Melbourne International Film Festival 2024, Echuca Paramount
Melbourne International Film Festival 2024
Bringing the Melbourne International Film Festival 2024 to Echuca!
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When??
August 16-18, 2024
Sarah Snook lends her voice alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver in the stunning second claymation feature from Oscar winner Adam Elliot, which won Annecy’s Cristal Award for Best Feature Film.
Her life may be a mess, but Grace Pudel (Snook, Succession; Predestination, MIFF 2014) does derive pleasure from three things: her snail collection, romance novels and her guinea pigs. As children, she and twin brother Gilbert (Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog; Slow West) eked out a modest existence with their paraplegic father, a has-been performer gripped by alcoholism and grief after their mother’s death. When he, too, passes away, the siblings are split up by child services: Grace is sent to Canberra, and Gilbert, to Perth. Isolated and depressed, Grace retreats behind a carapace – much like her snails – and fills her emotional void through compulsive hoarding. That is, until she finds a fourth source of joy: a friendship with outrageous octogenarian Pinky (Weaver, Animal Kingdom; Silver Linings Playbook).
This exquisitely hand-crafted stop-motion wonder from the auteur behind the multi-awarded feature Mary and Max, Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet (MIFF 2003) and AFI-lauded short Ernie Biscuit (MIFF 2015) is an affecting coming-of-age tale like no other. As it traces one downtrodden young woman’s journey to overcome loss and embrace herself, this bittersweet yet uplifting film also unfolds as a family saga across 1970s Australia on an intimate scale. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Memoir of a Snail is an indelible reminder that while the turmoil of life may force us into our shells, all it takes is a little bravery to break free.
“Elliot is a master of the art of gallows humour, and this appealing ‘clayography’ is as hilarious as it is heart-wrenching … A tale of a woman who refuses to be defeated by misfortune.” – Screen Daily
Thelma (CTC)
A 93-year-old grandma’s mission – and, yes, she chooses to accept it – is to reclaim her money from scammers by any means necessary in this delightful crowd-pleaser.
Thelma Post is stubbornly living alone in Los Angeles two years after her husband’s death. She dotes on her slacker grandson Danny, which is how an anonymous phone scammer dupes her into mailing $10,000 cash to “pay Danny’s bail”. When her well-meaning daughter and son-in-law suggest it’s time for assisted living, Thelma vows to get her money back – not just because it’s right, but to prove she still can. First, she’ll need a partner and a getaway vehicle – so Thelma breaks her old friend Ben, and his tandem electric scooter, out of his nursing home.
Improv-comedy veteran Josh Margolin wrote his feature directorial debut as a revenge fantasy after his own grandmother was targeted by fraudsters. The result is a long-overdue showcase for the impish talents of Oscar nominee June Squibb (Nebraska), who, at 94, does her own stunts alongside Blaxploitation legend Richard Roundtree (Shaft himself, in his final role). With Parker Posey and Malcolm MacDowell rounding out its cast, Thelma is a rollicking action-movie parody full of low-key delights: a hearing aid becomes a spy earpiece; an ‘elite’ hacking scene sees Thelma puzzling over a banking website. Throughout, Margolin deftly crafts a film that refuses to patronise older people, delivering an ode to lifelong dignity and determination that’s both defiant and raucous.
“Clever and affectionate … A lovely endeavor from beginning to end: I dare you not to smile.” – Film Inquiry
Audrey (CTC)
In this brutally hilarious black comedy, an Aussie teen’s coma is her family’s time to shine.
Eighteen years ago, Ronnie Lipsick was poised for acting success … until her daughter Audrey came along. Ronnie has lavished years – and the family’s finances – on moulding the boisterous, petulant teenager into the star she almost was, ignoring her sexually frustrated husband Cormack and her younger daughter Norah’s interest in wheelchair fencing. When Audrey has the absolute gall to fall into a coma, Ronnie decides to impersonate her, stepping in to all of Audrey’s auditions and acting classes. Meanwhile, Cormack embraces his tastes for religious-themed kink, and Norah finally gets her sport rolling (while also cosying up to Audrey’s boyfriend). It's amazing what the Lipsicks can achieve with their disagreeable golden child out of the way!
Penned by multi-award-winning screenwriter Lou Sanz, the feature debut from director Natalie Bailey (Retrograde; The Thick of It), which world-premiered at SXSW, is a deliciously dark comedy about a dysfunctional family trapped in the web of lies they’ve woven to fabricate happiness. As Ronnie, Kiwi funny-woman Jackie van Beek (Nude Tuesday; The Breaker Upperers) leads a game cast who embrace the deviousness of this satire about the clash between obligation and self-actualisation, and how opportunity can be mined from misfortune. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Audrey audaciously dramatises the lengths some are willing to go to follow their dreams.
MIFF - Australian Shorts Package (CTC)
Impassioned narratives from this continent’s best.
Including a claustrophobic mood piece starring Sean Keenan (Nitram, MIFF 2021), affecting short-form portraits of the Chinese-Australian and Turkish-Australian communities, and a study of the familial cycle of toxic masculinity.
Films in this package:
Analog Medium (dir. Tom Campbell)
Oi (dir. Sophie Serisier)
A Thousand Odd Days (dir. Riley Blakeway)
Withered Blossoms (dir. Lionel Seah)
Yakka (dir. Jack Shepherd)
You Are My Tomorrow (dir. Lara Köse)
Left Write Hook (CTC)
For eight survivors of childhood sexual abuse, a groundbreaking program that combines boxing and creative writing turns into a journey of recovery, transformation and friendship.
“Feel it, express it, heal it.” For the regulars of Mischa’s Boxing Central, the weekly pilgrimage to the gym for the experimental Left Write Hook program goes beyond simply strengthening the body. Guided by coach and academic Donna Lyon, participants Nikki, Dove, Pixie, Gabrielle, Claire, Julie and Lauren learn not just to box but also to recast the darkest chapters of their pasts into poetry, a powerfully cathartic exercise in reclaiming their life narratives. What begins as an eight-week commitment expands into a relationship of 18 months as the women deepen their bonds and decide to present their work to the wider world – ultimately in hopes of puncturing the shroud of silence and shame, and reassuring others like them that they’re not alone.
Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Shannon Owen’s intimate observational documentary invites viewers to sit among the women and listen to their stories, pulling no punches as they let their guards down in the spirit of radical acceptance and creative vulnerability. Affirming the now-established knowledge that trauma resides in both memory and muscle, Left Write Hook is a moving account of wounded individuals overcoming their troubled pasts, as well as of the healing that survivors can derive from solidarity and fearless storytelling.
August 23-25, 2024
Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Annie Baker’s debut film is a sublime mother–daughter coming-of-age tale that pays extraordinary attention to the ordinary.
It’s 1991 and 11-year-old Lacy is determined to escape camp, where she’s convinced her bunkmates don’t like her, and instead spend as much time with her mother as possible. A charismatic, forthright acupuncturist and single parent living in the woods of Massachusetts, Janet loves her daughter but finds her clinginess increasingly burdensome.
Over the course of the summer, as Janet connects and reconnects with other adults – a boyfriend, an old friend, a new friend of sorts – Lacy’s vivid imagination helps her come to terms with her mother’s and her own impending womanhood.
Drawing comparisons to Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, MIFF 2020) and Celine Song (Past Lives, MIFF 2023), Baker has written an immaculately nuanced script and directs with an equally intimate, restrained touch. Collaborating with cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff, who shoots on 16mm, the acclaimed playwright turned filmmaker imbues her debut with a warm nostalgia that bathes Julianne Nicholson’s Janet and newcomer Zoe Ziegler’s Lacy in an almost surreal haze. Beautifully poignant, gently hilarious and always charming, Janet Planet is a certain marvel.
“A magical and assured drama that announces the Pulitzer Prize winner as a filmmaking talent as well as a literary one … Not just one of the great films of its year, but one of the finest first films in the annals of the medium.” – Little White Lies
Magic Beach (CTC)
Ten animators bring Alison Lester’s beloved children’s book to the screen, crafting a magical mixture of live action and animation that is destined to become a family favourite.
As children hear the enchanting words of Lester’s illustrated classic Magic Beach, they slip into spellbinding worlds of dream and whimsy. Now translated into animated form – covering traditional 2D, claymation, stop-motion and more – it can captivate a whole new generation of youngsters while evoking wonder in the already-familiar. From a host of undersea adventures, tall tales of salty smugglers and escalating sandcastle wars, to sibling-stealing seaweed monsters, psychedelic coral forests and a dog’s dream of shoals of ‘sausage fish’, everyone will find their own fantastical adventure within.
First published in 1990, Lester’s rhyming shrine to imaginative play has found its way into the hearts of countless Australians, from wide-eyed kids to the parents who’ve read it at bedtime more times than they can remember. To adapt it for the screen, Robert Connolly (Paper Planes, MIFF 2014; Balibo, MIFF 2009) enlisted 10 of Australia’s most talented animators – Susan Danta, Pierce Davison, Jake Duczynski, Emma Kelly, Simon Rippingale, Marieka Walsh, Eddie White, Lee Whitmore, Kathy Sarpi and Oscar nominee Anthony Lucas – to render a host of incredible, wildly diverse environments. Delivering an incandescent take on a revered Aussie work, the MIFF Premiere Fund–supported Magic Beach is a film of widescreen delight.
Copa 71 (CTC)
Think the global surge in interest in women’s football is a relatively recent occurrence? This eye-opening documentary asks you to think again.
Millions of Australians cheered on the Matildas during the 2023 Women’s World Cup, with two billion people worldwide tuning in to the FIFA-run contest that ultimately saw Spain victorious. For many, the proof that there’s a huge audience and widespread respect for the game, regardless of players’ gender, is a recent triumph over ingrained sexism. But did you know that there was an unofficial Women’s World Cup tournament held in Mexico way back in 1971? An equally mammoth success, it captured hearts and minds worldwide, introducing fans to new heroes. And then FIFA swung in to shut it down, erasing their glory from the record.
Executive-produced by Venus and Serena Williams – the latter of whom also acts as narrator – this invigorating documentary features not just the women who competed there (such as Carol Wilson) but also their successors today (including Brandi Chastain and Alex Morgan), writing their voices back into history. Packed with incredible archival footage, Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine’s vibrant account of a pioneering event celebrates an inclusive soccer world way ahead of its time and exposes the misogynistic forces that attempted to block it.
“A timely and galvanising telling of a remarkable story that every football fan should know, and one that will hopefully go some way towards ensuring that Copa 71 finds its way into the sport’s history books.” – Time Out
Two men in rural Queensland search for solace in spirituality in this cinematic blend of documentary and fiction.
Now in his 70s, country bloke Cass Cumerford returns to his hometown of Bundaberg seeking enlightenment. Having weathered a life of drugs, tragedy and, now, an illness, he follows his intrigue to evangelical Christians. Meanwhile, when Andrew Wong isn’t fronting his late father’s iconic fish-and-chip shop – the same one that allowed his family to send him and his sisters to school – he’s working out and musing on Buddhism in his own pursuit of meaning.
Executive-produced by Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hail, MIFF 2012; Bastardy, MIFF 2008), Jaydon Martin’s directorial feature debut scooped a Special Jury Award as part of Rotterdam’s Tiger Competition. Shot in an alluringly cinematic black-and-white, this intimate portrait blurs narrative and nonfiction to memorialise a working-class community and their dealings with loss, masculinity and faith. With its spirited insights into humanity and solidarity, Flathead is at once contemplative and compassionate.
“Absorbing, moving and visually beautiful … The film’s poetry resides in … its vernacular spirituality and its gentleness.” – The Guardian
Three Australian girls seek the ultimate success in the world of competitive skateboarding while sliding into adolescence without handrails.
It’s 2016, and talented young skateboarders Hayley, Ava and Charlotte – aged 14, 13 and nine, respectively – have their sights set on one goal: to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. But this is no mere half-pipedream. Already nationally recognised as being among the best competitors in their age groups, they’re buoyed by the news that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be the first ever to feature competitive skateboarding – a sport where the usual rules of gravity don’t seem to apply, and where there’s no safety net to break your fall.
Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Queens of Concrete charts the trio’s highs and lows as they face the immense physical and emotional demands of daily training regimens, fraught relationships with coaches, and intensive preparations for high-stakes events. Shot over seven years, including the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Eliza Cox’s coming-of-age documentary provides a gripping and at times devastating look into the challenges these girls must endure while navigating the complexities of growing up. The successes and setbacks that Hayley, Ava and Charlotte encounter along the way may place their dreams in jeopardy, but they might also just help these bright sparks discover who they are and what they want from life.