Melbourne festivals planner 2012

Nothing dispells winter's gloom like a festival, and our city has them in spades

First published on 31 Jul 2012. Updated on 25 Feb 2013.

Allow us to squire you through the top-shelf culture this city has on offer for the rest of the year...

Melbourne Writers Festival
23 Aug-2 Sep	Tear yourself away from your blog and take your inner dweeb along to one of director Steve Grimwade’s recommended shindigs. Whether you're after an epiphany or a verbal stoush, he's got the event for you. And reading this, we're totally entertained already.
Israeli Film Festival
30 Aug-4 Sep	The Israeli Film Festival is back for its ninth year, and it's bringing more films than ever to Australian screens. If you're looking for a break from Hollywood's superhero influx look no further – personal, human stories abound here.
Korean Film Festival
8-12 Sep	The Korean Film Festival is here again, showcasing Korean language and culture on the big screen. The third such festival includes 20 features, 13 shorts and the 1st KOFFIA Short Film Competition. Short films made by Koreans or Australians studying film Down Under are eligible; finalists will be screened and a total of $5,000 in cash and prizes awarded.
Freeplay Independent Games Festival
19-23 Sep	Games are fast becoming the dominant artform of the 20th century and the modern video game industry is a slick, ever-expanding juggernaut. Freeplay should be visited by anyone who doesn’t understand this and still pictures gamers as basement-dwellers who wear little more than holey jocks and a dusting of cookie crumbs. Freeplay’s programme is diverse and rigorous, featuring industry speakers, forums, and a games arcade.
The Other Film Festival
19-23 Sep	Ten years ago, Rick Randall had what he calls a “realisation of absence”. Sitting at a kitchen table with a glass of wine, surrounded by friends with disabilities and artists who worked with them, he wondered why there was no disability film festival. “As we know,” he says, “there’s a film festival for everything else!” That’s how the Other Film Festival was born in 2004.
Melbourne Fringe Festival
26 Sep-14 Oct	The Melbourne Fringe turns 30 this year, but it isn’t getting all reflective over its wasted twenties or fretting over an emergent bald patch. Instead, it’s continuing to perform its vital role as the leading platform for Melbourne’s independent arts scene, and putting on 330 shows in 141 venues across Victoria.
Iranian Film Festival
11-14 Oct	The Iranian Film Festival brings the best of the latest Persian cinema to Australian audiences. Judging by last year's lineup, 2012's offerings (in Melbourne for the first time) should be as diverse and intriguing as Iran itself.
Melbourne Festival
11-27 Oct	This year, the dependable, venerated Melbourne Festival will present an astutely chosen mix of blockbusters and lesserknown works – of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, and multimedia – with its customary focus on artistic excellence. As usual, free outdoor events will create a perceptible buzz around town.
Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival
22 Sep-25 Nov	There’s something reassuring about the Spring Carnival. Each year, as reliably as spring’s first jonquils, an army of flustered caterers, an obscene number of flowers, and droves of tipsy, amorous punters will suddenly appear en masse at Flemington, and then just as suddenly vanish. So mark your diary for the Victoria Derby, the VRC Oaks, the VRC Stakes and, oh, some other nation-stopping race whose name right now escapes me.