December Edition

Welcome to our final edition of Widescreen for 2007!

On behalf of everyone at the Melbourne International Film Festival we thank you for your patronage and support in 2007, and hope that you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and safe and prosperous New Year. We look forward to sharing more cinematic experiences and Festival news with you in 2008.

We have a bumper edition so happy reading!

MIFF OFFICE NEWS

Office Closure

The MIFF office will be closed over the Christmas period from Friday 21 December and re-opening on Monday 7 January, 2008.

New Address

Please note our new address as of Friday 14 December will be:

New telephone and postal details will be available in the contacts section of the Festival's website by mid December.

Garage Sale

A reminder that MIFF is holding a garage sale in preparation for our big move into the city.

Where: 1st Floor, 207 Johnston Street, Fitzroy

When: 6, 7 & 8 December

Opening Hours: Thurs & Fri 10am – 5 pm, Sat 11am – 3pm

Cash, Visa and Mastercard all accepted.

MIFF MEMBERSHIP

A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA!

Would you and a friend like to enjoy exclusive sneak previews of the latest arthouse cinema for free?

Do you want to get discounted rates on all tickets at the Melbourne International Film Festival?

Do you want concession rates at many of Melbourne’s best cinemas?

Do you want discounts and special offers for great magazines like Encore, FILMINK and The Monthly?

Do you want to receive discounts for Malthouse Theatre Season productions?

And do you want the opportunity to score FANTASTIC giveaways like those listed below?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then you seriously need to become a MIFF Member! Share the joy around and buy a MIFF Membership for your family and friends for Christmas so that you all can enjoy the fantastic benefits available to our members!

For further details and to download your application form visit http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/miffmembership

FILM ENTRY NOW OPEN

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is now open for submissions for the 2008 Festival to be held from 25 July to 10 August. MIFF will accept features, shorts, documentaries, animations, experimental works, and music videos.

Entry deadlines are:

Shorts entry deadline - 07 March 2008
Features entry deadline - 04 April 2008

For further information on guidelines for entry please visit:

http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/filmentrypage

MIFF PREMIERE FUND

Please note that the closing date for submissions for Round Two (2) is 14 December, 2007.

For further information regarding Application details and Guidelines please visit http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/miff_premiere_fund

MIFF Premiere Fund Launch - 9 November, 2007

L – R Rachel Perkins, Paul Wiegard and Robyn Kershaw

L – R Kate Kennedy, Mark Woods, Claire Dobbin, Richard Moore, Minister Gavin Jennings

TRAVELLING FILM FESTIVAL UPDATE

FRANKSTON: 8 – 10 JANUARY, 2008

MIFF’S Travelling Film Festival rolls into Frankston in the New Year and will open with the nail biting Australian film Boxing Day, directed by Kriv Stenders. Special guest Kristian Molliere, Producer of Boxing Day, will be taking part in a Q&A session after the screening.

The line up also includes In the Company of Actors (Australia) where we see two of the world’s finest actors, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, as they prepare to perform the Sydney Theatre Company’s version of Hedda Gabler in New York. Multiple award winner Vitus (Switzerland), gut-wrenching drama After the Wedding (Denmark), and this year’s Palme D'Or winner from the Cannes Film Festival, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania), will also be screening.

Frankston’s TFF programme will conclude with Australia's Forbidden Lie$, which was voted a Top Ten in the MIFF Audience Poll; and an eclectic selection from the best Bigpond MIFF Shorts; and closes with Shane Meadow’s stunningly powerful movie This is England (UK).

Frankston Arts Centre
Cnr Young & Davey Streets
Frankston
8 – 10 January, 2008
Bookings (03) 9784 1060

LAUNCESTON REVIEW

Despite the unusually sunny weather, the Launceston TFF was well received throughout the weekend, with a good crowd attending the opening night feature, Boxing Day. It was a pleasure to have our special guest Tammy Anderson, one of the leading actors of Boxing Day present for the very thought provoking Q&A session.

We look forward to taking the TFF to other regional centres in the New Year.


L - R Juliana Chin (MIFF) & Boxing Day star Tammy Anderson


L - R Chloé Brugalé (MIFF), Tammy Anderson and members of the Launceston Film Society

Coming Soon: Geelong Travelling Film Festival, 14 – 16 February, 2008

Aside from its inclusion in the TFF, Boxing Day is also currently showing at Cinema Nova in Carlton for an exclusive season.

Best Bigpond MIFF Shorts @ ROOFTOP CINEMA

Come along and see a selection of the Best Bigpond MIFF Shorts at ROOFTOP CINEMA. Join us and some of the local filmmakers at the ROOFTOP Bar before the screening begins at Sundown.

Where: Level 6, Curtin House, 252 Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000
When: Tuesday 11 December, 2007 @ Sundown
Bookings: www.rooftopcinema.com.au

WIDESCREEN SUBSCRIBER GIVEAWAYS

2 Days in Paris – 100, 2 for 1 In-season Passes up for grabs

Doing for Paris what Woody Allen did for Manhattan, actress Julie Delpy has created - as writer and director - a vibrant, romantic comedy with "2 Days In Paris". Delpy ("Before Sunset", "Three Colours White", "Killing Zoe") has cast herself as the free-spirited Paris-born photographer Marion, who lives most of the year in New York with boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg), a shaggy, heavily tattooed interior designer. Two lovers in the city of romance - what could go wrong? Jack is a classic neurotic: a hypochondriac with a susceptibility to migraines, whose view of the world is as rigid as his taste. Marion is highly-strung and a big flirt. Rabidly left-wing, she has no patience for those who don't share her politics.

Will they be able to salvage their relationship? Will they ever have sex again? Or will they merely manage to perfect the art of arguing?

Running time: 96 minutes, Distributor: Hopscotch, Rating: Yet to be rated.
Release Date: 2 January, 2008

For your chance to win one of 100, 2 for 1 In-season Passes, courtesy of Hopscotch, email your name and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include 2 Days in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.

The Catherine Tate Show Series One DVD – 2 copies up for grabs

Perfect for a laugh over Christmas! Deviously crass and wickedly funny, comic genius Catherine Tate is back for more thigh-slapping hilarity in The Catherine Tate Show Series One (not yet screened on Australian television).

It’s riding high on the success of Series 2, which successfully screened on ABC Television early this year, achieving ratings of over 680k per episode and selling over 14,000 units alone in Australia. Discover where it again began with Series 1!

Winning Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards (2004) and nominated for an Emmy for best comic performance – Tate’s refreshing approach to comedy sketches and zany characters has earned her recognition from critics as one of the funniest women around!
“Catherine Tate is far too talented and must be destroyed immediately” – DAWN FRENCH

Running time: 120 minutes, Distributor: Hopscotch/Roadshow, Rating: M
Release Date: Now available, RRP: $29.95

For your chance to win one of two DVDs, courtesy of Hopscotch, email your name and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include Catherine Tate in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.

MIFF MEMBERS NEWS

MIFF MEMBERS SURVEY

MIFF is currently reviewing our existing membership program and as part of this review process, is undertaking research to help us improve our services to members.

The purpose of this research is to provide members with the opportunity to let us know how you think we are doing and to identify any areas where you think we can improve our member services.

All MIFF members should have recently received a survey in the post and we would greatly appreciate it if you were able to complete and return that survey by Monday 17th December 2007. All surveys returned by that date will be in the running to win some DVD packs, courtesy of Madman Entertainment. These include titles from films seen at MIFF 2007, such as: This is England (avail. 5 Dec '07); Words from the City (avail. 5 Dec '07); The Dirty Three (avail. now) and Aachi & Ssipak (avail. now). Also up for grabs are some exclusive MIFF Banner Shopping Bags. Here’s your opportunity to literally own, your very own piece of MIFF!

MIFF MEMBERS GIVEAWAYS

The Kite Runner – 60 Double Passes for a preview screening up for grabs

Date of preview screening: Monday 17 December, 2007
Time of screening: 7 pm
Where: Classic Cinema, 9 Gordon Street, Elsternwick VIC 3185

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule
Based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction)

Running time: 128 minutes, Distributor: Paramount Classics, Rating: M
Release Date: 26 December, 2007

For your chance to win one of sixty double passes, courtesy of the Classic Cinema, email your name and MIFF membership number to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include Kite Runner in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email. Winners names will be on a guest list at the cinema.

I Served the King of England – 50 Double In-season Passes up for Grabs

Jan Dite is short in height, but big on ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and then using it to his advantage. From pre-World War II Czechoslavkia through to the early sixties, I Served the King of England follows the darkly comic adventures of a man who realizes too late that the accumulation of wealth isn’t necessarily the best way to live one’s life.

Directed by Jiri Menzel, this film was in MIFF’s Top Ten this year and also won the FIPRESCI (Critics’) Award at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival and Best Director, Best Film, Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography at the 2007 Czech Oscars!

Running time: 120 minutes, Distributor: Rialto Entertainment, Rating: M
Release Date: Boxing Day 26 December, 2007 at Cinema Nova & Classic Cinema Elsternwick

For your chance to win one of 50 Double In-Season Passes, courtesy of Rialto Entertainment, email your name, MIFF membership number and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include I Served the King in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.

People Like Us Series Two DVD – 2 copies up for grabs

Award winning BBC mockumentary series. Discover where Rick Gervais got his inspiration for The Office!

If you like the hysterically funny work of Ricky Gervais (The Office) and Chris Lilley (Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes) then brace yourself for the hilarious ground breaking mockumentary series – People Like Us Series 2.

Hitting the screens long before The Office in the UK, People Like Us took Britain by storm with its cutting edge look into the world of spoof mockumentary making.

Now available for the first time on DVD in Australia, People Like Us Series 2 is an award-winning BBC comedy series in which fly-on-the-wall documentary maker, Roy Mallard, (Chris Langham: Alas Smith & Jones, Not the Nine O’Clock News, The Thick of it; Kiss Me Kate), takes a glimpse behind the scenes at the lives of “people like us”, attempting to get under the skin of what it’s really like to be one of Britain’s unsung professionals.

This hilarious and sometimes shocking series will guarantee to be a hit with any comedy lover!
“Brilliantly real … the parody is delicious and fun.” The Times

Running time: 180 minutes, Distributor: Hopscotch/Roadshow , Rating M
Release Date: Now available, RRP: $24.95

For your chance to win one of two DVDs, courtesy of Hopscotch, email your name, MIFF membership number and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include People Like Us in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.

This is England DVD – 3 copies up for grabs

1983 was a time before MTV and Gameboy, when there was very little to keep the disenchanted British youth anaesthetized. As unemployment figures rose and Youth Training Schemes fell, the kids refused to toe the factory line and spilled out onto the streets. Rockers, New Romantics, Mods, Punks and Skinheads stood shoulder to shoulder, hissing and spitting in the discos, precincts and subways of the working class towns across the nation. Directed by Shane Meadows, This Is England tells the story of Shaun, a 12-year-old kid growing up without a father in the north of England. Set during the summer holidays of 1983, the film charts his rites of passage from a scruffy misfit grieving the loss of his father into a shaven-headed thug whose anger and pain are embraced by the local skinhead fraternity. With a shell of a mother and no father to guide him, Shaun seems set for self-destruction but it is not long before things turn sour with his new-found 'friends' and Shaun discovers that violence is the coward's answer.
"stunning... This little British gem is such a powerful film" Lisa Hensley, THE MOVIE SHOW

Running time: 120 minutes, Distributor: Madman Entertainment, Rating: MA
Release Date: 5 December, 2007, RRP: $34.95

For your chance to win one of three DVDs, courtesy of Madman Entertainment, email your name, MIFF membership number and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include This is England in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.

Words From the City DVD – 3 copies up for grabs

Words from the City is a feature documentary exploring Australian hip hop through intimate and candid observations of some of the nations most potent and compelling artists. Focusing on several diverse characters from around Australia, including the Hilltop Hoods, Downsyde, TZU, Trey and Wire MC, Words From the City explores the social and cultural compulsion of young Australians as they embrace the verbal battle ground to express their personal, political and creative voices.

Words from the City follows the daily lives of these artists across one long hot summer, as they cement their positions at the vanguard of Australian hip hop, a movement that's exploding onto the musical landscape as one of our most powerful and energetic creative forms.

Running time: 85 minutes, Distributor: Madman Entertainment, Rating: MA
Release Date: 5 December, 2007, RRP: $29.95

For your chance to win one of three DVDs, courtesy of Madman Entertainment, email your name, MIFF membership number and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Thursday 6 December. Please include Words From the City in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.

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