Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has revealed it will award more than $200,000 (A$300,000) in cash prizes at its upcoming edition and has unveiled the nominees for its inaugural First Nations Film Creative Award.
The prize pool, spread across six award categories, is now one of the most lucrative on the film festival circuit. Nearly half is allocated to the Bright Horizons Competition, featuring first and second-time directors, with $95,300 (A$140,000) awarded to the winning filmmaker. Those competing for this year’s prize were announced earlier this month.
The festival, which runs August 3-20, has added two competition awards for its upcoming 71st edition including the inaugural First Nations Film Creative Award and the return of the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award recognising “an outstanding Australian creative within a film” playing in the MIFF 2023 programme and worth $47,500 (A$70,000).
The new First Nations award, supporting First Nations talent and storytelling, includes a $20,000 cash prize and $25,000 worth of financial services in collaboration with Australian financial services firm Kearney Group.
The contenders are drawn from across all film creative departments and the nominees comprise John Harvey, director of Katele (Mudskipper); Lelarnie Hatfield-Yasso, Aunty Nicky Hatfield and Margaret Hornagold, the screenwriters of Generations Of Men; Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorne, co-directors of Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped In Black); Adrian Russell Wills and Gillian Moody, co-directors of Kindred; Tyson Mowarin and Mark Coles Smith, the director and featured subject respectively of Keeping Hope; and Douglas Watkin, director of Rebel With A Cause: Neville Bonner.
This year’s MIFF Awards is set to take place on August 19.
As previously announced, MIFF 2023 will open with Shayda by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari. MIFF Play, the festival’s online streaming platform that was introduced during the pandemic, will return and be available nationwide from August 18-27.
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