By Travis Johnson
Five features will have their world premieres at the 67th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), this August, thanks to support from the MIFF Premiere Fund.
Having celebrated its 10th birthday in 2017, the Fund, which offers minority co-financing to new Australian quality theatrical (narrative and documentary) feature films that then premiere at MIFF, has invested in more than 60 projects including this latest salvo of five.
“The Premiere Fund champions stories that need telling and we are so proud of this year’s slate of wonderfully diverse and inclusive world premieres,” said MIFF Premiere Fund Executive Producer Mark Woods. “As the Premiere Fund enters its second decade, we take our hats off to the talented filmmakers that we have the privilege of working with and we look forward to the Fund continuing to play its part in supporting quality new Australian cinema.”
The five films are:
The Coming Back Out Ball Movie
From director Sue Thomson comes this year’s Closing Night movie. The Coming Back Out Ball Movie captures the stories of the glittering October 2017 Coming Back Out Ball, hosted by cabaret legend Robyn Archer with performances by Carlotta, Deborah Cheetham and Gerry Connolly, and those LGBTI+ elders it honoured in this life-affirming love letter to Australia’s original fighters for queer equality. Whilst exploring complex realities around ageing in the LGBTI+ community, this is a celebratory and life-affirming film that will leave audience laughing and cheering.
Acute Misfortune
Daniel Henshall (Snowtown) stars as infamous Archibald Prize-winning artist Adam Cullen in Acute Misfortune, a lyrical adaptation of The Saturday Paper editor Erik Jensen’s acclaimed biography, which also stars Toby Wallace, Max Cullen and Genevieve Lemon. In his directorial feature debut, Top of the Lake actor and theatre director Thomas M. Wright deftly weaves a striking tale of the bright young wunderkind writer and the brilliant yet deeply troubled artist.
The Eulogy
Inspired by former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s searing eulogy for Geoffrey Tozer, and directed by Janine Hosking (My Khmer Heart), The Eulogy explores the remarkable and tragic story of Australia’s greatest-ever, and perhaps most overlooked, pianist and includes Keating re-staging his famous funeral oration as music educator and conductor Richard Gill AO embarks on a journey to restore Tozer’s legacy.
Undermined: Tales From the Kimberley
Mega-mining and pastoral developments in the world-famous Kimberley threaten not just the pristine environment but more than 200 Indigenous communities and their peoples’ sacred links to Country in Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley in which Traditional Owners, including activist and musician Albert Wiggan and academic Dr Anne Poelina, ask will the Kimberley’s custodians, lands and cultures survive these pressures? Director Nicholas Wrathall (Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia) delivers an urgent film that tells a sadly universal story of the David-and- Goliath battles Indigenous peoples face and the human costs of doing business.
Undertow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gKhmpx-pJs
MIFF Accelerator Lab alumna Miranda Nation makes her feature directorial debut in Undertow, a psychological thriller of grief, abuse and obsession set against the backdrop of local footy culture that stars Josh Helman (Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men: Apocalypse), Olivia DeJonge (The Visit), Laura Gordon (Joe Cinque’s Consolation) and Rob Collins (Glitch). Shot in Geelong and along Victoria’s rugged Surf Coast, Bonnie Elliot’s evocative cinematography sets the tone for this starkly topical feature debut.
The 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival runs from August 2 – 19. Tickets for the Closing Night Gala, including a screening of The Coming Back Out Ball Movie are on sale now. The full festival program will be launched on 10 July with all general public individual session tickets on sale 13 July 2018.