Melbourne Documentary Film Festival
The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival returns to Cinema Nova this July 2026 with ‘Documentaries Reimagined’ — a bold, eclectic program of must-see local and international documentaries. Proudly ranked among Film Freeway's Top 100 Festivals Worldwide for eleven consecutive years, MDFF delivers powerful, award-contending stories that challenge, inspire, and stay with you long after the credits roll. Warm up your winter with documentaries on the big screen.
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 11, 10.15am. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. STRANGER IN THE WORLD (Sturla Pilskog 29.50mins) Follows a filmmaker, his autistic son, and a composer's earth-inspired work. A MAGIC THREAD (15: ... more
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 11, 1.15pm (Sold Out!). Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. In a remote Yolŋu island community, Elder Ḻäwurrpa Maypilama works to return birthing to Country. Navigating ancestral laws, coloni ... more
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 11, 1.00pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. SCRAP (17.01 Noémie Lobry) The corridors of a consciousness invaded by broken cars, where images of the past, present and possible ... more
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 11, 4.20pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. THAT HALF BARBARIC TWANG is a spiritual road movie following two renowned Australian actors, David Field (The Rover) and Geoff Morrell (Top of the ... more
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 11, 5.00pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Exploring the lives of stray cats in Athens and beyond, ACROPOLIS CATS AND OTHER WONDROUS ANIMALS examines the tenderness and tragedies in hu ... more
SESSION INTRODUCTION: Saturday July 11, 6.20pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for an introduction. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Inspired by live cinema, BROTHER VERSES BROTHER is a one-take musical that follows combative twin musicians as the ... more
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 11, 7.15pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Passionate conservationist Neil Waters embarks on a decade-long search through Tasmania’s wilderness to prove the Tasmanian Tiger still exists. ... more
MDFF26 Jimmy Somerville: Smalltown Boy + Shorts
Opening Date: Sunday, 12 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 12, 3.45pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. The story of frontman Jimmy Somerville, the rebellious singer who became the English voice of gay and minority rights. From Bronski Beat to The Commu ... more
MDFF26 The Marbles
Opening Date: Sunday, 12 Jul 2026
THE MARBLES is the story of the greatest art heist in history and the fight to change a great wrong. In 1801, Lord Elgin removed half of the Parthenon, causing a scandal among his contemporaries. What followed was a 200-year battle between Greece and the ... more
MDFF26 Out Laws + Queer Shorts
Opening Date: Sunday, 12 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 12, 5.15pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Friedel Dausab challenges Namibia’s criminalisation of same-sex love in a landmark court case. The film traces colonial and religious roots of anti-q ... more
MDFF26 Shorts Sessions 4
Opening Date: Sunday, 12 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 12, 1.10pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. KALEIDOSCOPE (45m) short docs. GOING COASTAL (16:15, Henry Smith) — Couple's simple life climbing, gardening, and birding on remote Flinder ... more
MDFF26 Shorts Sessions 3
Opening Date: Sunday, 12 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 12, 10.15am. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. CROC COUNTRY (Sinead Reynold 20:05) In tropical North Queensland, locals must share ... more
MDFF26 Wide Horizons
Opening Date: Tuesday, 14 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Tuesday July 14, 6.20pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. An intimate portrait of critically acclaimed regional dance company Dancenorth based in tropical North Queensland. The film follows the company on a ... more
MDFF26 Shared Table Regional Heros
Opening Date: Tuesday, 14 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Tuesday July 14, 6.45pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Four unsung migrant heroes in regional Victoria open their kitchens to a travelling film crew. What begins as a quest for connection becomes a deepl ... more
MDFF26 Bound By Distance
Opening Date: Tuesday, 14 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Tuesday July 14, 8.30pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Six Australian runners and their support crew tackle the world’s longest, hardest unsanctioned race — the 550km Speed Project from LA to Las Vegas. ... more
MDFF26 Everything We Need Is Here
Opening Date: Wednesday, 15 Jul 2026
Drawn by a primal instinct to forage, Tiffany wanders Manitoba’s boreal forests in search of wild mushrooms — and something far deeper. Living with complex PTSD, she finds in Nature a refuge that offers calm, clarity, and connection. In Winnipeg’s threate ... more
MDFF26 Whistleblower + David McBride: Declassified
Opening Date: Thursday, 16 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Thursday July 16, 6.15pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. WHISTLEBLOWER (Marc Bauder, 91 min): Follows Africa’s most important whistleblower Jean-Jacques Lumumba, former NSA intelligence analyst Daniel ... more
MDFF26 How To Kill A Mermaid
Opening Date: Thursday, 16 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Thursday July 16, 8.50pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. A heart-wrenching true-crime documentary re-examining the 2020 death of 18-year-old Linnea Mills during a cold-water scuba dive in Montana’s Glacie ... more
MDFF26 Spirit Of The Photobooth
Opening Date: Friday, 17 Jul 2026
Q&A SCREENING: Friday July 17, 6.15pm. Join two of the Melbourne-based participants in the film - Chris Sutherland and Jessie Norman - live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A of this work-in-progress film. An exclusive, early look at a warm documentary ... more
MDFF26 No Limbs No Limits
Opening Date: Friday, 17 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Friday July 17, 8.30pm. Join the filmmaker live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Born without arms or legs in Melbourne, Nick Vujicic and his family fought Australia’s education system to change disability integration nationwide. T ... more
MDFF26 Dead Parents Club
Opening Date: Friday, 17 Jul 2026
INTRODUCTION: Friday July 17, 6.40pm. Join us for a live in-cinema for an introduction. A hybrid documentary exploring parental loss through real stories interwoven with the orphan trope in popular culture. Participants perform iconic sc ... more
MDFF26 Tycho! + Pushing the Boundaries
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 18, 10.15am. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. TYCHO! Beyond the Baton (Stephan Wellink, 95 min): The little-known personal story of child prodigy Maestro Tommy Tycho — Holocaust survivor, pian ... more
MDFF26 Making Infinity
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
An intimate observation of the creative process of Australian & Chinese artists navigating simmering tensions & their cultural differences; in an attempt to create a contemporary performance ritual that involves the entire audience moving in unison to mak ... more
MDFF26 Somewhere After
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 18, 3.30pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Seven Australians share their isolation hopes, dreams, and fears via video calls early in the pandemic. Three years later they revisit those re ... more
MDFF26 Love Letter to the Unseen + Sensing Home
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 18, 5.30pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. LOVE LETTER TO THE UNSEEN (45 min, Josh Murphy) follows youth conservationist Spencer Hitchen on his journey of discovery to understand the imminen ... more
MDFF26 Wim Wenders Retrospective
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
A retrospective of documentary shorts from acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders (Perfect Days, Paris, Texas). ROOM 666 (1982, 50m) Shot during the ... more
MDFF26 Silver Screamers
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Saturday July 18, 6.15pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. A heartwarming and spine-tingling documentary following spirited senior citizens who step far outside their comfort zones to create their own horro ... more
MDFF26 Docs After Dark
Opening Date: Saturday, 18 Jul 2026
SESSION INTRODUCTION: Saturday July 18, 8.30pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for an introduction. THE MAN WHO SAW THEM ARRIVE (Zev Howley, 71 min): In January 1968, the quiet life of Melbourne resident Colin Cameron was shattered following a myster ... more
MDFF26 Nova 78
Opening Date: Sunday, 19 Jul 2026
A time capsule from the underground: restored footage from the legendary 1978 Nova Convention featuring William Burroughs, Frank Zappa, Patti Smith, and other counterculture icons, reimagined for today’s audiences. ... more
MDFF26 Resisting Caste(ism) In Australia
Opening Date: Sunday, 19 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 19, 12.15pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. Filmmaker Dr Vikrant Kishore travels 3,500 kilometres across Australian cities, speaking with Dalit community members and allies about persisten ... more
MDFF26 Language Of Light (Session 1)
Opening Date: Sunday, 19 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 19, 4.10pm. A program bringing together three distinct photographic voices spanning music culture, feminist social documentary, and contemporary diaspora identity. ... more
MDFF26 Language Of Light (Session 2)
Opening Date: Sunday, 19 Jul 2026
MEET THE FILMMAKER: Sunday July 19, 6.20pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for a post-screening Q&A. A second program featuring powerful photographic storytelling across Indigenous identity, ocean ecosystems, and global conflict zones. ... more
MDFF26 Australian Dream
Opening Date: Sunday, 19 Jul 2026
Six underdog surfers from a tiny village in Portugal travel to Australia and take on the world elite in one of the country’s most iconic surfing championships, embodying determination and unexpected triumph. ... more
