Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has tonight unveiled the winners of its 2024 MIFF Shorts Awards presented by Campari. Winners were announced at a ceremony at ACMI on Saturday evening with $50,000AUD in prize money awarded across multiple categories.
Tonight’s winners were selected from the main 2024 MIFF Shorts program which this year boasted over 60 works of short form content selected from some 35 countries and carefully curated into nine packaged presentations.
A much-loved fixture of the broader MIFF feature program, MIFF Shorts celebrate the art of saying more with less. Alongside established international talent appearing in the main presentation categories, the annual MIFF Accelerator Shorts program once again sought to highlight up and coming filmmakers from Australia and New Zealand.
Now in its 63rd year, the MIFF Shorts Awards are firmly established as one of the most highly regarded short film competitions in the Southern Hemisphere. With a prize pool of $50,000 awarded across seven categories, the Awards continue to champion the best of brevity covering animated, experimental, fiction and documentary formats.
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Nicholas Reece said: “MIFF is a world-class festival that supports and celebrates filmmakers throughout their careers, rightfully hosted in Melbourne, Australia’s arts capital. The City of Melbourne is proud to be a long-term supporter of MIFF and the MIFF Shorts Awards, and we wish all the award recipients the very best on their artistic journey.”
Of the competition, MIFF Program Manager, Mia Falstein-Rush: “Our phenomenal jury have done an incredible job parsing the brilliance of this year’s cohort of short filmmakers for these awards.”
MIFF Program Coordinator Liam Carter, added: “The remarkable and often unpredictable examples of short filmmaking locally and abroad continue to be a point of excitement. The form feels boundless in its potential.”
Paolo Marinoni, Marketing Director of Campari Australia said, “Campari has always been at the forefront of cinema culture, supporting creatives to ignite their red passion since the 1900s. So, it’s truly an honour to be able to bring this to life through our work with MIFF, as this year’s presenting partners for the Shorts Awards.”
“These Awards champion emerging filmmakers who have created films in various styles, from animation to documentary. Each winner’s unique contribution reflects the passion and creativity that is at the heart of MIFF, which is similar to Campari’s history in art and innovation. All of the winners are definitely ones to watch!”
The 2024 MIFF Shorts Awards Jury comprised award-winning screenwriter, director, and former TV journalist Beck Cole; COO at Mushroom Studios, entertainment lawyer and producer Bethany Jones; artist, film director, performance-maker, writer, and Artistic Director of Back to Back Theatre (recently awarded the Golden Lion for Theatre’s Lifetime Achievement) Bruce Gladwin.
2024 MIFF SHORTS AWARD WINNERS
City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film
$12,500 cash prize
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Nebojša Slijepčević
Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia
13 mins
Jury statement: “Unanimously loved by our judging panel for its honed subject and refined execution, Nebojša Slijepčević’s The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent is filmmaking par excellence. Tension mounts as a ‘cleansing of Otherness’ becomes an intervention in the lives of strangers on a sleepy train journey. Who holds the titular role in this tightly crafted story about resistance is revealed through a masterclass of writing, performance, cinematography, direction and sound design. With economy and intelligence, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent leaves its audience with the serious and real-world consequence of choosing speaking over silence.” – Bruce Gladwin
VicScreen Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film
$7,500 cash prize
The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste [pictured]
Pernell Marsden
Australia
7 mins
Jury statement: “The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste invites its audience into the playful world of two young girls living on a farm in regional Australia. When one of the little girls, Augie, is challenged to kiss a handsome scarecrow, she soon discovers that she has bitten off more than she can chew and the girls’ friendship is quickly challenged. The performances delivered by the young cast are impressive, and the short film manages to deliver a powerful message about the expectations placed on girls and young women in Australian society today while also offering some hope for change. The cinematography and production design complement the dramatic narrative beautifully and the editing was also exceptional.” – Beck Cole
Award for Emerging Australian Filmmaker
$6,000 cash prize
Dylan Ferenc Nyerges for Bőr (Skin)
Australia
15 mins
Jury statement: “In the Gothic short film Bőr (Skin), a Hungarian mother struggles to adapt to her new life in 1950s Australia as intense homesickness drives her further away from her young son and husband. The cast delivers powerful and understated performances in this beautifully realised film from director Dylan Ferenc Nyerges, while the production and sound design add a terrifying sense of isolation, loneliness and hopelessness.” – Beck Cole
Award for Best Fiction Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
The Masterpiece
Àlex Lora Cercós
Spain
20 mins
Jury statement: “Àlex Lora Cercós’s black comedy The Masterpiece tackles themes of social class and power in ways reminiscent of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. This clever, thrilling and engaging film uses an innocent interaction to leave the audience unbalanced and wondering who to trust at each turn. Cercós expertly uses tension to grip and subvert audiences’ expectations and reflect our own values back to us. The Masterpiece is a standout film for its understanding of the short-film form and is a pure example of what David Mamet describes as the “three uses of the knife” in storytelling. An exceptional short film.” – Bethany Jones
Award for Best Documentary Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Ever Since, I Have Been Flying
Aylin Gökmen
Switzerland
19 mins
Jury statement: “In Aylin Gökmen’s Ever Since, I Have Been Flying, Kurdish man Vakif Çağın bravely reveals his deeply personal memories and emotions in a complex exploration of memory and identity as a form of resistance. Under Gökmen’s hand, the story and the aesthetics deftly move between trauma and tenderness to sensitively and directly allow Çağın to provide audiences with a deeper understanding of the ongoing effects on those under the constant threat of persecution and erasure of their identity and culture.” – Bethany Jones
Award for Best Animation Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Father’s Letters
Alexey Evstigneev
France, Russia
12 mins
Jury statement: “Alexey Evstigneev’s Father’s Letters is an emotional and poetic exploration of resilience. The beautiful and textual visual palette enhances the poetic metaphor by using cut paper, pressed flowers, paint, crayons and pencil in stop motion. Father’s Letters powerfully combines documentary and animation to cultivate an incredibly well-constructed and moving film. It’s a timely reminder of the impacts of war and how small acts of resilience have a legacy.” – Bethany Jones
Award for Best Experimental Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke
Tomonari Nishikawa
Japan
6 mins
Jury statement: “A choreography of propulsion, combustion, illumination and gravity creates polyrhythms of sequential firework explosions. This graphic pattern-making is both a harmonic cavalcade and documentation of celestial celebration. Layered and repetitive, the spectacle could be a distortion or corruption of memory. The pulsating luminescence is a highlight package of festival good times that morphs into the abstract, temporal and timeless. Excellently montaged to a musical score of analog tones and pulses, Tomonari Nishikawa’s film turns a barrage of cannon fire into endless openings and energetic but always fading life force.” – Bruce Gladwin
