Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) Collection

The MIFF Collection is a wide range of items about the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). Starting in 1952 MIFF has become one of the most important film culture events in Australia. The AFI Research Collection has amassed a sizable collection of material relating to MIFF, not just because of the importance of MIFF to Australian film culture. One of the other reasons why items have been collected is that the Australian Film Institute was created out of the festival in 1958, and until 1972 its existence was as part of the Melbourne film festival. Therefore some of the papers and reports on the Australian Film Institute (and, as a natural extension, its library which is now titled the AFI Research Collection) are intertwined with MIFF. An important factor in the development of MIFF was that it sprung from a well attended and passionate film society base which had established itself in Melbourne in the post war period. Items relating to the film society movement will have some relevance to this collection. The types of materials held within the MIFF Collection are - clippings, journal articles, book chapters, festival guides, ephemera (promotional material, lobby cards), and correspondence.