Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF)

[wheelspinner]

Well MIFF is finally back again, and I plan to see about a dozen films. I thought I'd give you all a run-down on each of them. Hopefully there will be at least something that interests you.

[wheelspinner]

TREELESS MOUNTAIN

www.imdb.com/name/nm2409072/

From the "Young Blood" section of the Festival (films about children). This is a Korean film about two small girls - one in elementary school and one pre-schooler - who are left by their mother. While mom is off searching for their father, the girls are deposited with "Big Aunt" (their father's sister).

Big Aunt is a drunk with no income, who does not want to look after their girls, and pretty much leaves them to their own devices. The girls miss their mother terribly, and cling to the hope that she will come back soon. Gradually it starts to dawn on them that this is not going to happen.

The actors playing the girls are simply stunning. They occupy pretty much every scene and are subject to many intense close-ups. They give very honest and absorbing performances. The actor playing the younger girl is a real charmer, whereas the older girl has a tougher job with more screen time and a wider emotional range to convey. Both do a superb job, with none of the cringe-worthy tweeness you often get from child actors.

Director Kim So-Yong (a Brooklyn resident) makes sure that the girls' faces are always obscured or shot from behind when they are crying. Without doubt this helps her actors, as it removes the need for them to "fake that emotion". (I recall seeing a behind-the-scenes look at a child actor who strenuously objected to crying on demand, asking why he should remember bad things. The director finally had to rub his face with onion. I prefer Kim's solution).

The film is a bit slow-paced but not at all boring. Rivetting performances and a strong empathy with the girls keeps you engaged right to the very end. I really enjoyed this one.

[wheelspinner]

ABOUT ELLY

This is an Iranian drama from the International Panorama section of the Festival (usually my favourite section).

The story centres on three fun-loving couples and their divorced mate, who are going to the Caspian Sea for a holiday. One of the mothers invites Elly, her child's nuresery school teacher, to come along, hoping to do a bit of match-making for their mate.

Elly seems to have mixed feelings about being there. She is a bit uncomfortable and at one point says that she wants to leave, and will walk out if she has to.

Shortly after that, Elly completely disappears. The rest are completely at a loss. Did she drown in the raging seas, or did she just head off without saying goodbye? And who was she really anyway? Nobody even knows her full name when the police take their report.

The rest of the film deals with the couples' responses to Elly's disappearance and the strains it puts on their own relationships. The reality of Elly's circumstances are gradually revealed. Throughout the film, white lies are told that just get more and more complicated until the truth becomes impossible for them to deal with.

The ensemble cast is excellent, especially the moody Golshifteh Farahani as Sepideh, the mother who invited Elly and feels responsible . (Farahani has been seen in Body of Lies, playing DiCaprio's Iranian girlfriend). All of the actors are utterly believable. Moreover, the entire plot is completely credible - this could have easily happened on any beachside holiday, and most of us would have shared the same reactions as these characters. Apart from the headscarves on the women, these people could be contemporaries in any Western country.

There is no music, but the endless crashing of the Caspian Sea forms a constant backdrop to the turmoil the characters are going through following the disappearance. It's a very effective device. The film is also beautifully shot.

Another great one. I'm on a roll here.

[wheelspinner]

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND

This one is the highlight of the Festival for me. It's the film Cail co-produced and worked on. I'll try to be objective, but I can't promise anything.

The film is based on the true story of Alexander Pearce, an Irish convict transported to Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania. He and seven other convicts made an opportunistic escape and headed into the wilderness. In their haste they made few preparations and carried only a few supplies.

The convicts are faced with a forbidding and utterly unfamiliar landscape, which is shown as eerie and extremely rugged. There is a memorable scene where they stagger with great effort to finally crest a mountain, only to look out at a vast vista of rolling mountain ranges between them and safety. It is only then that the reality of what confronts them sinks in.

As they run out of food, and realising how far they are from their goal, some of the convicts' thoughts turn to darker means of survival. Some of them decide to resort to cannibalism, and the inescapable consequences of that decision plays out over the rest of the film.

Considering the subject matter, the film avoids being too graphic. There is little blood, although there are a few flinches, and only one scene of someone actually eating flesh. One can't help think that, in other hands, this film would have been rendered into a gore-fest.

Instead Jonathon Auf Der Heide has crafted a moody and tense drama that presents the Tasmanian wilderness in stunning fashion. The ensemble cast works really well to capture the different convicts and document their gradual descent into depravity and bitterness. At times there are reminders of Treasure of Sierra Madre, with hard men out in the wilderness trying to stare one another down around a fire, all trust between them gone. The cinematography is superb, and ought to position the film well for an AFI award.

Pearce was an Irish Gaelic speaker, and the voice-over is in Gaelic, with English subtitles. After the film, the director explained that he chose to do that to give Australians a sense of being strangers in countryside that is familiar to us. I think that was a good choice; the voiceover is certainly beautifully written (there are apparently some lines from Inferno in there, which is appropriate).

Pearce's tale was so incredible to his captors that they refused to believe him and accused him of covering for his mates, whom they thought were still at large. Van Diemen's Land treats his account seriously and there is complete conviction about all of the convicts' actions throughout the film.

This is truly a fantastic film. It's not a morally uplifting film by any means, but it is beautiful and poetic in its way. If you get the chance, do see it. (It has been picked up for UK distribution). You don't have to take my word for it - it's rating 8/10 on IMDB.

[Georgina]

Wow, you really are on a roll with the festival. And how marvelous is that that you get to see your own son's work premiered? That's simply terrific. It sounds like a film he can be very proud of. I don't know that I'll see it. Sometimes subject matter gets the better of me even when something's a great film. But the cinematography might lure me.

I'm enjoying the reviews.

[wheelspinner]

The cinematographer is Ellery Ryan - one of our very best. He's been around for more than 30 years and won several AFI awards.

[wheelspinner]

35 SHOTS OF RUM

This is a French slice of life film about a father, of African extraction, who lives with his daughter in a working-class suburb of Paris.

Lionel, the father, is a train driver who is getting on in years. (The film opens with what is literally a tracking shot, as the camera takes us on a train ride from Lionel's point of view). Daughter Josephine is a student who also works part-time in a record store. They share a tiny apartment, ane the first act shows us the rituals of their work and home lives. Their neighbours include Gabi, a taxi driver who wants to resurrect a past relationship with Lionel, and Noe, a young slacker with a yen for travel. Lionel also has a close friend at work in Rene, who has just retired and is trying to come to terms with his new life.

The 35 shots of the title are alluded to at Rene's retirement party, but all we learn is that Lionel says "now is not the time". It is only right at the end that the significance of them is revealed.

The bulk of the film is devoted to a leisurely exposition of the lives of these characters and the relationships between them. Lionel is concerned that Jo is sacrificing her youth to look after him. While Jo reassures him, she clearly hankers for more, as does Gabi.

This is a pretty uneventful film. There are long silences and the dialogue is sparse. Still director Claire Dennis makes us warm to these characters and we care about what happens to them. In the end it's a satisfying film, if unspectacular.

[wheelspinner]

DOGTOOTH

Without doubt this is the strangest film I've seen in the festival so far. I'd have to go back to Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder in 2006 to find a stranger one.

This is a Greek film about two obsessive parents who keep their children - a boy and two girls - in seclusion, cut off totally from the outside world. They are fed all sorts of misinformation, including being taught the wrong meanings of words, that one can only go outside the fence safely in the car, and so on, all with a view to preventing their going beyond their high brick fence.

The only outsider allowed in is Christina, a woman from the father's work place who is paid to come in and tend to the sexual needs of the boy. Christina's presence cannot help but expose the girls to influences that their parents have been trying to exclude.

The naivety of the children, and their complete lack of social graces, lead to many very funny scenes. Still director Giorgos Lanthimos regularly reminds us that we are actually watching the most horrific child abuse, and one feels quite uncomfortable about laughing at them.

This scenario cannot end well and Dogtooth is indeed a Greek tragedy. The ending is subtle (too subtle for the non-stop talker behind me) and the film certainly leaves you thinking. It's utterly original - I can't recall ever seeing anything like it - and is exactly the sort of thing you go to film festivals to see.

[wheelspinner]

ENDGAME

This would be the most commercial film I'll see in the Festival. Normally I don't bother with the commercial ones - you can see them anywhere, after all - but this was one of the free sessions, so why not?

Endgame is a political thriller set in the dying days of the apartheid regime in South Africa. It boasts a stellar cast led by William Hurt, backed by a truckload of dependable English actors such as Derek Jacobi, Timothy West, Johnny Lee Miller and others.

The film is based on the true story of some secret negotiations held in the UK between the ANC's Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Eljiofor) and representatives of the regime, led by Will Esterhuyse (William Hurt). Lurking in the shadows is the head of the secret police, creepily played by Mark Strong. The talks begin in an aura of mutual suspicion and distrust, which is not helped when it emerges that they are not as secret as the participants imagined. While Mbeki and Esterhuyse cautiously circle one another and begin to develop a level of trust, they face condemnation from the loyalists of their own side who see compromise as betrayal.

As historical events unfold we see the influence on the negotiators. Events do not surprise us, but director Pete Travis still manages to engage the emotions at the key moments.

Endgame is an exciting and intelligent film with a cracking cast. It should do well on general release.

[wheelspinner]

ALL ABOUT ACTRESSES

Immediately after the drama of Endgame, this witty French mockumentary proved a perfect counterpoint.

The film purports to be about actress Maiwenn seeking to break into directing by making a documentary about leading actresses, following them around with a handheld camera and observing them in their daily lives. Maiwenn recruits a stellar cast of French actresses and other celebrities, all playing themselves. They send themselves up something rotten, and the end result is very funny.

The actresses all come across as neurotic divas, panicked about where the next role is coming from, the inescapable march of time and the difficulty of breaking into the profession. There are some howlingly funny sequences, such as when Karin Viard, desperate to break into Hollywood, sits a screen test with a US director despite not knowing a word of English.

All of these portrayals are deeper. Maiwenn shows us the sacrifices these women make - Julie Depardieu's regret at sacrificing motherhood for her career, Lin Dan Pham's disappointment that her Vietnamese parents oppose her career ambitions, Charlotte Rampling's concern about losing touch with her youthful self (a subject broached with her by Maiwenn in hilariously tactless fashion) and so on. Many of the actresses are given a song in which to encapsulate their career disappointments. This works really well, especially the glorious Romy Bohringer singing about the shame of having to tout for work through auditions despite winning a Cesar award.

Maiwenn herself is clearly neglecting her own home life in her determination to make this film. She is an absentee parent, and her obsession puts her marriage under considerable strain, which worsens as the film progresses.

I wasn't sure about this film - it seemed a bit of a chick flick - but I enjoyed it hugely. I laughed a lot, but really sympathised with these magnificent professionals. While they present this in fun, the statements this film makes about how hard an actress's life is rang true. You really believe that these women have lived this and come through it.

[wheelspinner]

NORTH

Since seeing Jar City last year, and some TV shows like Unit One and the Eagle, I've become a bit of a fan of Scandinavian film and TV. North is a Norwegian film that came with a high reputation, having won major awards at Berlin and Tribeca.

The film centres on Jomar, a psychiatric outpatient with a fondness for booze. In a drunken stupor, Jomar burns down the ski chalet he works in. With nothing left, Jomar heads ofon a trek North, to find the son he has only just heard that he has.

This is one of those road movies where the central character meets some weird and wonderful people on the way. Jomar is splendidly surly and grumpy. On his trip he meets a lonely young girl, a sexually-conflicted young man, and an old man living alone on the ice. Jomar is a disruptive influence in each of their lives, and each learns form the other.

There are some good laughs in North. Especially funny is the scene where Jomar and the young man get drunk by strapping tampons soaked in pure alcohol to the skin on the top of their heads.

While Jomar is a pretty unlikable character to start with, Anders Chrstiansen plays him with such deadpan seriousness that you can't help but warm to him. The Arctic scenery is spectacular at times. This is not a bad film; probably a bit short for a feature, but worth a look.

[wheelspinner]

$9.99

Sad to say, Van Diemen's Land is no longer my favourite film of the Festival. At least this film was also made in Australia.

$9.99 is a claymation film made by Israeli director Tatia Rosenthal, based on the short stories of Etger Keret. It is set in an Art Deco apartment block and looks at the occupants' search for meaning in their lives. One of them buys a book called The Meaning of Life for $9.99, hence the title.

The film starts with an encounter between a sarcastic beggar and a middle-aged single father and proceeds from there. The stories concern the father's worry at failing his sons, a repo man's love for a supermodel, a young boy saving in his piggy bank for his dream toy, a young man's search for his first job, an old man missing his wife, and an engaged couple breaking up.

It sounds like pedestrian fare, but the stories are very quirky and witty, and I'll certainly be seeking out Etger Keret at the library. The film is also bolstered by a vast array of Australian acting talent, including Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia, Joel Edgertom, Claudia Karvan, Ben Mendelsohn and Barry Otto.

The film looks great. In closeup you can see that the characters' skins are rendered with shaded colours rather than flat flesh tones, which looks more realistic. Dialogue and movement look smooth and natural, always a challenge with claymation.

This film is sort of the light-hearted cousin of Mary and Max. It's not as dark and weighty as M&M, but it has its own charm and style, and is well worth seeking out.

This film was subject to a bit of controversy - British director Ken Loach withdrew his film because the Israeli government co-financed $9.99, and there were some protestors throughout the Festival trying to make the same point. No big deal at the end of the day, and the film drew a full house at both showings. Attempts to tell us what we can watch always backfire.

[Georgina]

You're really packing in a whole bunch of movie viewing in a relatively short time frame, WS. It sounds like a bunch of fun. What's the cost involved with something like this festival?

[wheelspinner]

I buy a Festival Pass for $115, which gets me into 13 films of my choice. To be able to buy the pass I also have to be a member, which costs about $70 a year. That pays for itself though, as you get to see a free film every month, 10% discount off regular films and other free stuff. If you go to the movies a lot, it's a great deal.

[wheelspinner]

THE SKY CRAWLERS

I usually go see at least one new anime in the Festival's animation section, and Sky Crawlers was this year's entry. It looked pretty promising, coming from the director Mamoru Oshii, of Ghost in the Shell II and Jin-Ro fame.

The film is about a world where corporations wage war on one another and the fighting is done by "kildren", beings that never age and can only die in battle. Yuichi is a new addition to a flying squadron of kildren led by the mysterious Kusanagi, who is unique among kildren in that she has a daughter.

Much of the film is taken up by footage of dogfights between the air forces of different companies, and the impact on the squad as one after the other fails to return, shot down by the opposition ace they call The Teacher. The Teacher is a nemesis figure for members of the squad, but we are unclear why.

Yuichi grows in experience and becomes closer to Kusanagi. As he does so, the truth of his and her situation gradually becomes clearer and he finds himself left with a bitter choice.

For a recent anime, Sky Crawlers doesn't break much technical ground. The planes are drawn in imaginative detail and there is some good 3D perspective in the dogfights, but they look unrealistic (my son, studying aerospace engineering, laughed at some of the impossible maneuvres the planes made). The characters look unoriginal and uninteresting, and most of the backgrounds look flat. Compared to something like Paprika or Steam Boy, Sky Crawlers does not have much visual impact.

Which leaves you with the story, which holds few surprises, and has mostly been done before. Voice acting is pretty good, led by some big Japanese stars like Kill Bill's Chiaki Kuriyama, Letters from Iwo Jima's Ryo Kase and Babel's Rinko Kikuchi. Still, given the teaming of Oshii with all this talent, you feel that you should have seen something more than this film delivers.

[wheelspinner]

BRAN NUE DAY

A cheesy home-grown Aussie musical set in Broome about Aboriginal kids finding love. I mean how can it miss, right?

Actually Bran Nue Day has some pretty serious credentials. It started off as a stage musical written by Aboriginal musician Jimmy Chi, and premiered at the 1990 Perth Festival. It went on a massive national tour, and was a huge success, launching the careers of quite a few Aboriginal actors. Now we have the film, with a whole new generation of Aboriginal and other talent.

The story centres on Willie, the scion of a fundamentalist mother who sends him off to Perth to study to be a priest under the ultra-strict Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush). This forced separation from Rosie, the girl Willie loves (played by the incandescent Jessica Mauboy) makes him miserable, and he subsequently runs away, desperate to get back to Broome.

Willie chances on a drunken old man called Uncle Tadpole, played by TV stalwart Ernie Dingo. Ernie is reprising the role that made him famous but, as he put it, he doesn't need to dye his beard white any more. Tadpole offers to take Willie back to Broome, but promptly spends every cent Willie has on grog.

Tadpole manages to wangle a lift with some truly daffy hippies, one of whom is played brilliantly by singer Missy Higgins (of The Special Two fame), in her film debut. From then on the movie becomes a road movie, where the four encounter various crazies on the road to Broome, hotly pursued by Father Benedictus. Stellar turns comes from Magda Szubanski as an oversexed roadhouse operator, as well as Deborah Mailman as a goodtime gal. Youtube fans will also recognise the young aboriginal boys doing a traditional dance to Zorba.

The musical style is pretty much C&W, and a lot of the songs are fairly ordinary, but there are a few top-drawer numbers. Chi is not above some barbed political commentary:

There's nothing I would rather be
Than to be an Aborigine
and watch you take my precious land away.

The film has some weakly-drawn secondary characters, but I guess that's not unusual. The ending is quite Gilbertian, with loads of improbable plot turns delivered in a last minute rush. Dingo is a barrel of laughs, and he and Rush can both carry a tune. Mauboy and Higgins light up the screen, especially when singing, and Rocky McKenzie shows a naive charisma as Willie.

Transferring a musical to film is fraught with risk, and there have been many failures. This isn't one of them; Bran Nue Day is a great film. It's going to do very well, at least in Australia. I'm not sure how well it will travel, hopefully it will be a winner overseas too.

[wheelspinner]

THE WHITE RIBBON

As a large festival, MIFF usually manages to secure the Cannes prize-winners for their first showing in Australia. White Ribbon is the Palme D'Or winner, so I was certainly going to catch this one.

The film is set in a small German village in 1913, where a sequence of strange accidents and injuries is set in train by a riding accident inflicted on the local doctor when a wire is stretched across his driveway.

Things go from bad to worse as a woman dies in a sawmill and the Baron's son is abducted and tortured. The village falls into gossiping and blame as the Baron makes his displeasure plain.

In the midst of all this the schoolteacher starts to be concerned about the children in his care, particularly the two children of the fundamentalist pastor, who makes them wear white ribbons to remind them of their impurity.

These events fracture families, cause relationships to break up and expose the nastier side of the village's life. It is clear that the perpetrator is someone who knows a lot about the village and its secrets.

The film is in black and white and is beautifully shot. The actors playing the children are uniformly excellent, with not a false note in any of their scenes. Burghart Klaussner is a study in repressed fury as the pastor and Ulrich Tukur gives us a nasty piece of work as the doctor.

White Ribbon is engaging all the way, although you have to concentrate to keep up with who is who. The ending seemed a bit forced, but had its own logic and message; I guess I was just expecting something a bit different.

This is not a great film, in my opinion, although it is a very good one. I think last year's Palme d'Or winner (4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days) was a far better film, but White Ribbon is still well worth seeing.

[wheelspinner]

And that is MIFF for another year. Don't know who won the Festival awards yet, but here is my list:

Best film: About Elly
Best Director: Michael Haneke, for White Ribbon
Best Actor: Burkhart Klaussner, for White Ribbon
Best Supporting Actor: Aggeliki Papoulia, for Dogtooth
Best Child Actor: Hee-yeon Kim, for Treeless Mountain
Best Ensemble: About Elly
Best Cinematography: Ellery Ryan, for Van Diemen's Land
Best Screenplay: Dogtooth
Best Score: Bran Nue Day
Best Animation: $9.99
Best at telling the Chinese where to go: Richard Moore (Festival Director)
Most Challenging: Dogtooth
Nicest Surprise: All About Actresses
Most Disappointing: The Sky Crawlers
Most Fun: Van Diemen's Land (obviously)

[MacBeth]

Can you update your list with theirs, if it is not too much trouble. I find it interested gearing personal reactions to those of committees

[wheelspinner]

Will do.

They will have different categories, and may also give awards to films I didn't get around to seeing.

[MacBeth]

That's a good point, I did not think of that

[wheelspinner]

Here are the awards given in the short films section. I didn't see any of these.

Cail's friend Jonathon, who directed Van Diemen's Land, was one of the judges.

MIFF SHORTS AWARDS

Posted 11th August, 2009

MELBOURNE, Saturday 8 August, 2009 – Canadian film Next Floor directed by Denis Villeneuve won the City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film at the best MIFF shorts Awards last night hosted by MIFF Executive Director Richard Moore. Winning the $7,000 prize Next Floor exposes an absurd universe, with banquet guests that will chill you right down to the bone. “A beautifully grotesque film that captivated the jury from its breathtakingly bold opening shot”, said Jury member and filmmaker Jonathan auf der Heide.

Two Men director Dominic Allen was at the awards last night to accept the Melbourne Airport Emerging Australian Filmmaker award– with an incredible prize of $5,000 and return flights to attend the Berlinale in 2010!

Director Michael Angus won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film, receiving $5,000 for his film Salt, the emotionally captivating video-diary of award winning photo-artist Murray Fredericks, set against the breathtaking Lake Eyre. “Courageously shot piece of film making at its best for its daring and difficult premises, contrasting with an incredible scenario full of discovery that brings to the screen a beautiful landscaped piece of Australiana not always seen in this breathtaking immensity”, commented Jury member Antonio Zeccola.

Scandinavia has once again proved to be a frontrunner of shorts with; Mathia Fjellström’s Instead of Abracadabra winning the Cinema Nova Award for Best Fiction; and David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn winning the RMIT University Best Documentary Short Film category. The RMIT University Best Animation Short Film was awarded to The Cat Piano, the latest animation from the award winning studios The Republic of Animation, narrated by Nick Cave about a city of singing cats directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson; and Sophie Hyde, Paul Zivkovich, Kat Worth and Tuula Roppola won for their film Necessary Games.

This year 67 short films screened in competition at the Melbourne International Film Festival; the shorts jury was this year made up Jonathan auf der Heide who won the Australian Emerging filmmaker award at MIFF08 and whose film Van Diemen’s Land is a part of MIFF09; Associate Professor and director of the AFI research Collection at RMIT University and Deputy Chair of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Deb Verhoeven; and Antonio Zeccola – Managing Director of Palace Cinemas and Palace Films.

City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film ($7000 - Academy Accredited Award) Next Floor (CANADA) Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film ($5000) Salt (QUEENSLAND) Directed by Michael Angus & Murray Fredericks

Melbourne Airport Emerging Australian Filmmaker ($5000 + airfare to attend Berlinale 2010) Two Men (VICTORIA) Directed by Dominic Allen

Cinema Nova Award for Best Fiction Short Film ($3000) Instead of Abracadabra (SWEDEN)Directed by Patrik Eklund

RMIT University Best Animation Short Film ($3000) The Cat Piano (SOUTH AUSTRALIA) Directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson

RMIT University Best Documentary Short Film ($3000) Slaves (SWEDEN) Directed by David Aronowitsch, Hanna Heilborn

Melbourne International Film Festival for Experimental Short Film ($3000) Necessary Games Directed by Sophie Hyde with Paul Zivkovich, Kat Worth, Tuula Roppola

www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/content/57/newsitem/173.html

[wheelspinner]

Turns out that MIFF does not give out awards other than in the Short Films section.

There is an audience poll and the winners this year were:

Most popular feature film: Bran Nue Day
Most popular documentary: The Topp Twins

Sadly, Van Diemens Land didn't figure.

Full results:

TOP 10 FEATURES:


1. Bran Nue Dae
2. Balibo
3. Moon
4. Che 1
5. No One Knows About Persian Cats
6. Blind Company
7. Mother
8. Dogs in Space
9. Unmade Beds
10. Anna

TOP 10 DOCUMENTARIES:

1. The Topp Twins
2. Intangible Assets Number 82
3. The Beaches of Agnes
4. We're Livin' on Dog Food
5. The 10 Conditions of Love
6. The Whispering of the Trees
7. Deathbowl to Downtown
8. The September Issue
9. I Need that Record
10. It Might Get Loud

Congratulations to all our Top 10 films!

www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/content/489/audience-poll-09.html