LION ROCK Wins Top Prize at MIFF 2026 Shorts Awards, Presented by Armani Beauty
Andrew Dang and Jak Scanlon received the inaugural Armani Beauty Talent of Tomorrow Award for LAST CHANCE TO EVACUATE EARTH.
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has announced the winners of the MIFF Shorts Awards, presented by Armani Beauty. New Zealand filmmakers Nick Mayow and Prisca Bouchet won the City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film, presented by Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece, for their film Lion Rock.
At the MIFF Shorts Awards and Talent of Tomorrow Party, presented by Armani Beauty, at Melbourne Town Hall, the awards distributed $56,500 in prize money across seven categories, recognising outstanding achievements in Australian and international fiction, documentary, animation and experimental filmmaking.
This year's winners reflected the strength of filmmaking from Australia and New Zealand, with six of the seven awards going to filmmakers from the region, alongside UK-based Australian filmmaker Matthew Berka. The exceptional local showing underscores the vitality of short-form filmmaking in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand while highlighting MIFF's role in championing emerging voices on the global stage.
Academy Awards accredited and BAFTA qualifying, the MIFF Shorts Awards, presented by Armani Beauty, are among the Asia Pacific region's leading short-film competitions. This year's program featured 108 short films from more than 50 countries, presented across 15 curated packages, showcasing bold and formally adventurous work from emerging and established filmmakers.
New for 2026, the inaugural Armani Beauty Talent of Tomorrow Award recognised an outstanding emerging filmmaker from this year's MIFF Accelerator Lab. Valued at $10,000, the award was presented to Andrew Dang and Jak Scanlon for Last Chance to Evacuate Earth, celebrating one of the festival's most exciting new creative voices.
MIFF short film programmers, Mia Falstein-Rush and Raphë Lafleur said:
'Short films have a rare freedom: they can bend form, sharpen feeling and build a complete cinematic logic in only a few minutes. These winners are works of real precision and imagination; films with their own pulse, their own texture and grammar, opening a world far larger than their running time.'
The 2026 MIFF Shorts Awards Jury comprised Gabrielle Brady, award-winning director and screenwriter whose films The Wolves Always Come at Night and Island of the Hungry Ghosts have screened in competition at major international festivals; Hannah Ngo, filmmaker and producer whose latest feature Leviticus premiered at Sundance earlier this year and who was selected for Screen Producers Australia's Ones to Watch program; and Samantha Eckhardt, co-curator of Naarm-based community film club Gay24 Films and programmer for Tilde and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, selected this year's winners from across the festival's acclaimed shorts program.
Winners
City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film
$12,500 cash prize
Lion Rock
Directed by Nick Mayow and Prisca Bouchet
New Zealand | 16 mins
Jury Statement:
From its opening frame, Lion Rock draws us completely into a world of striking natural beauty and quietly mounting unease. Within a beautifully contained dramatic structure, Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow craft a subtle yet deeply affecting portrait of the shifting balance of power between a son and his mother. The narrative unfolds with remarkable restraint, while the wild coastline of Aotearoa New Zealand becomes an active presence rather than a mere backdrop.
The cast performs with extraordinary restraint, with Anton Falstie-Jensen a particular standout. He captures both the vulnerability of childhood and the irresistible pull towards independence. Lion Rock is an emotionally precise and formally assured work from filmmakers with a distinctive cinematic voice.
VicScreen Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film
$10,000 cash prize
Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling
Directed by Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Marjorie Williams and Nelson Armstrong
Australia | 10 mins
Jury Statement:
Marjorie 'Nunga' Williams and Judith Pungarta Inkamala, alongside animator Nelson Armstrong, tell the story of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir through the voices, images and songs of its women, past and present. Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling is a moving testament to the power and beauty of making art together, and to the connections that art can create between those closest to us and people we may never have imagined reaching.
Most importantly, much like the choir itself, the film tells a story of community in its own languages – not only spoken, but also sung, drawn and painted. The result is a warm and deeply felt celebration of collective expression, cultural continuity and the enduring reach of song.
Armani Beauty Talent of Tomorrow Award
$10,000 cash prize
Last Chance to Evacuate Earth
Andrew Dang and Jak Scanlon
Australia | 17 mins
Jury Statement:
Beginning with two friends reconnecting on an unexpected trip, Jak Scanlon and Andrew Dang's Last Chance to Evacuate Earth develops into something increasingly mysterious and emotionally charged. The strong performances create a compelling sense of closeness and tension, drawing us further into the shifting dynamic between the characters.
Through their thoughtful handling of tone, visual design and performance, the filmmakers sustain the film's atmosphere of beauty and uncertainty. Last Chance to Evacuate Earth reveals Andrew Dang and Jak Scanlon as emerging filmmakers with a distinctive cinematic sensibility and considerable promise.
Award for Best Fiction Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Souvenir
Directed by Renée Marie Petropoulos
Australia | 14 mins
Jury Statement:
Led by compelling performances from Tanzyn Crawford and Emily Grant, Souvenir is a nuanced and emotionally perceptive exploration of consent and the subtle power imbalances that can emerge within a young romance. Renée Marie Petropoulos handles these dynamics with sensitivity and precision, allowing gestures, silences and fleeting expressions to carry much of the film's emotional weight.
Set against the beauty of a secluded beach retreat, the film remains closely attuned to the shifting emotional distance between its characters. Its intimate handheld cinematography creates a strong sense of naturalism while sustaining uncertainty about where the encounter may lead. Souvenir is an accomplished and quietly unsettling work from a filmmaker with a distinctive voice and an assured command of cinematic tension.
Award for Best Documentary Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Intersecting Memory
Directed by Shayma' Awawdeh
Palestine | 20 mins
Jury Statement:
In Intersecting Memory, Shayma' Awawdeh brings together home video recordings and news footage from the Second Intifada, accompanying these images with a letter addressed to her mother. Awawdeh, who was six when the conflict began in 2000, recalls her childhood through vivid fragments: falafel and fried cauliflower; the pride of wearing a new school uniform in a refugee camp; and her family singing 'Happy Birthday' at 3am while soldiers occupied their home for the night.
These intimate memories unfold alongside images of everyday life under occupation, including young soldiers directing civilians at gunpoint, families mourning children who have been killed and defiant pre-teens throwing stones towards heavily armoured tanks. By weaving personal recollection into a wider historical record, Intersecting Memory connects the remembered past with the devastating present, creating a document of Palestinian life and struggle that is gripping in its construction and shattering in its humanity.
Award for Best Animation Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Daughters of the Late Colonel
Directed by Elizabeth Hobbs
UK, Germany | 9 mins
Jury Statement:
Brimming with director Elizabeth Hobbs's distinctive wit, Daughters of the Late Colonel is a captivating adaptation of Katherine Mansfield's 1920 short story. Hobbs's richly textured animation gives the film a spare and rhythmic quality, using movement, repetition and visual detail to reveal the inner lives of its two sisters.
The film's playful, lyrical spirit sits in striking tension with its exploration of patriarchal control, repression and the possibility of liberation. The result is an elegant and finely judged work that finds both humour and pathos in lives shaped by obedience.
Award for Best Experimental Short Film
$6,000 cash prize
Body, remember...
Directed by Matthew Berka
UK | 16 mins
Jury Statement:
Matthew Berka's Body, remember… is a concentrated meditation on touch and the liminal ache of desire that surrounds it. Shot on luminous 16mm, the film uses extraordinary macro photography to transform the body into an intimate, shifting landscape, while its precisely layered sound design heightens every gesture, texture and point of contact.
Sensual, elusive and intensely physical, Body, remember… achieves the rare feat of making cinema feel almost tactile, with images that seem to register directly on the skin.
Notes
The MIFF Shorts program continues to screen in cinemas through 23 August, including a special Best of MIFF Shorts screening on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August.
A limited selection of MIFF Shorts highlights including Sovereign Shorts, Footy Shorts and Australian Shorts will be available to stream across Australia from 14-30 August through MIFF Online - short films are free to stream. Book and watch via ACMI's dedicated streaming platform Cinema 3.
MIFF 2026 runs in cinemas from 6–23 August 2026.
To purchase tickets and explore the full festival program visit miff.com.au.
