MIFF Awards 2024
The MIFF Awards recognise filmmaking excellence across a suite of six award categories. Returning in 2024 are the festival’s prestigious Bright Horizons Award, presented by VicScreen; the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award; The Uncle Jack Charles Award in collaboration with Kearney Group; and the Intrepid Audience Award. Elsewhere, the 63rd MIFF Shorts Awards, presented by Campari, celebrate the best in short-form filmmaking, while the MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award, presented by Collarts, names the best title from the MIFF Schools program.
Bright Horizons Award
PRESENTED BY
Presented by VicScreen, the flagship Bright Horizons Award celebrates filmmakers on the ascent, as chosen from within the Bright Horizons film competition. Awarding AUD$140,000 to the winner, it is one of the most substantial film prizes in the world.
Winner
Director: Matthew Rankin
Jury Statement:
Our task as jury was joyful, invigorating and inspiring. It was also incredibly arduous, heartbreaking and some might even say cruel, because how could anyone choose a favorite or pick a winner from such an incredible lineup of films … [Universal Language] represented all of the facets of the Bright Horizons Award – a film whose cultural specificity transcends borders, whose cinematic playfulness is matched equally by its sensitivity, and whose very form is in conversation with cinema past, present and future.
Special Jury Award
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Jury Statement:
We would also like to recognise a movie that not only had a profound impact on us as jury members, but which through its grace, empathy and universality will leave a mark on cinema and the world at large.
Other Nominees
- Good One (dir. India Donaldson)
- Hoard (dir. Luna Carmoon)
- Inside (dir. Charles Williams)
- Janet Planet (dir. Annie Baker)
- Julie Keeps Quiet (dir. Leonardo Van Dijl)
- On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (dir. Rungano Nyoni)
- Sweet Dreams (dir. Ena Sendijarević)
- The Village Next to Paradise (dir. Mo Harawe)
2024 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 Ivan Sen, along with David Lowery, Deborah L. Scott, Yulia Evina Bhara and Jillian Nguyen.
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Ivan Sen is one of Australia’s most revered filmmakers. His feature film debut Beneath Clouds (2002) screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, earning Sen a Silver Bear for the Premiere First Movie Award, as well as Best Director at the 2002 Australian Film Institute Awards. Sen’s filmography also includes: documentary Yellow Fella (MIFF 2005) and narrative feature Toomelah (MIFF 2011), both of which screened in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival; outback noir film Mystery Road (MIFF 2013) and its sequel Goldstone (2015); sci-fi mystery Loveland (2022); and Limbo (2023), which screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. |
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David Lowery is a visionary writer and director whose work includes fantasy epic The Green Knight (2021) starring Dev Patel, The Old Man & the Gun (2018) with Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek, A Ghost Story (2017) starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, the live-action adaptation of Pete’s Dragon (2016) and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (MIFF 2013). His next film, Mother Mary, which stars Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole, will be released in 2025 by A24 and features original songs by Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX. |
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Deborah L. Scott is an award-winning costume designer who was recently honoured as the 2023 season’s Costume Designers Guild Career Achievement Award recipient. Scott took home the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Titanic (1997) and returned to work with director James Cameron on Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2023). She’s also currently working on the third Avatar instalment. Her extraordinary filmography includes such iconic titles as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Back to the Future (1985), Legends of the Fall (1994), Heat (1995), Minority Report (2002), Love & Other Drugs (2010) and many others. |
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Yulia Evina Bhara is a producer and the founder of KawanKawan Media, a production company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her recent production credits include: documentary You and I (2020) by Fanny Chotimah; Whether the Weather Is Fine (MIFF 2022) by Carlo Francisco Manatad; Stone Turtle by Woo Ming Jin (MIFF 2023); Autobiography (MIFF 2023) by Makbul Mubarak; Tiger Stripes (MIFF 2023) by Amanda Nell Eu; Dreaming & Dying (2023) by Nelson Yeo; Last Shadow at the First Light (2023) by Nicole Midori Woodford; and 24 Hours With Gaspar (2023) by Yosep Anggi Noen. She was chosen as one of Variety’s Impactful International Women of 2023. |
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Photo: Hyun Lee |
Jillian Nguyen is one of Australia’s most exciting young actors. She has starred in feature films including True History of the Kelly Gang (2019), directed by Justin Kurzel; New Zealand comedy Millie Lies Low (MIFF 2022); Loveland (2022), directed by Ivan Sen; and MIFF 2023 Opening Night film Shayda, directed by Noora Niasari. She voiced the lead character Arkie in animated feature film Scarygirl (MIFF 2023) and played lead roles in television drama One Night for Paramount+ and ABC’s 2022 flagship series Barons. Her other TV credits include Hungry Ghosts (2020), Clickbait (2021), The Clearing (2023) and White Fever (2024). |
Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award
PRESENTED BY
The Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award recognises an outstanding Australian creative within a film playing in the MIFF program with a A$70,000 cash prize. The prize can be awarded to a director or a technical or creative lead.
The 2024 recipient of this award will be chosen by the same jury as that for the Bright Horizons Award.
Winner
Jaydon Martin – director
Film: Flathead
Jury Statement:
We were captivated and affected by director Jaydon Martin’s visually arresting and very moving portrait of individuals often forgotten about in society – in this case, the real people of small-town Bundaberg. Flathead’s seamless merging of realities and fiction, both so raw yet so cinematic, had a profound effect on our jury. We hope all of you have a chance to watch this brilliant, sensitive examination of survival, of humanity and of mortality, which will stay with you for days to come.
Other Nominees
- Audrey Lam (Us and the Night) – director
- Steven Boyle (The Demon Disorder) – VFX executive producer
- Adam Elliot (Memoir of a Snail) – director
The Uncle Jack Charles Award
PRESENTED BY
The Uncle Jack Charles Award in collaboration with Kearney Group recognises an outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creative within a film playing in the MIFF program. The recipient will be awarded a A$20,000 cash prize and A$25,000 worth of financial services with Kearney Group.
The pool of contenders is drawn from across all film creative departments including directing, producing, screenwriting, composing, editing, cinematography, acting, production design, art direction and sound design. The prize is awarded to the creative deemed to have demonstrated excellence and commitment in their relevant craft, as selected by a film jury of three key industry personnel.
This year’s jury includes Davey Thompson, First Peoples Production Executive at VicScreen and a talented producer, writer and actor; respected writer, actor and activist Nayuka Gorrie, known for Black Comedy, The Heights and more; and actor Thomas Weatherall, from Heartbreak High and about to be seen in The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Winner
April Phillips – lead artist
Film: kajoo yannaga (come on let’s walk together)
Jury Statement:
This bold and refreshing animation made us all feel a childlike sense of wonder with its stunning technicolour visuals and immersive sound design that built a world that felt ancient and futuristic all at once. Lead artist April Phillips has a strong and clear artistic vision and we were all left wanting more.
Other Nominees
- Jon Bell (The Moogai) – writer/director
- Semara Jose (Voice) – co-director
- Danielle MacLean (Like My Brother) – co-director
- Jake Duczynski (‘Gilay Gabinya’, Magic Beach) – animator/writer/director
Intrepid Audience Award
PRESENTED BY
Love it? Hate it? Rate it! This award, presented by Intrepid, crowns viewers’ favourite title from the festival, as determined through online and app votes.
Voice
Directors: Krunal Padhiar, Semara Jose
Left Write Hook
Director: Shannon Owen
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.
This year’s jury includes Fynn Williams, Gabe Hartshorne and Jasmine Lui. Click here for more information.
Alemania
Director: Maria Zanetti
Jury Statement:
Of all the amazing movies presented, Alemania really felt like it achieved what it was aiming to do. It ticked all the boxes for a coming-of-age film while remaining engaging the whole way through. The visuals and cinematography were beautiful and felt really in tune with the overall aesthetic, as well as the fact that the character depth, relationships, themes and plot felt really grounded and flowed beautifully throughout the film.