Australia’s oldest film festival is broke. Can it survive?
By Karl Quinn
The Melbourne International Film Festival will this year offer $10 tickets on the day for sessions that have not sold out, and retain the three-tickets-for-$30 pass for people under 26 that it introduced last year, as it seeks to increase audience numbers that are yet to return to pre-COVID levels.
“We know times are tough, and it’s predominantly young people bearing the brunt of the increased economic strain,” said festival artistic director Al Cossar ahead of Thursday night’s launch of the 2024 program. “It’s crucial to attract younger audiences to ensure the future vitality of the festival and to keep the cinematic experience alive for generations to come.”
Damien Hodgkinson and Al Cossar, CEO and artistic director of Melbourne International Film Festival.Credit: Simon Schluter
Damien Hodgkinson, the first chief executive appointed in the 72-year history of Australia’s longest-running film festival, added that he remains “optimistic there will be an increase in live attendance this year”, while conceding “it is a difficult time for all festivals, and that doesn’t exclude MIFF”.
“People are returning, but I think the challenge continues to drag people back and to change some of the habits that were formed during COVID,” he said of festival attendances.
“What excites me is the unique proposition of festivals, the shared experience, the engagement and debate, being first to see something. And I feel that MIFF is uniquely placed to really address that, more so than the broader screen sector.”
COVID-19 derailed the festival in 2020 and 2021, forcing MIFF to go entirely online. That virtual experience remains part of this year’s offering, but “at a reduced scale”, with around a dozen features available to view from home.
Adam Elliot, whose Memoir of a Snail will open the festival next month.Credit: Justin McManus
“It’s still a part, but it’s certainly not the main game,” Hodgkinson said of MIFF Online (formerly MIFF Play), which allows people with accessibility issues – due to mobility or remoteness – to attend the festival, which features more than 250 films. “But the festival focus [is] really about encouraging people back into cinemas.”
Soon after joining MIFF in May, after 13 years in a similar role at the Comedy Festival, Hodgkinson sent a plea via the festival’s mailing list in which he said “our future is not guaranteed and cannot be taken for granted”, adding “this is a critical moment for us”.
Was that a bit alarmist, or an accurate reflection of where things are at for Australia’s longest-running film festival?
“I don’t think it was overstating,” he said.
In 2022, Filmfest Limited, the holding company for MIFF’s consolidated activities – which includes industry programs (the film market 37º South, the director development program Accelerator Lab); a film investment arm (the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund); and regional screening events; as well as the festival proper – lost $1.32 million. In 2023, it recorded a deficit of $308,000. This year, Hodgkinson says, “our projections are that it will deliver a modest deficit”, the third loss-making year on the trot.
MIFF last year received $2.25 million in state government funding as part of a four-year commitment that expires next year. But that funding is not indexed to inflation, meaning this year’s allocation is worth around 20 per cent less than it was when it was announced.
The festival’s total revenue in 2023 was $9.7 million, the vast majority of it from ticket sales.
“We’ve depleted our reserves,” Hodgkinson said. “Reserves are there for a rainy day, and we’ve had our rainy day.”
MIFF is not at risk of collapse, he insists, but it does need a buffer to be the boldest festival it can be.
“It’s not a live-or-die situation,” he said. “But the focus over the coming period will be to replenish those reserves that we’ve had to call in.”
The full program for the 72nd edition of MIFF was unveiled at the historic Capitol theatre on Thursday night.
Highlights include the Australian premiere of Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, which won the top prize at the Annecy Animation Festival in France last month; Justin Kurzel’s documentary portrait of Warren Ellis, long-time member of The Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; a feature adaptation of Alison Lester’s beloved children’s book Magic Beach, helmed by director Robert Connolly (The Dry, Paper Planes) and featuring the artwork of 10 different animators; and a 4K restoration of the outback nightmare Wake in Fright, with live score provided by soul supergroup Surprise Chef.
It will also feature the local premieres of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds and the acclaimed body horror film The Substance, starring Demi Moore as an ageing actress and Margaret Qualley as a younger version of herself miraculously brought into existence thanks to a new cosmetic treatment.
MIFF runs August 8 to 25 in Melbourne, August 9 to 25 online, and August 16 to 18 and 23 to 25 in regional centres. miff.com.au
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