Melbourne International Film Festival 2013

Overview

Melbourne International Film Festival artistic director Michelle Carey admits that she is "especially excited about the MIFF 2013", and we can see why.

Three years ago Wentworth Miller's Stoker was voted one of 2010's best unproduced screenplays, and now the rest of us finally have a chance to see what all the fuss is about. The unnerving tale is centred on 18-year-old India, who, fresh from burying her father, meets the mysterious uncle her mother has invited into the family home to fill their void. The cast includes a trifecta of Australian talent, with Nicole Kidman, Jacki Weaver and Mia Wasikowska breathing life into the Stoker family. To add to the hype, it is also the English language debut of celebrated South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy).

Other movies on the radar include the world premiere of Tim Winton's The Turning (starring Cate Blanchett); festival patron Geoffrey Rush's turn as an eccentric art auctioneer in Italian box-office smash The Best Offer; Shane Carruth's highly anticipated follow-up to cult time-travel puzzler Primer, titled Upstream Color; and US gore-fest of a horror flick You're Next.

The documentary contingent looks set to more than hold its own this year. The Act of Killing, probably the most original lens on genocide you'll ever see, is one screening not to miss (also not to miss is our interview with director Joshua Oppenheimer). Australia's almost-rock legend Jeremy Oxley's battle with schizophrenia and alcoholism takes centrestage in The Sunnyboy, while UK director Ken Loach looks to the England of old in The Spirit of '45. Loach's exploration of British domestic policy pre- and post-Thatcher is a rallying call to UK politicians to reject austerity and remember that great 20th-century experiment, the welfare state.

What would a film festival be without something to call the next Woody Allen? MIFF fills that category with the black-and-white comedy Frances Ha. Star Greta Gerwig (To Rome with Love) co-wrote the film with director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale). It contains dialogue like this:

Guy: What do you do?

Frances: It's kind of hard to explain.

Guy: Why, is what you do really complicated?

Frances: Because, I don't really do it.

So it looks like they are onto a good thing.

An annual event, the MIFF runs from July 25 to August 11. For more information, head to the website and keep an eye out for the full program, which will be released on July 2.

Image: Festival patron Geoffrey Rush as Virgil Oldman in The Best Offer