Grab the popcorn and get comfy film fans, because the Melbourne International Film Festival has dropped its first bumper announce of 2018.
This year’s offering will kick off with a gala performance of Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife, starring Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Australia’s Ed Oxenbould.
Based on Richard Ford’s touching 1990 novel, it explores the emotional struggle of a teen whose family is drifting apart, set against the backdrop of 1960’s Montana. Having wowed judges and audiences alike at both Sundance and Cannes, Wildlife has heralded Dano — an already celebrated on-screen talent — as a future auteur in the making.
In addition to 2018’s curtain-raiser, MIFF has also revealed its First Glance selection of 32 films set to headline this year’s fest. Amongst this crop, a jury favourite at several international film festivals, Chloe Grace Moretz delivers a Sundance Award-winning performance in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, an uncompromising coming of age drama examining America’s gay conversion therapy camps. Other highlights include the Joaquin Phoenix helmed vengeance saga You Were Never Really Here, directed by Lynne Ramsay, and acclaimed TV director Michael Pearce makes his feature debut in the tense crime thriller, Beast.
Amongst this year’s music features is Blaze, directed by Ethan Hawke, a bold and boundary-breaking exploration of the father of the Texas Outlaw Music movement, starring newcomer Benjamin Dickey and Alia Shawkat. Also on offer, another Sundance Award-winner, Stephen Loveridge’s deep dive into the life of Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam, MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.
Full details of MIFF's First Glance program are available on the MIFF website.
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