MIFF Awards 2022

PRESENTED BY

As part of MIFF’s landmark 70th-anniversary festivities, 2022 rang in the inaugural MIFF Awards, which consisted of three prizes: the flagship A$140,000 Bright Horizons Award (presented by VicScreen), which celebrates filmmakers on the ascent; the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, recognising an outstanding Australian creative within a film playing in the MIFF program; and the Audience Award, a beloved festival favourite returning after a brief hiatus.

The MIFF Awards recipients were chosen by a distinguished jury of industry figures presided over by Jury President Shareena Clanton (Wentworth, Redfern Now), an acclaimed stage and screen actor and director. The other jury members were Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and artist Lynette Wallworth (Awavena, Tender), internationally acclaimed Australian cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (Animal Kingdom, True Detective), and Indonesian film director and screenwriter Mouly Surya (Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts). 

Bright Horizons Award

Neptune Frost

Directors: Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman
Producers: Anisia Uzeyman, Ezra Miller, Maria Judice & Saul Williams

Jury Statement:
Neptune Frost was like nothing we have ever seen before. By disrupting the colonial gaze and connecting the rising influence of technology in all our lives, this film penetrates deeply into your heart and soul to say that you are not too far disconnected from me. It felt at once absolutely specific and entirely global.

Other Nominees:
Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells)
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (dir. Francisca Alegría)
Domingo and the Mist (dir. Ariel Escalante Meza)
Leonor Will Never Die (dir. Martika Ramirez Escobar)
Mass (dir. Fran Kranz)
Petrol (dir. Alena Lodkina)
Playground (dir. Laura Wandel)
Robe of Gems (dir. Natalia López Gallardo)
Rodeo (dir. Lola Quivoron)
The Stranger (dir. Thomas M. Wright)

Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award

Jub Clerc – directing (Sweet As)

Jury Statement:
This film was more than just ‘sweet’. It crossed worlds and intersected certain realities – incredibly difficult to achieve, even for any accomplished filmmaker.

Other Nominees:
Del Kathryn Barton (Blaze) – directing
Johanna Scott (Fire Front) – editing
Platon Theodoris (The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour) – production design
David Easteal (The Plains) – directing
Bruce Gladwin, Michael Chan, Mark Deans, Sarah Mainwaring, Simon Laherty, Scott Price & Sonia Teuven (Shadow) – screenwriting

Audience Award

Greenhouse by Joost