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The best-scored films at this year's MIFF used restraint as an instrument and silence as a statement.

Ticket sales are up 5 per cent on 2023, but sponsorship is flat and the programming budget came in under inflation.

The 2024 programme leaned harder into difficulty than any MIFF in recent memory, and the sessions were fuller for it.

The audience came back, the sponsorship did not, and the festival is running on volunteer labour and Creative Victoria grants.

The 2021 festival split itself between cinemas and living rooms, and the living rooms lost.