As part of your submission to MIFF, additional to consideration for the overall festival program, your film may be considered for several specific feature or shorts award contexts within the festival. These may be subject to adherence to elevated eligibility considerations and broader suitability for each context, as outlined below.
Elevated Consideration for MIFF Awards
MIFF’s film competition, Bright Horizons, recognises the new, the next, the breakthrough and the best, each year featuring an international line-up of approximately 10 first- and second-time filmmakers competing for one of the richest film prizes in the world.
Films selected for the Bright Horizons competition compete for the A$140,000 Bright Horizons Award, enabled by the Victorian Government through VicScreen.
Excluding serialised/episodic work of feature length, other feature-length work of all distinctions – including narrative, documentary, animation, experimental or hybrid works – may be considered for Bright Horizons.
To be eligible for the Bright Horizons competition consideration at MIFF, films must:
- meet all elements of MIFF’s general eligibility for feature-length film submissions
- specifically be a first or second feature-length work for the director.
- be available for screening within MIFF as an Australian-premiere presentation.
The Bright Horizons Award is deliberated on and designated to the winning film by an independent Bright Horizons Jury each year. The jury’s processes, discussions and deliberations are strictly confidential, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding their decisions.
The award winners will be announced during the festival at the MIFF Awards Ceremony.
The Bright Horizons Award money is awarded to the contributing film team, through a producer who is nominated to receive the funds on the production’s behalf as the initial point of cash award distribution.
For more information, please visit our MIFF Awards and Bright Horizons pages.
The Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award is a transformative A$70,000 cash award that recognises the quality of creative innovation in the work of an individual Australian screen practitioner, specifically as a creative contributor to an Australian-originating, feature-length work selected for MIFF.
The nature of that individual’s creative contribution may be across one of a variety of roles aligned to the realisation of the feature length work – including, but not limited to, director, director of photography, screenwriter, editor, composer, costume designer, art director, production designer, lead VFX artist or similar.
That individual will be attached to a feature-length Australian work of any description (narrative, documentary, animation, experimental or hybrid, etc.) screening within the festival’s contemporary Australian programming that year.
Such a cash prize may therefore potentially be directed to an individual aligned with a submitted work, who themselves are not the submitting party.
Screen practitioners’ work is considered for this award contributive to their attached feature-length selected work screening at MIFF. That feature-length work must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- All elements of MIFF’s general eligibility for feature-length film submissions must be satisfied.
- The majority country of production credited to the film must be Australia.
Australian creatives working in roles on international productions featured in the festival are not eligible for this award’s consideration.
Following the conclusion of film selections for our annual program, MIFF’s Programming team will select a shortlist of nominees for the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, which is then referred to the festival’s independent Bright Horizons Jury for deliberation and outcome. Nominees are announced publicly following general program announcement and prior to the commencement of festival dates each year.
Additional and supporting documentation – potentially including a CV and a supporting creative statement – will be sought from all shortlisted nominees to further contextualise and support their jury consideration.
The jury’s processes, discussions and deliberations are strictly confidential, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding their decisions.
The Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award winner will be announced during the festival at the MIFF Awards Ceremony. The cash prize is paid directly to the award recipient.
For more information, please visit our MIFF Awards page.
The First Nations Film Creative Award, presented in collaboration with Kearney Group, recognises an outstanding Australian First Nations creative within a film playing in the MIFF program. The recipient will be awarded a $20,000 cash prize and $25,000 worth of financial services with Kearney Group.
The prize is awarded to the creative deemed to have demonstrated excellence and commitment in their relevant craft.
The nature of that individual’s creative contribution may be across one of a variety of roles aligned to the realisation of the work – including, but not limited to, director, director of photography, screenwriter, editor, composer, costume designer, art director, production designer, lead VFX artist or similar.
That individual will be attached to a short or feature-length Australian-originating film work of any description (narrative, documentary, animation, experimental or hybrid, etc.) screening within the festival’s contemporary Australian programming that year.
Such a cash prize may therefore potentially be directed to an individual aligned with a submitted work, who themselves are not the submitting party.
Screen practitioners’ work is considered for this åward contributive to their attached short or feature-length selected work screening at MIFF. That short or feature-length work must satisfy MIFF’s general eligibility for short or feature-length submission.
Following the conclusion of film selections for our annual program, MIFF’s Programming team will select a shortlist of nominees for the First Nations Film Creative Award, which is then referred to the festival’s independent First Nations Film Creative Award Jury for deliberation and outcome. Nominees are announced publicly following general program announcement and prior to the commencement of festival dates each year.
Additional and supporting documentation – potentially including a CV and a supporting creative statement – will be sought from all shortlisted nominees to further contextualise and support jury consideration.
The jury’s processes, discussions and deliberations are strictly confidential, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding their decisions.
The First Nations Film Creative Award winner will be announced during the festival at the MIFF Awards Ceremony. The cash prize is paid directly to the award recipient.
For more information, please visit our MIFF Awards page.
You can read the MIFF Shorts Awards regulations here.
The MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award recognises an exceptional feature-length film within the festival’s MIFF Schools program each year. It is a non-cash award deliberated on and awarded by an independent Youth Jury.
To be eligible, films must:
- satisfy MIFF’s general eligibility for feature-length film submissions
- specifically and additionally be selected for the festival’s MIFF Schools program.
The MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award winner is announced during the festival at the MIFF Awards Ceremony.
During the festival, MIFF ticketholders are encouraged to vote for their favourite feature-length films to win the MIFF Audience Award.
The MIFF Audience Award is a non-cash award. Both the overall winner and an expanded list of audience favourites is released by the festival.
Eligibility for this award is limited to contemporary/non-retrospective feature-length work selected for MIFF each year.
For more information, please visit our MIFF Audience Award page.
Please note: MIFF Awards are subject to change, and MIFF reserves the right to vary terms for all listed festival awards.
By submitting your work, you consent to details of your submission to be shared in confidence with select, relevant external third parties if your work is shortlisted for awards – including but not limited to jury members, award sponsors, award ceremony production personnel and other relevant stakeholders as necessary.
A breach of stated eligibility conditions that occurs after selection, public announcement or public presentation of your work may result in disqualification from award consideration or from festival inclusion.