A talk show from hell. Religious possession. A feral bachelor party. Join a panel of Australian filmmakers as they discuss the thrills and chills that are in high supply at this year’s festival.

Featuring directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres, MIFF Premiere Fund 2012), whose latest film Late Night With the Devil invites a clairvoyant, a parapsychologist and the lone survivor of a satanic cult onto a 1970s talk show; director Nick Kozakis, who explores ‘religious fixing’ and possession in Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism, shot in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs; and directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir, whose genre–defying debut feature Birdeater is a psychological thriller and domestic drama for the ages. Moderated by Sally Christie.

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Colin and Cameron Cairnes’s debut feature, 100 Bloody Acres (MIFF Premiere Fund 2012), won the Midnight X-treme award at Sitges Film Festival and was hailed by Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com as “the best low-budget horror-comedy since Shaun of the Dead”. Their follow-up, Scare Campaign, was a gruesomely inventive take on the slasher. The brothers’ latest genre-bending offering is Late Night with the Devil – a nightmarish ode to the talk shows of the 70s. The movie had its world premiere this year at SXSW, with master of horror Stephen King tweeting, “It’s absolutely brilliant. I couldn't take my eyes off it.”

Sydney–based filmmaker and screenwriter Jack Clark is the co-founder of Australian independent production company FAX MACHINE alongside Jim Weir. Following his celebrated early short films, Jack is the writer and co–director of Birdeater, which screens at this year’s MIFF.

Nick Kozakis is a three-time ARIA- and ADG-nominated director, helming projects with some of Australia’s most talented creatives, including the two-billion-viewed ‘Dance Monkey’ music video for Tones and I. Nick most recently has directed his second feature film, Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism, which is being distributed by XYZ Films and Umbrella Entertainment, and will have its Australian premiere at MIFF 2023. His feature-film debut Plague was screened at Cannes in 2015 and was sold internationally.

Jim Weir was nominated for BBFF’s Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year for his experimental short film Julia, and he won Best Film at Hell Chess Festival for his crime-thriller short Thirty Pieces. Co-founder of Australian independent production company FAX MACHINE with Jack Clark, Jim is the co-director of Birdeater.

Sally Christie (moderator) is a film writer, critic and broadcaster from Melbourne. She is a current PhD candidate at Swinburne University, with her research focusing on the intersection of Satan and the feminine in cinema. Sally has also contributed to various boutique Blu-ray audio commentaries and essays. She is a proud board member of the Melbourne-based film collective Cinemaniacs, and she really loves John Waters.

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