MIFF 2026 HIGHLIGHTS: PART 2
Melbourne International Film Festival 6-23 August 2026
MIFF 2026 promises to be a special year. This is part two of the highlights.
Josephine
Directed by: Beth de Araújo
Starring: Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Philip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy
After eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves) accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she begins to act out violently to protect herself. This emotional trauma leads to conflicts between her parents (Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan) as they search for justice, and a way to feel safe again.
All of a Sudden
(Soudain/急に具合が悪くなる)
Directed by: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Starring: Tao Okamoto, Virginie Efira, Marie Bunel, Kodai Kurosaki, Kyôzô Nagatsuka
Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared Best Actress Awards at Cannes for their sterling work in the latest long-form opus from master filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira, Parallel Tales, MIFF 2026) runs an aged-care facility on the outskirts of Paris. She’s devoted to her job and her patients, and firmly believes that the elderly should be treated with dignity. It’s tough work, and, like so many of her employees, she’s dealing with burnout. But her spirit is rekindled when she meets Japanese playwright Mari (Tao Okamoto), who’s staging a theatre piece about the history of mental asylums in Italy. As they plunge headlong into all-night conversations about mortality, philosophy and the degradations of capitalism, Mari and Marie-Lou’s new friendship will change both of their lives.
The Beloved (El ser querido)
Directed by: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Starring: Marina Foïs, Raul Arevalo, Victoria Luengo, Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem enthrals as a legendary director with ambiguous intentions who casts his estranged daughter in an upcoming film.
Esteban, a widely laurelled enfant terrible of global cinema, has returned to Spain to shoot a period film entitled Desert. He wants his daughter Emilia – who’s had roles on TV, and whom he hasn’t seen in 30 years – to play the lead. Despite having baggage around his alcoholism and aggression, she takes the part. Once together, the pair feel the heat not just of the production’s Canary Islands setting but also of the tensions that simmer between them.
Bitter Christmas (Amarga Navidad)
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez
Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl’s alter ego, who, like him, resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can’t help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant.
The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, exploring the limits of autofiction and stories within stories.
Coward
Directed by: Lukas Dhont
Starring: Valentin Campagne, Emmanuel Macchia
Lukas Dhont’s stirring latest film – which won its leads a pair of Best Actor prizes at Cannes – depicts a clandestine romance between two young men that blooms in the trenches of WWI.
It’s 1916, and Pierre and Francis have been conscripted to fight on the Western Front. Nicknamed “Quiet Mouse”, the former is a handsome, brawny farmer who struggles to express himself; the latter, a tailor’s son, is flamboyant and creative. Francis is enlisted to direct a theatre troupe that will entertain the soldiers, a role that includes cross-dressing as the female lead. When Pierre is tasked with assisting the troupe, the pair’s opposing qualities draw them together – and collaboration evolves into something more.
Hear My Eyes: Memento
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
New music by: Michael “CAVS” Cavanagh
See Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough film, complete with an all-new live score by Michael “CAVS” Cavanagh (King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard).
Before the billion-dollar blockbusters, before Batman, before Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan released his second feature: Memento. The independent thriller quickly became a cultural phenomenon, earning Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, and introduced audiences to the narrative puzzles, fractured timelines and obsessive attention to detail that would come to define the director’s work.
For this special presentation, Michael “CAVS” Cavanagh of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard reimagines the film with an all-new live score, performing solo across multiple drum kits and a suite of electronic instruments. Technical and bombastic, Cavanagh’s performance will mirror the intensity and precision at the heart of Nolan’s most audacious work. Part film screening, part live concert, Hear My Eyes has spent over a decade creating immersive cinema experiences, building a loyal following through collaborations including Terminator 2: Judgment Day with Peter Van Hoesen and Robin Fox, Chopper with Springtime and Mick Harvey, Wake in Fright with Surprise Chef, and Pan’s Labyrinth with Sleep D. For Nolan devotees and anyone who loves cinema that takes risks, this is a chance to revisit a cult classic, live and reimagined.
https://www.hearmyeyes.com.au/events/memento/
The Dreamed Adventure
(Das geträumte Abenteuer)
Directed by: Valeska Grisebach
Starring: Syuleyman Letifov, Tiana Georgieva, Yana Radeva, Denislava Yordanova, Nikolay Shekerdjiev, Stoicho Kostadinov
On the border between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, a woman agrees to help an old acquaintance with an illegal mission.
Fatherland (Ojczyzna)
Directed by: Paweł Pawlikowski
Starring: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Anna Madeley
At the height of the Cold War, Fatherland centers on the relationship between the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika—actress, writer and rally driver—as they embark on a road trip in a black Buick cruiser across a Germany in ruins.
The Incomer
Directed by: Louis Paxton
Starring: John Hannah, Domhnall Gleeson, Michelle Gomez, Grant O’Rourke, Gayle Rankin
On a remote Scottish isle, siblings Isla and Sandy hunt birds and talk to mythical beings while fighting off outsiders. Their lives change when Daniel, an awkward official, arrives to relocate them.
La Bola Negra
Directed by: Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi
Starring: Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas, Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close
Sharing the Best Director Prize at Cannes, this sublime time-hopping triptych recounts three men’s experiences of love, legacy and the unending fight for queer liberation.
In 1937, musician Sebastián is conscripted into the Spanish Civil War by the pro-Franco army; there, he meets and falls for a handsome leftist prisoner. In 1932, Carlos attempts to gain membership to an exclusive casino but is rejected due to rumours about his homosexuality. And in 2017, historian Alberto inherits a gift from his estranged grandfather that exacerbates tensions with his mother. Across the decades, these men’s stories interweave and bleed into one another, revealing threads that connect them in profound, unexpected ways.
The 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival is on from 6-23 August.
For full details go to https://miff.com.au/