Last month Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) teased its opening night film, Memoir of a Snail, a new stop-motion animation by filmmaker Adam Elliot and voiced by a star-studded cast, including Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jacki Weaver.

We also learned there’ll be screenings of Jane Schoenbrun’s horror-drama I Saw the TV Glow, Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man starring Sebastian Stan, Frederick Wiseman’s documentary Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros about Michelin-star restaurants in France, and family film Magic Beach based on Alison Lester’s classic children’s book.

Now, MIFF has lifted the curtain on its epic program, which includes more than 250 feature films, plus shorts, XR (extended reality) experiences and filmmaker appearances, all happening from August 8 to 25.

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The MIFF headliners include 11 of the most talked-about movies in cinema right now. There’s Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, featuring Adam Driver – a 40-year passion project for the famed director; All We Imagine as Light – a dreamy drama about a friendship between three nurses in India – directed by Payal Kapadia (A Night of Knowing Nothing); and Demi Moore in a gory satirical feminist body horror that won Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival 2024.

Plus, Grand Tour, a black-and-white odyssey by Miguel Gomes, who won Best Director at Cannes for his genre mash-up, seemingly about a man running from his wife-to-be. And there’s Guy Maddin’s Rumours with Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, a brain in the forest and masturbating zombies.

If you are here for Hollywood actors in indie roles: Elijah Wood stars as a wayward father in coming-of-age flick Bookworm; Ilana Glazer (Broad City) has written and stars in “mom-com” Babes (that’s being called a perinatal Bridesmaids); Tilda Swinton plays a demanding boss in A24’s latest offbeat comedy Problemista; and Saoirse Ronan is a recovering addict in an adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s 2017 novel.

MIFF documentaries include Black Box Diaries about the case that launched #MeToo in Japan; Berlinale Golden Bear-winning documentary Dahomey looks at repatriation of a statue and other artefacts; and Secret Mall Apartment is about an artist collective that spent four years living inside a shopping mall.

MIFF is also screening a bunch of world premieres, including Left Write Hook by Shannon Owen about survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Plus, director Charles Williams’s prison drama Inside will screen in competition as part of Bright Horizons, MIFF’s flagship prize of $140,000. And Runt stars Jai Courtney, Celeste Barber, Jack Thompson and Deborah Mailman.

See the full program – and details of MIFF Online (Aug 9–25) – via the link below.

Melbourne International Film Festival runs from August 8–25. General tickets are on sale from 9am, Tuesday July 16.

miff.com.au