The 72nd Sydney Film Festival ended with Iranian director Jafar Panahi claiming the best honor of the event, winning the Sydney film prize for “it was only an accident”.
The film had previously won the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
The Sydney Win Nets Panahi Aud $ 60,000 ($ 38,888) for what the jury for the competition described as a “daring, courageous” film. The announcement was made before the first Australian projection of Cannes struck “Splitsville”.
The Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel was president of the jury for the main competition, joining the New Zealand actor-director Rachel House, the producer and director of the Film Festival Marrakech, Melita Toscan of the Plantier, the editor in Australian auditor Thomas Weatherall, and the cinema distributor based in Hong Kong, Winnie Tsang.
The jury praised the winner as “a courageous film with a deep soul and a powerful sense of forgiveness” which “embodied exceptional performances and a discreet authority that overflows from the truth”.
They noted the strength of the beginnings in competition, declaring that they were “surprised by their confidence, their authenticity and their boastful” of a “new wave of international filmmakers who push the limits”.
“Songs Inside” claimed the Australian documentary prize for $ 20,000 AUD ($ 12,963). The jury called him “a representation of how, even in the most unlikely circumstances, music can unexpectedly raise people and life.”
“Wilfred Buck” won the First Nations Prize, described as the world’s largest money in world indigenous cinema at $ 35,000 AUD ($ 22,685). The jury congratulated the craftsmanship of the filmmaker Lisa Jackson by telling the story of an old Cree who “perfectly weaves the past and the present, archives with documentary and leisure, to tell a story about the healing of generational trauma through wisdom and knowledge of stars.”
The Future Sustainable Prize was awarded to the documentary “Floodland”, with jurors calling him “captivating, convincing, staff and informative” because he follows “friends for life against floods, bureaucracy and generational inheritance of decisions of white colonists”.
In the categories of short films, “Faceless”, directed by Fraser Pemberton and William Jaka, won the best short action for his “narrative intrepidity” and “strong point of view”. The film also earned Josh Peters the Aftrs Craft Award for Music and Sound Design. Rory Pearson won the Rouben Mamoulian Award for the best director of “Mates”, while Pearson and Marcus Alld-Traynor shared the Rising Talent Award Prize for the same film for the same film.
“The Fly”, directed by Jemma Cotter, collected the Yoram Gross Animation Award for its “ingenious ode to a classic by John Carpenter, with an innovative know-how that combines real actors with a Stop Motion animation”.
The festival distributed prizes totaling on $ 200,000 AUD ($ 129,628) in all categories. The Sydney Film Prize joins an illustrious list of previous winners, including “There is still tomorrow” (2024), “The Mother of All Lies” (2023), “Close” (2022) and “Parasite” (2019).
The competition is approved by the FIAPF, the regulatory organization for international film festivals.
