2024 MIFF Awards Winners Announced

Jaydon Martin won the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award for his unique mix of documentary and fictional filmmaking in “Flathead”. This $70,000 AUD award highlights Martin’s directing and is given to an Australian filmmaker for their work in a feature film shown at the festival.

The 2024 Bright Horizons Award and the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award were decided by an esteemed international jury, who gathered at Rydges Melbourne to announce the winners.

Leading the Bright Horizons Jury as President was Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen (“Limbo,” “Mystery Road”), alongside writer and director David Lowery (“The Green Knight,” “A Ghost Story”), Oscar-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott (“Avatar,” “Titanic”), Indonesian filmmaker Yulia Evina Bhara (“Tiger Stripes”), and Australian actress Jillian Nguyen (“Shayda”, “Scarygirl”).

The jury said: “Our task as jury was joyful, invigorating and inspiring. It was also incredibly arduous, heartbreaking and some might even say cruel, because how could anyone choose a favourite or pick a winner from such an incredible lineup of films, all worthy of accolades in their own ways, all testaments to the fact that the future of cinema is bright indeed.”

“One movie represented all of the facets of the Bright Horizons Award; 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. This is why the Bright Horizons Award goes to ‘Universal Language’ by Matthew Rankin.”

The Bright Horizons Jury added: “We would also like to recognise a movie that not only had a profound impact on us as jury members, but which through its grace, empathy and universality will leave a mark on cinema and the world at large; the Special Jury Award goes to ‘Flow’ by Gints Zilbalodis.”

On the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, they continued: “We were captivated and affected by director Jaydon Martin’s visually arresting and very moving portrait of individuals often forgotten about in society; in this case the real people of small town Bundaberg. “‘Flathead’s seamless merging of realities and fiction, both so raw yet so cinematic, had a profound effect on our jury. We hope all of you have a chance to watch this brilliant, sensitive examination of survival, of humanity and of mortality, which will stay with you for days to come.”