JURY MEMBERS
Dean Bertram (Jury President)
Ivan Bognino
Paul Moder
Dalibor Bakovic
Lisa Mitchell

JURY STATEMENT
The dominant paradigm that has long attempted to constrain the films both made and screened in this country is finally collapsing.
The self-styled guardians of public taste and the jealous overseers of state and federal funding troughs have been unable to halt the democratising forces of digital technology; the efforts of a bold new generation of DIY filmmakers; and dare I mention those oft maligned market forces (i.e. what the Australian viewing public really want
to see).

Yes, we are smack bang in the middle of a genuine cultural revolution, a revolution for which MUFF stands as both advance guard and standard-bearer. For nine years now, with its controversial programs and scathing manifestos, MUFF has flipped the bird to the cultural elites guilty of attempting to hobble Australian cinema. More importantly it has offered sanctuary to a wide variety of excluded films, holding a torch in the darkness that promised a national cinema freed from conservatism, tokenism, and snobbery.

On behalf of the entire jury of the 9th Melbourne Underground Film Festival, I would like to proclaim: “Viva La Revolution! Viva MUFF!

Dean Bertram PhD