Matilda Awards

28/04/2026

The Matilda’s are calling!

Expressions of interest are now open for regional artists to join the judging panel.

Help shape a more inclusive awards process by bringing your local knowledge and perspective to the panel, helping ensure regional artists and productions are represented with depth, context, and care.

📍 Learn more about the position via https://www.matildaawards.com.au/press/expansion-of-matilda-awards-regional-coverage

🗓 Applications close May 18 at 5pm

Join us in celebrating theatre beyond the city limits and help ensure great work doesn’t go unseen.

09/03/2026

09/03/2026

What a night!

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 2025 Matilda Awards and helped make it such a special celebration. We’re so grateful to all who attended (in person and digitally), our wonderful hosts , and the talented entertainers and who lit up the stage throughout the evening.

The energy in the room was unforgettable, and it was a joy to celebrate so many outstanding achievements together.

Want to relive the night? Head over to our page to see the full photo album 📸

09/03/2026

📸 Bulimba Studios

02/03/2026

THE GOLD MATILDA

Louise Bezzina

Louise Bezzina, currently CEO/Artistic Director of , has been at the forefront of cultural innovation, delivering world-class events and experiences for Queensland audiences and making a significant impact on the industry. Louise founded the very successful Gold Coast Bleach Festival as the Artistic Director and CEO, she was a Co-Creative Lead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games Cultural Program and as Brisbane Festival’s Artistic Director from 2019 to 2025, delivered seven highly successful and unique arts festivals for the people of Brisbane and Queensland.

During one of the toughest times ever for the arts industry - the dreaded COVID-19 - with her “the show must go on” attitude, Louise proved her incredible artistic leadership by presenting a totally reimagined Brisbane Festival that served performers and audiences alike. Louise also changed the look and feel of the festival, taking it directly to suburban and regional audiences and programming hundreds of Queensland performers.

02/03/2026

THE LORD MAYOR’S AWARD FOR BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK

Crossing the Divide - , and

Crossing the Divide is a compelling and critically important new work that shines a light on Australia’s often untold histories, exploring gaps and tensions within our national identity. As the narrative unfolds, audiences witness two journeys across the Great Dividing Range: a contemporary school excursion with a relatable cast of students and the 1813 crossing of the Range by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson. Using Shock Therapy Arts’ masterful characterisation and sharp humour, the work brings First Nations and settler-colonial histories into conversation, illuminating darker chapters of the past and raising vital questions about unity and understanding today.

02/03/2026

QPAC AWARD FOR BEST MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men - in association with

Queensland Theatre Company’s production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men was first class all the way. But it takes more than a few good men and women to translate a well-received film from the 1990s with Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise into a stage masterpiece for today’s theatre goers. Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, written in 1989, is a shockingly relevant play about power, corruption and the strength required to stand up and fight. With its large cast, large production values and larger ideas, Queensland Theatre Company and QPAC’s production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men showcases the best of what mainstage theatre can offer.

02/03/2026

QPAC AWARD FOR BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Blushing -

Blushing is a potent work of physical theatre from Zen Zen Zo, that uses their trademark bold movement style to interrogate connection and the volatile charge of touch, the stakes of which have been heightened in the wake of the global pandemic. Driven by a soundscape that throbs like a collective heartbeat, the ensemble surges and contracts as a single restless force orbiting the core figures of Shame and Curiosity. With unrelenting commitment and fearless physicality, the performers peel back social masks to reveal desire, vulnerability and the primal ache to connect. Hypnotic, urgent and deeply human, Blushing is a timely and provocative reminder of physical theatre’s power to deliver an unfiltered, visceral reflection of who we are.

02/03/2026

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY AWARD FOR BEST MUSICAL OR CABARET PRODUCTION

The Lovers - and , in association with

This brand-new production of The Lovers: A Musical by Laura Murphy was a hit with audiences and critics alike. A fresh take on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this modern musical love story featured a stellar cast (, .e.hunter, ), supported by incredible production values and direction by . Throw in a magical set (), incredible video design (David Bergman), rock show lighting (.suidgeest), a kick-ass live band belting out a powerful pop score of original songs (musical direction by ), and it’s no wonder this production had audiences on their feet at the curtain call.

02/03/2026

BEST ENSEMBLE

Crossing the Divide -

The ensemble cast of Shock Therapy Arts’ production of Crossing the Divide, consisting of the work’s writers and directors Sam Foster, Hayden Jones, and Benjin Maza, were exceptional in their efforts on the staging of this piece. On expert display in the ensemble’s endeavours was Shock Therapy’s signature precision, in performer movements as well as set and character changes, all clearly invested with an extraordinary amount of rigour that showed the troupe’s outstanding care for the work. The incredible diversity of the portrayals of the numerous characters in the text, as well as their high quality of ex*****on, was quite amazing considering that only three performers were on stage, and made scenes seem for audiences more populated than they actually were.