapon.
The Hyperboreans
Showcased in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Beau Is Afraid’s breakout animators turn Chile’s Neo-Nazi history into a nightmarish stop-motion meta-movie.
International Shorts 1
An awarded and acclaimed cornucopia from directors known and new.
International Shorts 2
Remarkable short-form favourites from Cannes, Berlin, Tribeca and more.
It follows It passes on
Postwar memories of the Taiwanese Kinmen Islands are seen as if through broken glass, summoned by way of incense, ceramics, sand, light and shadows.
The Land at Night
An eerie trip across the landscape takes a dark turn into Australian Gothic.
Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke
A hypnotic interplay between footage of fireworks shot during a Japanese summer festival.
Lives of Performers
The genre-defying debut feature of legendary choreographer Yvonne Rainer, which heralded an experimental new cinematic voice.
Man number 4
Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photo on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.
The Man Who Envied Women
An acerbic, whip-smart account of a womanising professor at the breaking point of his marriage to a fed-up artist.
MURDER and murder
Winner of the Berlinale’s 1997 Teddy Award for Best Documentary/Essay, Yvonne Rainer’s final feature is also her most personal and playful.
Nothing but Shadows
A superstitious widow confronts her mortality after human remains are discovered at her neighbour’s house.
Pepe
The strange, tragic tale of the ‘cocaine hippo’ once owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar – narrated by the ghost of the beast himself.
Privilege
In her idiosyncratically anarchic style, Yvonne Rainer tackles menopause, race and class with memoir, humour and the voices of many women.
Remains of the Hot Day
The Berlinale’s Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film) winner is a shrine to fading memories from the director’s own childhood.
Rhythm
The movement of a train arriving at Tehran’s central station is edited in sync with a maestro percussionist’s mesmerising use of the zarb.
Single File
Time collides and collapses in this kaleidoscopic reflection on change in Hong Kong.
Slow Shift
Monkeys overrun the remains of an ancient civilisation in this rich reflection on myth and reality.
Stephen Cummins Retrospective
A crucial chapter in Australia’s queer history is brought to light in this National Film and Sound Archive restoration of Stephen Cummins’s films.
Taiwan With a Twist
Two XR works – one portraying the trap of greener pastures, the other framing the body as landscape – present novel takes on the here-and-now.
Us and the Night
Ten years in the making and shot on transcendent 16mm, this is an unconventional love story for every book-loving introvert.
You Burn Me
This phantasmagoric experimental drama puts Ancient Greek poet Sappho in conversation with the nymph Britomartis.