The 60th anniversary program of the Melbourne International Film Festival has been announced, with the opening night slot going to
The Fairy (Belgium), which also opened the Cannes Director's Fortnight.
Of the film, a contemporary homage to Chaplin, Tati and Keaton, MIFF Artistic Director Michelle Carey said, “
The Fairy is that rare case of a festival-friendly film that is honourably humanist and inventive yet unapologetically accessible and comical. That it is also whimsical and a little nostalgic makes it the perfect opening for the 60th MIFF.”
The festival will also play host to the world premiere of Fred Schepisi's latest. From the press release:
"Featuring in the Australian Showcase, Fred Schepisi’s
The Eye of the Storm will have its World Premiere on Saturday 23 July. Based on the Patrick White novel, the film follows Sir Basil (Festival Patron Geoffrey Rush), a famous and very dandyish theatre actor in London and Dorothy (Judy Davis), an impecunious French princess, who both attempt to reconcile with their dying mother (Charlotte Rampling)."
Other local films on the bill include Michael Rymer's adaptation of David Williamson's play
Face to Face, starring Vince Colosimo, Sigrid
Thornton, Matthew Newton and Luke Ford, Jon Hewitt’s
X, and David Bradbury’s documentary about Paul Cox,
On Borrowed Time."
New additions to the program's various strands include the Prime Time spotlight, which focuses on works made for television (including ABC's adaptation of Christos Tsolkas'
The Slap), and the TeleScope spotlight, which features 12 films from 12 countries, including Sergio Caballero's Finisterrae (Spain).
The ever-popular Backbeat strand, dedicated to the horizon point between cinema and music, this year features a rich lineup including Natalie van den Dungen's
Persecution Blues: The Fight For The Tote, and
Better Than Something - Jay Reatard, a doco featuring interviews and unseen footage of Reatard, who died last year.
The 2011 Festival will run 21 July – 7 August. For further information visit
miff.com.au.