This cozy Irish documentary by Gar O’Rourke (Sanatorium (2025)) about the over tourism of the Cinque Terre sits with me slightly uncomfortably as I have been one of those tourists.
Continue readingThe Siege of Paradise (2026)
StandardJohanna D’Arc of Mongolia (1989)
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The Melbourne Film Festival is doing a strand of films by Ulrike Ottinger this year and, not knowing anything about this director, I was drawn in by this one being set largely in inner Mongolia at a time where no western directors had previously been allowed to film there.
Continue readingThe Education of Jane Cumming (2026)
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Sad sad sad sad. I think I knew this was going to be about queer sorrow rather than joy, although I was drawn in by the period setting and Fiona Shaw.
Continue readingHolofiction (2025)
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Wow. This is one of those festival films that you probably wont get to see it elsewhere. It is wordless and created entirely from 1-2 second clips from fictional movies set during WWII and the Holocaust.
Continue readingI Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
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What a great film! I was sure I had seen it before but I absolutely hadn’t. And what I didn’t realise was that the person who shot Andy Warhol was Valerie Solanas! I feel like a bad feminist for not putting two and two together.
Continue readingThe Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
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This is not The Man with the Golden Gun. I think in the back of my brain I thought that’s what I was booking, a James Bond film.
Continue readingYellow Letters (Gelbe Briefe) (2026)
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This hooked me from the moment it showed a dramatic title card that made it clear that it was being filmed in Berlin but we should consider this was Ankara in Turkey.
Continue readingTo Hold a Mountain (2026)
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I couldn’t help but think of Honeyland (2019) while watching this slow and sparse documentary about farmers on an isolated Montenegrin mountain.
Continue readingFlies (Moscas) (2026)
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A good solid crowd pleasing film to start off my film festival journey for 2026. It came highly recommended by my MIFF buddy Kyle, which is not always a good thing as it raises your expectations.
Continue readingRose of Nevada (2025)
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I haven’t seen a Mark Jenkin film before (Enys Men (2022), Bait (2019)) and so I wasn’t quite prepared for the lo-fi Bolex camera vibes of Rose of Nevada.
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