SYN Media

Words By Arnel Duracak

With the 69^th MIFF concluding this Sunday, it is fitting to end the festival on a high following the adjustments MIFF has had to make to its program and structure given Victoria’s recent lockdowns. That high comes in the form of the MIFF Shorts Winners for 2021 in what has been a stellar year for short films and their filmmakers.

Now in its 60^th anniversary, the prestigious MIFF short film competition has seen eight out of the 80 short films in the program, receive awards from esteemed jury members Osman Faruqi (award-winning journalist), Natalie Erika James (writer/director), and Alexandra Burke (industry expert). Alongside the awards, MIFF has announced that the recipients of the MIFF Shorts Awards were rewarded with more than $63,000 in prizes.

The awards and their winners in question are as follows:

1. City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film goes to Roman Hodel for The Game
2. Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film goes to Brietta Hague for Baltasar
3. Award for Emerging Australian Filmmaker goes to Jordan Giusti for Reptile
4. Award for Best Fiction Short Film goes to Zou Jing for Lili Alone
5. Award for Best Documentary Short Film goes to Audrey Jean-Baptiste and Maxime Jean-Baptiste for Listen to the Beat of Our Images
6. Award for Best Animation Short Film goes to Matisse Gonzalez for Gravedad
7. Award for Best Experimental Short Film goes to Simon Liu for Happy Valley
8. Blackmagic Award for Best Cinematography in a Short Film goes to Akinola Davies Jr for Lizard

Shorts Programmer, Mia Falstein-Rush, said of the films, “What an incredible and competitive line-up of films nominated for the awards this year”, adding “I’m thrilled with the selection by the jury for the awards – some tough decisions in there, but I think they have made the winning filmmakers across the globe extremely happy”.

The winning films are now available to view as part of a Best MIFF Shorts package which is screening on MIFF Play across Australia until Sunday the 22^nd of August.

Tickets for the Best MIFF Shorts package can be found here.