Overview
How do you fill 18 Victorian winter days with movies? That's the glorious problem that the Melbourne International Film Festival is tasked with solving each year. 2025's solution for its 73rd event will span hundreds of pictures, brand-new local features and must-see international award-winners alike, as MIFF delivers every August. Some examples this time around: Jafar Panahi's Cannes Palme d'Or-winning It Was Just an Accident, almost-100-year-old masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc with a new score by Julia Holter performed live, an Australian time-loop comedy involving tequila, a Baker Boy- and Hugh Jackman (Deadpool & Wolverine)-narrated tribute to David Gulpilil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind filmmaker Michel Gondry's latest and the world-premiere of natural disaster-focused virtual-reality documentary When the World Came Flooding In.
Yes, it's MIFF first glance time, with the festival revealing its initial batch of titles for 2025 — and it's a hefty collection. While there's many more to come, 26 films are now officially on the lineup and set to hit Melbourne's big screens between Thursday, August 7–Sunday, August 24. Some will also play regional Victoria venues across two weekends, Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 17 and Friday, August 22–Sunday, August 24. Then there's the return of MIFF Online via the Australian Centre for the Moving Image's streaming platform Cinema 3, sharing selected fest titles with the rest of Australia across Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 31 (and with Melburnians, too, for a week after the physical festival ends for the year).
Among the films mentioned above, the combination of Julia Holter and Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 silent great The Passion of Joan of Arc is taking over Melbourne Recital Centre for two evenings; One More Shot will get the spirits flowing amid temporal trickery with help from Emily Browning (Class of '07), Apple Cider Vinegar co-stars Aisha Dee and Ashley Zukerman, Sean Keenan (Exposure) and Pallavi Sharda (The Office); Journey Home, David Gulpilil charts the iconic actor's journey to be laid to rest; and Maya, Give Me a Title hails from Gondry. But even from the first-glance batch, they're just the beginning.
Also on the bill, for instance: Richard Linklater's (Hit Man) Blue Moon with Ethan Hawke (Leave the World Behind), Margaret Qualley (The Substance) and Andrew Scott (Ripley); Carey Mulligan (Spaceman) in music-fuelled comedy The Ballad of Wallis Island; the Dylan O'Brien (Saturday Night)-led Twinless; and Dreams, with Jessica Chastain (Mothers' Instinct) reuniting with her Memory helmer Michel Franco.
"It all starts here — the full MIFF 2025 program is soon to arrive; set to be a world-ranging, celebratory and all-out extraordinary collection of films," said Melbourne International Film Festival Artistic Director Al Cossar, announcing his team's debut picks for this year.
"I'm excited to share some of our first announcement of titles, and incredible highlights, of this year's MIFF: beloved auteurs, festival blockbusters, the best of new Australian filmmaking, alongside the incredibly special and absolutely unmissable live-score cinema event Julia Holter: The Passion of Joan of Arc."
Similarly on the way to Melbourne: A24's Sorry, Baby starring Naomi Ackie (Mickey 17), Harvest's pairing of actor Caleb Landry Jones (DogMan) and Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari (Chevalier), actor Jay Duplass (Dying for Sex) making his solo directorial debut with SXSW Austin favourite The Baltimorons, and The Bear and Beef alum Alex Russell also doing the same with the obsessive Lurker. The 60s-era Bond-style homage Reflections in a Dead Diamond should be at the top of your list as well if you were a fan of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's Let the Corpses Tan when it played MIFF back in 2018, or Amer and The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears in general. Or, catch Cloud, with e-commerce in the spotlight in Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's (Serpent's Path) new thriller.
Plus, Marlon Williams: Two Worlds — Ngā Ao E Rua is about its namesake New Zealand musician, while Fwends is set in Melbourne and marks Sophie Somerville's first feature. If you've been paying attention to Sydney Film Festival's 2025 program and you're spotting some familiar pictures, MIFF does indeed share some of the same films, as is the custom each and every year.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greg Cotten.
The Victorian capital's annual major film fest boasts its own premiere fund, though, which helps to finance new Australian movies. That's where not only One More Shot but a range of other titles come in, with 2025's haul also spanning the likes of Filipino Australian photographer James J Robinson's debut feature First Light, documentary Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke about the comedy icon, the competitive Microsoft Excel-centric Spreadsheet Champions and Nigerian stand-up comedian Okey Bakassi in Pasa Faho's window into being African Australian,
MIFF's program already goes on from there, and already boasts oh-so-much to get excited about; however for even more, the full 2025 lineup will arrive on Thursday, July 10.
Alistair Heap/Focus Features ©2025 All Rights Reserved
The 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival runs from Thursday, August 7–Sunday, August 24 at a variety of venues around Melbourne; from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 17 and Friday, August 22–Sunday, August 24 in regional Victoria; and online nationwide from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 31. For further details, including the full program from Thursday, July 10, visit the MIFF website.
Top image: Ben King/Stan.