JULIET WAS HERE | MIFF Pre-Festival Lunch

(25 July 2025)

I was invited to a MIFF pre-launch lunch, two long tables of film friends, creative minds, and cultural observers gathered as the festival draws near.

At the centre of it all was Kate Jinx, MIFF’s Senior Programmer. She’s spent the past year city-hopping from Cannes to Sundance to LAFF, watching film after film with her team to shape this year’s program, over 250 titles across genres, moods, and worlds.

She shared stories from the circuit (including the time an unnamed director offered her LSD spray at a screening) and gave us some of her personal picks:

— Chantal Akerman: Traces (already selling out)
— First Light by James J. Robinson
— The new Twiggy documentary
— The Love That Remains
— And John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, which I booked with my gifted ticket

Kate’s advice?

“Choose a few you know you want to see, and one you wouldn’t usually pick.”

It’s how she’s discovered some of her favourite filmmakers.

She also reminded us that film is about dialogue, conversation, community. I couldn’t agree more.

MIFF runs 7–24 August. Bookings are open now, don’t sleep on it.

juliet was here, CULTURAL NOTES, CULTURAL NOTE, THE FILM REPORTJuliet SulejmaniMIFF, melbourne international film festival, kate jinx, miff 2025, film culture, pre-festival events, cinema as community, cultural invitation, juliet was here, chantal akerman: traces, first light, the love that remains, john lilly and the ecco, twiggy documentary, film picks, creative gatheringsComment