Written by Chris Swan
July 12, 2024
Must See Films at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival
The program for the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival is here!
Enjoy a taste of the extraordinary visions and cinematic surprises coming your way this August, with over 250 films from Australia and around the world screening at this year’s festival. With 26 films brought to you by Madman, here’s the full list of our films in the program. Tickets are on sale to the public Tuesday July 16.
The 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival will run in cinemas August 8 – 25.
Check out the full program HERE
Aquarius
The age of Aquarius floods into Nimbin in this radical, love-fuelled documentary exploring the lasting impact of a 1970s counterculture crucible, the 10-day Aquarius Festival.
Directed by Wendy Champagne.
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Architecton
Award-winning director Viktor Kossakovsky’s striking new documentary takes audiences on an extraordinary journey through the material that makes up our habitat: concrete and its ancestor, stone. ARCHITECTON raises a fundamental question: how do we inhabit the world of tomorrow?
Directed by Viktor Kossakovsky.
Copa '71
Told by the pioneering women who participated in it, and built from archives unseen for 50 years, COPA ’71 is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women’s Soccer World Cup, a tournament witnessed by record crowds that has been written out of history… until now.
Directed by Rachel Ramsay & James Erskine.
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Crossing
Lia, a retired teacher living in Georgia, made a promise to find her long lost niece Tekla. Together with Achi, who offers to be her guide, she sets off on a soul-searching pilgrimage searching for Tekla in the Istanbul trans community.
Directed by Levan Akın.
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Dig! XX
Revisit the film Dave Grohl described as “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll documentary of all time”, charting the mainstream success of The Dandy Warhols and the spiraling implosion of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
This classic tale of fame and destruction is revisited and reconstructed with 40 minutes of new material that brings fans up to date on the bands’ continued tug-of-war between art and commerce.
Directed by Ondi Timoner.
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Ellis Park
In 2020 famed musician Warren Ellis set up an animal sanctuary in Sumatra. His journey is beautifully depicted in the first documentary feature from acclaimed filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Nitram, Snowtown).
Directed by Justin Kurzel.
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Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
The new documentary from the director of I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck, follows Ernest Cole’s journey as the first Black freelance photographer working in apartheid South Africa. Featuring narration from Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield, Peck’s search for the soul of the overlooked artists is nestled in an international thriller, delving into the complexities of race through this timeless imagery.
Directed by Raoul Peck.
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Flow
A cat escapes a flood that destroyed the world on a boat filled with other animals (a dog, a capibara, a stork and a curious lemur). These unlikely companions must work together to survive their new environment in Gints Zilbalodis’s new award winning animated feature.
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis.
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In Vitro
A disturbing secret threatens a couple’s relationship in this Australian made, rural-set tense sci-fi thriller starring Succession’s Ashley Zukerman.
Directed by Tom McKeith & Will Howarth.
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Kid Snow
Deeply connected to Australian folklore and centred on the titular tent boxer, this stunningly shot, epic drama features groundbreaking performances in the new film from acclaimed director Paul Goldman.
Directed by Paul Goldman.
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Kneecap
There are 80,000 native Irish speakers in Ireland. 6,000 live in the North of Ireland. Three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This anarchic Belfast trio becomes the unlikely figurehead of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
Directed by Rich Peppiatt.
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Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger
Martin Scorsese guides us through this very personal and insightful new feature-length documentary about legendary British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus).
Directed by David Hinton.
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Megalopolis
Adam Driver leads an all-star cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s ambitious passion project charting the decline of a mythic civilisation, but one with obvious contemporary parallels. Presented in one special screening at IMAX, a screen big enough to contain Coppola’s vision.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
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Memoir of a Snail
This exquisitely hand-crafted stop-motion wonder from Oscar winning filmmaker Adam Elliot is an affecting coming-of-age tale like no other. Sarah Snook lends her voice alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver in the stunning, award winning claymation feature.
Directed by Adam Elliot.
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Menus Plaisirs - Les Troigros
Frederick Wiseman’s 44th feature documentary turns the lens on the kitchens of a Michelin three-star French restaurant and the family that runs it.
Directed by Frederick Wiseman.
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Occupied City
The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what’s to come.
Directed by Steve McQueen.
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Queens of Concrete
Filmed over seven years, this coming-of-age documentary follows three young female skateboarders on their journey to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Directed by Eliza Cox.
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September Says
When September is suspended from their school, her sister July begins to assert her own independence. Tension in the family builds as a series of surreal encounters test them all to their limit in Ariane Labed’s tense and enthralling debut feature.
Directed by Ariane Labed.
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Sing Sing
Divine G (Oscar nominee Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group with other incarcerated men in this stirring true story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art, starring an unforgettable ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors.
Directed by Greg Kwedar.
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Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat
In 1960, United Nations: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe denouncing America’s colour bar, while the U.S. dispatches jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the Congo to deflect attention from its first African post-colonial coup.
Directed by Johan Grimonprez.
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Teaches of Peaches
Class is in session! Celebrate the world of gender-punk icon Peaches in this audacious new documentary that takes viewers to the heart of why the singer’s raunchy, feminist flamboyance has endured and influenced culture.
Directed by Philipp Fussenegger & Judy Landkammer.
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The Substance
Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You, only better in every way. You should try this new product, it’s called The Substance. IT CHANGED MY LIFE. Demi Moore stars alongside Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid in this Cannes award-winner that is sure to be the most talked about film of the festival!
Directed by Coarlie Fargeat.
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We Were Dangerous
Nellie and Daisy attempt to escape the institution for delinquent girls in 1954 New Zealand, however not only are they caught, it triggers a relocation to a facility on a remote island. The duo become a trio as well-to-do Lou joins them, and life on the island takes shape under the command of devout Matron.
The trio rail against the system, dubious of the benevolence of the bible and taking refuge in their blossoming friendship. It’s hard to reform girls who don’t believe they need reforming.
Directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu.
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Wilding
Knepp is a beacon of hope for England’s wildlife. When Isabella and her husband inherited the estate to farm, they recognised how sick the land was. But a groundbreaking radical experiment has been nothing short of transformative. This is a charming, hopeful and necessary story of ecological regeneration.
Directed by David Allen.
Book ticketsWith 250+ films screening across Melbourne over two and a half week, there’s a world of cinematic wonders available to move-lovers of all types. Discover your new favourite film at the Melbourne International Film Festival 8-25 August 2024.
