We know what the Sydney Film Festival has in store for its 2014 incarnation, and now it’s time for the drip-feeding of news from the Melbourne International Film Festival to begin rolling in. The huge annual film festival will be running from the 31st of July until the 17th of August of this year. And today we know the first of over 300 films in the programme for this year.
As always, the festival kicks off with an almighty bang with the annual Opening Night Gala and this year is no different. Along with the traditional formal party comes the first Australian screening of Predestination, a tense time-travel thriller directed by Australian filmmakers the Spierig Brothers, who previously directed Undead and Daybreakers.
Predestination deals with the compounding paradoxes of repeated time travel, and stars Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snooke, and Noah Taylor, and was based on the sci-fi short story “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein.
The Film Festival will be somewhat different to previous years, with the recent closing of the Russell Street Greater Union Cinema, which served as the regular festival epicentre. Instead, the festival will be shifting a little further into the city to incorporate the Hoyts at Melbourne Central, along with usual city and city fringe venues such as Kino Cinema, ACMI, and the Forum Theatre.
The Next Gen portion of the programme – a youth-focused selection of films – will be unveiled on Monday May 19th, whilst the entire programme will be revealed on Tuesday July 8th.
The Opening Night gala, which includes a screening of Predestination along with a glitzy cocktail after party, takes place on the first night of the festival at the Hamer Hall at the Melbourne Arts Centre.
In the meantime, check out this Q&A with Predestination directors Michael and Peter Spierig, along with star Ethan Hawke, at the world premiere of the film at this year’s SXSW festival in Texas.
