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    MIFF, Opening Night

    Melbourne International Film Festival 2015 Wrap-Up

    By | Features

    Now that the 64th Melbourne International Film Festival has drawn to a close, we look back at the festival as a whole.

    Awards

    Since this year we had over 120 reviews and the viewing of our writers was so varied, we’re unable to provide singular picks for all of the best elements of the festival, due to a lack of consensus. As a result, we have asked writers to propose films worthy of these awards, and have included them here. Since there is also a large overlap in content between the Sydney Film Festival and MIFF, we have excluded films that played at Sydney from the running for an award here. You can see our SFF Wrap-Up here.

    Note: awards listed “consensus” require 2 or more writers to have seen and rated the film.

    horse money

    Consensus – Best Film of the Festival: Horse Money, dir. Pedro Costa – PORTUGAL

    “The film’s visual organisation mimics the looseness of its narrative, blurring the principles that classically structure space and temporality. Characters find themselves largely in half-built (or half-dilapidated) institutional spaces; remnants of hospitals, prisons and factories whose functional qualities have been stripped away by decay” – Review by Ivan Čerečina

    Sydney Film Festival pick: Tehran Taxi

    Snow Monkey

    Consensus – Best Documentaries of the Festival: 

    Snow Monkey, dir. George Gittoes – AUSTRALIA

    “Snow Monkey is George Gittoes’ strongest work as a filmmaker, and an absolute realisation of his artistic intention in Jalalabad. It neglects a conventional form and pace for a lengthy, slow-burning, and deeply humanistic impressionism; those familiar with Gittoes’ previous work will view Snow Monkey as his masterpiece.” – Review by Jeremy Elphick

    Storm Children – Book One, dir. Lav Diaz – THE PHILIPPINES

    “It’s a mesmerising, beautiful film that wordlessly transmits its vision while also playing with Diaz’s continual fascination with time and duration.” – Review by Brad Mariano

    Sydney Film Festival picks: The Look of Silence, Welcome to Leith

    The Guest

    Best Night Shift Feature: The Guest, dir. Adam Wingard – USA

    “…a self-aware, aesthetically accomplished and joyfully-bombastic throwback to ’80s straight-to-video fare. Weaving in elements of thrillers, horror and the Seagal vehicles of yesteryear, [Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett] have crafted a wonderful homage/parody of the era’s B-movie offerings that manages to never be too on-the-nose with its humour and maintains a fairly entertaining facade of legitimate plot throughout.” – Review by Felix Hubble

    Best Retrospective Films: Tokyo Olympiad (dir. Kon Ichikawa, 1965), La Prisionnere (dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1968), Dark Age (dir. Arch Nicholson, 1987)

    Best Witness to the Fact Film: Tales of the Grim Sleeper, dir. Nick Broomfield – UK/USA

    “While the lives of serial killers are visually recreated ad finitum by true crime shows – the result of Western culture’s obsession with mass-murder – it’s rare to see a non-paternalistic documentary that tackles social and economic inequality so effectively, clearly drawing a through-line from its causes to its consequences without undermining its victims.” – Review by Felix Hubble

    Heaven Knows What, Arielle Holmes

    Best Acting Performances:

    Arielle Holmes, Heaven Knows What

    “perhaps the film’s most fascinating feature are the intricate performances from Holmes and her (also drug-addicted and often homeless) friends as dramatized versions of themselves…as a result of these casting decisions, the film feels deeply personal and shockingly accurate” – Review by Felix Hubble

    Elisabeth Moss, Queen of Earth

    “Her dual role as a producer and actor merely underlines the commitment she has to this performance, one that demands her to expunge an ugly emotional underside that few people would admit to being capable of. She’s caustic, turning malignant spatter into terrifying emotional gristle with consummate skill.” – Review by Jaymes Durante

    Sydney Film Festival picks: Willem Dafoe in Pasolini, Ewen Leslie in The Daughter, Chiara D’Anna and Sidse Babett Knudsen in The Duke of Burgundy

    Best Cinematography:

    Leonardo Simões, Horse Money

    “Establishing shots are rare, with characters often framed in exquisite enveloping darkness that shows just a hint of abandoned rooms and corridors around them.” – Review by Ivan Čerečina

    Sydney Film Festival picks: Marius Panduru for Aferim!, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen for Victoria

    Best Musical Score: Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, Mistress America

    “Though Dean Wareheim and Britta Phillips have been doing some music for Baumbach’s films since Mr. Jealousy in 1997, here their synth-heavy score is the thumping heartbeat of the film, aping New Order and kindred spirits to Keegan DeWitt’s music in last year’s Land Ho!.” – Review by Conor Bateman

    Thank You For Playing

    Special Prizes

    Most Tragically Underattended Film: Thank You For Playing, dir. David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall – USA

    Best Prosthetic Penis: A close race between reigning champion Eisenstein in Guanujanto and The Overnight, with The Overnight narrowly surpassing its competitor.

    Best Performance as Versions of Themselves: Arielle Holmes (Heaven Knows What), Li Wen (Li Wen at East Lake), Ventura (Horse Money), Brandy Burre (Actress).

    Best Singular Shot: A Poem is a Naked Person (panning shot across reflections in a river), Horse Money (windows in courtyard forming a border around Ventura and Vitalina)

    Most Divisive Film: The Witch (3R, 4NR)

    Most Unnecessary Film: James White

    Best Use of Music (the honorary Pretty Girl Rock award): “Rosanna” by Toto in Mistress America

    Worst Advertisement Played Before a MIFF Film: Subaru Outback

    Video

    4:3 managing editor Conor Bateman sat down with Fandor’s Kevin B. Lee to talk through some of the best films of MIFF at the halfway point.

    Interviews

    Pre-MIFF interviews:

    Reviews (124)

    Highly Recommended Recommended Not Recommended Strongly Not Recommended

    * = review from a previous festival