The Chinese Independent Film Foundation (CIFF) is a
not-for-profit screen culture organisation dedicated
to showcasing new and old art-house Chinese-language
cinema across Australia. Founded in Narrm/Melbourne,
CIFF works with collaborators across mainland China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan to present films that
rarely receive theatrical release locally.


THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS
午夜出走 (2023)  Directed by Ben Mullinkosson (USA) 
Program:  Focus on Queer 中文 Cinema + ACMI Q&AIn the fading light of Chengdu’s club scene, a group of young misfits dance, party, and connect under the radar of a city rapidly gentrifying. US documentarian Ben Mullinkosson follows their final year inside Funky Town — a nightclub which, for many, acts as a place of liberation, community, and escape. Through moments of intimacy and exhilaration, the film captures a generation teetering between hedonism and uncertainty.

This screening was followed by a commissioned panel discussion with the director and cast hosted by Thread, a collective dedicated to leftfield electronic music and a space to celebrate contemporary East and Southeast Asian culture and the diaspora experience. Watch the full interview here.
November, 2025

Past event.

Address: Elsewhere Books
Level 3, 139 Franklin Street, Melbourne

CIFF acknowledges the Traditional Owners of
the unceded land on which we work and create,
the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong
peoples, and the wider Kulin Nations.