PRESENTED BY
MIFF’s film competition, Bright Horizons, recognises the new, the next, the breakthrough and the best, with an extraordinary international line-up of first- and second-time filmmakers competing for one of the richest film prizes in the world.
We are pleased to announce the jury that will be deliberating over MIFF’s $140,000 Bright Horizons Award as well as the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award:
Saul Williams (Jury Co-President) is an American poet, musician and actor, as well as the co-director, screenwriter and composer of Neptune Frost (MIFF 2022). He made his acting debut in Marc Levin’s Slam (rescreening at MIFF 2023), which he co-wrote, winning Sundance’s Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera d’Or in 1998. Williams has published five books of poetry and has released six albums of music.
Anisia Uzeyman (Jury Co-President) is a Rwandan-born actress, playwright and director, as well as the co-director and cinematographer of Neptune Frost (MIFF 2022). She made her directorial debut with Dreamstates, and she has starred in the films Tey (Aujourd’hui) and Ayiti Mon Amour. Her first book is a poetic treatment of her original screenplay Saolomea, Saolomea.
Alexandre O. Philippe’s films – which include The People vs. George Lucas, Doc of the Dead, 78/52 (MIFF 2017) and Memory – The Origins of Alien (MIFF 2019) – unpack the most influential works of master filmmakers and dissect seminal screen moments. Recent works include Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist, The Taking and Lynch/Oz (MIFF 2022). His latest film is You Can Call Me Bill (MIFF 2023), an intimate portrait of icon William Shatner.
With the 2007 short Ah Ma (Grandma), Anthony Chen became the first Singaporean to be awarded at Cannes; subsequently, his debut feature Ilo Ilo (MIFF 2013) was awarded the Cannes Camera d’Or. His next feature film, Wet Season (MIFF 2020), was once again lauded critically, and his latest short, The Break Away, forms part of the anthology film The Year of the Everlasting Storm (MIFF 2021). His latest features, Drift and The Breaking Ice, are screening at MIFF 2023.
Zoe Terakes is one of Australia’s most exciting new actors, most recently seen in the series Nine Perfect Strangers, Wentworth, The Moth Effect, Janet King and The End. Their film credits include Ellie & Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) (MIFF 2020) and Talk to Me, and they are forthcoming in the Marvel/Disney series Iron Heart. For their work in theatre, they have won Sydney Theatre Awards and the Don Reid Memorial award, and have been nominated for a Helpmann Award.
Kamila Andini is a Jakarta-based filmmaker with an interest in social culture, gender equality and environmental issues. Her first two features, The Mirror Never Lies (MIFF 2012) and The Seen and Unseen (MIFF 2018), screened at more than 90 film festivals and received about 30 awards. Her third feature, Yuni (MIFF 2022), won Toronto’s Platform Prize, while her fourth feature, Before, Now & Then (MIFF 2022), won Best Supporting Performance at the Berlinale.
From Cannes Critics’ Week comes a heartbreaking and unforgettably tender portrait of a six-year-old French girl’s bond with her Cape Verdean nanny.
Read More →
A mix of sci-fi genre-bending and apocalyptic tension, this debut uses an alien invasion to peer across the stakes of faith and family in Morocco.
Read More →
Franco-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s first longform work is a haunting fable of star-cross’d lovers set in a rural village.
Read More →
Franz Rogowski propels this mesmeric musing on wounded masculinity, which is ignited by French electro superstar Vitalic’s feverish soundtrack.
Read More →
This delicate, absorbing portrait of motherhood follows a young Black woman caught up in a spiral of institutional disadvantage.
Read More →
A sun-drenched, hormone-laden trip of teenage kicks turns dark in this compellingly contemporary navigation of sexual politics.
Read More →
This hypnotic, transcendental debut feature follows a young man’s mystical journey across a beguiling rural Vietnam.
Read More →
Hugo Weaving and Phoenix Raei play a hermit and cop who form an unlikely connection amid crisis in this wonderfully weird sucker-punch of tenderness.
Read More →
Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir-Ebrahimi anchors this Sundance award-winning portrait of a mother seeking a new life for herself and her daughter.
Read More →
Sean Price Williams makes his feature directorial debut with this freewheeling picaresque trip through the cliques and communes of today’s USA.
Read More →
A spellbinding family portrait that presents a child’s-eye view of love, loss and life in all their messy, glorious, heartbreaking colour.
Read More →