Here’s our mid-festival update from this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. Staff share what their thoughts on what they’ve seen so far, and tell us what they’re still looking forward to. (You can find the full program here).

Nina Kenwood’s favourite film (so far) has been The Wolfpack

To date, I’ve seen four films at MIFF, and I’ve adored them all.

I watched three documentaries: Do I Sound Gay?, The Cult of JT Leroy and The Wolfpack.

Do I Sound Gay? raises so many interesting ideas that my main criticism is that I wanted it to dig deeper into all the issues it covered around identity, gender norms, linguistics and culture. The Cult of JT Leroy is an absolute must-watch for anyone working in the books and publishing industry. I knew of the scandal in the vaguest sense beforehand, but seeing it all laid out in extraordinary detail on screen was utterly fascinating, and afterwards, I went down an internet rabbithole of reading everything I could find about JT Leroy. The Wolfpack has been my favourite film so far. It crept up on me, slowly, until I found myself in tears at many scenes toward the end. I felt connected to the brothers, and it was very special to hear from the director herself in a Q&A session afterwards.

Finally, I saw The Lobster, one of the first MIFF films to book out. It was as delightfully weird as you would expect a film about single people being turned into animals would be, and Colin Farrell was marvellous. I don’t often shut my eyes in a movie, but one of the final scenes of The Lobster had me so tense I couldn’t look at the screen. Worth seeing for its very particular oddness.

Chris Gordon recommends 99 Homes

Set within the 2008 American housing market catastrophe, 99 Homes is an excellent film, despite being uncomfortable to watch. I spent this whole entire movie with a rising sense of anxiety. At moments, I hid behind my hands as if I was a child. Other times, I clutched my partner’s arm in disbelief. ‘Those poor people,’ we whispered to each other. In the film, the hard-working and honest Dennis Nash cannot save himself or his family from being evicted from his home by real estate agent Mike Carver. Determined to buy his home back, Nash is given an opportunity to join Carver’s eviction crew. The story is heartbreak over and over, and is a true telling of greed and misplaced intention.

Chris Somerville is looking forward to seeing The Wolfpack

I’m looking forward to seeing The Wolfpack, a documentary about seven brothers who were homeschooled and raised in confinement in New York City. Since I try to see more documentaries and am into stories about weirdo brothers, this will hopefully hit all the right buttons. I’ve heard people call it ‘haunting’ which really means it can go either way.

Jemima Bucknell urges everyone to seek out Toto and his Sisters

I was lucky to get a last-minute ticket to The End of the Tour, which I really enjoyed. Jesse Eisenberg is somewhat of an icon for me so I want always to know what he is working on. In this film, he plays a journalist for Rolling Stone who tags along with renowned author David Foster Wallace (played by Jason Segel) on a North American book tour at the height of his fame. The two men appear to be at odds with their self-image and success (both envious in one way or another) and director James Ponsoldt manages to mix the sober, everyday dialogue with the relatively tragic perspective of Wallace’s life. The film has a kind of limbo effect, dancing with Wallace’s ghost, on the threshold of something profoundly spiritual. You’ll feel it.

The other film I’ve really loved is an HBO funded documentary, Toto and his Sisters, about three children in Bucharest left to fend for themselves after their mother is imprisoned for drug trafficking. The closeness and access that director Alexander Nanau achieves is incredibly confronting, and is also beautiful in a sickening and voyeuristic way. Though it also manages to reiterate the hopelessness of the children’s situation, it treads a very fine line to re-exploiting them, creating a border behind the lens that appears to negate the obvious human involvement that the filmmakers must have instigated. Everyone in the audience was audibly crying, and then would occasionally break into laughter as if it might absolve them, or offer some respite. You should seek this one out.

Alan Vaarwerk is most excited for the ‘gloriously berserk’ Yakuza Apocalypse

I can’t believe we’re already a week into MIFF! So far I’ve only seen Paul Cox’s Force of Destiny and although I couldn’t get on board with the film’s use of internal monologue, it’s a quiet, contemplative film that’s hard not to find affecting. Friends have so far loved The Cult of JT Leroy, Phoenix and Gayby Baby.

Next week I’m most excited for Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld, an over-the-top, absurdist Japanese film that describes itself as ‘gloriously berserk’!

Stella Charls loves to see comedies at MIFF

Seeing comedies at a film festival is such a joy – laughter is so contagious when 400 people are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a cinema, especially when the crowd bursts into spontaneous applause at all the best bits. So far I can attest that The Overnight (produced by the Duplass brothers and Adam Scott, who can do no wrong in my eyes), is a witty, crude and unpredictable sex comedy that allows Scott and Jason Schwartzman to shine as the straight guy and the zany friend respectively. Similarly, Sleeping with Other People is a When Harry Met Sally for 2015, full of hysterical one-liners and some wonderfully uncomfortable moments (writer/director/genius Leslye Headland’s speciality).

Andrew Bujalski’s Results is a slower, sweeter low-fi comedy about fitness junkies in Texas. A step away from Bujalski’s signature mumblecore towards the mainstream, Kevin Corrigan and Guy Pearce are responsible for plenty of superb comic moments and lots of heart. Finally Sebastian Silva’s HBO Digital TV series, The Boring Life of Jacqueline is a brilliantly subtle and cringe-inducing awkward gem, produced by Mike White (who personifies brilliant and awkward) – I’m very keen to see more of Silva’s work throughout the festival (MIFF are showcasing a stream of his feature films).

In terms of documentaries, Prophet’s Prey is a chilling examination of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, an oppressive, polygamous cult led by self-proclaimed prophet (and convicted sex offender) Warren Jeffs. Raiders! is a feel-good account of three eleven year olds in 1982 who set out to make a shot-by-shot remake of Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, a total joy of a film for anyone interested in filmmaking (or childhood dreams coming true!). Welcome to Leith is a terrifying portrait of a tiny American town’s fight against the racial hatred of neo-Nazi Craig Cobb and his white separatist brethren.

But my definite highlight so far has been The Hunting Ground, an impeccably researched investigation into the sexual assault epidemic on American college campuses. Writer and director Kirby Dick and his producing partner, Amy Ziering, are known for their documentary The Invisible War, which put a spotlight on rape culture in the US military. The Hunting Ground is anchored by two young rape survivors, Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, who are leading and brave and innovative legal campaign against the college institutions that are consistently failing to protect their students. The film is not just a searing indictment of rape culture, but a stirring call to action – incredibly affecting.