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Senuri Chandrani in Mad Rush, screening at MIFF 2026.

Is this how it feels to be young, broke, scammed and cast out on the street?

The new film Mad Rush, premiering at Melbourne International Film Festival, is urgent and powerful – and couldn’t be more relevant to many young people.

  • Karl Quinn

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Stephen McCallum worked on the documentary Never Get Busted! for four years. He’s spent the past two years fighting for the right to have that work acknowledged.

Filmmaker wins landmark case to be acknowledged as ‘principal director’

In a highly unusual case, a director has taken a producer to court, alleging he was denied his rightful credit. And in a major decision, he won.

  • Karl Quinn
MIFF’s third-party ticketing platform Ferve Tickets was hacked, exposing the personal information of thousands of MIFF customers.

Film festival customer data exposed in hack of third-party ticketing platform

Melbourne International Film Festival organisers are investigating the hack, which has affected about 10 per cent of the festival’s total customer database.

  • Roy Ward and Nell Geraets
‘I will pay my debts’: A delighted Simon Mesa has won the $140,000 Bright Horizons prize at MIFF.

‘A film about the worst version of myself’ wins massive cash prize

MIFF’s Bright Horizons prize, worth $140,000, has gone to a sardonic Colombian comedy about a washed-up poet.

  • Karl Quinn
The Age, news.Business. These young people are the subjects of a new movie - Spreadsheet Champions - and competed in the recent Microsoft Excel world championships. The film is appearing at the upcoming Melbourne International Film Festival.Left to right. 1. Carmina Solares,Yvan De La Paix,Alkmini Gaitantzi and .Mason Brainthwaite,Pic Simon Schluter 8 August 2025

Excelling at Excel: The spreadsheet world cup is anything but boring

Forget slam dunks, penalty shootouts or gold medals. The most nerve-racking competition you’ve never heard of involves cells, formulas and pivot tables.

  • David Swan
Sigourney Waver as Ripley in Alien and Col Needham, the founder of the website IMDb.

He watched Alien 14 times in a row, then gave birth to an internet monster

Col Needham first tracked movie credits in a paper notebook in 1981. Now his IMDb is the go-to site for film and TV fans around the world – and worth a fortune.

  • Karl Quinn
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Women have long played a pivotal role in horror cinema, so why do we know so little about them?

Think horror is a man’s world? This documentary will scare you straight

1000 Women in Horror sheds light on the many women who have helped keep the genre alive, proving once and for all that some women were made to spook.

  • Nell Geraets
Isobel Knowles, left, and Van Sowerwine with props for their VR work The World Came Flooding In.

Imagine your house under water. This VR film takes us inside the flood

The World Came Flooding In brings three personal stories of climate calamity to life.

  • Simmone Howell
Emily Browning at the MIFF Festival Hub at ACMI, August 11, 2025.

How actress Emily Browning learnt to embrace the funny side of failure

Lemony Snickett made her a dramatic star in her teens. Now in her 30s, the Melbourne-born actress is finally up for a laugh.

  • Karl Quinn
Luciana and Mario Martini are determined to stay in their home in North Fitzroy as they get older.

Luciana and Mario want to dance into old age at home and avoid aged care

A new documentary is exploring the complicated issue of ageing and the determination of some people to continue living independently.

  • Cara Waters