Melbourne International Film Festival Unveils First Look at 2026 Lineup, Including New Gus Van Sant Film and Hugo Weaving Drama
The Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled an early look at its 2026 program, revealing a slate of international prestige titles, major Australian premieres and six MIFF Premiere Fund-backed productions ahead of the festival’s return this August.
Running from August 6–23 across Melbourne and regional Victoria, with MIFF Online continuing nationally until August 30, the 74th edition of the festival will feature more than 300 titles when the full program is announced on July 9.
Among the headline attractions revealed Thursday is Dead Man’s Wire, the latest feature from acclaimed filmmaker Gus Van Sant. The darkly comic true-crime drama stars Bill Skarsgård as Indianapolis kidnapper Tony Kiritsis, alongside Al Pacino, Colman Domingo and Australian actor Dacre Montgomery.
Also generating strong awards-season buzz is Rose, starring Anatomy of a Fall breakout Sandra Hüller. The film earned Hüller the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival and is being positioned as one of the major international titles of the MIFF program.
Other notable international selections include Queen at Sea, starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay; Joe Swanberg’s Alaska-set relationship drama The Sun Never Sets featuring Dakota Fanning; Cannes Grand Prix winner Minotaur from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev; and The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, actor-director Noah Segan’s Sundance-premiering debut featuring John Turturro, Steve Buscemi and Giancarlo Esposito.
Animation fans will be drawn to We Are Aliens, the acclaimed debut feature from Japanese filmmaker Kohei Kadowaki, while genre audiences are likely to embrace the body-horror comedy Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant from Australian directing duo THUNDERLIPS.
On the Australian front, one of the festival’s most anticipated events is the world premiere of SBS prestige drama The Airport Chaplain, starring Hugo Weaving as a rule-bending airport chaplain navigating the emotional turbulence of Melbourne Airport. Created by Elise McCredie and Jude Troy and directed by Bonnie Moir, the series also stars Shabana Azeez, Claudia Karvan and Thomas Weatherall.
Music fans will have plenty to celebrate. Documentary The Best Summer revisits the 1995 Summersault tour through newly rediscovered footage shot by filmmaker Tamra Davis, featuring the Beastie Boys, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters and Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna.
The festival will also host a special 25th-anniversary screening of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with writer, director and star John Cameron Mitchell appearing in person to provide live commentary on the newly restored 4K version of the cult classic.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough thriller Memento will receive the Hear My Eyes treatment, pairing the restored film with a newly commissioned live score.
MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar described the announcement as an early indication of the breadth of this year’s festival.
“We’re thrilled to share these First Glance titles as an early taste of what to expect when MIFF returns to Melbourne screens this winter,” Cossar said. “From the year’s most anticipated films to bold new voices and discoveries, this selection offers a glimpse of the festival to come.”
The festival also unveiled six new MIFF Premiere Fund titles, continuing the initiative’s long-standing support of Australian screen talent.
Among them are Trevor Graham’s documentary Digby & Camille, chronicling a Sydney couple living with Down syndrome; Jebediah: Are We OK?, a documentary exploring the Australian band’s three-decade career; Maddelin McKenna’s Melbourne-set thriller Mad Rush; Dan Jackson’s Amazon-set documentary Death of a Shaman; para-ice-hockey documentary Hard as Puck; and Harvey Zielinski’s transgender coming-of-age drama Sweet Milk Lake.
Regional screenings will again travel to Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Geelong, Healesville, Rosebud, Sale and Warrnambool, while MIFF Online returns through ACMI’s Cinema 3 platform.
The full MIFF 2026 program will be announced July 9, with the festival’s prestigious Bright Horizons competition and jury lineup to follow later in the month.