The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has been rocked by political controversy, losing four films within days of its opening weekend.
Last week, British director Ken Loach pulled his film, Looking For Eric, because MIFF receives financial support from Israel.
At the same time, the festival rejected a request from the Chinese government to remove an Australian documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love, about Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer who is accused of inciting unrest.
Then, on Tuesday, three Chinese filmmakers withdrew their festival entries.
MIFF director Richard Moore says their tag line "Everyone's a critic" seems to be all too true, and in the case of Loach and the Chinese government, he calls it cultural blackmail.
"I think it's a form of cultural blackmail telling us to change our program, if we don't there are consequences. We're seeing the consequences now," Moore told AAP.
For some of the Chinese filmmakers, it's even more serious.
One of the withdrawn films is Petition - The Court of the Complainants, by Chinese independent filmmaker Zhao Liang.
It screened at Cannes in May, but now Liang is in danger.
"I had a conversation with him and I can't tell you the nature of the conversation ... because he's worried for his safety," Moore said.
"At present, he's not in mainland China ... he's changing his mobile phone number regularly. It's one of those situations."
The other two Chinese films, Jia Zhangke's short Cry Me a River and Emily Tang's Perfect Life have been withdrawn at the request of the filmmakers and their producer, Chow Keung of Hong Kong-based X Stream Pictures.
"This is not a situation we planned or envisaged, or a cheap trick for publicity. It's actually real and the last thing in the world we want is for something terrible to happen to any of those filmmakers," Moore said.
It may not be the end of trouble for Australia's longest-running film festival.
The opening night film on Friday is Robert Connolly's political thriller Balibo, about the true events surrounding the execution of five Australia-based journalists during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975.
Moore says he hasn't heard anything from the Indonesian government, which has previously asked the filmmakers to include "Indonesia's point of view". But he knows he might.
"I'm hoping not to receive a call from the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia on Saturday morning," he said.
Festival organisers are scrambling to find new films to fill the vacated slots in the program, and are adding extra screenings of sessions that have sold out.
For all the controversy, Moore says ticket sales are very good.
"They always say all publicity is good publicity," he said.
"Certainly, it's taken us out of the arts pages and onto the news pages, and around the world, and made us more relevant and topical and cutting edge and seeming to be of the moment."
The strong interest in this year's line-up may also be, in part, due to the impressive representation of locally-made movies.
Australian films are opening and closing the event, with Balibo at one end and Bran Nue Dae at the other.
"To have two films from the Australian film industry that are so completely opposite is fantastic," Moore said.
"One is a political thriller, and the other one is an out and out extravagant, toe-tapping musical, with some great songs and a whole host of stars.
"I think it's been a very good year for the Australian film industry, and the festivals have been a key player in that."
The Melbourne International Film Festival runs from July 24 to August 9.
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