Melbourne Lift-Off Film Festival 2022
- Physical Screenings in the City
- Networking, Workshops & Events
- Film Market Representation
- Qualifies for Lift-Off Global Network Season Award Nominations
- Season Award Winners Screen at Every Lift-Off Film Festival in 2023!

Australia is a wonderful country, and where indie film stands, it is also the most welcoming. We invite you to submit to the Melbourne Lift-Off film festival and screen with us in this fantastic global city.

This great festival aims to bring the best of indie film, animation and screenwriting to the Australian market. A city packed with diversity and a people buzzing with cultural appetite, being a part of Melbourne Lift-Off offers so much more.

FREE SUBMISSIONS TO ALL LIFT-OFF FILM FESTIVALS WITH NETWORK MEMBERSHIP
For more information please head to our website: https://liftoff.network/membership/

Awards & Prizes

OUR NETWORK’S AWARDS STRUCTURE...
The films are scored and the top voted films are then promoted into our internal Network Round, where the Jury and our Network's Professional Members vote for the winners. Winners are announced, prizes and Season Award Nominations are given for the content chosen during this final round.

Lift-Off Season Award Nominations are handed out based on merit within each category and are judged against the current crop of nominations we have so far from our City based festivals this Season. Digital online submission screeners only. Feedback is sent shortly after the commencement of the festival.

SEASON AWARD WINNERS
Aside from the accolade of winning out of all of the Lift-Off Festivals from every programme screening physical or online, the winning films will commence around the world tour where it will be screened at each and every Lift-Off Film Festival during the forthcoming season.

Rules & Terms

If you pay a submission fee, we will screen your work. Our programme's are separated into categories based on your content's level of storytelling, production value, message and acting. During the festival we have two voting committees - our professional jury and the general public.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our online festivals are NOT a pay for vote platform. If you invite your friends and family to watch either the physical or online screenings it is encouraged that they engage with as much of the content as possible and vote accordingly. This is why two votes are always counted from each audience member with both votes resulting in 1 point for each film. We are doing our best to invite new and exciting audiences to genuine indie film content - if you can encourage your audiences to do the same we will build a wonderful network of opportunity for all, no matter where you are starting out.

Proudly, we have no other restrictions for your work. This includes your work's premier status, it's age and/or whether your work has been made available online.
34 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Richard Oliver

    Deeply honored and humble to receive an Official Selection Award for my music video entitled: HERO, by the prestigious Melbourne Lift off Film Festival. Hopefully, if Covid19 allows next year I would like to fly down to experience your festival up close and personal. HERO - a tribute to all the frontline Healthcare Workers NYC neighboring states and across our entire globe who have made and who continue to make the ultimate sacrifice for US ❤🙏 in the wake of the Covid-19 Variants. This essential worker (chef) proudly accepts this award on your behalf, know that i didn't forget you. On behalf of my myself and my entire cast and crew, thank you Independent Star Filmfest Munich Film Festival judges for seeing my vision of gratitude through my artistic eyes so clearly, you are NY Tough! :-) look out for more of my best work to come...
    Best. Richard Oliver Jr.
    (ICP Entertainment)

    April 2022
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  • Chris Oledude


    From Christopher R. Owens, President, CESO Enterprises, Inc. crowens@cesony.com:

    On behalf of CESO ENTERPRISES, INC., Alyssa Dann, Chris Oledude, and all of our production participants, I would like to compliment the organizers and operators of Melbourne Lift-Off Film Festival. When we created our first music video (which was long enough to be a short film), we knew nothing about film festivals. With the help of FilmFreeway, we started researching. The categories were good. Everyone who contacted us on behalf of this festival was helpful. The submissions looked excellent.

    It was indeed exciting to discover this new world and to be so warmly welcomed by the inhabitants! To have GEORGE FLOYD: SAY THEIR NAMES selected for inclusion was an honor in and of itself.

    We were happy to “get the word out” and continue motivating people worldwide to consider the injustices embedded within our nation’s criminal justice system. After all, situations where a powerful segment of the population uses its law enforcement apparatus to abuse and oppress other segments of the population are recognizable in and common too many societies.
    We recommend submitting your work and we certainly intend to participate again in the future.

    Peace and stay safe!

    January 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for the review Chris. It's always a pleasure to screen work with such an important message like yours. We look forward to seeing what you do next. Stay in touch on the Network Hub!

  • Gabriella Carlson

    Such a wonderful film festival! Thank you so incredibly much for awarding our film "Enough" as "Best Short Film", means the world! I highly recommend Melbourne Lift-Off, the festival is very well organized and passionate about promoting and supporting film makers.

    January 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Congratulations on your win Gabriella! A fantastic short that was thoroughly enjoyed by both audience and jury members. We can't wait to screen this film again. Welcome to the Lift-Off family!

  • Stanislav Kacar

    Thank you Melbourne Lift-Off for your inclusion of our film in your annual festival.
    It was a delight to be included with such a diverse and creative group of creators.

    Regards,
    Stanislav

    January 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks for screening Unmade with us Stanislav. Always great to hear that filmmakers have enjoyed the work of others. It's what it's all about!

  • Renata Mellão

    It was an honor to have my film "ALEXIS" be selected as part of the Judges Select Shorts! It makes perfect sense to have an online festival these days, and any exposure is appreciated. Furthermore, the team were excellent at communication, and there was a real effort to provide online networking opportunities for filmmakers. If I were to complain about something, it'd be that there were so many films that people didn't end up watching most of them (I myself didn't have the time). People also complained to me that it wasn't the easiest of platforms to engage with and watch films in, and that the voting system was too complicated. However, overall, I'd still be happy to return with another project!

    December 2021
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    Response from festival:

    Pleasure to screen this fantastic short in the programme, which the jury and audience enjoyed so much. Whilst we are so excited to be back to live events now, the online format definitely brought some benefits that we will be continuing in the future. We enjoy running the online networking opportunities, so that's great to hear. Thank you for the rest of the feedback too. Looking at the stats, we find that a lot of people manage to get through the films that stand out to them over the course of the month. But we will definitely keep looking into however we can make the voting process for the audience choice finalists as user friendly as possible. Stay in touch, we'd love to see those next projects from you!