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Audience Award – past winners

During the festival, MIFF audiences vote for their favourite narrative and documentary feature films to win the MIFF Audience Awards. 

Below are all the winning films, going back to 2009.

MIFF 2023 Top 10 Feature Films

1 This Is Going to Be Big
2 Sunflower
3 Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism
4 Australia’s Open
The Rooster
Past Lives
Perfect Days
Birdeater
Kiss the Future
10 Late Night With the Devil

MIFF 2022 Top 10 Feature Films

1 Greenhouse by Joost
2 We Were Once Kids
3 Volcano Man
4 When Pomegranates Howl
5 The Lost City of Melbourne
6 Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
7 Nothing Compares
8 Sweet As
9 Franklin
10 Of an Age

MIFF 2019 Top 10 Narrative Feature Films

1 Portrait of a Lady on Fire
2 H is for Happiness
3 Vai
4 Bellbird
5 Buoyancy
6 Kairos
7 And Then We Danced
8 La Flor
8 Adam
8 Hearts and Bones

MIFF 2019 Top 10 Feature Documentaries

1 The Australian Dream
2 Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen
3 For My Father's Kingdom 
4 No Time for Quiet
4 For Sama
6 Martha: A Picture Story
7 Collingwood: From the Inside Out
8 In My Blood It Runs
9 Seahorse
10 5B

MIFF 2018 Top 10 Narrative Feature Films

1 Capharnaüm
2 An Elephant Sitting Still
3 Shoplifters
4 The Merger
5 Woman at War
6 The Guilty
7 Girl
8 Wajib – The Wedding Invitation
9 The Rider
10 The Tale

MIFF 2018 Top 10 Feature Documentaries

1 Backtrack Boys
2 I Used to be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story
3 The Coming Back Out Ball Movie
4 The Dawn Wall
5 Undermined: Tales from The Kimberley
6 United Skates
7 Happy Sad Man
8 Pick of the Litter
9 MATANGI / Maya / M.I.A.
10 Working Class Boy

MIFF 2017 Top 10 Feature Films

1. Call Me by Your Name
2. Ali’s Wedding
3. The Party
4. Top of the Lake: China Girl
5. Brigsby Bear
6. Ethel & Ernest
7. A Fantastic Woman
8. Loving Vincent
9. That’s Not Me
10. Lucky

MIFF 2017 Top 10 Documentaries

1. All for One
2. Unrest
3. The Song Keepers
4. I Am Not Your Negro
5. Faces Places
6. City of Ghosts
7. Roller Dreams
8. STEP
9. Pecking Order
10. Mountain

MIFF 2016 Top 10 Feature Films

1. My Life as a Courgette
2. The Handmaiden
3. EMO the Musical
4. Mahana
5. The Salesman
6. A War
7. Toni Erdmann
8. Train to Busan
9. Happy Hour
10. Captain Fantastic

MIFF 2016 Top 10 Documentaries

1. Zach’s Ceremony
2. The Eagle Huntress
3. The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe
4. Servant or Slave
5. The Music of Strangers
6. Tickled
7. Sonita
8. Reset
9. Life, Animated
10. Destination Arnold

MIFF 2015 Top 10 Feature Films

1 Song of the Sea
2 Holding the Man
3 In the Crosswind
4 An
5 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
6 A Perfect Day
7 Mustang
8 Victoria
9 Pawno
10 Tehran Taxi

MIFF 2015 Top 10 Documentaries

1 Graceful Girls
2 The Look of Silence

3 Putuparri and the Rainmakers
4 Palio
5 Sherpa
6 My Love, Don’t Cross That River
7 The Ground We Won
8 Racing Extinction
9 She's Beautiful When She's Angry
10 Toto and His Sisters

MIFF 2014 Top 10 Feature Films

1 Boyhood
2 Obvious Child
3 Housebound
4 Mommy
5 What We Do in the Shadows
6 Fantail
7 Starred Up
8 In Order of Disappearance
9 Sorcerer
10 The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

MIFF 2014 Top 10 Documentaries

1 Jalanan
2 Keep On Keepin’ On
3 Virunga
4 The Salt of the Earth
5 German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
6 The Case Against 8
7 Dior and I
8 Don’t Throw Stones
9 My Name is Salt
10 I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story

MIFF 2013 Top 10 Feature Films

1 The Rocket
2 The Past
3 The Broken Circle Breakdown
4 Wadjda
5 Approved for Adoption 
6 The Patience Stone
7 Blancanieves
8 A Hijacking
9 Touch of the Light
10 Omar

MIFF 2013 Top 10 Documentaries

1 The Crash Reel
2 Valentine Road 
3 Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
4 In Bob We Trust
5 Cosmic Psychos: Blokes You Can Trust
6 Lygon St – Si Parla Italiano
7 The Punk Singer
8 The Sunnyboy
9 Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer
10 Village at the End of the World

MIFF 2012 Top 10 Feature Films

1 The Intouchables
2 The Hunt
3 Monsieur Lazhar
4 Amour
5 Broken
6 The Sessions
7 Moonrise Kingdom
8 Facing Mirrors 
9 Wild Bill
10 The Angels’ Share

MIFF 2012 Top 10 Documentaries

1 Searching for Sugar Man
2 Undefeated
3 Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present
4 This Ain’t California 
5 Lasseter’s Bones
6 Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
7 The Imposter
8 Call Me Kuchu
9 Chasing Ice
10 How to Survive a Plague

MIFF 2011 Top 10 Feature Films

1 A Separation
2 Face to Face
3 Our Idiot Brother
4 Red Dog
5 Troll Hunter
6 Beginners
7 Melancholia
8 Le Havre
9 The Slap
10 Submarine

MIFF 2011 Top 10 Documentaries

1 Senna
2 Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard
3 I Am Eleven
4 Life in Movement  
5 Fire in Babylon
6 Page One: Inside the New York Times
7 Life in a Day  
8 Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
9 Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
10 The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975

MIFF 2010 Top 10 Feature Films

1 Boy
2 Desert Flower
3 Certified Copy
4 Four Lions
5 Summer Wars 
6 The Wedding Party
7 I Love You Phillip Morris
8 Women Without Men
9 The Ballad of Des and Mo (MIFF 72-hour film)
10 Summer Coda

MIFF 2010 Top 10 Documentaries

1 Bill Cunningham New York
2 The Invention of Dr. Nakamats 
3 Cities on Speed: Bogotá Change + Cairo Garbage  
4 Mother of Rock: The Life and Times of Lillian Roxon
5 La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
6 Cooking History
7 Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields  
8 Teenage Paparazzo
9 Woman with the 5 Elephants 
10 Black Bus

MIFF 2009 Top 10 Feature Films

1 Bran Nue Dae
2 Balibo
3 Moon
4 Che Part 1 – The Argentine
5 No One Knows About Persian Cats  
6 Blind Company
7 Mother
Dogs in Space
9 Unmade Beds
10 Anna

MIFF 2009 Top 10 Documentaries

1 The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
2 Intangible Asset Number 82
3 The Beaches of Agnes
4 We’re Livin’ on Dog Food
5 10 Conditions of Love
6 The Whispering of the Trees
7 Deathbowl to Downtown   
8 The September Issue
9 I Need That Record   
10 It Might Get Loud