Established in 1952, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is one of the world’s oldest film festivals and the Southern Hemisphere’s largest. The Festival has a large, dedicated and growing audience with a well-established public profile as a major event on the Australian calendar.
The Festival is a unique event in Australia, with a vibrant screening program, a loyal audience, and industry initiatives providing opportunities for Australian filmmakers at many levels. In recent years, MIFF has successfully extended its activities to include a raft of industry and filmmaker focused programs to complement its core business, the screening program. These are:
- Accelerator, a 4-day educational and inspirational skills development program for up-and-coming directors with short films screening at MIFF;
- MIFF 37ºSouth Market, a 4-day film financing market for producers with market-ready projects pitching to potential international and local co-financing partners;
- MIFF Premiere Fund, MIFF’s own investment and loan fund, providing essential financing support for local feature-length films. In 2019 MIFF presented 31 world premieres, six of which were Premiere Fund films.
- MIFF Talks program, a complementary program of panels and In Conversations featuring invited guest directors, actors, screenwriters and producers.
MIFF has an Academy®, BAFTA and AACTA accredited short film competition. The winners of the top prizes in the competition become eligible for Oscar® consideration.
In 2020, MIFF streamed over 118 features, documentaries, and shorts experiences from 56 countries in 32 languages over 18 days. The 2021 festival will run from 5 - 22 August.
Awards & Prizes
MIFF features one of the most highly regarded short film competitions in the Southern Hemisphere, accredited by the Academy®, BAFTA and AACTA. The winners of the top prizes in the competition become eligible for Oscar® consideration. Thanks to our Shorts Awards partners, in 2019 the eligible short films competed for a total cash prize pool of A$56,000.
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