Between Success and Failure: Crisis and Recovery at the Melbourne International Film Festival

Abstract

A case study of the Melbourne International Film Festival’s least successful era, this chapter poses the question: what marks a successful festival? Tracing MIFF’s decline into bankruptcy and its subsequent recovery through the 1980s, this chapter identifies the competing agendas and stakeholders that operate within the film festival space. Positing that celebrations such as MIFF must negotiate a variety of agendas and positions in order to remain financially viable and culturally relevant, this chapter examines how perceptions of success hinge on events operating as multifaceted enterprises. It focuses attention on the specific importance of place in determining not only what types of festivals operate within a given cultural space, but also which ones will achieve permanence and ongoing relevance within both regional and global contexts.

In 1984 and then again from 1989 onwards the Melbourne Film Festival changed its name to Melbourne International Film Festival. This chapter deals with the festival’s development through the 1980s and thus with the period covering the event’s name change. As such, this chapter will use both the acronyms MFF and MIFF in a historically relevant manner to refer to the Melbourne (International) Film Festival as a single entity.