MIFF Awards
PRESENTED BY
The MIFF Awards recognise filmmaking excellence across a suite of award categories. These include the festival’s prestigious Bright Horizons Award, supported by VicScreen; the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award; The Uncle Jack Charles Award in collaboration with Kearney Group; and the Intrepid Audience Award; the MIFF Shorts Awards; and the MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award, presented by Collarts.
Bright Horizons Award
PRESENTED BY
Supported by VicScreen, the flagship Bright Horizons Award celebrates filmmakers on the ascent, as chosen from within the Bright Horizons film competition. Awarding A$140,000 to the winner, it is one of the most substantial film prizes in the world.
Winner
Director: Simón Mesa Soto
Jury Statement:
A tragicomic satire and microcosm of melancholy and irreverence, A Poet depicts Óscar, a failed poet turned reluctant mentor drifting between aspiration and self-destruction. The film is a biting fable of art as both an inescapable burden and a personal compass, breaking convention through its refreshingly brisk pace, unpretentious use of 16mm cinematography, deadpan performances by a mostly first-timer cast and pared-back jazzy score. The film’s balancing act of unflinching character study and social satire marks Simón Mesa Soto as a vital voice in contemporary Latin American cinema.
Other nominees
- April (dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili)
- First Light (dir. James J. Robinson)
- If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein)
- The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (dir. Diego Céspedes)
- Renoir (dir. Chie Hayakawa)
- The Rivals of Amziah King (dir. Andrew Patterson)
- Sound of Falling (dir. Mascha Schilinski)
- Urchin (dir. Harris Dickinson)
- A Useful Ghost (dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke)
2025 Jury
Deliberating on the Bright Horizons Award and the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award is an esteemed international jury, this year led by Jury President Charlotte Wells, along with Tamala, Alex Ross Perry, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Col Needham, Nam Le and Caitlin Yeo.
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Charlotte Wells is a Scottish filmmaker based in New York. Her directorial debut, Aftersun, premiered at Cannes in 2022. She is a graduate of the MBA/MFA dual-degree program at NYU, where she wrote and directed three short films and produced many more. Charlotte was a Fellow at the 2020 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. |
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Nam Le is a writer whose work encompasses fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and works for screen and stage. His collection 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem was named Book of the Year at the 2025 NSW Literary Awards. |
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Col Needham is Executive Chair of IMDb, which he founded in 1990. Col is a board member of Into Film and Film Independent, and serves as Global Brand Ambassador for the British Board of Film Classification. Col has been a jury member for leading film festivals around the world, including Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. |
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Alex Ross Perry is an American filmmaker and actor. His films have been internationally acclaimed at film festivals such as Sundance, Toronto and Berlin. He is most known for Listen Up Philip, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival, and Her Smell (2018). Besides being a prolific independent filmmaker, he also experiments with documentary, nonfiction and music. |
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Tamala is an Australian actor known for roles in Cleverman, Late Night With the Devil, Upper Middle Bogan, Nowhere Boys and US drama series Reef Break. She is currently filming the lead role in the Australian adaptation of the hugely popular BBC series Ghosts. Alongside her work as an actor, Tamala is a writer, singer and spoken-word performer with ever-advancing work in audiobook narration and voiceover. |
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Athina Rachel Tsangari is an acclaimed Greek filmmaker, whose feature work includes Attenberg, Chevalier and Harvest. |
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Caitlin Yeo is an award-winning Australian screen composer with over 75 film and TV credits. She is well known for her bold and inventive scores including for Bad Behaviour, David Stratton: A Cinematic Life and The Rocket. |
Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award
PRESENTED BY
The Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award recognises an outstanding Australian director of a film playing in the MIFF 2025 program with a A$50,000 cash prize and a fully kitted URSA Cine 12K camera valued at A$27,500.
The 2025 recipient of this award will be chosen by the same jury as that for the Bright Horizons Award.
Winner
James J. Robinson
Film: First Light
Jury Statement:
James J. Robinson’s First Light is a moving and powerful meditation on faith, institutional corruption and moral awakening. The film is anchored by a pitch-perfect performance from Ruby Ruiz and a sensorial mise en scène, inviting the audience into the spiritual grandeur of the landscape and the sacred intimacy of the convent to interrogate, alongside Sister Yolanda, not only the crime at hand but also the Catholic Church and modern society itself. As the first Australian–Philippine co-production to debut at MIFF, First Light not only showcases Robinson’s promise as a cineaste but also marks a noteworthy milestone in cross-cultural cinema.
Other nominees
- Zoe Pepper (Birthright)
- Samuel Van Grinsven (Went up the Hill)
- Sophie Somerville (Fwends)
The Uncle Jack Charles Award
PRESENTED BY
The Uncle Jack Charles Award in collaboration with Kearney Group recognises an outstanding Australian First Nations creative within a film playing in the MIFF 2025 program. The recipient is awarded a A$20,000 cash prize and A$25,000 worth of financial services with Kearney Group.
The winner of the award is selected by a film jury of three key industry talents. This year’s independent panel features interdisciplinary artist Reko Rennie; acclaimed filmmaker Jub Clerc (Sweet As, MIFF 2022); and last year’s Uncle Jack Charles Award winner, digital artist and director April Phillips (kajoo yannaga (come on let’s walk together), MIFF 2024).
Winner
Yarrenyty Arltere Artists – art direction
Film: The Fix-It-Man and the Fix-It-Wooman
Jury Statement:
We recognise this heartwarming short film as the culmination of community collaboration, innovation, artistic skills and self-determined storytelling at Yarrenyty Arltere Artists. How energising to see these soft sculptures come to life on the bright-light, big-city dance floor! The romantic scenes were both hilarious and sincere, and the combination of digital and handmade process felt rich and unique to the convention of animation. We can’t wait to see more from the creative team in the future.
Other nominees
- Mark Coles Smith (Beast of War, feature film) – actor
- William Jaka (Faceless, short film) – director (with Fraser Pemberton)
- Jack Manning Bancroft and Tyson Yunkaporta (Imagine, feature film) – directors
- Trisha Morton-Thomas (Journey Home, David Gulpilil, feature film) – director (with Maggie Miles)
Intrepid Audience Award
PRESENTED BY
Don’t waste good taste! MIFF’s much-loved Audience Award, presented by Intrepid, will be awarded to the creative team behind viewers’ favourite film from this year’s program, as determined through online and app votes.
Winner
Director: Sue Thomson
MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award
PRESENTED BY
Presented by Collarts, this award recognises the best title from the MIFF Schools program, as selected by a jury comprised of the winners of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s Top Screen. The winning film receives a $10,000 cash prize.
This year’s jury comprises Alex Feehan, Mia Sattler and Tadhg Sheehan. Click here for more information.
Winner
Director: Sarah Winkenstette