The winners of the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival Awards have been announced, with each sharing in a prize pool worth over $300,000 (although priceless in its prestige). The list includes global favourites from across MIFF 2026, as well as imaginative and trailblazing local films.
ScreenHub: All the highlights from the Melbourne International Film Festival
2026 MIFF Awards announced – quick links
All the winners at the 2026 MIFF Awards
Bright Horizons Award
As shared, the winner of this year’s $140,000 Bright Horizons Award, celebrating filmmakers whose careers are on the ascent and who are poised to make a major impact with their work, is Marine Atlan, director of La Gradiva.
The statement from the jury panel described La Gradiva as a ‘deeply moving’ work ‘from a filmmaker whose assured voice was immediately evident’.
‘We were impressed by the cinematic craft, which drew us close to the characters and left us transported,’ the jury said. The jury also praised the film’s gently unfolding plot, shifting point of view between characters, and ‘exquisite performances from an ensemble cast of young actors and Antonia Buresi as their teacher’.
Atlan was nominated alongside:
- Big Girls Don’t Cry, directed by Paloma Schneideman
- Blue Heron, directed by Sophy Romvari
- Elephants in the Fog, directed by Abinash Bikram Shah
- Goodbye, Cruel World, directed by Félix de Givry
- Josephine, directed by Beth de Araújo
- Sweet Milk Lake, directed by Harvey Zielinski
- The Friend’s House Is Here, directed by Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei
- Wicker, directed by Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer
- Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, directed by Rakan Mayasi.
Blackmagic Design Best Australia Director Award
The winner of the $50,000 Blackmagic Design Best Australia Director Award is Dario Russo, director of The Fox.
The jury praised Russo’s film for its ‘weirdness, the inventive storytelling, and wrangling a talking fox and magpie inside this very Australian modern folktale’.
Russo was nominated alongside Harvey Zielinski for Sweet Milk Lake, Hyun Lee for French Girls and Maddelin McKenna for Mad Rush.
Earlier this year, The Fox won the audience award for Best Australian Feature at the Sydney Film Festival.
Uncle Jack Charles Award
The winner of the $20,000 Uncle Jack Charles Award, recognising an outstanding film by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander creative, is Talia Liddle, director of Protest on the Dance Floor.
Liddle was nominated alongside:
- Charles Perrurle Perkins, The Native Police
- Keinan William McGillivray Pethybridge and Marcus Raymond, Man Wearing a Helmet
- Kieran Satour and Tyson Perkins, Facing the Numbers
- Tammy Lee Rock, Queens to the Front.
Youth and audience awards
The winner of the $10,000 Miff Schools Youth Jury Award, judged by a jury of three young filmmakers, went to Fernanda Tovar’s Sad Girlz. A special mention also went to Phenomena, directed by Josef Gatti.
The winner of the MIFF 2026 audience-voted Intrepid Audience Award went to sports documentary Hard as Puck, directed by Isaac Elliott.
The MIFF 2026 team on this year’s award winners
‘Every year, the MIFF Awards are truly transformative for their recipients, and we are thrilled to recognise the extraordinary artistry on display in this year’s winners,’ said Al Cossar, MIFF Artistic Director.
‘We congratulate La Gradiva – a film that so strikingly layers the ambitions and uncertainties of near-adulthood – as this year’s recipient of the monumental Bright Horizons Award; as well as recognising Dario Russo as this year’s Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award for the bold, singular comedic confidence of The Fox, an absolute hit at this year’s MIFF.’
‘Our congratulations to all other category winners, and all other nominees for this year’s awards, with our appreciation for their wonderful work across the festival.’
ScreenHub: MIFF Shorts Awards: The winners of the annual short film showcase
Caroline Pitcher, CEO of VicScreen, said the Victorian Government was proud to support this ‘iconic festival’.
‘Our support for MIFF’s 2026 Bright Horizons Award, one of the world’s most significant film prizes, shines a global spotlight on both the winner and the festival, and reflects our commitment to Victoria’s screen industry at every level,’ Pitcher said.
