RISING’s guide to MIFF’s final weeks
Eight film picks for MIFF's home stretch
It’s MIFF’s final weekend in cinemas for 2023. But it ain’t over til it’s over. Because MIFF Play is kicking off too, with a curated selection streaming 18—27 August. So, whether you’ve spent the festival subsisting solely on cinema, choctops and caffeine, or you’ve been too dazzled commit to anything yet—there’s still plenty to enjoy. Here are our screening and streaming picks for the rest of the fest.
Screening picks
Showing Up
Kelly Reichardt’s patient and wryly funny ode to the creative grind. A beautifully composed film that sits with a feeling familiar to anyone who’s wrestled with a blank canvas, lump of unmoulded clay or empty page. Michelle Williams lights up the screen (even as she scowls and sighs her way through). One for art-lovers and cat-lovers alike.
Shayda
Sundance Audience Award-winning film about a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter. A story of hope, told with beautifully complex characters, featuring a truly gripping performance from Zar Amir-Ebrahim.
This is Going to be Big
Thomas Charles Hyland’s debut feature follows a cast of neurodivergent teens as they prepare for a John Farnham–themed musical. A coming-of-age documentary with big hair, a lot of heart and four John Farnhams.
Birdeater
The genre-defying breakout film from Australian directing duo, Jack Clarke and Jim Weir. Part comedy, part drama, part thriller, it’s the story of a pre-wedding celebration on an isolated country property that starts festively enough until a relationship revelation upends everything.
Streaming picks
MIFF Shorts
From the quest for spiritual healing in Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorn’s Berlinale’s Silver Bear Jury Prize-winning Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) to the tense and dreamy teenage drama in Paloma Schneideman’s Gate Crash—there are so many great shorts to stream on MIFF Play. Stream yourself a hit of emerging cinema.
The Bank
RISING loves a Melbourne-set thriller. This restored anti-capitalist caper from 2001 plays maths genius Jim Doyle (played by David Wenham) against profit-hungry bank CEO Simon O’Riley (a slick-talking Anthony LaPaglia) in a game of greed and deception.
Art Talent Show
Set in an esteemed Czech art school this is a documentary about what separates the artists from the wannabes and, more importantly, who gets to decide. It's witty film that ventures behind the gates and doesn’t forget to rattle the gatekeepers.
The Coolbaroo Club
This is lavishly restored documentary that's bursting with defiance and dancefloor euphoria. It's about the The Coolbaroo Club—a haven of Indigenous dance and activism arose from segregated postwar Perth.