MELBOURNE, 20 June 2012 – The 61^st Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) will screen its biggest selection of films straight from the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

MIFF is one of the first festivals to screen these films after their world premiere at Cannes, meaning Melbourne audiences will be one of the first in the world to watch them after their debut on the French Riviera.

Over 35 films from Cannes are included in this year’s Festival line-up. Along with Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winning Amour, Benh Zeitlin’s Camera d’Or winner Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, all announced in MIFF’s First Glance on 5^th June, MIFF audiences will be treated to a huge selection of the world’s best filmmakers and films.

“Cannes is undoubtedly the international festival highlight for MIFF and this year we are thrilled to be able to bring such a huge array of titles. This is the most wide-ranging Cannes selection yet, with at least 20 countries represented in this selection alone. We have the sublime yet devastating Amour, the charming and surprisingly funny No and the ingenious Holy Motors. There are also exciting new films from MIFF regulars Im Sang-soo, Ken Loach, Hong Sang-soo, Ben Wheatley and Abbas Kiarostami,” said Festival Director Michelle Carey.

From the Cannes Festival Competition section MIFF will screen Walter Salles’ highly-anticipated adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road featuring Sam Riley as the infamous writer Sal Paradise, with support from Kirsten Stewart and Garett Hedlund.

 Woot wooot! First Sydney now Melbourne! I cannot wait to watch it again :) The Film festival begins 2nd August to 19 August 2012. The tickets will be availabe from July 11th if you register early at miff.