Overview
The cinemas that it plays in have changed over the years, and the organisations that run the event as well. If you love movies and you live in Queensland's capital, however, the Brisbane International Film Festival has been the must-attend big-screen date of the year for more than three decades. Now settled into a spring timeslot and in its third year under Film Fantastic, who also organise the Gold Coast Film Festival, BIFF is fast approaching for 2023 — and it has just dropped six first titles from its program to get cinephiles excited.
One huge must-see from Thursday, October 26–Sunday, November 5: Anatomy of a Fall, a drama about an author (Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann) accused of her husband's murder, which won French director Justine Triet (Sibyl) the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or winner back in May. Triet became just the third female filmmaker to earn the coveted prize after Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993, plus Julia Ducournau for Titane in 2021.
Also a big drawcard is 2023 opening-night pick Uproar, which comes to Brisbane fresh from premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. Set to launch this year's BIFF at Reading Newmarket, one of this year's venues alongside other Reading, Dendy and Five Star locations, the New Zealand film stars Hunt for the Wilderpeople's Julian Dennison, Our Flag Means Death's Rhys Darby and Starstruck's Minnie Driver. They feature in a movie that's set in Dunedin in 1981 and focuses on a boy exploring his Māori heritage as the South African Springboks team arrive in Aotearoa amid protests.
Ahead of the full BIFF program on Wednesday, September 20, BIFF's first announcement also spans Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster, the prolific helmer's latest on a lengthy resume that also includes Shoplifters and Broker; body-horror film Tiger Stripes, which is set in the Malaysian jungle and won the 2023 Cannes Critics' Week Grand Prize; and the talk show-set horror Late Night with the Devil — all of which have been doing the rounds of the international festival circuit, with Brisbane their next stop.
And, when The Ending Goes Forever: The Screamfeeder Story makes its world premiere at the fest, it'll clearly do so with a big homegrown angle, focusing on of Brisbane's 90s indie-music favourites.
"The first six films represent a sneak peek of the diverse and entertaining broader program," said BIFF Head of Programming Sasha Close. "BIFF is proud to be presenting award-winning and highly anticipated feature films in this first release."
While Brisbane's major film fest initially launched in 1992, the 2023 festival marks BIFF's 29th thanks to a chaotic few years — after the event was unceremoniously cancelled after its 2013 fest in favour of the short-lived Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, then revived by Palace Cinemas in 2017, and then run by the Gallery of Modern Art from 2018–20 before falling under Film Fantastic's remit.
The 2023 Brisbane International Film Festival runs between Thursday, October 26–Sunday, November 5 at selected Dendy, Reading and Five Star cinemas around Brisbane. For further information, or to buy tickets, head to the festival website — and check back here on Wednesday, September 20 for the full program.