MIFF Shorts Awards

PRESENTED BY

MIFF hosts one of the most highly regarded short-film competitions in both the Asia Pacific region and the Southern Hemisphere. You can read the competition’s regulations here.

The 2026 MIFF Shorts program features 12 packages and includes animation, documentary, experimental, and Australian and international fiction shorts, plus special suites of works from by Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin and a 3D extravaganza you won’t want to miss.

As the Official Beauty Partner of MIFF and the Presenting Partner of MIFF’s prestigious Shorts program, Armani Beauty is committed to championing local creativity, fostering self-expression and celebrating artistic excellence in cinema. Thanks to our generous Partners, we are once again able to celebrate the craft of short-form cinema across several categories.

Shorts Awards winners

City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film

Lion Rock

Directors: Prisca Bouchet, Nick Mayow
Producer: Joseph McAlpine

Jury Statement:
From its opening frame, Lion Rock draws us completely into a world of striking natural beauty and quietly mounting unease. Within a beautifully contained dramatic structure, Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow craft a subtle yet deeply affecting portrait of the shifting balance of power between a son and his mother. The narrative unfolds with remarkable restraint, while the wild coastline of Aotearoa New Zealand becomes an active presence rather than a mere backdrop.

The cast performs with extraordinary restraint, with Anton Falstie-Jensen a particular standout. He captures both the vulnerability of childhood and the irresistible pull towards independence. Lion Rock is an emotionally precise and formally assured work from filmmakers with a distinctive cinematic voice.

VicScreen Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film

Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling

Directors: Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Marjorie "Nunga" Williams, Nelson Armstrong
Producers: Ness Sim, Alinta Brown, Eloise Lindeback

Jury Statement:
Marjorie “Nunga” Williams and Judith Pungarta Inkamala, alongside animator Nelson Armstrong, tell the story of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir through the voices, images and songs of its women, past and present. Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling is a moving testament to the power and beauty of making art together, and to the connections that art can create between those closest to us and people we may never have imagined reaching.

Most importantly, much like the choir itself, the film tells a story of community in its own languages – not only spoken, but also sung, drawn and painted. The result is a warm and deeply felt celebration of collective expression, cultural continuity and the enduring reach of song.

Armani Beauty Talent of Tomorrow Award

Jak Scanlon, Andrew Dang

Film: Last Chance to Evacuate Earth

Jury Statement:
Beginning with two friends reconnecting on an unexpected trip, Jak Scanlon and Andrew Dang’s Last Chance to Evacuate Earth develops into something increasingly mysterious and emotionally charged. The strong performances create a compelling sense of closeness and tension, drawing us further into the shifting dynamic between the characters.

Through their thoughtful handling of tone, visual design and performance, the filmmakers sustain the film’s atmosphere of beauty and uncertainty. Last Chance to Evacuate Earth reveals Andrew Dang and Jak Scanlon as emerging filmmakers with a distinctive cinematic sensibility and considerable promise.

Award for Best Fiction Short Film

Souvenir

Director: Renée Marie Petropoulos
Producer: Yingna Lu

Jury Statement:
Led by compelling performances from Tanzyn Crawford and Emily Grant, Souvenir is a nuanced and emotionally perceptive exploration of consent and the subtle power imbalances that can emerge within a young romance. Renée Marie Petropoulos handles these dynamics with sensitivity and precision, allowing gestures, silences and fleeting expressions to carry much of the film’s emotional weight.

Set against the beauty of a secluded beach retreat, the film remains closely attuned to the shifting emotional distance between its characters. Its intimate handheld cinematography creates a strong sense of naturalism while sustaining uncertainty about where the encounter may lead. Souvenir is an accomplished and quietly unsettling work from a filmmaker with a distinctive voice and an assured command of cinematic tension.

Award for Best Documentary Short Film

Intersecting Memory

Director: Shayma’ Awawdeh
Producers: Marcello Cavagna, Anne Luthaud

Jury Statement:
In Intersecting Memory, Shayma’ Awawdeh brings together home video recordings and news footage from the Second Intifada, accompanying these images with a letter addressed to her mother. Awawdeh, who was six when the conflict began in 2000, recalls her childhood through vivid fragments: falafel and fried cauliflower; the pride of wearing a new school uniform in a refugee camp; and her family singing ‘Happy Birthday’ at 3am while soldiers occupied their home for the night.

These intimate memories unfold alongside images of everyday life under occupation, including young soldiers directing civilians at gunpoint, families mourning children who have been killed and defiant pre-teens throwing stones towards heavily armoured tanks. By weaving personal recollection into a wider historical record, Intersecting Memory connects the remembered past with the devastating present, creating a document of Palestinian life and struggle that is gripping in its construction and shattering in its humanity.

Award for Best Animation Short Film

Daughters of the Late Colonel

Director: Elizabeth Hobbs
Producers: Abigail Addison, Fabian Driehorst

Jury Statement:
Brimming with director Elizabeth Hobbs’s distinctive wit, Daughters of the Late Colonel is a captivating adaptation of Katherine Mansfield’s 1920 short story. Hobbs’s richly textured animation gives the film a spare and rhythmic quality, using movement, repetition and visual detail to reveal the inner lives of its two sisters.

The film’s playful, lyrical spirit sits in striking tension with its exploration of patriarchal control, repression and the possibility of liberation. The result is an elegant and finely judged work that finds both humour and pathos in lives shaped by obedience.

Award for Best Experimental Short Film

Body, remember…

Director & Producer: Matthew Berka

Jury Statement:
Matthew Berka’s Body, remember… is a concentrated meditation on touch and the liminal ache of desire that surrounds it. Shot on luminous 16mm, the film uses extraordinary macro photography to transform the body into an intimate, shifting landscape, while its precisely layered sound design heightens every gesture, texture and point of contact.

Sensual, elusive and intensely physical, Body, remember… achieves the rare feat of making cinema feel almost tactile, with images that seem to register directly on the skin.

The MIFF Shorts Awards are Academy Awards® accredited. The 2026 winners of the Best Short Film, Best Australian Short Film, Best Documentary Short Film and Best Animation Short Film awards are eligible to submit their films for the 99th Academy Awards® in 2027.

The MIFF Shorts program is also BAFTA Qualifying. Any British film programmed for the 2026 festival is subsequently eligible for entry in the British Short Film and British Short Animation categories of the 2027 BAFTA Film Awards. (More information here.)

See previous winners: