Top 10 Films At MIFF 2015

Melbourne movie buffs can rejoice as it’s that time of year again. Yes, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is back to get us off the couch watching movies and out into the cold streets of Melbourne to line up in front of our grand cinemas. The festival will start on Friday July 31st and conclude on Sunday August 16th.

There’s simply way too many movies to pick from as usual, so we have listed the top 10 films to watch at this year’s festival (in no particular order, of course).

The Overnight
Kids seem to make friends easier than adults do, as kids don’t understand social norms and etiquette. But at least they don’t invite strangers to dinner and try to have an orgy with them. That’s exactly what happens in The Overnight when a Seattle family move to Los Angeles who are invited to dinner by locals. Needless to say things get cray cray pretty quickly.

The Hunting Ground
People go to college to learn skills, but they shouldn’t have to learn skills to survive rapes. The Hunting Ground displays the shocking amount of sexual assaults that occur at American universities, who also try to cover it all up.

99 Homes
If you think the real estate prices in Melbourne are bad, at least you’re not getting kicked out of your own home! That’s exactly what the protagonist of 99 Homes, Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), is facing. So how does he try to keep his home? By working for the greedy real estate developer (Michael Shannon) that’s kicking him out of home to learn the tricks of the trade.

Finders Keepers
They say expensive things costs an arm and a leg, but that’s literately the case in Finders Keepers. Amputee John Wood has his possessions reprocessed, including a barbecue grill with Wood’s leg. Bargain Hunter Shannon Whisnant won the barbecue in an auction and he refuses to give the leg back to Wood, thinking he could use it to launch a leg-based tourist attraction. The two men then go through a rough trial over it. If there’s one expression that comes to mind here, it’s “only in America”.

Thank You For Playing
People who have a loved one dying of cancer have shown all sorts of ways of support and raise public awareness. Thank You For Playing is a documentary that follows video game designer Ryan Green has a one year old son who is dying from terminal cancer and he designs a game that highlights the difficulties of raising a child who will soon die.

Partners In Crime
Partners In Crime is a Mandarin teen thriller where three teenage boys discover the dead body of a female classmate. The authorities rule it off as suicide, but the boys suspect it’s something more and begin an investigation that takes the

Magical Girl
A black comedy/thriller, Magical Girl tells the tale of a poor father has a daughter dying of cancer, and her dying wish is to wear the dress of her favourite anime character. In order for the father to acquire this dress, he must deal with a rich housewive and a retired teacher, who start blackmailing each other.

The Spiderwebhouse
A deranged mother walks out on her children, forcing the eldest son to look over his younger siblings. Things get out of hand in The Spiderwebhouse as the line between reality and delusion gets blurred as the kids enter further into a dreamworld away from their ugly reality.

Dreamcatcher
They say prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, and Dreamcatcher is about former prostitute Brenda Myers-Powell who is now mentoring a new generation of drug addicted girls working the strip where she once did to get them off the streets. “It is hard to trust after being on the streets for so long,” Myers-Powell says. Who could blame her?

My Skinny Sister
Twelve year old Stella is jealous of her older, talented sister Katja who seems to have everything going for her. Stella discovers Katja is suffering from anorexia and bulimia,, but is blackmailed into keeping it a secret. My Skinny Sister sees Stella struggle with now knowing whether to do what Katja wants or what’s for her own good.