The 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award winners were announced today at a special ceremony hosted by Josh Thomas. Winners including Celia Pacquola, Nathan Chin, Kitty Flanagan, Lizzy Hoo, Bron Lewis, Laura Davis, Nath Valvo and Kate Dolan, demonstrate the most exciting and diverse comedic talent in this year’s program.
By midnight on Sunday, when the Comedy Festival wraps up its 40th anniversary – over the 26-day run, there will have been 9100 performances, across 200 performance spaces, with an additional 280 shows added due to demand. From first timers to household names, over 2000 comedians took to stages, back rooms of bars and warehouses, delivering an incredible mix of stand-up, sketch, clowning, improv, cabaret and everything in between.
Out of a shortlist of 10 shows which were announced earlier this week including Abby Wambaugh (USA/Denmark) – The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows, Cassie Workman (AUS) – You Are Here, Celia Pacquola (AUS) – Gift Horse, Dan Tiernan (Ireland/UK) – Quartz and All, Emmanuel Sonubi (UK) – Life After Near Death, Frankie McNair (AUS) – Huge Ass Mindset, Kitty Flanagan (AUS) – Glad Game, Lara Ricote (Mexico/USA) – Inkling, Reuben Kaye (AUS) – Hard To Swallow and Sam Nicoresti (UK) – Baby Doomer, the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Most Outstanding Show award was given to Celia Pacquola for Gift Horse.
The Best Newcomer Award, for the best solo performer or group of performers doing their first
Festival show, went to Nathan Chin for Chinese Comedy Party. The Newcomer nominations included: Barney Pollock (AUS) – King of the Pigs 2, Caitlin Duff (AUS) – Freidah Will See You Now, Dana Mitchell (AUS) – The Lady Will Have, Elliot Wood (AUS/NZ) – Mrs Lovett’s Famous Meat Pies Grand Reopening Extravaganza, Jo Gowda (AUS/India) – Don’t Deport the Fun, Nathan Chin (AUS) – Chinese Comedy Party and Tarsh Jago (AUS) – Cherub.
The People’s Choice Award for the most popular show of the Festival, as determined by the ticket
buying public, went to Kitty Flanagan who filled the Regent Theatre 13 times for her crowd pleaser Glad Game.
Directors’ Choice Award, decided by the Festival Director Susan Provan in consultation with festival programming colleagues to a show they think deserves celebration went to Nath Valvo for Homebody and Kate Dolan for Trout.
The Pinder Prize, honouring Festival co-founder John Pinder and awarded in collaboration with
Assembly Edinburgh will support Lizzy Hoo to travel to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with her show Says Hoo?
Drawn from a vast field of Victorian performers at this year’s Festival, the newly created VicScreen Greenlight Award was awarded to Bron Lewis for her show Chaos which stood out for the originality of its voice, the strength of its storytelling, and its clear potential to translate to screen.
The Golden Gibbo – celebrating the legacy of the late, great Lynda Gibson – is aimed at finding a local, independent show that pursues the artists’ idea more than it pursues commercial gain. This year, the award went to Laura Davis for their protest show Swag.
The nominees where: Andy Balloch (AUS) – Welcome To Hell, Caitlin Duff (AUS) – Freidah Will See You Now, Kate Dehnert (AUS) – Echo, Katrina Mathers (AUS) – Anything But The Dyson and Other Excellent Monologues, Laura Davis (AUS) – Swag and Sunny Youngsmith (AUS) – Cabin Pressure.
The Piece of Wood comics’ choice award, selected by past winners and presented to a peer literally
for “doin’ good stuff ‘n’ that” was awarded to Nikki Britton for her show Not To Be Dramatic…
Earlier this month, the 2026 Funny Shorts Winner was awarded to The Agreement, directed by Jemma Cotter; runner-up was Virginia, directed by Isabella Lovett Pawsey, while the Funny Shorts Outstanding Comedy Performance Award went to 2 Black 2 Strong directed by Nurdewi Djamal. The Audience Award votes were tallied today – with I Fell in Love with My Sleep Paralysis Demon (Dir. Matthew J. Thompson) the clear winner.
Image: Nick Robertson
