Sicko Opens Melbourne Film Festival

Friday July 20, 2007

It's Sicko time in Melbourne on July 25 as the Melbourne International Film Festival unreels at the Regent Theatre to start a 19-day feast of film.

The festival breaks with tradition by not screening an Australian film on opening night. Instead, the opening night audience will be treated to the Michael Moore documentary about the sickness and health of the American health care system.

Nor is the closing night film Australian. Closing the festival will be This Is England, a film by British director Shane Meadows set in the 1980s, about a troubled young boy who is befriended by a group of skinheads.

But if you're after Australian films, there will be a number of Australian works in the more than 400 films and short pieces to be screened during the festival at various Melbourne venues including Regent Theatre, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Forum, Greater Union and RMIT Capitol.

Photo: Regent Theatre © Tourism Victoria