Melbourne Women in Film Festival marks 10 years

This weekend marks ten years of celebrating the achievements of women in filmmaking at the annual MWFF, but there's still work to be done, Matthew Parkhill reports.

ACMI and Federation Square are lit up once again this weekend for the annual celebration of women and gender-diverse filmmakers, with ACMI theatres screening both domestic and international films and shorts, both old and new.

Crash the party at this year's Melbourne Women in Film festival celebrating ten years of women in filmmaking! (Image: Sarah Rose)

Cine-maniacs can expect a selection of over 16 feature-length and short films, special events and meet-and-greets with filmmakers. On Sunday, MWFF's Awards Presentations and Screenings will judge the festival's short filmmakers for a selection of awards and prizes.

The party started on Thursday night with a special screening of the animated romance-comedy Lesbian Space Princess, by Australian directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, and will rage on until Monday, the 23rd, with a screening of short films starting 7pm in ACMI cinema 2.

Festival Director Sian Mitchell says this year is particularly special, with the festival geared towards honouring ten years of successful women and gender-diverse filmmakers and their films. She says with current cultural and political nosedives, it's more important than ever to uplift these voices to the big screen.

"We had our first festival in 2017, which was shortly after Screen Australia put out the Gender Matters report, which had some pretty dismal statistics in it, particularly around the sort of above-the-line roles of director, writer and producer... (and) we can also see this in below-the-line roles with cinematography and editing as well," Mitchell says.

"I feel like since then, we have seen some progression with women in traditionally, I guess, male roles... of course, this week with the Oscar for best cinematography, going to a woman for the first time, which is great, I feel like it shouldn't (have) to be a highlight, but it is."

Check the MWFF program to see which ACMI theatres are hosting this year's selection of feature and short films. (Image: Sarah Rose)

Mitchell says while Australia has largely avoided the anti-DEI crusade, holding on to our love for the arts and providing a platform for artists and filmmakers is needed to provide fresh talent for the industry.

"I think there does need to be a real focus on having a really sort of rich exhibition and festival landscape that includes festivals like ours and TILDEl and Biriranga too, as a First Nations film festival, alongside the bigger ones like MIFF, to really kind of make sure that the diversity of films and filmmakers are supported and seen and find an audience."

For the prospective student-filmmaker, this year's festival offers a look behind the curtain, with films like Make it Look Real" by director Kate Blackmore, which explores the world of intimacy coordinators. Students are also invited to sit down with industry professionals, with the Life-Cycle of Film chat today at 2:30pm, exploring how films are made, marketed and distributed.

Many of this year's events and films offer a more intimate look into the art of filmmaking. (Image: Make it Look Real, supplied.)

Mitchell, who is a senior lecturer in Deakin University's film school, says students should explore their interests and utilise the technology of today's world to amplify their voices and break into the industry. She says innovation of filmmaking techniques could be key to getting a film in theatres or festivals.

"Something that I'm trying to wrap my head around as an older person with the students is like platforms like social media platforms like TikTok and kind of looking at how maybe they can kind of harness the popularity of what their communities are watching and where they're watching them," Mitchell says.

"So vertical storytelling, where it's like these little bite-sized chunks of narratives that are serialised across social media platforms... But it's still highly kind of, you know, using filmmaking techniques and storytelling techniques that are universal across different media."

Students looking to have a film screened at any of Melbourne's many festivals should consider making their film shorter and improving their sound design, Mitchell says, as the logistics of festivals require curators to fit so many films in such a short time.

"We can play more films that are around, let's say, seven minutes to 10 minutes than we can a 20-minute film. So even though a film might be incredible at 20 minutes, if we can try to fit in more films, that means we can support more filmmakers."

But, of course, the best advice is to just watch more films with other filmmakers.

"I think just going to a film festival, seeing what's actually being played, watching a bunch offilms is really important. But then, yeah, seeing what other kinds of peripheral events are happening where it might have a bit more of a networking opportunity or a mentorship opportunity."

Melbourne Women in Film Festival's full program is available online.