Ahead of its 73rd event in August, Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled the nominees for the festival’s 2025 slate of awards, with a prize pool of over $300,000 on offer.
When Artistic Director Al Cossar told Variety AU/NZ that MIFF is an “ecosystem across industry, artists and audiences”, he chatted about the event’s key annual elements, which include the Bright Horizons competition and Shorts Awards. Both return in 2025, as do the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award, The Uncle Jack Charles Award, the festival’s Audience Award and the MIFF Schools Jury Award.
As revealed with the full MIFF program at the beginning of July, ten features are vying for the fourth Bright Horizons Award, which the winning filmmaker set to receive $140,000. The Rose Byrne-led “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” from director Mary Bronstein is both opening this year’s festival and competing for its major prize. Other titles in the running span James J. Robinson’s “First Light,” “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo” from Diego Céspedes, Harris Dickinson‘s feature directorial debut “Urchin” and “A Useful Ghost” by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, alongside “Sound of Falling” from Mascha Schilinski, Andrew Patterson’s Matthew McConaughey-starring “The Rivals of Amziah King,” “A Poet” by Simón Mesa Soto, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “April” and “Renoir” from Chie Hayakawa.
Also announced with the complete lineup, “Aftersun” filmmaker Charlotte Wells returns to Melbourne after her acclaimed debut played in Bright Horizons’s first year in 2022. This time, she is serving as the award’s Jury President. “Pavements” and “Videoheaven” director Alex Ross Perry, “Harvest’s” Athina Rachel Tsangari, Australian performer Tamala, Vietnamese Australian author and screenwriter Nam Le and Australian composer Caitlin Yeo will also help select this year’s winner.
For “First Light,” photographer Robinson in contention for the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award as well, against Zoe Pepper for “Birthright,” Samuel Van Grinsven for “Went Up the Hill” and Sophie Somerville for “Fwends.” The winner will be selected by the Bright Horizons Jury, and receive a $50,000 cash prize, plus a fully kitted-out URSA Cine 12K camera valued at $27,500.
The Uncle Jack Charles Award champions storytelling excellence from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander screen creatives, choosing its recipient — who will take home a $20,000 cash prize, plus $25,000 in tailored financial services from Kearney Group — from talent with work playing at the festival. “Beast of War” star Mark Coles Smith, “Faceless” co-director William Jaka, “Imagine” helmers Jack Manning Bancroft and Tyson Yunkaporta, “Journey Home, David Gulpilil” co-director Trisha Morton-Thomas and the Yarrenyty Arltere Artists for art direction on “The Fix-It-Man and The Fix-It-Wooman” are 2025’s contenders, with “Sweet As” filmmaker Jub Clerc, 2024 Uncle Jack Charles Award-winner April Phillips and artist Reko Rennie on the prize’s jury.
2025 marks the 64th year that the Academy Awards-accredited and BAFTA-qualifying MIFF Shorts Awards is recognising short-form filmmaking, featuring a $50,000 prize pool. As chosen by the Shorts Awards Jury consisting of filmmaker Audrey Lam, Regen Studios co-founder Anna Kaplan and Umbrella Entertainment’s Senior Theatrical Manager Nikita Leigh-Pritchard, winners will share in a prize pool of $50,000, as announced at a ceremony on Friday, August 15.
MIFF’s Audience Award spans the full festival lineup, asking festival attendees to pick their favourites, while the $10,000 MIFF Schools Jury Award will be chosen by Alex Feehan, Mia Sattler and Tadhg Sheehan from titles in the all-ages-friendly MIFF Schools program.