After going entirely digital last year, Melbourne International Film Festival has combined its traditional in-cinema format with its newly developed online viewing platform for its 2021 program. While artistic director Al Cossar is excited about getting audiences back into the cinema, he believes that it’s important to try to meet audiences wherever they are through this hybrid format.
We spoke to Cossar about his top picks from this year’s program, which runs from August 5-22 and includes over 283 films, 154 Australian premieres and ten extended reality or ‘XR’ experiences.
Among the headliners, his top recommendation is the musical Annette directed by Leos Carax, who Cossar describes as a visionary. “That word gets bandied around a lot, but in this case I absolutely mean it,” says Cossar. Starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, the film follows the story of a provocative stand-up comedian and his wife, a world-famous soprano. Their life takes an unexpected turn when their daughter Annette is born with an unusual gift.
Next, he suggests the Oscar-nominated Quo Vadis, Aida? Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Bosnia and follows UN translator Aida Selmanagić as she attempts to use her skills to save her family. “It’s a really devastating film that has a claustrophobia around it that grows and builds,” says Cossar. “It’s one of the films that has stayed with me, it absolutely floored me when I saw it.
In terms of local Australian filmmaking, Cossar recommends you check out Palazzo di Cozzo, a delightful portrait of Sicilian-born Franco Cozzo who moved to Melbourne in 1956 and found success selling furniture. “[Franco] is an incredible icon and personality, and everyone’s been waiting for him to get his big-screen moment,” says Cossar. “The film has a lot to say about the Italian community in Melbourne.”
Fans of the local Australian music scene should check out Anonymous Club, an intimate documentary of life on the road with notoriously shy singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett. “It’s really the opposite of the classic rock documentary portrait,” says Cossar. “This is beautiful and substantial, and feels very intimate and confessional by nature of the audio diaries it uses.”
Of the ten XR experiences that are on offer this year, Cossar recommends adding Biolume, a dark, under-the-sea psychological XR thriller, and Artefacts, a project based on things that were dug up while working on the Melbourne train development, to your MIFF watchlist. “[These films] are an incredible use of that format and show that VR can do really well in terms of inhabiting impossible spaces,” says Cossar.
MIFF first integrated virtual reality into the festival in 2016, but this is the first year that it’s been reframed as "extended reality" which constitutes a broader array of experiences.
Tickets are now on sale for MIFF members and will be available for the general public on July 16. Head to the MIFF website to browse the program and to book tickets.