Melbourne Film Festival Launches $100K Best Film Prize; Southern Hemisphere’s “Richest” Feature CompetitionThe Melbourne International Film Festival is introducing a feature film competition ahead of its 70th anniversary edition.
According to the festival, the $100,000 (AUD $140,000) prize on offer will make it the richest such competition in the southern hemisphere.
That pot will be awarded to the winner of the Best Film prize, chosen from a competition of 10 films from first or second time feature directors that have their Australian premiere in Melbourne. A jury of international and Australian guests will be appointed to choose the winner.
The 70th edition of the fest will also see the introduction of the Australian Innovation Prize, recognising an outstanding Australian creative within a festival film playing in the MIFF program, as well as the return of the Audience Award.
Melbourne FF also features a Screen Content Financing Market for creatives, producers and investors (37º South Market); a Commissioning Fund (MIFF Premiere Fund); and talent escalator programs (MIFF Accelerator Lab and MIFF Critics Campus), meaning that with the addition of the Competition prize it becomes of an elite selection of events to offer all of the key components of a major international film festival.
The prize will be funded by the Victorian Government through Film Victoria.
The 70th Melbourne International Film Festival runs August 4-21.
“The addition of the Competition, and its prize pool, promises to be one of the most transformational projects in MIFF history,” said MIFF Chair Teresa Zolnierkiewicz. “MIFF welcomes the Victorian Government’s vision of a thriving screen culture in Melbourne – evidenced here with its support enabling MIFF to award a film prize of global significance to an independent filmmaker of substance.”