FIVE MUST-SEE MIFF MOVIES

The 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival is not letting Stage 4 restrictions in its home state of Victoria and a nation coping with COVID-19 to get in the way of presenting one of the most diversely curated programs on the Australian calendar. MIFF 68½ will offer 60 feature films and bundles of short works via their digital platform from August 6 through 23, leading off with Kelly Reichardt's First Cow and wrapping up with Pablo Larraín’s Ema. SCREEN-SPACE offers up five features that are on our Must-See list; capacity is limited, so jump on the Official Website without delay....

ROSE PLAYS JULIE (100m • Directed by Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor • English • Ireland, UK • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “Rose, an Irish veterinary student, tracks down her birth mother, successful actress Ellen. When they meet, however, Rose learns something terrible about her biological father, celebrity archaeologist Peter (played by Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen). Methodically, she decides to approach him ‘in character’ using the name Ellen gave her at birth, Julie – but, as she soon discovers, she’s playing a dangerous game.” 

THE GO-GO’S (97m • Directed by Alison Ellwood • English • UK, USA • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “They sprang, fierce and fresh, from the Los Angeles punk scene, determined to make music their way. Their 1981 debut album spent six weeks at number one, and they’re still the bestselling all-female band of all time. Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine are the Go-Go’s, and they got the beat!”

WENDY (1h 51m • Directed by Benh Zeitlin • English • USA • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “In this reimagining of Peter Pan, Wendy hails from a rural town in the American South. One day, she catches a boy hopping onto a train and, lured by mystery and a chance to escape her monotonous life, she jumps aboard, her two brothers in tow. Soon enough, she meets Peter and his island of verdant foliage, forever-young mischief-makers and a glimmering, gigantic underwater creature called ‘Mother’.”

SHIVA BABY (76m • Directed by Emma Seligman • English • USA • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “For twentysomething student Danielle (played by comedian and performer Rachel Sennott), funeral customs and courtesies are a minefield. But when her older lover and an ex-girlfriend-turned-frenemy both turn up to the shiva, too, the screwball stakes are raised. To get out of this alive, Danielle has to survive neurotic parents, nosy relatives, passive-aggressive jibes with her ex, and the baby for whom her sugar daddy is an actual daddy.”

NO HARD FEELINGS (92m • Directed by Faraz Shariat • German, Farsi, with English subtitles • Germany • Australian Premiere)
From the MIFF Program: “Parvis spends his nights hitting the clubs or hooking up with Grindr randoms. But his hedonism – and his shame around his Iranian heritage – is challenged when petty theft sentences him to community service in a refugee shelter. There, he meets Iranian refugee Amon and his sister Banafshe, and as love blossoms between the two young men, a renewed love for their shared origins likewise grows.”

PREVIEW: 2020 SCIFI FILM FESTIVAL

The organising body of the 8th SciFi Film Festival has held firm to the event dates announced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite moments of introspection and careful consideration as to the fate of the 2020 festival. Currently set to roll out August 28-31 at the Event Cinemas George Street complex in Sydney, the festival has announced a program of films culled from a record number of submissions and representing science-fiction visionaries from 21 countries.

The 2020 Opening Night honours have been bestowed upon Jeremy LaLonde’s time-travel comedy James vs His Future Self, featuring Jonas Chernick as a young man facing off against a cynical, hard-bitten future version of himself, in the form of a terrific Daniel Stern (Home Alone, 1990; City Slickers, 1991; pictured, top). The darkly funny romp, co-starring Australian actress Cleopatra Coleman, scored the Best SciFi Film at Toronto’s After Dark Film Festival. It will be paired with the World Premiere of the Australian short A Blaster in the Right Hands, a Star Wars fan-fiction film helmed by Richard de Carvallho.

Seven other features will fill out the program, each one an Australian Premiere. In addition to the previously announced Cargo, the moving, funny Hindi-language Indian production from director Arati Kadav, the SciFi Film Festival has scored three titles from the vibrant Canadian film sector - Guarav Seth’s Entangled (pictured, right), a twisted psychological drama in which a Flatliners-like quantum physics experiment turns friends against each other; Eric Schultz’s Minor Premise, starring Sathya Sridharan as the neuroscientist facing off against his own split consciousness; and, in the Closing Night slot, Erin Berry’s M.A.J.I.C., a post-X-Files conspiracy theory deep-dive involving alien abduction and men in black mythology that snared Best Film kudos at this years’ Berlin SciFi Film Festival.

Also slated are the U.S. features To Your Last Death, an ultra-violent animated pic from director Jason Axinn featuring the voices of William Shatner, Morena Baccarin and Ray Wise, and the lo-fi, hi-energy American SciFi, an 80s-inspired teen adventure from director Chris McElroy. The lone Australian feature to have made the cut is Colm O’Murchu’s Tabernacle 101, an afterlife thriller starring David Hov and Mikaela Franco.

The short-film roster boasts a mammoth 36 entrants, spanning 20 countries. Highlights include Japan’s Ryoko’s Qubit Summer, an A.I./LGBTIQ-themed romance from director Yuichi Kondo, a Best Film award winner from the Berlin SciFi Film Festival; from Yemen, Hashim Hashim’s spiritual journey story, A Homeland Bird (pictured, right); Gábor Osváth’s Best Game Ever, a crowdpleaser from Hungary; and, from Bahrain, Eva Daoud’s ‘battle of the genders’ horror pic, The Light Thief.

The shorts will screen both ahead of the feature sessions and under their own strands. On Saturday 27th at 10.30am, eight short films will be presented under ‘Students of SciFi’, including the Australian production Alyssa from teenage filmmaker, Shania Anderson; at 3.30pm, the slightly risque strand ‘Love, Sex and Science Fiction’ will screen MA-rated shorts from nations including The Netherlands (Tommie Geraedts’ Zwart; Gideon van Eeden’s God Glitch), Poland (Pawel Son Ngo’s The Host) and China (Linq Kim’s A.N.N.I.); and, on Sunday 30th at 1.00pm, the ‘Women in SciFi’ strand, supported by Women in Film & Television (WIFT) NSW, will highlight genre works by women filmmakers.

The SCIFI FILM FESTIVAL will be held August 28-30 at Event Cinema George Street. For full program information, visit the festival’s official website or Facebook page.

THE LIST: WATCH THE SKIES - THE FIVE BEST U.F.O. FILMS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN

On July 2, stargazers the world over will squint skyward in celebration of World U.F.O. Day. This annual event acknowledges the exponentially expanding community who believe that the truth is up there; that aerial phenomenon - extraterrestrial, transdimensional or otherwise - exists in our airspace. Such conjecture has given rise to some of the most popular movies of all time, from Close Encounters of The Third Kind (1977) to The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) to Independence Day (1996) to Arrival (2016).

But for every E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), there is a Mac & Me (1988); for every War of The Worlds (2005), there is a Zone Troopers (1985). The U.F.O. subset of the science fiction genre has provided many underseen, underappreciated gems. World U.F.O. Day provides the perfect opportunity to zero-in on five films that explore and celebrate one of mankind’s great conundrums - are we alone…?

The U.F.O. Incident (Dir: Richard A. Colla; stars James Earl Jones, Estelle Parsons, Barnard Hughes; U.S., 1975)
Plot: The alleged UFO abduction of Betty and Barney Hill on September 19, 1961 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire led to shared bouts of crippling anxiety and nightmarish visions for the married couple. They turn to Dr. Benjamin Simon to help piece together the happenings of that night.
Seriously, it’s true: Travis Walton's abduction story was revealed only two weeks after this television movie was broadcast, leading to claims that this film had influenced Walton’s recounting of his own alleged abduction story (filmed as Fire in the Sky, 1993).

Curse of the Man Who Sees UFOs (Dir: Justin Gaar; featuring Christo Roppolo, Dennis Deakin, Laurence Cefalu; U.S., 2016)
Plot: Christo Roppolo claims to have been videotaping and communicating with UFOs around Monterey for several years. In 2013, filmmaker Justin Gaar began documenting the man and his experiences. Christo is revealed as a traveling UFO preacher, explaining his encounters to passersby, asking about their own encounters and spreading his gospel of extraterrestrial salvation.
Seriously, it’s true: In a YouTube announcement on June 25, Christo Roppolo introduced to his fans the sequel, The Man Who Sees UFOs, from director Matthew Kalamane. 

L’Arrivo di Wang (Dir: Antonio & Marco Manetti; stars Ennio Fantastichini, Francesca Cuttica, Juliet Esey Joseph and Li Yong; Italy, 2011) English: The Arrival of Wang
Plot: An extraterrestrial has arrived on earth and it is up to bewildered government investigators to find out its motive; in the meantime, the interpreter senses the alien’s mindgames hold a sinister secret.
Seriously, it’s true: Drew some ire for the filmmaker’s decision to have the alien adopt Mandarin as it’s language. Some critics claimed it was a race-based comment on the perceived global domination of Chinese business interests.

Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru (Dir: Kôji Shima; stars Keizô Kawasaki, Toyomi Karita, Bin Yagisawa; Japan, 1956) English: Warning from Space.
Plot: Starfish-like aliens disguised as humans travel to Earth to warn of the imminent collision of a rogue star into our planet. As the megaton projectile rapidly accelerates toward Earth, the aliens and humankind develop a plan to save our world.
Seriously, it’s true: This was the first color tokusatsu film (a live action work that makes heavy use of special effects) produced in Japan. It beat the Toho Studio's science fiction spectacle, The Mysterians (1957) - the first tokusatsu film in widescreen - into theaters by a year.

Treta sled slantzeto (Dir: Gueorgui Stoyanov; stars Itschak Fintzi, Naum Shopov, Nikolay Nikolaev; Bulgaria, 1972) English: Third Planet in the Solar Sytstem
Plot: In prehistoric times, an alien spaceship delivers its crew to Earth to lay the foundation for a new civilization. Through surgical procedures on apes, the aliens program the future spiritual evolution of Earth (Ed: What the....?).
Seriously, it’s true: The Bulgarian film industry’s first ever science-fiction film. Despite its financial failure, director Gueorgui Stoyanov became a hugely respected elder statesmen of the sector; he would earn the position of the Counselor of Culture at the Bulgarian embassy in Washington D.C. and President of the Bulgarian Filmmaker’s Union.

WORLD UFO DAY event calendar can be found here. 

'VIVI IL CINEMA!': CANNES 2020 TITLES COUNTER COVID CANCELLATION

PARIS: Artistic director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure shared the stage at the UGC Normandie Theatre to announce the line-up of the 73rd Festival de Cannes overnight. In a year when tradition has made way for the practicalities of pandemic living, the pair favoured a television interview format over the usual press conference to reveal the 56 films to earn the ‘Cannes 2020’ Official Selection label.

"This selection was built with the prospect of seeing the Cannes Film Festival assume more than ever its primary mission: to promote films, artists and professionals by showing their work, to be the bridge between the screen and the public," said Frémaux, via a prepared statement. "Cinema makes a difference thanks to those who make it, those who give it life and those who receive it and make it glorious." 

With the cancellation of the physical event, the iconic In Competition, Un Certain Regard and Out of Competition strands have made way for a new set of categorizations. ‘The Faithful’ is a collection of 14 films from directors who have been to the Croisette at least once before; ‘The Newcomers’ are 14 festival debutants; and, ‘The First Features’ includes 15 films from first-time directors. Also In the mix are ‘Five Comedy Films’, ‘Four Animated Features’, ‘Three Documentary Films’ and a single ‘Omnibus Film’. (Pictured, right; a scene from director Maïwenn’s French/Algerian co-production, DNA, chosen in 'The Faithful' lineup)  

Other notable statistics that indicate the festival is still the premiere international film event, even in the face of unprecedented disruption to the global festival circuit, include a submission record of 2067 films; an increase to 16 in the number of women filmmakers in the lie-up; and, the feature film first-time directors representing 28% of the selection roster.

The Short Film competition, Cinéfondation competition selections and Cannes Classics program will be revealed in the days ahead. Already announced is a 4K-remastered edition of Wong Kar-Wai’s masterpiece In the Mood for Love, which will be released in French theaters next December. 

The 2020 Festival de Cannes line-up is:

THE FAITHFUL:
THE FRENCH DISPATCH by Wes Anderson (USA; trailer, below)
SUMMER 85 by François Ozon (France)
ASA GA KURU (True Mothers) by Naomi Kawase (Japan)
LOVERS ROCK by Steve McQueen (England)
MANGROVE by Steve McQueen (England)
DRUK (Another Round) by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
Maïwenn’s DNA (DNA) (Algeria / France)
LAST WORDS by Jonathan Nossiter (USA)
HEAVEN: TO THE LAND OF HAPPINESS by IM Sang-Soo (Korea)
EL OLVIDO QUE SEREMOS (Forgotten we’ll be) by Fernando Trueba (Spain)
PENINSULA by YEON Sang-Ho (Korea)
IN THE DUSK (At dusk) by Sharunas BARTAS (Lithuania)
DES HOMMES (Home Front) by Lucas BELVAUX (Belgium)
THE REAL THING by Kôji Fukada (Japan)

THE NEWCOMERS:
PASSION SIMPLE by Danielle Arbid – (Lebanon)
A GOOD MAN by Marie Castille Mention-Schaar (France)
THE THINGS YOU SAY, THE THINGS YOU DO by Emmanuel Mouret (France)
SOUAD by Ayten Amin (Egypt)
LIMBO by Ben Sharrock (England)
ROUGE (Red Soil) by Farid Bentoumi (France)
SWEAT by Magnus Von Horn (Sweden)
TEDDY by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (France)
FEBRUARY (February) by Kamen Kalev (Bulgaria)
AMMONITE by Francis Lee (England)
A NIGHT DOCTOR by Elie Wajeman (France)
ENFANT TERRIBLE by Oskar Roehler (Germany)
NADIA, BUTTERFLY by Pascal Plante (Canada; trailer, below)
HERE WE ARE by Nir Bergman (Israel)

THE FIRST FEATURES:
FALLING by Viggo Mortensen (USA)
PLEASURE by Ninja Thyberg (Sweden)
SLALOM by Charlène Favier (France)
CASA DE ANTIGUIDADES (Memory House) by Joao Paulo Miranda Maria (Brazil)
BROKEN KEYS (False note) by Jimmy Keyrouz (Lebanon)
IBRAHIM by Samir Guesmi (France)
BEGINNING (In the beginning) by Déa Kulumbegashvili (Georgia)
GAGARINE by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh (France)
16 SPRING by Suzanne Lindon (France)
VAURIEN by Peter Dourountzis (France)
GARÇON CHIFFON by Nicolas Maury (France)
SI LE VENT TOMBE ( Should the Wind Fall ) by Nora Martirosyan (Armenia)
JOHN AND THE HOLE by Pascual Sisto (USA)
INTO THE WIND ( Running with the Wind ) by Shujun WEI (China)
THE DEATH OF CINEMA AND MY FATHER TOO ( The film Death and my father too ) by Dani Rosenberg (Israel)

FOUR ANIMATED FEATURES:
AYA TO MAJO (Earwig and the Witch) by Gorô Miyazaki (Japan)
FLEE by Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Denmark)
JOSEP by Aurel (France)
SOUL by Pete Docter (USA; trailer, above)

FIVE COMEDY FILMS:
ANTOINETTE IN THE CÉVÈNNES by Caroline Vignal (France)
LES DEUX ALFRED by Bruno Podalydès (France)
UN TRIOMPHE ( The big hit ) by Emmanuel Courcol (France)
THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD by Laurent Lafitte ( France)
THE SPEECH by Laurent Tirard (France)

THREE DOCUMENTARY FILMS:
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw (USA)
9 DAYS AT RAQQA by Xavier de Lauzanne (France)
ON THE ROUTE FOR THE BILLION ( The Billion Road ) by Dieudo Hamadi (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

OMNIBUS FILM:
SEPTET: THE STORY OF HONG KONG by Ann Hui, Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-Ping and Patrick Tam (Hong Kong)

VIRTUAL INDIGENOUS FILM FESTIVAL TO LAUNCH IN RECONCILIATION WEEK

The burgeoning online film festival landscape expands further with the launch of the 2020 Virtual Indigenous Film Festival this week. In conjunction with National Reconciliation Week, streaming provider Fanforce TV will present in-home content that speaks directly to the history, culture and society of Australia’s indigenous people.

National Reconciliation Week aims to teach all Australians about our shared histories, cultures and achievements. This year's theme, #InThisTogether, reminds us that we all shape our country’s journey towards an equitable and reconciled nation. National Reconciliation Week is held annually from 27 May to 3 June, as these dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey - respectively, the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision. 

The programming of the Virtual Indigenous Film Festival highlights narratives that address the intertwined ancient and contemporary indigenous experience. The six films to screen are Maya Newell’s In My Blood it Runs (pictured, right), a coming-of-age story pitting the traditions of the Arrernte/Garrwa people against state education; Daniel Gordon’s account of footballer Adam Goodes’ journey, The Australian Dream; Paul Williams’ biography of the late singer/songwriter, Gurrumul; Nicholas Wrathall’s Undermined: Tales From the Kimberley, an insight into the industrial exploitation of First Nation’s sacred land; Sera Davies’ chronicle of a family fighting for the return of their patriarch’s legacy, Namatjira Project; and, Aaron Petersen’s moving account of a disenfranchised Aboriginal youth and his rite-of-passage to manhood, Zach’s Ceremony (pictured, top).

In addition to the feature films, Fanforce TV enables audiences to ask questions and discuss topics in real time with the guest speakers and community leaders via live chat and live streaming features. Speakers and panelists include Zach and Alec Doomadgee, the stars of Zach’s Ceremony; Elke Smirl, from Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place; and, representatives from such bodies as the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, Reconciliation S.A. and Mallee District Aboriginal Services.

"It will be a great opportunity for us to speak directly to people everywhere about our film and its educational programs that have been making a real impact,” says Zach Domadgee (pictured, right), via press release. “This is what Reconciliation Week is about."

“We are hoping that the Festival will inspire lots of discussion with audiences right across Australia and New Zealand.” says Fanforce founder Danny Lachevre. “At most festivals it is difficult or intimidating for the audience to ask questions or join the conversation. This will remove those barriers and enable everyone to join in from the privacy of their homes.”

The 2020 VIRTUAL INDIGENOUS FILM FESTIVAL will run May 27 to June 3. Ticket sales and further information are available at FANFORCE TV. 

SCREEN-SPACE acknowledges and pays respect to past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that the festival may contain images or names of people who have passed away.