Right.
Ahead of reading this piece, you should know that I have not reached out to the AFI/AACTA[1] for a comment as each time I have, I have received no response.
Heading into the 17th AACTA Awards ceremony in February 2027 the Australian Film Institute (AFI) have made some changes to the voting process, membership benefits, and award categories.
Most of these changes have not been clearly communicated by AACTA through social media or the AACTA newsletter. Some of this information was documented in the 2027 AACTA Awards Rulebook, which can be accessed via this link:
Additional information for this piece was gathered by utilising the Wayback Machine or newsletters I have personally received from AFI/AACTA over the decades I have been a member. For the purpose of transparency, I neglected to renew my membership for 2025 and have recently renewed it as a General Member.
Let’s start with the changes that were publicly announced by AACTA in on 6 July 2026.
The following categories had substantial changes:
· The AACTA Award for Best Comedy Performer has been retired and replaced with two dedicated comedy acting categories: Best Lead Acting in a Comedy and Best Supporting Acting in a Comedy. The changes better recognise the breadth and depth of Australian comedic acting talent while aligning these categories with the Academy's broader acting categories.
· The Best Reality Competition Program category recognises the evolution of competition-based reality television into one of Australia's most ambitious production genres. By distinguishing large-scale competition formats from studio entertainment and factual programming, the category provides a clearer framework for assessing unscripted television.
· Content previously eligible for Best Reality Television Series will now be considered, where appropriate, within the Best Reality Competition Program or Best Factual Entertainment Program categories.
· The AACTA Award for Best Factual Entertainment Program has evolved into the home for Australia’s most engaging non-fiction entertainment, bringing together the best in lifestyle and factual programming under a single, broader category. The award now celebrates programs that entertain audiences through real people, real places and real experiences and reflects the diversity and competitiveness of the Australian factual entertainment space.
· The Best Comedy Entertainment Program category has also been incorporated into Best Entertainment Program, ensuring programs are assessed within the most relevant contemporary category.
The rest of the press release does not outline any of the following changes to the voting process or membership benefits. None of the below information is available via the Media Room section on the AACTA website here:
Changes to General and Youth membership
Prior to 6 July 2026, the AACTA General and AACTA Youth memberships provided the below access:
o AACTA Awards Entry - AACTA General and AACTA Youth membership facilitates entry in Shorts and Online categories only;
o AACTA Awards Voting Rights – Voting is weighted for AACTA General and Youth members; and
o AACTA TV.
Post 6 July 2026, the AACTA General and AACTA Youth membership provide the below amended access:
o AACTA Awards Viewing & Voting – Limited.
L Image: Pre 6 July 2026 update; R Image: Post 6 July 2026 update
The changes to viewing and voting that aren’t clearly outlined in the update include:
o The change of AACTA TV with it being replaced by ‘Awards platform’;
o Limiting votes for General and Youth memberships to Short Films and Student Films only; and
o Removal of weighted votes for General and Youth memberships for select Feature Films, Documentaries, and TV categories.
Members who had an active membership prior to these changes taking place were not notified of any adjustments to their members profile.
Curiously, the AACTA membership page still claims the following (the bold and underline is their addition):
“With the support of all our dedicated members, AACTA now offers three tiers of membership – professional, general and youth memberships – with all members receiving more benefits than ever before.”
General and Youth membership continues to offer the following benefits:
· Free Entry to Year-Round Programming (Limited for Youth Members);
· Free and Discounted AACTA Festival Events;
· Discounted AACTA Awards Ceremony Ticket;
· Discounted Entry for AACTA Development Initiatives;
· Networking Opportunities;
· AACTA Rewards; and
· Cinema & Film Festival Discounts.
As the AFI/AACTA is a registered charity, it then needs to outline where its membership program provides support. As noted on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission website, the locations of AACTA memberships are:
· Brisbane QLD, Australia
· Melbourne VIC, Australia
· Sydney NSW, Australia
I mention this as a resident of Western Australia where most of the benefits for General or Youth membership are not accessible. The same applies for other non-listed states and territories.
Community calls for AACTA related events to be held in states like South Australia or Western Australia, both regions where film production is high, have been unanswered.
I will add too that if you work in Media & Public Relations and are a ‘Film Writer/Critic’ or ‘Report/Journalist’[2], you are eligible to apply for an AACTA Professional Membership.
Abolition of AACTA TV
This one is a strange one and possibly the most egregious change that AFI/AACTA has failed to communicate to members of all levels.
Additionally, while I am using the word ‘abolition’, AACTA state the following on their website:
“AACTA TV has moved and is no longer active at tv.aacta.org.
For viewing and voting in the 2027 AACTA Awards, please follow this link to the Awards platform.”
From the early AFI days, prior to the transition to the AACTA era of the awards, the AFI had a great service called AFI TV[3]. It was a platform which provided access to Australian films. To quote:
“AFI TV is a unique and secure online screening platform to showcase premium Australian content – especially short films. These are the films that may win awards and critical acclaim, but that audiences have difficulty in accessing through traditional exhibition spaces.
AFI TV offers unprecedented access to a diverse and eclectic collection of current and historical Australian screen content.”
When the AFI Awards transitioned to become the AACTA Awards, AFI TV also transitioned to become AACTA TV.
This outright essential resource was a place for Australian screen practitioners and film fans to be able to view, and I quote from the still live AACTA TV membership information page:
“exclusive content including premieres, previews, interviews, behind the scenes, masterclasses, retrospectives, guest curation, all ScreenFest content, and all productions under Award consideration.”
Some of the great exclusive items made available through AACTA TV were commentary tracks for films like Babe, Goldstone, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, or the interesting Inside the AACTA Studio series of interviews.
The key aspect of AFI TV and then subsequently AACTA TV was that anyone could access the platform if they became a paid member of AFI/AACTA.
For many of us, being able to view films that were in consideration for Australia’s ‘top screen entertainment and popular culture body’ annual award meant that we were able to enjoy and participate in discussions about the awards themselves. A complaint directed towards AFI/AACTA was that few watching the ceremony had been able to see the films nominated or awarded, often because the films themselves either had a limited qualification release (i.e. screenings in Sydney and Melbourne or at recognised film festivals) or because they had not had a full theatrical release. AACTA TV was one way around that.
Some films that had not received a theatrical release yet were not included on AACTA TV with member screenings being held around the country to ensure they could be viewed in advance of the voting period closing; for example, David Michôd's The King or Michael Gracey's Better Man.
So, for decades, AFI TV and AACTA TV was the resource for people like myself who cover Australian film to see the hundreds of Aussie short films, feature films, and documentaries, that would be screened across Australia in any given year.
AFI TV was a major deciding point behind why I became an AFI member in the first place. The manner it invited audiences to engage with the Australian screen industry was unparalleled. Outside of the short lived OzFlix, AFI TV and AACTA TV was a certain place to see contemporary Australian films of all kinds, especially short films which so often disappeared into the ether after their film festival run.
I’ll go so far as saying, without AFI TV/AACTA TV, it’s quite likely the Curb… would not exist as it does today.
Additionally, many independent filmmakers were able to get their work in front of the Aussie screen industry and members. Submitting their films for consideration does come with a cost, and there is no return on that investment for views gained through AACTA TV, however from a media perspective, this allowed me to view films before they had secured a release and organise interviews with the filmmakers or write reviews of the films. On more than a few occasions, these reviews or interviews helped secure the filmmakers a screen release both domestically in Australia and abroad.
I am also aware of internationally based film programmers who run Australian focused film festivals who would use AACTA TV to preview films which would be screened at their festivals.
AACTA TV then played a vital role in connecting filmmakers with audiences.
It also allowed people to see what films had been longlisted for the awards, information that is not otherwise shared or publicised on the AACTA website.
Now, before people start saying that by making these films available on AACTA TV before audiences had the chance to see them, the potential audience reach was immediately limited. Firstly, the current membership figures for AACTA sits at around 3,900. Many of these members work in the film industry, or they are like me, and will be paying to see Australian films either in cinemas, at film festivals, or support them through other means.
As of July 2026, active or future General or Youth members now no longer have access to view work available on the ‘Awards platform’ other than the categories they can vote for, namely Short Films and Student Films.
Previously, all films that were in contention would remain available on AACTA TV throughout the duration of the voting period. Even if a film was not nominated, it was available until the ceremony was held. Currently on the Awards platform, categories either disappear completely once their initial voting round is closed, or the progressing films remain available for viewing by eligible members.
This was not communicated to members and is not clear on the membership website other than the word Limited being applied to the AACTA Awards Viewing & Voting benefit in the membership tier table. Only when logging into the new Awards platform are you presented with the available viewing material.
A reminder that the updated membership page still states that “all members receiving more benefits than ever before.” (Once more, the bold and underline is their embellishment, not mine.)
While I am supportive of most changes that have taken place, this critical change to AACTA TV will likely reduce awareness or scope of Australian films going forward.
Changes to the Best Online Drama or Comedy and Short Film Nomination Process
This is a change I’m deeply in favour of, however I wish that there were a wider awareness of the changes being made in the press release published on 6 July 2026 as I feel they genuinely help strengthen the AACTA awards going forward.
To dive into the complete changes, please visit this page on the AACTA website:
Or the Voting and Assessment Governance Summary document, available here:
In short, the changes I want to highlight are as follows:
· Best Online Drama or Comedy and Short Film pre-selection are now decided by dedicated panels of qualified peers.
The AACTA website encourages people with relevant expertise to get involved and join the pre-selection committee for the Short Film award or the jury for the Best Online Drama or Comedy award. Frustratingly, this was not amplified via the Media Room or the AACTA newsletter for those wishing to participate in the process. Instead, an update occurred on the 2027 AACTA Awards voting page (see above).
As someone who has been vocally critical of some of the recipients or nominees of the Short Film award in the past[4], I feel this is a change in the right direction for the AACTA awards. It is unclear whether General and Youth membership voting are weighted differently, however it is positive to see that they are still able to vote on the Short Film award.
I also want to take this opportunity to make it clear that I do not believe that General or Youth members should ever have been able to vote on categories outside of these fields. The removal of General and Youth members being able to vote on feature films, documentaries, and television categories is a positive step forward in my opinion and ensures that screen practitioners and qualified media are voting on the awards.
I have included the Voting Timeline Matrix image below from the AACTA website. This outlines who is able to vote for what award. In many categories this helps align the AACTAs with similar industry body awards such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards (better known at the Academy Awards or Oscars) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards[5].
Artificial Intelligence
This one I’ll keep quick and will include verbatim from the 2027 AACTA Awards Rule Book as I feel it’s important and I appreciate the wording from AACTA in this regard:
“Uses of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in submitted content must be disclosed when relevant to the category for which the content is submitted. The failure to properly disclose such uses may be grounds for disqualification by AFI/AACTA.
The eligibility of disclosed AI-generated material is determined on case-by-case basis and in consideration of the overall amount or impact of the AI-generated material used. For example, fully AI-generated performances are not eligible in any performance category, nor are fully AI-generated scripts eligible in any writing category.
In considering the eligibility of any disclosed content employing AI, AFI/AACTA may request additional materials including, but not limited to, the original unenhanced works and prompts used.
The pace of innovation in the AI space is evolving rapidly, and AFI/AACTA expects this policy to evolve as well. Entrants reliant upon AI for substantive elements of their submissions are encouraged to review the respective category definitions regularly, and monitor the AACTA website and other announcements, and to discuss their particular use cases with the AACTA Awards department.”
No Byron Kennedy Award
Finally, heading into 2027, the Byron Kennedy Award will be located with Tropfest instead of the AACTA Awards.
I’ll try keep clear of the current behind the scenes stoush going on with some of the patrons of the festival, but I will quote from this paywalled article by Gary Maddox on The Sydney Morning Herald which does delve into the complications underway.
“[…] the AFI board responded in a statement that it made the decision not to present the “discretionary award” during its July review of next year’s awards program.”
Garry Maddox
They then go on to say that they’re thrilled the award will live on at Tropfest.
Fair and gracious.
With that said, I’ll point you to item 11.c on page 30 of the 2027 AACTA Awards Rule Book which was published on 6 July 2026. For those who don’t click over, it’s a rundown of what the Byron Kennedy Award is.
No doubt the board made the decision to not present the "discretionary award" after 6 July then.[6]
So these are the changes to the AACTA Awards that they didn't tell you about. Some I really appreciate. One major change I am less than happy with and feel will actively harm the film industry going forward.
If you are a filmmaker who has submitted your work for AACTA consideration over the years, or if you have previously been or are currently a General or Youth member, and you would like to provide a place to anonymously share your experiences with AACTA membership, voting, or the removal of AACTA TV, please reach out to me via contact@thecurb.com.au.
[1] The AFI is the governing body of the AACTA awards. For ease of communication, I’ll be referring to the united entity as AFI/AACTA.
[2] Or even a Marketing Specialist, Publicist, Social Media Manager, or Web Designer.
[3] Have a bit of an explore of the old AFI website via the Wayback Machine here:
[4] Apologies to those impacted, but I am less familiar with the Online Drama or Comedy categories, so I cannot comment on their quality.
[5] As an aside, this piece breaks down how the BAFTA voting process occurs. It is worthwhile remembering that the BAFTAs has a global membership of over 8,300 people.
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
[6] If I continue my snark for just a moment, it’s important to highlight that the now defunct SXSW Sydney is still considered a Qualifying Australian Film Festival (I can possibly understand why as the festival wrapped up in 2025 and there might be some overlap), while the definitely defunct and never returning OzFlix is still listed as a Qualifying VOD/SVOD Platform.