For years, Adam Goodes was a beloved hero of the game of AFL. Then the two-time Brownlow Medallist and former Australian of the Year began to call out racism, and his Australian dream turned into a nightmare.

Kick off #MIFF2019 with the World Premiere of The Australian Dream. Join the filmmakers and other special guests on the red carpet as we mark the film’s premiere in style. Following the film, all ticket holders are invited to join our VIP guests for a celebratory afterparty.

MIFF Opening Night Gala – The Australian Dream
7pm Thursday 1 August
Plenary Theatre, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)

Iconic musician and former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore joins us in Melbourne at The Astor Theatre for a special live performance, playing the original music he wrote to accompany four seminal works from pioneering experimental filmmaker Maya Deren.

Known for his dynamic and often-experimental approach to sound, Moore has found inspiration in Deren, a Ukrainian-American director, considered one of the most important and influential avant-garde filmmakers in the US.

“Maya Deren is an avant-garde godmother. Her mysterious images have burned into my consciousness like fiery, exotic dreams we are not supposed to talk about; each one a secret location of a symbolic prediction made with deep, dark magic in her sibyl cave.” – Thurston Moore

Thurston Moore Plays Maya Deren
9pm Friday 2 August
The Astor Theatre

Thurston Moore may be one of the most innovative, influential electric guitarists living today. With Sonic Youth, Moore and his bandmates connected America’s thriving experimental underground with the realm of punk, grunge and alternative rock – forging an unmistakable sound with their detuned, often dissonant and always loud guitars.

Now based in London, Moore is returning to Melbourne for MIFF, where he’ll join us to discuss his career in music and writing, and his latest foray into the world of cinema. Hosted by Jacinta Parsons.

Presented in partnership with The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas

Thurston Moore: In Conversation
12.30pm, Saturday 3 August
Plenary Theatre, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
$35 full / $30 MIFF members (passes not valid)

The Melbourne International Film Festival and Hear My Eyes present Girlhood with an original live score by Sampa The Great.

MIFF’s third, exclusive Hear My Eyes event will see Sampa The Great performing live alongside Céline Sciamma’s defiantly electrifying portrait of young women of colour growing up in the Paris projects.

For this exclusive Hear My Eyes event, Sampa The Great will perform her signature style of neo-soul, hip-hop and spoken word poetry, reinterpreting Jean-Baptiste de Laubier’s score into a vibrant, wholly original live soundtrack that gives an exciting new energy to this refreshing celebration of female friendship and empowerment.

SAT 3 AUGUST, 9.00pm | Plenary Theatre, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

– GIRLHOOD –
Shy 16-year-old Mariame is struggling: life at home isn’t easy, with her mother rarely in the picture, an abusive, controlling older brother, and two younger sisters who rely on her to look after them. School isn’t any better, with Mariame facing the very real prospect of failing. When brash, confident and free-spirited Lady invites Mariame to join her girl gang, the younger teen sees a way to escape the limitations on her life. But despite her new-found sense of freedom and sisterhood, Mariame soon learns that change doesn’t come without consequences.

Building on her reputation for assured and astutely observed studies of female adolescence, including Tomboy (MIFF 2011) and Water Lilies, writer/director Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood is a beautiful and emotionally affecting coming-of-age story. With her magnetic performance as Mariame, newcomer Karidja Touré marked herself out as an actor to watch, while Sciamma’s regular cinematographer Crystel Fournier won awards for making life on the Parisienne margins look so exquisite.
Girlhood screens courtesy of Palace Films.

– SAMPA THE GREAT –
Zambian-born Australian resident Sampa The Great has released two critically acclaimed projects, with her most recent, 2017’s Birds and the BEE9, winning the prestigious Australian Music Prize. With a sound that spans spiritually minded gospel to neo-soul and hip-hop, Sampa’s music is intertwined with a clearly-defined, no-holds-barred political outlook, and message of healing.

Sampa has performed live supporting the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Thundercat, Joey Bada$$, Ibeyi and Little Simz, while also collaborating with artists like Estelle, REMI and Hiatus Kaiyote.

– HEAR MY EYES –
Hear My Eyes screenings are audio-visual events that push the conventions of film and sound beyond their familiar forms. Translating the original cinematic experience for the 21st century, the Hear My Eyes team work with local musicians to reinterpret a film’s soundtrack and perform it live at the screening.
Artistic Director: Haydn Green

Reality ain’t worth crying about for four teens who, numbed by tragedy, decide to form a technicolour pop-electronica band in this riotous yet emotionally trenchant feature debut from the award-winning Makoto Nagahisa.

After becoming the first Japanese director to win the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, Nagahisa has poured his lurid, ultra-paced and video-game-inspired aesthetic into a wild ride of loss that questions how people are expected to experience life-changing emotion. We Are Little Zombies is an energetic sensory overload for anyone bored by mainstream teen flicks.

In a treat for MIFF audiences, we’ve partnered with Supernormal to bring you an exclusive food-and-film experience on Tuesday 6 August. For just $150, you’ll enjoy a bespoke five-course banquet menu (with drinks) designed by Supernormal, taking inspiration from the film – which will screen at The Capitol following the meal.

Price includes the meal at Supernormal and the film screening at The Capital.

**FOURTH AND FINAL SHOW: SOLD OUT**

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra this August to perform a selection of suites from their highly distinctive film scores as part of the 68th Melbourne International Film Festival.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ film scores are instantly recognisable for their minimal and hauntingly beautiful tones. Full of light and shade, creeping dread and inconsolable yearning, the heavily instrumental sounds inject humanity into the ghostly frontier towns, parched desert landscapes, post-apocalyptic war zones and extra-terrestrial vistas of their renowned films.

As part of #MIFF2019, Cave and Ellis join the MSO for the first time to perform a selection of suites from their highly distinctive film scores in full symphonic sound.

The Film Music of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
2pm Saturday 10 August
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o shines bright as a ukulele-playing, zombie-slaying kindergarten teacher in Abe Forsythe’s sweetly hilarious zom-com Little Monsters.

Abe Forsythe returns to Melbourne International Film Festival with his follow-up to Down Under, our 2016 Centrepiece Gala film. Displaying the same wicked mix of black comedy and poignant heart, Little Monsters wowed midnight audiences at its Sundance world premiere.

Always a hot ticket, MIFF’s Centrepiece Gala is a cinematic celebration of both Australian filmmaking and of the festival’s halfway point. Ticket price includes the Australian Premiere gala screening of Little Monsters with our filmmaking guests and entry to the exclusive afterparty, with complimentary drinks and canapés. Entry to the Centrepiece Gala afterparty is strictly 18+

Please note: the MIFF 2019 Centrepiece Gala will take place across two concurrent screenings at the Capitol Theatre and the Forum Theatre. The Forum session will screen with open captions to assist patrons who are Deaf or hard of hearing.

Miriam Margolyes, Emma Booth, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman and Joel Jackson star in this delightful adaptation of the award-winning YA novel My Life as an Alphabet.

John Sheedy, director of the MIFF 2017 Best Australian Short Film Mrs McCutcheon, makes his feature debut with this sunny and buoyant coming-of-age tale. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund and adapted from Barry Jonsberg’s acclaimed young adult novel, it’s a warm-hearted hug of a film, unafraid to tackle serious themes while remaining laugh-out-loud funny and sweetly uplifting.

MIFF’s Kids Gala turns five in 2019, and to celebrate we’ve given it a make-over. Now known as the Family Gala, it’s the same fun-filled, family-friendly gala screening you know and love. Join us for the World Premiere of H is for Happiness, complete with a celebratory red carpet and party, fun activities and delicious treats.