Tuesday, July 21, 2009

MIFF 2009 Sold Out/Selling Fast Sessions

Bookmark this page. This is MIFF's information that is buried deep in their website (that I largely automated) and available here in the one compact list. These are the film titles listed by MIFF as sold out or selling fast, updated at least three times a day.

The data is set out with session date and time, venue, session ID and title:

SELLING FAST
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - Forum - 1107 - Mother
SOLD OUT
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - GU6 - 2107 - White Ribbon, The
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - GU5 - 3107 - Private Lives of Pippa
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - GU4 - 4107 - Two Lines
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - GU3 - 5107 - Ong Bak 2: The Beginni
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - ACMI 2 - 6107 - Dogs in Space
  • Sun 9-Aug 7:00 PM - ACMI 1 - 7107 - My Suicide
  • Sun 9-Aug 9:15 PM - ACMI 2 - 6108 - Girlfriend Experience, The
Last updated Sun 09 Aug 6:11 PM

Note: some tickets for a 'Sold Out' session may become available; check the MIFF ticketing site for confirmation.

See also: MIFF website for program change information

13 comments:

Cinema Autopsy said...

Another superb post for those of us gearing up for MIFF - thank you Paul.

I'll only be able to see a limited number of films this year so this post and your post on films with a confirmed distributor/release date are already proving to be invaluable.

One a different note - I'm looking forward to seeing Inglourious Basterds too and I often do see things at MIFF if they aren't getting released until later in the year or the following year. But Inglourious Basterds gets released everywhere in Australia on 20 August! I can understand the fans getting excited about the Tarantino Q&A but why waste a ticket on the other screening? Go figure.

Cheers
Thomas

Paul Martin said...

No sweat, Thomas, I'm just sharing the love, bro. ;)

BTW, according to the MIFF program, Tarantino is introducing the film; there's nothing about a Q&A. I'd say that the audience for this film won't be seeing too many other films at MIFF.

I found out today from a MIFF programmer (who just happened to be standing outside my workplace at lunchtime as I was leaving the building) that the $55 for the premiere is being charged by Universal Pictures and, presumably, is to cover the high cost of bringing Tarantino out here.

Films like this one and Von Trier's Antichrist are headline acts that every festival needs to attract media and other attention.

Paul Martin said...

And Thomas, you may have noticed that the MIFF links are collated at the top right of this blog.

Anonymous said...

Bu would';t Universal have brought Tarantino out anyway as the national release is on Aug 20. Universal would sell their grandmothers if they could make money out of it.

Unknown said...

Oh man! There were five films on at the same time I wanted to see! Making up rules for yourself actually makes it easier to choose films to go see. I did want to avoid going out too late during the week this year. Saturday the 8th is going to be a big one.

simhanada said...

I was hoping to see Looking for Eric and now its bypassed "selling fast" to both sessions being sold out... wonder how that happened.

Anonymous said...

how many seats have to be left for it to be classified as 'selling fast' paul?

Paul Martin said...

Chris, Looking For Eric has been withdrawn from the festival, for reasons that I find ridiculous. According to the MIFF website:

The Melbourne International Film festival has been forced to cancel screenings of the film Looking For Eric from this year's festival following director Ken Loach's decision to withdraw the film from the program.

Mr Loach's decision is part of an orchestrated campaign to target events that are in receipt of financial support from the State of Israel. Loach requested that we join the boycott and as an independent arts organisation MIFF has refused. MIFF is extremely disappointed that Mr Loach has taken this stance. MIFF has played every one of his movies at the festival over the years including
It's A Free World in 2008.

Check the MIFF website for the full report.

Anonymous, I have no idea and it must depend on the venue. Whether a film that is 'selling fast' actually sells out or not depends on a variety of factors. For what it's worth, last year, 92 films were detected by me as either selling fast or sold out. Of the 92, only 33 sold out and 59 didn't. I expect that some of those 59 would have sold out but by the time I scanned the MIFF website, the sessions were over and were removed from the booking sessions. Thus they could have sold out and I had no way of ascertaining it.

As a rough guess, I'd estimate half of the 'selling fast' sessions actually sell out.

Paul Martin said...

More on the Loach film, from The Age:

This year the initial sponsorship arrangement involved an airfare for a festival guest, filmmaker Tatia Rosenthal. Her animation, $9.99, is the first Israeli-Australian co-production feature.

Richard Moore's response of not "boycotting events supported by Israel". Reportedly, he said, "I wouldn't do it. The festival wouldn't. It's like submitting to blackmail." I completely agree, regardless of my opinion of Israel and Palestinian issues.

simhanada said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
simhanada said...

I think loach's stance is unfortunate. He's had a good run at the fear as Moore mentions. Hopefully he has something back next year.

On another note. Now the doco petitions(I think that is it's name) both sessions have been marked as sold out which may indicate a cancellation.

Anonymous said...

What a bummer that Alphaville sold out while I was umming and uhhing. Anyway, trying to figure out which 3 bonus films I should book on my mini pass. I've narrowed it down to these which fit in around my work schedule: Pierrot Le Fou, Mommo, The Nun, Yuri's Day - which clashes with my 5th option The King and the Bird.

Any of these films that people really recommend?

Paul Martin said...

MIFF Senior Programmer Michelle Carey highly recommends both Pierrot le fou and Yuri's Day and they'd be my choices.