The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) announced its 2023 MIFF Award winners on the weekend, presenting over AUD$300,000 in prize money across six categories. Announced as part of the festival’s Closing Night Gala at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne on Saturday night, the MIFF Awards were a chance to celebrate some of this year’s breakout talent and crowd-pleasers.
The list of winners is below:
Bright Horizons Award presented by VicScreen
Banel & Adama, directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
Bright Horizons Special Jury Mention
Tótem, directed by Lila Avilés.
Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award
Soda Jerk (Hello Dankness) – Directors
First Nations Film Creative Award in collaboration with Kearney Group
Adrian Russell Wills and Gillian Moody (Kindred) – Co-Directors
MIFF Audience Award
This Is Going to Be Big, directed by Thomas Charles Hyland.
MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award
This Is Going to Be Big, directed by Thomas Charles Hyland.
MIFF Artistic Director, Al Cossar said: ‘MIFF is thrilled to recognise these incredible filmmakers at the climactic moment of our festival this year. MIFF 2023 has seen audiences rejoin the cinematic fray right across the city and all through country Victoria with a globe-spanning 18-day cinema program, extraordinary international attending artists, amazing discoveries and rediscoveries from the world of cinema, seen first, and for some – only seen – at MIFF this year.
‘A huge congratulations to all of our amazing Award winners, and all of the film teams involved in this year’s festival.’
MIFF 2023 ran in-cinema from 3-20 August. MIFF Play, the festival’s online streaming platform, is available nationally until 27 August.
