Sarah Snook And Joel Edgerton Lead MIFF Guest Line-up

This year’s 341-film-strong Melbourne International Film Festival is by no means a minor event, but it’s set to get even bigger with today’s announcement of its full guest line-up, featuring 24 international and more than 70 local guests including the likes of Joel Edgerton and Sarah Snook.

Snook, along with director siblings and twins Michael and Peter Spierig, will be among the first faces seen at this year’s 63rd annual MIFF, with their film Predestination having been previously announced as the event’s opening-night movie for 2014.

On the other end of the spectrum, Edgerton will make his appearance for the festival’s Closing Night gala presentation and red-carpet premiere of his self-penned, self-starring film, Felony, joined by director Matthew Saville.

The international contingent is similarly eclectic, including the likes of US director Joe Swanberg, who will present his film Happy Christmas, featuring a guest spot from Girls creator Lena Dunham, as well as American blogger Ari Seth Cohen and director Lina Plioplyte. Cohen and Plioplyte will showcase Advanced Style, a cinematic adaptation of the mission of Cohen’s also-named blog, which publishes photographs of fashionable 60- to 90-year-old New York City-dwelling citizens.

In addition, French director Catherine Breillat will present Abuse Of Weakness, and rising indie star Desiree Akhavan – who will make her debut appearance on Girls next season – showcases her first feature-length film, Appropriate Behaviour, which tackles issues of sexuality and culture against a contemporary Brooklyn backdrop. Meanwhile, Kiwi auteur Florian Habicht pays tribute to renowned ’90s export Pulp in Pulp: A Film About Life, Death And Supermarkets.

Little ones aren’t left out, with the festival’s inaugural Kids’ Gala boasting guests such as Robert Connolly, the director of Paper Planes (as well as Tim Winton’s The Turning, Balibo and The Bank), and the film’s young stars Ena Imai, Nicholas Bakopoulos-Cooke and Ed Oxenbould (Puberty Blues) at a family-friendly red-carpet world-premiere screening of the film at the Forum.

That’s all in addition to the mammoth, Aussie-led roster of flicks to catch during the festival, which runs from July 31 to August 17 and will, as always, be based out of the Forum on Flinders Street.

Additional screenings will take place at ACMI, the Kino, the Capitol on Swanston, the Treasury Theatre on Spring Street, and Melbourne Central, alongside special events at IMAX and the Melbourne Planetarium.

See the MIFF website for more information, as well as a complete list of local and international guests.