MIFF announces 2026 award nominees across $300,000-plus prize pool – The Melbourne International Film Festival has announced the nominees for its 2026 MIFF Awards, with more than $300,000 in prize money attached to the festival’s major award categories.
The nominations cover the Bright Horizons Award, the Uncle Jack Charles Award, the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award, the MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award and audience-voted prizes across this year’s festival.
For Australian screen audiences, the announcement gives an early guide to the festival titles likely to drive industry attention in August. It also highlights the strength of local filmmaking across features, shorts and First Nations screen work, alongside international first and second features screening in Melbourne.
Bright Horizons Award Nominees
The Bright Horizons Award remains MIFF’s flagship competition prize. Supported by VicScreen, it awards $140,000 to the winning film and focuses on first and second feature directors whose work is having its Australian premiere at the festival.
The 2026 Bright Horizons nominees are:
- 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 Felix de Givry.
- Josephine – directed by Beth de Araujo.
- La Gradiva – directed by Marine Atlan.
- 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.
MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar said Bright Horizons had become one of the festival’s essential programs, giving Australian audiences access to bold new filmmaking voices from around the world.
First Nations Screen Creatives
The Uncle Jack Charles Award, supported by the MIFF Lumiere Patrons, recognises an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander screen creative featured in the festival program. The winner receives a $20,000 cash prize.
The 2026 nominees are:
- Charles Perrurle Perkins for The Native Police.
- Keinan William McGillivray Pethybridge and Marcus Raymond for Man Wearing a Helmet.
- Kieran Satour and Tyson Perkins for Facing the Numbers.
- Talia Liddle for Protest on the Dancefloor.
- Tammy Lee Rock for Queens to the Front.
Best Australian Director
The Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award honours an Australian director whose film screens at MIFF. The winner receives a $50,000 cash prize and an URSA Cine 12K camera package valued at $27,500.
The 2026 nominees are Dario Russo for The Fox, Harvey Zielinski for Sweet Milk Lake, Hyun Lee for French Girls and Maddelin McKenna for Mad Rush.
Youth Jury, Audience Award And Shorts
MIFF will also present the MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award, supported by Collarts. The award carries a $10,000 cash prize and is selected from within the MIFF Schools program by three young filmmakers from the 2026 Top Screen class.
Festival-goers will be able to vote for the Intrepid Audience Award by rating films through the MIFF app or online. The award gives viewers a direct role in recognising audience favourites from across the program.
The MIFF Shorts Awards and Talent of Tomorrow Party, presented by Armani Beauty, will also return during the festival. The shorts program features a $50,000 prize pool, with winners in key categories eligible for submission to the 98th Academy Awards and consideration for the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards.
Festival Dates
MIFF 2026 runs in cinemas from Thursday, 6 August to Sunday, 23 August. The MIFF Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, 22 August at Rydges Melbourne.
The MIFF Shorts Awards ceremony and Talent of Tomorrow Party will take place on Sunday, 16 August at Melbourne Town Hall. MIFF Online runs from Friday, 14 August to Sunday, 30 August through ACMI’s Cinema 3 platform.
For more film festival news, visit TV Central’s Cinema Releases section. Tickets and the full public program are available from the official MIFF program.
