The Melbourne International Film Festival will open tonight at Hamer Hall, with the screening of Pedro Almodóvar’s comedy I’m So Excited!

This year’s festival features a line up of over three hundred films over the next seventeen days. The regular features of International Panorama, Accent on Asia, Backbeat and Next Gen will return, along with new strands including a series of North Korean films, Activism on Film, and Arabic Filmic Voices.

A scene from Pakistani-American film These Birds Walk (Image: The Hollywood Reporter)

Over fifty Australian films will be shown, including Sydney Film Festival headliner Mystery Road. Pakistan will be represented by a joint American production called These Birds Walk, following the plight of a 10-year-old runaway boy in Karachi. Five Indian arthouse films will also be screened; Monsoon Shootout; Powerless; Tau Seru; Twisted Trunk, Big Fat Body; and Ugly.

The Melbourne International Film Festival debuted in 1952, and has become a regular fixture on the city’s cultural calendar. Its website boasts that in 2012 it delivered more than $8.2 million into the local economy.

Tickets to events at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival are available at MIFF’s website.