Marine Atlan’s “La Gradiva” has taken out the top prize at the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival Awards, leading this year’s winners alongside Australian filmmaker Dario Russo.
Atlan received the $140,000 Bright Horizons Award for “La Gradiva,” one of the richest film prizes in the world, while Russo was named the winner of the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award for “The Fox.” Russo received $50,000 and a Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K camera valued at $27,500.
The winners were announced on Saturday night (August 22nd) as part of a MIFF Awards prize pool worth more than $300,000.
“Every year, the MIFF Awards are truly transformative for their recipients, and we are thrilled to recognise the extraordinary artistry on display in this year’s winners,” MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar said.
“We congratulate ‘La Gradiva’ – a film that so strikingly layers the ambitions and uncertainties of near-adulthood – as this year’s recipient of the monumental Bright Horizons Award; as well as recognising Dario Russo as this year’s Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award for the bold, singular comedic confidence of ‘The Fox’, an absolute hit at this year’s MIFF.
“Our congratulations to all other category winners, and all other nominees for this year’s awards, with our appreciation for their wonderful work across the festival.”
The two major prizes were decided by an international jury led by Australian director Sophie Hyde, alongside Joe Swanberg, Desiree Akhavan, Noora Niasari, Courtney Eaton and Singaporean producer Tan Si En.
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Explaining its decision to award “La Gradiva” the Bright Horizons prize, the jury said: “After much deliberation we have chosen to give the Bright Horizons Award to a work we found deeply moving, from a filmmaker whose assured voice was immediately evident. We were impressed by the cinematic craft, which drew us close to the characters and left us transported. With a gently unfolding plot, a shifting point of view between characters that illuminated their various privileges, and exquisite performances from an ensemble cast of young actors and Antonia Buresi as their teacher.”
Of Russo’s win, the jury added: “For the weirdness, the inventive storytelling and wrangling a talking fox and magpie inside this very Australian modern folktale, the jury awards the Blackmagic Design, Best Australian Directors award to Dario Russo for ‘The Fox’.”
Elsewhere, Talia Liddle won the $20,000 Uncle Jack Charles Award for “Protest on the Dance Floor,” which screened as part of MIFF’s inaugural Sovereign Shorts program. The award recognises an outstanding Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander screen creative featured in the festival program.
“Talia Liddle is a striking new voice in Australian filmmaking. In ‘Protest on the Dancefloor’, she demonstrates a clear point of view, confidence in her visual and narrative language, and an instinct for filmmaking that cannot simply be taught. There is a clarity to the world she creates and a sense that we are seeing the beginning of a distinctive body of work,” the Uncle Jack Charles Award jury said.
“We believe Talia has the potential to make work that carries our stories further: to tell stories that need to be told, to bring other mob into the work of telling them, and to take First Nations storytelling onto screens and platforms around the world.”
Fernanda Tovar’s “Sad Girlz” was awarded the MIFF Schools Youth Jury Award, taking home a $10,000 cash prize, while Josef Gatti’s “Phenomena” received a special mention. The audience also had its say, with Isaac Elliott’s “Hard as Puck” winning the Intrepid Audience Award following voting by festivalgoers.
Earlier in the festival, New Zealand filmmakers Nick Mayow and Prisca Bouchet won the City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film for “Lion’s Rock,” while Andrew Dang and Jak Scanlon received the inaugural $10,000 Armani Beauty Talent of Tomorrow Award for “Last Chance to Evacuate Earth.”