by James Fletcher
After Sydney Film Festival recently announced a date shift to November, the current Covid-19 situation in Australia has taken another festival scalp with Melbourne International Film Festival announcing the cancellation of all in-cinema screenings in the city of Melbourne.
Initially set to take place August 5 – 22, The MIFF Board and Management Team have made the difficult decision with the safety of audiences and staff at the forefront of their thinking. This follows last year’s film festival also being entirely virtual.
On the decision to cancel the 2021 Melbourne in-cinema experience, MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar said: “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. Despite the duress of this moment, we are proud that elements of our program 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.”
And while the resolution to cancel all in-cinema screenings is a hard blow to one of Australia’s most celebrated film festivals, cinephiles across Australia will benefit from an additional 30+ films which have been added to the MIFF Play program, the Festival’s online screening portal, which will now feature close to 100 films, including four direct-from-Cannes-titles — The Hill Where Lionesses Roar, La Civil, Rehana Maryam Noor and Babi Yar. Context — alongside Premiere Fund titles Ablaze, Chef Antonio’s Recipes for Revolution, Little Tornadoes and Paper City; and international highlights Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Venice, TIFF), Night of the Kings, Hopper/Welles, Riders of Justice starring Mads Mikkelsen, The Nowhere Inn featuring Carrie Brownstein and St Vincent, Sun Children and Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades!
MIFF Play will be available nationwide until August 22. For more information on the MIFF Play Program, including the new additions and tickets go to miff.com.au
