Melbourne International Film Festival kicks off today and the lineup is stacked

Melbourne's cinemas have been booked out for days, and there are still nearly two weeks of it left to come.

The 74th Melbourne International Film Festival is running now through 23 August, with more than 300 films, documentaries, shorts and immersive works packed across ACMI and cinemas around the CBD. If you have been meaning to grab tickets, the festival is well underway, but plenty of the biggest sessions are still ahead.

Opening night went to Wicker, a fantasy drama from Australian born filmmakers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, fresh off its Sundance debut. The cast alone is worth the price of admission: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, Richard E Grant and Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki all in the one film, which is also competing in the festival's Bright Horizons Competition.

The title most Melburnians will actually be messaging each other about is Tina Arena: Unravel Me, a world premiere documentary tracing the singer's five decade career from Young Talent Time through to international success across Australia, the UK and France. New interviews reportedly cover the full arc of her career, and for a festival built on international premieres, having the home grown one sell out first would not be a shock.

Beyond the headline names, the program spans everything from experimental shorts to big international dramas, spread across ACMI, The Astor, The Capitol, Cinema Nova and several other Melbourne venues. That kind of spread means genuinely different festivals depending on which sessions you pick, so it rewards actually scrolling the full program rather than just booking the film everyone is talking about.

With over two weeks still on the clock, there is no good excuse left to sit this one out. Check the MIFF program, pick something outside your usual taste, and go find out why Melbourne clears its whole August calendar for this.