Presented by VicScreen, Bright Horizons sees a stellar line-up of first- and second-time filmmakers competing for one of the world’s richest film prizes.
Several sessions have guests in attendance (marked with a ✨ below), and don’t forget you can grab a Bright Horizons Pass to see all 11 competition films at a discounted price!
Image: Tótem
Ama Gloria
A heartbreaking and unforgettably tender portrait of a six-year-old French girl’s bond with her Cape Verdean nanny. This compellingly delicate drama from Marie Amachoukeli brims with a feel-good energy that’s impossible to resist.
12 and 18 August
Animalia
Recalling the humanism of Steven Spielberg and the inner voyages of Terrence Malick, Sofia Alaoui’s heady blend of sci-fi genre-bending and apocalyptic tension uses an alien invasion to examine faith and family in contemporary Morocco.
12 and 18 August
Banel & Adama
This haunting fable from Ramata-Toulaye Sy follows two star-cross’d lovers whose defiance of tradition leads their Senegalese village to believe they have incited a curse. A beguiling tale of folklore, fate, madness and obsession.
13 (✨), 16 and 18 August
Disco Boy
Franz Rogowski propels Giacomo Abbruzzese’s mesmeric musing on wounded masculinity in which a rogue Belarusian stumbles into the French Foreign Legion – and into the path of another lost soldier. A luminous story of outsiders adrift.
13 and 19 August
Earth Mama
This absorbing, empathetic portrait of motherhood from former Olympic athlete and Grammy winner Savanah Leaf follows a young, heavily pregnant Black woman caught up in a spiral of institutional disadvantage.
12, 16 (✨) and 18 (✨) August
How to Have Sex
A sun-drenched, hormone-laden trip of teenage kicks turns dark in Molly Manning Walker’s compellingly contemporary navigation of sexual politics, which staunchly refuses the coming-of-age clichés of its Hollywood counterparts.
14 (✨), 17 (✨) and 18 (✨) August
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Evoking the pensive works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming-liang, Pham Thien An’s hypnotic and transcendental Cannes Caméra d’Or winner traces a young man’s mystical journey across a beguiling rural Vietnam.
13, 16 (✨) and 18 (✨) August + MIFF Play
The Rooster
Hugo Weaving and Phoenix Raei play a hermit and a cop who form an unlikely connection amid crisis in Mark Leonard Winter’s wonderfully weird sucker-punch of tenderness. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund. Presented by The Monthly.
12 (✨) and 13 August
Shayda
Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Holy Spider, MIFF 2022) anchors Noora Niasari’s lauded portrait of an Iranian mother seeking a new life for herself and her daughter in Australia. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund.
12, 15 (✨), 18 (✨) and 19 August
The Sweet East
Indie cinematographer Sean Price Williams makes his directorial debut with this freewheeling picaresque trip through the cliques and communes of today’s USA. Chatty, compulsive, always unpredictable and hilarious in its mayhem.
19 August
Tótem
A spellbinding family portrait that presents a child’s-eye view of love, loss and life in all their messy, glorious colour. Lila Avilés infuses every scene with abundant life, creating a bittersweet and beautiful work of emotional depth.
15 (✨), 17 (✨) and 19 (✨) August
Win a double pass to Banel & Adama
“Stirring … With its balletic choreography of performance and statuesque visual approach, [Banel & Adama] is a work of remarkable composition.” – Little White Lies
We have multiple double passes up for grabs for the Sunday 13 August screening of Banel & Adama, where director Ramata-Toulaye Sy will be in attendance!
