LUKAS DHONT’S CLOSE EARNS SYDNEY FILM FEST TOP HONOUR

The 69th Sydney Film Festival tonight awarded Close by Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont, a stunningly beautiful examination of boyhood friendship, the prestigious Sydney Film Prize. The winner of the $60,000 cash prize for ‘audacious, cutting-edge and courageous' film was selected by a prestigious international jury headed by David Wenham.

The announcement was made at the State Theatre ahead of the Closing Night film, the Australian Premiere screening of the 2022 Cannes-award winning South Korean drama Broker.

Dhont said, “Thank you to the festival for expressing its love for the film, the jury for choosing it among all these outstanding pieces, and its first Australian audience for opening hearts and spirits to a film that comes from deep within. We wanted to make a film about friendship and connection after a moment in time where we all understood its necessity and power. I decided to use cinema as my way to connect to the world. And tonight I feel incredibly close and connected to all of you.” (Pictured, top; Close stars Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele).

In addition to Wenham, the Festival Jury was comprised of Australian BAFTA-nominated writer and director Jennifer Peedom (Mountain, SFF 2018); Bangladeshi writer-director-producer Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (No Land’s Man, SFF 2022); Golden Berlin Bear winning Turkish writer-director-producer Semih Kaplanoğlu (Commitment Hasan, SFF 2022); and Executive Director at the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, Tokyo, Yuka Sakano. (Pictured, right; The Jury deliberates)

Wenham said, “[Close] displayed a mastery of restraint, subtle handling of story, astute observations and delicate attention to finer details. A film whose power was felt in things unsaid, the moments between the lines of dialogue. A film with inspired cinematography and flawless performances. A tender, moving, powerful film. A mature film about innocence.”

Australian filmmaker Luke Cornish was presented with the Documentary Australia Award’s $10,000 cash prize for Keep Stepping, about two remarkable female performers training for Australia’s biggest street dance competition. (Pictured, left; Director Luke Cornish, sitting, with street dancers Gabi Quinsacara, left, and Patricia Crasmaruc, from Keep Stepping. Photo:Louie Douvis)

The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films saw the inaugural AFTRS Craft Award (a $7,000 cash prize) presented to the character artists behind Donkey; Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM; Carolyn Kenta; Imuna Kenta; Elizabeth Dunn; Stacia Yvonne Lewis; Atipalku Intjalki; Lynette Lewis; and Cynthia Burke.

The $5,000 Yoram Gross Animation Award was also awarded to Donkey, directed by Jonathan Daw and Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM. Both the $7,000 Dendy Live Action Short Award and $7,000 Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director were presented to Luisa Martiri and Tanya Modini for The Moths Will Eat Them Up (pictured, right).

The 2022 recipient of the $10,000 Sustainable Future Award, made possible by a syndicate of passionate climate activists led by Award sponsor Amanda Maple-Brown, is Australian documentary Delikado directed by Karl Malakunas, which reveals the tribulations of environmental crusaders on the Filipino island of Palawan.