MIFF moves into Southbank

For the first time this year the Melbourne International Film Festival comes to Southbank, with Village Cinemas Crown taking on the role of co-host for the popular three-week event, which opened on August 6 and runs until August 23.

According to festival artistic director Al Cossar, the inclusion was due purely to demand.

“With audience demand growing faster than ever, MIFF continues to expand its footprint across cinemas throughout the CBD to ensure that Melbourne film fans have the most opportunities to be part of the festival in 2026,” he told Southbank News.

“We look forward to presenting some of the most hotly anticipated titles from the festival program on the big screen at Village Cinemas Crown, in cinemas that will ensure the artists’ work looks and sounds incredible for audiences.”

Two cinemas at Village Crown will screen festival films, with the venue added to a schedule of seven other main city-based venues for MIFF’s 74^th edition.

A scene from Sofia Coppola’s documentary about fashion designer Marc Jacobs, Marc by Sofia.

Among the films showing locally are a swag of documentaries, from Australia and overseas, including several on music – the Newport Folk Festival (Newport & the Great Folk Dream), rock band Jebediah (Jebediah: Are We OK?), an international whistling competition (Whistle), and Tina Arena (Tina Arena: Unravel Me).

Also under the spotlight – the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal between England and Argentina (The Match), fashion designer Marc Jacobs, as seen by Sofia Coppola (Marc by Sofia) and “defamation lawfare” against women who expose gendered violence (Silenced).

Gender and sexuality-themed dramas to screen include a French film about a WWI clandestine romance between soldiers, whose two leads shared the best actor award at Cannes (Coward).

A German examination of male privilege via a folktale about a woman posing as a male soldier in 17^th century Germany also won international plaudits, with lead actor Sandra Huller winning a Silver Bear at Berlin (Rose).

Also showing is absurdist, talking-animal black comedy The Fox, which features the voice of the late Sam Neill as the fox and Olivia Coleman as his magpie companion.

Other comedies include an interrogation of creativity by director Pedro Almodovar (Bitter Christmas), a best friend boarding school tale of cluelessness (Extra Geography) and “gory Gothic romp” Victorian Psycho).

There is an animated adaption of opera Carmen, told through the eyes of children (Viva Carmen) and the true story-inspired story of a teenaged refugee in the Central African Republic trying to forge a career as a rapper (Congo Boy).

In addition to standard single session tickets or passes, MIFF offers $12 Rush Tix for selected sessions, which are announced daily at 11.30am and are available from 12pm to 2pm. For more information: miff.com.au