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. 


MIFF2004

MIFF2004 Festival Program

Festival Program
236 feature films and 140 short films were screened from 21 July to 8 August
Full Program

Program in Focus
The 53rd festival program's curatorial umbrellas including International Panorama, Australia Showcase, and Raw Japanese Cinema and Regional Focus for the second and third years respectively. New Cinema from Thailand rounded out a strong focus on Asian cinema. Middle Eastern and new crime cinema also featured. As per previous programs, New Scandinavian Cinema, Animation Gallery, Music on Film, Documentaries and short films featured.

Filmmaker in Focus
Chang Cheh. A retrospective of Cheh's work was screened. 
{focus Chang Cheh}

Opening Night Film
Somersault (Cate Shortland, 2004)  
More

Welcome to the 53rd Melbourne International Film Festival, our city's annual celebration of the world's film's cultures. When it comes to our perceptions of the Middle East and its state(s) of unease, the answer to the rhetorical 'Need to Know' slogan of this year's MIFF is unequivocally "yes"!  We wilt trace not only the 'fault lines' in the Middle East, but also attempt to get to know this region and its myriad cultures better through cinema.

It's vital for a contemporary Film Festival to be a hybrid of content AND events, of adventures and contemplation. This year we present a range of unique events, from Christopher Doyle's wild cinematographic expeditions Why i am not a Painter to our returning guest, virtuoso organist Ernesto Maurice Corpus performing to Tod Browning's The Unknown and the Australian classic The Man From Kangaroo. These events explore the boundaries of cinema plus the expectations of audiences—they are an integral component of a dynamic Film  Festival.

This year's Australian Showcase reveals our filmmakers searching not only for their place in Australia but also beyond our borders. MIFF will be presenting premieres of local work from internationally renowned filmmakers Paul Cox; and Clara Law, in addition to championing emerging talents; such as Cate Shortland.

From Tehran to Bangkok, from St. Kilda to Stockholm, I urge you to take the trip!

James Hewison
Executive Director

Introduction taken from the 2004 official guide

James Hewison

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