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Films & Events Program Strands First Nations Award

First Nations Award

Program Strand
Awards

The First Nations Award is proudly supported by
Truant Pictures with a $35,000 cash prize – the
largest in the world for Indigenous filmmaking.

The First Nations Program showcases fearless Indigenous storytellers from Australia and around the world reshaping cinema on their own terms.

From urgent political documentaries to animated ancestral lore, arctic epics, horror steeped in trauma, musical moments and vibrant rom-coms, these filmmakers defy expectation, break form, and lead global cinematic innovation grounded in sovereignty, culture and lived experience.

Laurrie Mansfield, First Nations Program Adviser 

Past Event
Documentary
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
An audience award winner at Sundance, this urgent documentary follows the efforts of the Anishinaabe people to return the human remains of their ancestors from museums and libraries to their rightful burial grounds in Michigan.
Past Event
Árru
In this powerful, song-filled drama, a Sámi reindeer herder confronts a mining project threatening her ancestral lands and way of life. Berlinale 2026.
Past Event
At the Place of Ghosts
Bretten Hannam’s supernatural thriller follows Mi’kmaw siblings into a dark primordial forest. To heal their past, they must unite to battle a malevolent spirit. Toronto 2025.
Past Event
Guest
Short
Belly
Fresh from a breakup, Maya arrives at a house party masking pain with humour, until an unexpected encounter forces her to confront insecurity, desire, and self-acceptance.
Past Event
Documentary
Ceremony
This hybrid film flows through Nuxalk lands, lives and rivers where the ooligan fish no longer swim – tracing memory, ceremony, and the ripples of colonialism. Audience winner, SXSW.
Past Event
Guest
Short
G.O.A.T
Lilah falls hard for her new coworker but isn’t sure she’s queer, sparking a chaotic, heartfelt race to find out before she misses her chance to ask her to the NAIDOC Ball.
Past Event
Guest
Short
A Grief Encounter
A dark romantic comedy starring Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, where a taxidermist’s flirtation with a customer spirals into a macabre reckoning with grief, desire, and loss.
Past Event
Guest
Short
I Dare (Love) You
David is forced to confront long-buried feelings for his housemate in a tender story about love, jealousy, and the risk of saying too much.
Past Event
Short
Kurī
After her father’s death, a young woman returns to Te Urewera, confronting grief and memory in a poetic, gothic meditation on home and belonging.
Past Event
Short
Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawer of Rocks)
A Sundance 2026 short film, this tale follows two young women trapped by the Mangittatuarjuk, as ancestral teachings and collective strength guide them toward survival.
Past Event
Guest
Short
Maŋutji (Catching Eyes)
Set in the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, this love story explores how two teens navigate their mutual feelings while maintaining cultural boundaries and kinship.
Past Event
Short
The Native Police
In 1884, an Aboriginal Native Police officer escorts an Arrernte girl across desert Country, as violence forces a reckoning with identity and survival.
Past Event
Nika & Madison
After an act of self defence turns their lives upside down, two Indigenous women go on the run in Eva Thomas’s gripping film – a story of sisterhood, survival and resistance.
Past Event
Documentary
Powwow People
Sky Hopinka’s immersive film drops us into a contemporary powwow, where dancers, drummers and voices gather in a celebration of sovereignty, presence and living culture.
Past Event
Short
Socks
In small-town New Zealand, a young Māori boy forms an unexpected bond with a Mormon missionary, tracing a delicate line between innocence, longing, and the search for connection.
Past Event
Wrong Husband
Set against an Arctic backdrop in 2000 BCE, two lovers defy an evil shaman’s curse to restore balance to the ancient landscape. Winner Best Canadian Film, Toronto 2025.
Aboriginal FlagTorres Strait Flag

Sydney Film Festival acknowledges Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF is based.

We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.

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