Festival Archive 1952-2019

The MIFF online archive contains 68 past editions of the festival (1952–2019) for you to browse or search through. We hope the archive will be a resource used by festival goers, film lovers, students, historians and whoever else would like to learn more about the types of films MIFF has screened over the years, or to track the trajectory of the festival’s curatorship, its directors and its scope.

Search options currently include: ‘Festival Year’, ‘Film Title’, ‘Director’ and ‘Country’.

A big thank you to our MIFF volunteers and partners who have helped make this archive possible.

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. With over 12,000 film synopses and more than 9000 directors’ names, there may appear a few typos here and there as our database comes to terms with special characters (my, there was a huge amount of Eastern European cinema screened at the festival back in the 60s!) and other items that need manual tweaking. Similarly, sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are slowly filling these in with further research. 


MIFF2002

MIFF2002 Festival Program

Festival Program
170 feature films and 187 short films were screened from 23 July to 11 August
Full Program

Program in Focus
The 51st MIFF program's curatorial umbrellas include International Panorama, Documentaries, Backbeat: Music on Film, Australian Showcase and Regional Focus. A live, via satellite, interview with Peter Bogdanovich and a series of forums, panels, lectures and Q&A sessions also took place. New Scandinavian Cinema, Rotterdam Discoveries, Animation Gallery, There Goes the Neighbourhood! Humour on Film also featured. 

Filmmaker in Focus
Kim Ki-duk. A selection of the filmmaker's work was screened. 
{focus Kim Ki-duk}

Opening Night Film
The Tracker (Rolf de Heer, 2002)
More

 

 

Welcome to the 51 st edition of the Melbourne International Film Festival and my second as Executive Director. The slogan for this year's Festival, 'Crossing Borders', is intended to underline the role of film, and ultimately our Festival, not just as an escape from the rigours of our daily lives, but in tracing the political, cultural and social seismic shifts around us.

Our Australian Showcase gives voice to contemporary Australia in all its diversity. The intense dynamism of the Asian region is expressed in discovering the new generation of Asian women filmmakers to the tornadoes of Japanese renegade Mike Takashi, plus at the Festival's very centre in the uncompromising work of South Korean Kim Ki-Duk.

Short films are again at the heart or this year's Festival with surveys of filmmakers Jeunet and Caro, the Brothers Quay plus the irrepressible Phil Mulloy and, of course, the International Short Film Competition.

Whether it's new work by Godard, de Heer and Im, discovering newcomers Goldman, Jeong and Reygadas or Scorsese's extraordinary - and deeply personal - paean to cinema, I have no doubt you'll be surprised, moved, entertained and certainty challenged throughout the twenty days of MIFF.

My personal thanks to all of the Festival staff for their passion and commitment. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the Festival Chair & Board, MIFF members and supporters, including the industry, sponsors plus of course the filmmakers themselves.

James Hewison
Executive Director

Introduction taken from the 2002 official guide

James Hewison

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