Strands

Hot festival favourites and new sensations fill BIFF 2019’s feature film line-up. Prepare to be seduced and uplifted by this exciting group of Australian and international filmmakers at the height of their talents.

The wonder of human creativity and ingenuity is highlighted in these emotionally stimulating and thought-provoking documentaries from across the world.

Presented in conjunction with the Gallery’s BIFF exhibition ‘Setting the Stage’, this strand looks at the way film can draw on the formal aspects of the stage — from its construction, aesthetics, language and purpose — to role-play social and political ideas.

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has handpicked some of his favourite films to share with audiences at BIFF 2019.

Celebrating five exciting films that spring from the rich and unique creative relationship between director Baz Luhrmann and designer Catherine Martin.

A narrative product of the social trauma of colonialism and slavery in Haiti, the zombie has been a fixture in our cinematic imaginations since the 1930s, when the first ghouls stumbled across the screen in Victor Halperin’s White Zombie 1932.

Future Moves is a selection of works that trace out new directions for film, exploring the medium’s particular ability to engage and process imagery within the framework of narrative and storytelling.

These films depict life on the urban fringes through four portraits of social dislocation, in which lead characters reject, or are spurned from, the mainstream of their community. In a time of increasingly fractured societies, these films interrogate the causes and effects of social disconnection and isolation.

Sound affects how we experience the world. At their heart, these exceptional and eclectic films highlight the rewards that come from an astute approach to listening and the crafting of audio.

‘The Creative Process’ celebrates the artists who draw deeply from their own lives, ask searching questions and endeavour to be accountable to their inspiration and their audience.

What makes us human? A grand question, but one of the potential answers lies in an individual’s will to transform when their desires are not in harmony with the world. In this selection of films from filmmakers across Asia, reconciliation takes many forms.

For some two decades, Iranian cinema has been in the international spotlight. This vibrant national cinema seems to continually renew itself.

Voices in African Cinema highlights some of the vibrant and eloquent voices from the African continent.

Archive fever is upon us in 2018. This mix of five experimental and essay films are made by cinephiles. Using the collage technique their love of cinema is captured in the sheer wealth of material sampled.

Restored Revelations is a selection of cinematic works from outside the well-trodden canon, whose recent digital restorations offer an exciting opportunity to view these little-seen masterpieces for the first time in decades.

Bruce Beresford Directs highlights a small selection of films from the long, rich career of BIFF Festival Patron Bruce Beresford – from the acclaimed Australian courtroom drama Breaker Morant 1980 to Beresford’s sumptuous new release Ladies in Black 2018.

Academy Award-nominated director and writer Bruce Beresford shares with BIFF audiences some of his favourite films across cinema history.

BIFF’s program of short films celebrates the unique craft of short-form filmmaking — a platform for emerging filmmakers that delicately balances the nuanced skill of storytelling and visual language, with imagination the only limitation.