I would like to firstly apologise to all our teamsters out there who have been disappointed with our lack of blogging in recent times. It has been a busy one for the whole team so we have unfortunately been snowed under with work. Also, for those of you have been long time followers of this blog, this is the first time Chris has let me (Nick) actually write something – so that’s exciting in itself!

All that aside I would like to welcome you to what will be our official MIFF blog for 2011. With our entry for the MIFF blogging competition being unfortunately rejected, and our film Hannah and the Hasbian being rejected then accepted then rejected again we thought we might just push on through with our very own blog.

So where better to kick things off then get some angry notes off my chest from what has been an average start to a festival that I hold very dear to my heart. I shall do this in dot point form so as not to bore you too much too soon as I’ve still got reviews to come!!

1. As a yearly MIFF goer I usually save up and get the passport so I can go generally nuts and see upwards of 50 - 60 films during the festival, with my personal best sitting at a hefty 64 films in one year. Unfortunately this year had to be scaled back due to me being unable to buy a pass due to not being a MIFF member……….which costs an extra 100 bucks………on top of the 350 for the passport……………..definitely affordable for your poor film & tv grad.

2. Opening Night - usually a wonderful evening of celebration where the whole film & tv community and some of the interested general public gather in the one location for a film and party to celebrate the opening of the festival. Unfortunately this year that usual one cinema venue (The Regent or Hamer Hall in previous years) was split over 5 cinemas at Russel Street’s uncomfortable Greater Union. The shit thing about this being that unless you were a VIP, you didn’t see the speech from the filmmakers or the Premier of Victoria, you instead waited for the one print of the film to get to your cinema which ended up causing a 30-45min delay. Also the party was split with VIP’s having a separate party upstairs which again is a really great way to promote segregation in our film community.

3. You can no longer buy just a film ticket to Opening and Closing night - JUST the film & party tickets.

4. Once spanned across the city at venues such as The Capital and The Regent Theatres, the festival now relies solely on GU, The Forum, ACMI and occasionally Kino as screening venues. GU taking the bulk of the films which is unfortunate considering it’s a really bad place to watch movies.

5. Festival crowds have seemed increasingly more abusive towards volunteer festival staff this year round. My favourite being the person in Norwegian Wood who told an old man who had returned from the bathroom and was struggling to find his seat in a packed out session to “SIT THE FUCK DOWN!” Just damn brilliant.

Anyway with that off my chest I now present you with my first 4 days of festival madness!