The Melbourne Women in Film Festival is a regional not-for-profit festival aimed at celebrating, supporting and promoting the work of Australian, Aotearoa New Zealand and Pasifika women and gender diverse filmmakers and creatives. Our annual festival encourages and inspires others with creative aspirations to pursue their passions with confidence. We are best known for our retrospective screenings, Q&As with filmmakers and creative personnel, diverse short film sessions, engaging panels, public forums, networking events, and practical workshops.
Our goal is to provide a space and opportunities for screen creatives to exhibit their work to a diverse audiences in Melbourne and across Australia through a hybrid program in venues and online. We advocate for gender equality in the Victorian and Australian screen industries, provide opportunities for dialogue and engagement between women and gender diverse practitioners working in a variety of screen forms, the Australian screen industry and audiences, provide opportunities for emerging and student filmmakers to exhibit their work, and of course...entertain!
ELIGIBILITY
We welcome short film submissions of any genre, style or theme from women and gender diverse filmmakers working within all areas of the Australian, Aotearoa New Zealand or wider Pasifika screen production. To be eligible, all films must have a woman or gender diverse practitioner in a key creative role (Producer, Director, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor, or Sound Designer/Composer) with priority given to creative teams of women and gender diverse filmmakers.
MWFF is committed to celebrating and promoting diversity in the screen industry and screen culture. We believe that it is important to be inclusive in our programming so we open the category of “women” to any individual that identifies with this term. We are inclusive of cisgender and transgender women and we accept submissions from gender diverse, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, Indigenous gender identities, non-binary, and intersex individuals.
We strongly encourage submissions from women and gender diverse practitioners identifying as First Nations, Women/Person of Colour, Disabled, and LGBTIQ+ from Australia, Aotearoa NZ and the wider Moana.
Should you require an alternative way of submitting, please contact us via email - info@mwff.org.au.
The short film programs are eligible for the following awards decided by an industry jury:
- Best Short
- Best Next Gen Short (student category)
- Best Victorian Short (programmers' choice)
- Best Victoria Next Gen Short (programmers' choice)
- Critics' Choice (from MWFF Critics Lab mentees)
Prizes are in the area of future production assistance and career development. In the past, prizes have included post production services at Soundfirm Post Production and Jorr, equipment from Blackmagic Design, script editing services, WIFT Victoria and Australia memberships, and cash prizes.
