Documentary Australia Award
You’ll see Australia’s most exciting documentary filmmakers present a world of stories – each illuminating, unmissable and urgent.
Sydney Film Festival is proud to present the annual Documentary Australia Award, supported by Documentary Australia. This prize acknowledges excellence in Australian documentary production. As well as receiving a $20,000 cash prize courtesy of Documentary Australia, the winning film becomes Academy Award eligible.
Previous winners: Songs Inside (2025), Welcome to Babel (2024), Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) (2023), Keep Stepping (2022), I’m Wanita (2021), Descent (2020), She Who Must Be Loved (2019), Ghosthunter (2018), The Pink House (2017), In the Shadow of the Hill (2016), Only the Dead (2015), 35 Letters (2014), Buckskin (2013), Killing Anna (2012), Life in Movement (2011), The Snowman (2010), A Good Man (2009) and Contact (2009).
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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