Screening at Melbourne International Film Festival [38]
Bad Language

Short film

Director: Viron Papadopoulos

Bill makes an unusual bet with the fractious regulars at his uncle's suburban Kafenois (a men's club, café and gambling den all in one) and words fly in more than one language.
Blame

Feature film/animation

Director: Michael Henry

Seeking justice and revenge, five friends violently attack a man in his remote country house. Their plan: the perfect murder. Confident that their victim’s death by his own hand will not be questioned, they overdose him on sleeping pills, but it all goes horribly wrong when their attempt fails and their victim fights for his life.
Bring 'em Back

Documentary

Director: Phillip Donnellon

Director Phillip Donnellon's documentary, full of humour and passion, harks back to a time before the government sell off of public assets, to a debate that brought this city to a standstill and caused deep divisions within the Victorian Labor party.
Cane Toads: The Conquest

Documentary

Director: Mark Lewis

Mark Lewis traces the devastating migration of these amphibian invaders.
Chocolate Cake

Short film

Director: Raphael Elisha


Deeper Than Yesterday

Short film

Director: Ariel Kleiman

The crewmen in the claustrophobic world of a submerged submarine are confounded by a miracle at sea. Their reaction to it will determine if they are decent men or savages. Selected for Critics' Week at Cannes this year, this original drama focuses on a group of submariners who've been underwater for three months and whose humanity is beginning to fracture.
Dreamland

Feature film/animation

Director: Ivan Sen

Set somewhere on the Extraterrestial Highway, just outside of the infamous Area 51, Dan Freeman, UFO hunter, searches for reasons for living and for signs of life from outer space.
Drive

Documentary

Director: Bronwyn Purvis, Telen Rodwell

Drive examines the relationship between men and their cars - and the impact of their love of speed on family and community.
Elephantiasis

Short film

Director: Sophie Hyde

Meredith suffers a serious affliction – Elephantiasis: being showered with elephant-themed gifts on any occasion. It’s a pity she hates elephants.
Fatso

Short film

Director: Irina Goundortseva

Being an overweight lift attendant has its ups and downs.
Flyscreen

Short film

Director: Richard Tuohy

An abstract fly’s-eye-view of the world featured in experimental 16mm cine-cubism.
Franswa Sharl

Short film

Director: Hannah Hilliard

Twelve year old Greg has inherited his father’s competitive streak. On a family holiday to Fiji they have different ideas about where Greg should focus his talents. When his creative pursuits fail to amuse his father Greg sets out to win him back. Based on a true story.
Glenn Owen Dodds

Short film

Director: Frazer Bailey

G.O.D spells Glenn Owen Dodds and this deity isn't quite what we've been led to believe.
Kitchen Horror

Short film

Director: David Short

There’s horror lurking in every suburban kitchen… but the devil is in the detail.
Lily

Short film

Director: Kasimir Burgess

A girl and her father share their last holiday. Based on a series of paintings by Julia Ciccarone.
Little Sparrows

Feature film/animation

Director: Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen

This nuanced, heartrending independent feature traces the emotional lives of three sisters whose mother is dying of cancer.
Lou Barlow: Goodnight Unknown

Short film

Director: Adam Harding

A revealing and intimate glimpse into the creative process of indie rock pioneer Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh and Folk Implosion.
Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Documentary

Director: Mark Hartley

The all-too often overlooked world of Filipino exploitation flicks gets the Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood, MIFF 08) treatment in Machete Maidens Unleashed! Featuring interviews with Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Eddie Romero and a host of filmmakers, actors and critics, each with a story about a genre with no scruples, no scripts, no boundaries and – more often than not – no clothes.
Making It Handmade!

Documentary

Director: Anna Brownfield

Following four local women who’ve taken a seemingly staid past-time and injected it with a youthful, modern aesthetic, filmmaker Anna Brownfield shows a side of craft more closely aligned with punk DIY culture than with Martha Stewart and ‘home sweet home’ tapestries.
Matching Jack

Feature film/animation

Director: Nadia Tass

An inner-urban Melbourne family is turned upside down when their young son Jack is diagnosed with leukemia, and his father’s years of infidelity come to light. As the illness takes hold, a desperate mother searches for possible siblings from her husband’s affairs – children who may hold the key to curing her son.
Mother of Rock: The Life and Times of Lillian Roxon

Documentary

Director: Paul Clarke

A tribute to a pioneer of modern rock journalism. In New York City in 1968 a revolution was under way in a tiny club called Max’s Kansas City. The reigning queen of Max’s was Australian journalist Lillian Roxon. She was a music visionary who understood before anyone else how important music would be in shaping popular culture, publishing her landmark Rock Encyclopedia in 1969.
Muscles

Short film

Director: Edward Housden

Richard’s sister Millie wants to be a world famous bodybuilder. Millie, a testosterone driven 14-year-old girl, is the dominant force in the family. Richard is transparent. What happens when Millie is a better boy than he is?
Pinion

Short film

Director: Asuka Sylvie

Suffering from a mysterious affliction, a young boy is left in the care of a secluded hospital where nothing is as it seems.
Red Hill

Feature film/animation

Director: Patrick Hughes

A young city cop moves to the country with his pregnant wife for some peace and quiet only to be thwarted on his first day when an escaped convict goes on a rampage.
Scary Therapy

Short animation

Director: Suren Perera

Scary Therapy is a short animated film featuring monologues of monsters visiting a lifecoach. During the film we meet a vampire with first date nerves a zombie battling an addiction and a sexually confused swamp monster.
Stony Point

Short film

Director: Olivia Peniston-Bird

Two sisters’ friendship is tested when their boring summer holiday is spiced up by the arrival of a new friend.
Strange Birds in Paradise

Documentary

Director: Charlie Hill-Smith

Director Charlie Hill-Smith embarks on a journey through the culture and complex history of West Papua, jamming with exiled musicians in musicologist Dave Bridie's Melbourne studio.
Summer Coda

Feature film/animation

Director: Richard Gray

Having grown up with her mother in Nevada, Heidi (Rachael Taylor) hasn’t spoken to her father since she was seven. Now a young woman, haunted by his memory, she returns to Australia seeking closure. Travelling to her hometown on a shoestring, Heidi is forced to hitchhike and busk for cash. Her talent on the violin gains the attention of handsome orange grove owner Michael (Alex Dimitriades), who offers Heidi a ride. Both are initially guarded, but an unexpected connection soon blossoms.
The Clinic

Feature film/animation

Director: James Rabbits

Expectant mother Beth is drugged and kidnapped from a desolate, outback motel. When she awakens, she’s in an ice bath in an abandoned abattoir – and her baby has been removed from her body. She soon realises she’s not alone; five other women are trapped with her in the makeshift clinic, a place whose dire purpose gradually becomes all too apparent.
The Kiss

Short film

Director: Ashlee Page

On a hot summer's night, two girls, fueled by hormones and alcohol, take a leap that will change their lives.
The Lost Thing

Short animation

Director: Shaun Tan, Andrew Ruhemann

In a world of rivets and drabness, a boy befriends a fantastical red creature that appears to be totatally lost: based on writer-director Tan's prize-winning children's book.
The Mystery of Flying Kicks

Short film

Director: Matthew Bate

Murder, sex, drugs, art or politics? Sneakers hanging on telephone lines are a powerful urban symbol, but what do they mean?
The Prelude

Short film

Director: Eddie Martin

A new man in her life. Will he call? The agony of waiting.
The Tree

Feature film/animation

Director: Julie Berucelli

After the sudden death of her father, 8-year-old Simone shares a secret with her mother Dawn She's convinced her father whispers to her through the leaves of her favourite tree and he's come back to protect them.
The Wedding Party

Feature film/animation

Director: Amanda Jane

First time feature director Amanda Jane takes her camera into the heart of Melbourne and creates a fun-filled farce about family, love and the choices we make. From the sacred turf of the MCG to the city’s kinky underground, The Wedding Party explores everything that can go wrong (and right) in the search for love.
Uninhabited

Feature film/animation

Director: Bill Bennett

For Beth and Harry, the perfect romantic escape means doing something different, and going somewhere that’s remote, secluded and completely uninhabited. But when they charter a boat to drop onto an isolated coral island, what seems at first like a lover’s paradise becomes something much more terrifying.
Via Gori

Short film

Director: George Barbakadze

As Russian planes begin to bomb Georgia, a Russian woman and her daughter board a bus to escape – but will they be discovered?
When the Wind Changes

Short film

Director: Alethea Jones

When Lake Denial dries up and bogan mates Jack, Kevin and Blandy are caught up in a supernatural incident, just getting by becomes a struggle.