The Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) is a cutting edge premiere showcase for Independent cinema from around the world. It is known for its radical, adventurous and iconoclastic programming decisions, in addition to its support of different voices from independent, alternative, underground and student filmmakers worldwide. The festival focuses on both Australian and International cinema. MUFF plays many shorts every year and a lot of features, plus an exciting array of documentaries and curated retrospectives. MUFF is an essential forum for new cinema that will look beyond production values, and find the hidden talent within. MUFF has been the launching board and incubator for many talented and famous filmmakers including James Wan, Scott Ryan, Jenna Fisher, Jim VanBebber, Bruce LaBruce, Peter Christopherson, Stuart Simpson, Shannon Young, Kel Dolen, Steven Kastrissios, Ivan Kavanagh, Mark Savage, Anna Brownfield, Patrick Hughes, Jeremey DeCeglie, Gregory Pakis, Travis Bain, Zak Hilditch, Addison Heath, Michael Parle, Cameron Miller, Paul Moder, Tom Vogel and many, many others.

Awards & Prizes

The MUFF awards rewards many local and international films every year with its annual "MUFF AWARDS". Winners are selected from both the SHORT FILM and FEATURE FILM sections!

Rules & Terms

Please do not send original material or masters for preview or screening. The Melbourne Underground Film Festival will not return preview or screening discs.

The Melbourne Underground Film Festival will screen films off DVD, Blu Ray, USB Drives and high resolution .mov / .mp4 digital files only (in any format from around the world). No other formats are accepted.
PLEASE NOTE: We understand that filmmakers want their film shown in the best possible resolution, but we strongly encourage and have preference for files that are no greater than 10GB in size.

READ CAREFULLY: BINDING AGREEMENT & TERMS AND CONDITIONS

We confirm that you have granted The Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) the right to publicly exhibit your film and that The Melbourne Underground Film Festival will take all care but no responsibility for your film whilst in the possession of the Festival.

We also confirm that if accepted into the festival you grant The Melbourne Underground Film Festival the right to publicly promote your film in all festival promotional materials, as appropriate.

You also confirm that all necessary permissions have been obtained to enter this film in the Festival and that the film does not infringe the rights including copyright of any third party.

By submitting your film, we take it that you have read and agree to the MUFF Terms & Conditions, including the Irrevocable Submission & No-Withdrawal Policy, below.

IRREVOCABLE SUBMISSION & NO-WITHDRAWAL POLICY:

By clicking “Submit” and paying the entry fee on FilmFreeway, the submitter expressly agrees to the following binding terms:

Submission is final and irrevocable:
If the film is Officially Selected for MUFF, the submitter automatically and irrevocably grants MUFF the right to screen the film as part of the official program (in-person and/or online) and to list it as an Official Selection in all festival materials & media.

Once a film has been Officially Selected and the filmmaker notified, withdrawal is not permitted under any circumstances, including (but not limited to) premiere-status conflicts, subsequent distribution deals, theatrical releases, broadcast, or streaming agreements.

The act of submitting and completing payment constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of the Binding Agreement and Terms & Conditions, including this irrevocable selection and no-withdrawal clause. No additional signature, reply, or separate confirmation is required.
25 Reviews
Overall Rating
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  • Dan Kapelovitz

    The Melbourne Underground Film Festival was incredible. It was the perfect venue for "48 Hrs. Literally: The Trailer" — the 96-minute, feature-length trailer to the 48-hour long film "48 Hrs. Literally." The festival staff did a great job handling the near-riot that broke out during the screening of such a controversial film. They were true professionals. Thank you MUFF for all you do to bring cutting-edge cinema to the Melbourne masses!

    December 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Haha! Thank you Dan, for your submission of '48 HRS. Literally: The Trailer' and also the trailer to the Trailer! Our audience thoroughly enjoyed your batshit crazy film. Congratulations on your Best Avantgarde Film award! We hope to see more of your submissions, in future.
    Best, Efisia.

  • Thomas Seymour

    The best! A top underground film festival in the world that still manages to pay attention to artists and emerging filmmakers!

    December 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Thank you kindly Thomas for your review and your submission of 'Video Dreams: A VHS Massacre Story' and congratulations on winning our Special Jury Prize award! We hope to see more of your work. Best, Efisia

  • Kubli Brothers

    We had a amazing experience thanks again for choosing us we’ll definitely be submitting here again

    December 2024
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Richard and Michael - thank you for choosing MUFF and submitting your film, 'Bloodhunt'! We also really appreciated your attendance, your love of film is palpable. Wolstencroft and I will be watching your careers and we hope to screen more of your work, in the future. Warm regards, Efisia - Assistant Director, Co-curator MUFF.

  • Junsong Ling

    After being selected, the film festival never contacted me. I sent them an email but got no reply, not even Laurel. I don't know why.

    December 2024
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Thanks for your feedback - MUFF is comprised a very small team of only two people who curate the films and do everything else except web and graphic design. Given the volume of films we receive and review; and the short time we have to do so, we don't have the capacity to personally contact each individual filmmaker, all of the time. So we assume that when a film is selected and the filmmaker is given an alert through FilmFreeway, that if a filmmaker wishes to receive laurels, that they will contact us - and we only contact the filmmakers if there is an issue or we require further material. We have worked this way for a long time and this is the first complaint of this nature that we have received. Good luck on your future films, should you wish to enter again in future, we hope that you'll understand just how small but passionate the team that runs MUFF is and perhaps manage your expectations to meet our efforts. Kind regards, Efisia - Assistant Director, Co-Curator MUFF.

  • John Christian

    What a great experience! We were honoured to have our film, "Assault on Sacred Mountain," selected for screening at MUFF. Richard, and his team, were great hosts. Winning numerous awards was the icing on the cake. The festival had a true underground feel and program, highlighting great, quality films and filmmakers.

    December 2024
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Dear John, we absolutely love courageous filmmakers who make films that dare to stand apart from the mainstream and call it as they see it. We were delighted to screen 'Assault on Sacred Mountain' and we hope to see more from you in the future! Thank you for your lovely review, also! Warm regards, Efisia - Assistant Director, Co-curator MUFF.