The Melbourne International Film Festival has ended for another year, with winners of this year’s big MIFF Awards announced on Saturday 24 August.
More than $250,000 in prize money was awarded across six categories, with the winner of the festival’s largest prize, the $140,000 Bright Horizons Award, being Universal Language directed by Matthew Rankin.
A Canadian film inspired by Iranian cinema and shot entirely in Farsi, Universal Language was described by the judges as ‘a film whose cultural specificity transcends borders; whose cinematic playfulness is matched equally by its sensitivity; and whose very form is in conversation with cinema past, present and future’.
The Bright Horizons Special Jury Award went to the Latvian animated fantasy feature film Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis and nominated earlier this year for Un Certain Regard at Cannes.
The Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, a $70,000 cash prize given to an outstanding Australian creative within this year’s program, went to Jaydon Martin for his low-budget black and white film Flathead, which the jury described as a ‘brilliant, sensitive examination of survival, of humanity and of mortality’ and a ‘visually arresting and very moving portrait of individuals often forgotten about in society; in this case the real people of small town Bundaberg’.
ScreenHub: Flathead, MIFF review – a striking portrait of working class life
The 2024 Jury awarding these prizes was led by Australian auteur Ivan Sen, along with US writer-director David Lowery, Oscar-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott, pioneering Indonesian filmmaker Yulia Evina Bhara and Australian actor Jillian Nguyen.
The Uncle Jack Charles Award, recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives in the festival went to kajoo yannaga (come on let’s walk together), an extended reality work directed by lead artist April Phillips. Judges Davey Thompson and Nayuka Gorrie said the ‘bold and refreshing animation made us all feel a child-like sense of wonder with its stunning technicolour visuals and immersive sound design that built a world that felt ancient and futuristic all at once’.
The Uncle Jack Charles Award is worth $20,000 in cash and $25,000 in legal services.
Two powerful Australian documentaries proved popular with MIFF voting audiences this year, with the joint winners of the Audience Award being Voice, co-directed by Krunal Padhiar and Semara Jose, following the grassroots Indigenous youth campaign leading up to the Voice Referendum; and survivor story Left Write Hook directed by Shannon Owen.
Alemania, Maria Zanetti’s Spanish-Argentinian coming-of-age drama won the $10,000 MIFF Schools Jury Award, selected by a jury composed of students from the 2024 Top Screen cohort: Fynn WIlliams, Gabe Hartshorne and Jasmine Lui.
2024 MIFF AWARD WINNERS
Bright Horizons Award presented by VicScreen
Universal Language directed by Matthew Rankin
Bright Horizons Special Jury Award
Flow directed by Gints Zilbalodis
Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award
Jaydon Martin, Flathead – directing
The Uncle Jack Charles Award in collaboration with Kearney Group
April Phillips, kajoo yannaga (come on let’s walk together) – director, lead artist
Intrepid Audience Award (joint winners)
Voice co-directed by Krunal Padhiar and Semara Jose
Left Write Hook directed by Shannon Owen
MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award, presented by Collarts
Alemania directed by Maria Zanetti
Other Awards
Note: The winners of the MIFF 2024 Shorts Awards were announced last weekend, with A$50,000 in prize money awarded across multiple categories, and winners including The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent and The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie and Celeste.
For more information on the MIFF 2024 Awards visit the Melbourne International Film Festival.
