MIFF Premiere Fund

Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.

When the body of his oldest friend is found buried in a shallow grave, Dan, a small-town cop, seeks answers from a volatile hermit who was the last person to see his friend alive. As Dan gets closer to the truth, he must confront his own personal demons and he discovers that hope can be found in unlikely places.

Shayda, a young Iranian woman living in Australia, finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz, she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.

As notions of civil rights transformed across the world, so was the screen landscape reformed by the ascension of grassroots film movements seeking to challenge the mainstream. Some aspired to push form to its limit; others worked to destabilise what they saw as a homogenous industry, or to provoke questions around gender, sexuality, migration and race.

Through various modes of surveillance we observe an overprotective young woman, Winnie, and her disabled brother, Stevie, caught in a web of intrigue involving a bomb plot, inept anarchists, ambitious police and a corrupt politician. The duplicity of Winnie’s boyfriend, Conrad Verloc -political activist and police informant –propels these siblings down a deadly path. But justice may prevail in the aftermath, via the surveillance collected, compiled and presented by Special Crimes Sergeant Kylie Heat.

New Years Eve. 1999. Minnie discovers a bottle of time travelling tequila. Each shot takes her back to the start of the night - giving her a bottle’s worth of shots to win back her old flame Joe, and change the course of her millennium.

As four teens navigate the flashpoint of adolescent relationships, their lives will be forever scarred by a tragedy that engulfs their city. Teenagers Billie and Laura, who live in Canberra’s suburban outskirts, are best friends and share everything – even, as it turns out, Laura’s boyfriend Danny, although Laura doesn’t know this. During the summer of Canberra’s bushfires, Billie’s mother welcomes the troubled Isaac into her care and his presence causes disarray in the girls’ friendship: Laura finds herself drawn to the gentle but intense newcomer while Billie’s unpredictable ways threaten self-destruction.

The chronicle of the life and great love of Otto Bloom, an extraordinary man who experiences time in reverse - passing backwards through the years only remembering the future.

When cricket obsessed Teddy Brown realizes his mates are growing up and moving on, he leads them and his D-Grade team on an audacious tour of India, where stumps fly, friendships fray and Ted learns that it's time to start playing shots for himself.

An idealistic film student is drawn into a shadowy and intoxicating world when she befriends an enigmatic performance artist.

In Mongolia’s remote Tsakhir Valley, Batbold faces the greatest challenge of his young life: safeguarding 1,000 horses during the deadliest winter on record.

ROCK N ROLL NERD is an intimate tale that charts Tim Minchin’s meteoric rise from obscurity to celebrity. Capturing every moment of Tim’s first frenzied break onto the comedy scene the documentary weaves never-before-seen performance footage, backstage antics, home footage and candid interviews into a funny and deeply personal story of love and ambition.

Australian documentary follows eight female survivors of childhood sexual abuse who participate in a 2-year experimental recovery program that combines the physicality of boxing with the emotional power of expressive writing.

Big dreams wrestle bitter truths as three teenage girls pursue Olympic history. Shot over seven years, this coming-of-age documentary chronicles the journey from childhood to adulthood and the moments that define us.

Relive the most thrilling moments of Australia’s beloved tennis tournament in this chronicle of its ascent to top-seed status on the global stage.