The must-see regional showcase titles at this month’s Melbourne International Film Festival

In its 73rd year, Melbourne International Film Festival has a shining showcase for Victorian audiences.

The film buff’s calendar favourite is returning to Victoria this month as Melbourne International Film Festival slides onto screens across the state. Across the weekends of 15 – 17 and 22 to 24 August, regional Victoria will have an ambitious selection of titles to see in cinemas across regional centres and country towns including Ballarat (Showbiz Cinema), Bendigo (Star Cinema – Eaglehawk), Castlemaine (Theatre Royal), Geelong (Village Cinemas and The Pivotonian), Morwell (Village Cinemas), Rosebud (Peninsula Cinemas), Sale (Sale Cinema) and Shepparton (Village Cinemas).

From local titles to international standouts, the MIFF Regional program will feature some of the most anticipated titles from the 2025 slate including independent releases and Hollywood’s biggest studios. Audiences will also have the chance to meet the filmmakers behind some of this year’s standout new works fresh from their world premieres at MIFF. As proudly supported by VicScreen and Screen Australia, MIFF Regional continues their commitment to bringing stories, community and shared experiences to the screen. In addition, MIFF online allows viewing to more rural settings and towns outside of Victoria, offering digital access to a limited suite of festival films and free shorts, available Australia-wide via the ACMI Cinema 3 streaming platform from 15 – 31 August.

Here are eight unmissable films to see thus year at MIFF’s regional showcase.

Keep up to date with all things arts, exhibitions and stage here.

Marlon Williams: Two Worlds – Ngā Ao E Rua

One of Aotearoa’s most beloved artists, Marlon Williams, sets out on his most ambitious musical project yet: creating an album sung entirely in te reo Māori.

Feeling burnt out from the touring cycle, acclaimed New Zealand musician and actor Marlon Williams (Bad Behaviour, MIFF 2023) returns to his quiet coastal hometown of Ōhinehou/Lyttelton to work on a life- and career-changing undertaking: recording an album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka, in his ancestral language of te reo Māori.

A chronical of album making and connecting with his split cultural identity across four years, Marlon Williams: Two Worlds is a touching behind-the-scenes documentary.

One More Shot

An end-of-millennium house party becomes an endless, tequila-fuelled time loop in this ingenious comedy starring Emily Browning. On New Year’s Eve, 1999, with Y2K anxieties in the air and ‘Coco Jamboo’ on the radio, anaesthetist Minnie jumps at the chance to attend a party with her ex Joe, whom she still hasn’t gotten over. But everything goes wrong when she realises that Joe is there with a new girlfriend. One swig from a bottle of tequila after midnight and, in the blink of an eye, Minnie has travelled back in time to the beginning of the party – a process that, she discovers, repeats with every drink she takes. Each do-over presents a new opportunity to fix her mistakes or compound them further. But will any of them allow her to win back Joe’s heart, or understand what it means to live with the consequences of her actions?

Described as darkly funny and unpredictable, One More Shot takes the time-loop tale and gives it a fresh twist.

First Light

A nun encounters a lethal criminal conspiracy and begins to question her beliefs in this poetic, sensory meditation on faith, power and corruption. A gentle and mild-mannered middle-aged nun living in a neglected centuries-old convent, Sister Yolanda sees her mission in life as giving spiritual guidance to the people of her community and, particularly, young novice Sister Arlene. Her conscience is left shaken, however, when she bears witness to a strange and distressing sequence of events in a hospital room. At first puzzled, she soon realises that the incident may have more sinister and far-reaching implications – and that high-ranking figures are determined to stop her, or anyone else, from finding out the truth.

From the gaze of Filipino-Australian photographer and director James J. Robinson, this is a stunningly captured interrogation into faith.

Mistress Dispeller

A woman is hired to break up an extramarital affair in this poignant, multi-award-winning documentary account of devotion, desire and the human thirst for connection. For the innovative service providers of China’s booming romance economy, infidelity presents just another business opportunity. When she discovers that her husband is being unfaithful, Mrs Li enlists a ‘mistress dispeller’, Wang Zhenxi, to unravel the affair and save her marriage. In no time, Wang ingratiates herself with Mr Li and the young Fei Fei in search of any fissures that could drive them apart. Far from being a cheap chronicle of messy infidelity, however, what emerges is an empathetic study of individuals trying their best to heed what their hearts are telling them.

Coming with accolades a-plenty, Mistress Dispeller is a compelling film navigating traditions and intimacy.

Journey Home: David Gulpilil

Viewer Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this film contains images, voices and names of deceased persons.

After his passing, legendary Yolngu actor David Gulpilil is brought back to his home country in a continent-traversing commemoration worthy of his transcendent talent.

David Gulpilil was one of Australia’s greatest screen actors, beginning with his first performance in 1971’s Walkabout (MIFF 2015) and continuing over the next five decades through roles in landmark films including Rabbit-Proof Fence (MIFF 2015) and The Tracker (MIFF 2015). After his death in 2021, his body was repatriated from Murray Bridge, South Australia, to be laid to rest in his homeland on Yolngu country. An extraordinary odyssey across more than 3000 kilometres of outback road from Victor Harbor to Darwin, followed by a chartered plane and helicopter flight to his birthplace in East Arnhem Land, Gulpilil’s final journey is recorded in this moving, thoughtfully observed documentary.

A beautiful tribute to a trailblazing artist and legend of Australian cinema.

Pavements

Irreverent indie rock pioneers Pavement go through the looking glass in Alex Ross Perry’s multilayered documentary experiment.

As comedian Tim Heidecker explains onscreen, Pavement was the ideal band “for kids who thought everything was stupid and everything sucked”. That includes reverent talking-heads music docos. So as the Gen X slacker icons prepare for their first live shows in 12 years to mark the 30th anniversary of their breakthrough album Slanted and Enchanted, parallel Pavement projects burnish their legacy in rich layers of artifice and authenticity. There’s a pop-up Pavement Museum of band artefacts and memorabilia; a proposed big-budget biopic starring Joe Keery and Jason Schwartzman; and an earnest new jukebox musical, rehearsed by an off-Broadway cast. Paying homage to the band, Alex Ross Perry captures the legacy of the band.

Sorry, Baby

One of Sundance’s buzziest debuts, this A24-backed dramedy about a young woman’s recovery from trauma announces writer/director/star Eva Victor as a formidable new talent. Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.

This raw, funny but gentle drama tackles the day to day strive to survive.

Footy Shorts

MIFF and the AFL, supported by VicScreen, present five short works that combine two of Melbourne’s greatest loves: film and footy.

Five filmmakers have created authentic, emotionally resonant stories that capture the deep love, traditions, myths and connections people share through Australian Rules football, whether as players, fans, families or communities – showcasing how the game, across its many different forms, unites and shapes Australian life.

That’s just a taste of the titles on offer at this years Melbourne International Film Festival for the Regional showcase.  For the full MIFF program, and all of the session times, head here.