What to See at MIFF '26

27.07.26 | By Clare Taylor

According to a semi-cinephile.

MIFF season is upon us. What a magical time of year. The sun is peeking through, the leaves are shyly emerging, and the cinephiles are running wild. These feral, Carhartt-clad creatures can be spotted hunched in the popcorn detritus of Cinema Nova, hungrily imbibing Hungarian noir, Swedish softcore, and homegrown arthouse.

A filmmaker friend of mine, when I asked if he’d like to catch a MIFF film together, sent me a 7-page Google Doc outlining his festival itinerary. It included a link to Glucogel jelly beans, to help him make it through a 13-hour run of films. MIFF is his cinematic feasting hour, right before the pre-Oscars Season drought. I am also hungry, though maybe less desperate.

This is not, you might have noticed, a 7-page Google Doc. It’s a simple guide to MIFF, written for the culturally curious, not the rabidly rapacious.

A tasting plate for the semi-cinephile.

Dig in:

The Blood Countess

If you like: Rocky Horror Picture Show, What We Do in the Shadows, Death Becomes Her

Isabelle Huppert is the most beautiful woman in the world. That is a fact, not an opinion.

In this film she plays a vampire and makes jokes. Specifically, she plays Elisabeth Bathóry, a real-life aristocratic serial killer said to bathe in the blood of young women in order to preserve her beauty. But don’t worry, this film is funny. In German director Ulrike Ottinger’s version of the story, Elisabeth has been in a 4-century-long vampiric slumber. She awakes in modern day Vienna next to her self-hating vegetarian nephew. Chaos and baroque architecture ensue.

Best enjoyed: After a Chocolate Saint-Émilion + glass of red at Bistra.

If you like: Rocky Horror Picture Show, What We Do in the Shadows, Death Becomes Her

Isabelle Huppert is the most beautiful woman in the world. That is a fact, not an opinion.

In this film she plays a vampire and makes jokes. Specifically, she plays Elisabeth Bathóry, a real-life aristocratic serial killer said to bathe in the blood of young women in order to preserve her beauty. But don’t worry, this film is funny. In German director Ulrike Ottinger’s version of the story, Elisabeth has been in a 4-century-long vampiric slumber. She awakes in modern day Vienna next to her self-hating vegetarian nephew. Chaos and baroque architecture ensue.

Best enjoyed: After a Chocolate Saint-Émilion + glass of red at Bistra.

French Girls

If you like: Frances Ha, Party Girl, Sex and the City (Season 1—the pilot, specifically)

Made for $28k, shot in Sydney and featuring a host of seriously talented, non-professional actors. This is writer/director Hyun Lee’s second feature film, and draws on her experience as a fashion photographer. It pierces the fabulous bubble of the Sydney fashion scene, and comments on the humdrum of modern existence. Just because your photos are glamorous, doesn’t mean your life is.

This one should be pretty inspiring for anybody looking to make art on a shoestring budget, and you’ll also be able to catch Hyun Lee at the Modern Moviemaking panel.

Best enjoyed: After late night tea and journaling at Heart Attack & Vine. Then wander over to your session at Nova.

If you like: Frances Ha, Party Girl, Sex and the City (Season 1—the pilot, specifically)

Made for $28k, shot in Sydney and featuring a host of seriously talented, non-professional actors. This is writer/director Hyun Lee’s second feature film, and draws on her experience as a fashion photographer. It pierces the fabulous bubble of the Sydney fashion scene, and comments on the humdrum of modern existence. Just because your photos are glamorous, doesn’t mean your life is.

This one should be pretty inspiring for anybody looking to make art on a shoestring budget, and you’ll also be able to catch Hyun Lee at the Modern Moviemaking panel.

Best enjoyed: After late night tea and journaling at Heart Attack & Vine. Then wander over to your session at Nova.

Coyote vs. ACME

If you like: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, A Goofy Movie

It’s a legal drama starring Wile E. Coyote. If you’re not convinced by that, I don’t know what to tell you.

After years of being injured by his own tools, our favourite coyote decides to sue the company that makes them. It’s a blend of live action and animation, much like the masterpiece that is ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’.

Behind the scenes, this film has been in strife. After production was completed, and the film had tested well, it was shelved by Warner Brothers in an attempt at a tax write-off. The outcry from fans was so powerful that it was shopped to other distributors and eventually released. Reviews have been stellar; they say it’s hilarious and…”psychologically rich.” I can’t wait. It’ll be dynamite.

Best enjoyed: I can see a round of arcade games going down very well after this.

If you like: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, A Goofy Movie

It’s a legal drama starring Wile E. Coyote. If you’re not convinced by that, I don’t know what to tell you.

After years of being injured by his own tools, our favourite coyote decides to sue the company that makes them. It’s a blend of live action and animation, much like the masterpiece that is ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’.

Behind the scenes, this film has been in strife. After production was completed, and the film had tested well, it was shelved by Warner Brothers in an attempt at a tax write-off. The outcry from fans was so powerful that it was shopped to other distributors and eventually released. Reviews have been stellar; they say it’s hilarious and…”psychologically rich.” I can’t wait. It’ll be dynamite.

Best enjoyed: I can see a round of arcade games going down very well after this.

I Want Your Sex

If you like: Pillion, Bottoms, Secretary

I think this might be ‘50 Shades of Grey’ for soft boys. Olivia Wilde plays a sexed up charlatan of an artist. Cooper Hoffman plays Elliott, a guileless assistant drawn into her ethically unmoored orbit. Charli xcx plays his erotically repressed girlfriend. The style is campy-comedic-thriller, written by Karley Sciortino (of Slutever fame) and Gregg Araki, a prominent member of the New Queer Cinema movement.

Strap in. Or should we say, strap on.

Note: If you can’t nab a ticket to a MIFF screening of ‘I Want Your Sex’, don’t worry. It’ll be released to cinemas at the end of August.

Best enjoyed: With the funniest of your lovers.

If you like: Pillion, Bottoms, Secretary

I think this might be ‘50 Shades of Grey’ for soft boys. Olivia Wilde plays a sexed up charlatan of an artist. Cooper Hoffman plays Elliott, a guileless assistant drawn into her ethically unmoored orbit. Charli xcx plays his erotically repressed girlfriend. The style is campy-comedic-thriller, written by Karley Sciortino (of Slutever fame) and Gregg Araki, a prominent member of the New Queer Cinema movement.

Strap in. Or should we say, strap on.

Note: If you can’t nab a ticket to a MIFF screening of ‘I Want Your Sex’, don’t worry. It’ll be released to cinemas at the end of August.

Best enjoyed: With the funniest of your lovers.

Vampires, coyotes and strap-ons, oh my! I hope this round-up whets your appetite for the cinema feast to come. There’s so much more on offer. I didn’t even touch on the brilliant documentaries, vast number of foreign language works or THE SECOND FILM FEATURING CHARLI XCX IN THIS YEAR’S PROGRAM?

I’ll see you in the cinema! Open your Maltesers BEFORE THE MOVIE STARTS.

And remember: We come to this place for magic.