The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize.
, the festival's director is Nashen Moodley.
History
In 1950, representatives of film societies in New South Wales and Victoria met in Sydney to discuss setting up a non-competitive film festival based on the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which had been formed three years earlier, to bring foreign language films and minority appeal films to Australia as the films were not shown in many Australian cinemas. In January 1952, representatives from both states launched the first Australian film festival in the Melbourne suburb of Olinda, Victoria,
It was soon decided that one festival was not sufficient for all of Australia and a committee sprang from the Film Users Association of New South Wales to establish a film festival in Sydney. The committee included Alan Stout, Professor of Philosophy at The University of Sydney, filmmakers John Heyer and John Kingsford Smith, and Federation of Film Societies secretary David Donaldson. Under the direction of Donaldson, the inaugural festival opened on 11 June 1954 and was held over four days, with screenings of nine films at Sydney University. Attendance was at full capacity with 1,200 tickets sold at one guinea each.
Censorship difficulties arose in the mid-1960s and continued until such time as the festival was granted exemption from censorship in 1971.
Description
The competitive film festival draws international and local attention, with films being showcased in several venues across the city centre, and includes features, documentaries, short films, retrospectives, films for families and animations. Films are shown at venues across the Sydney CBD, with films shown at the Dendy Opera Quays, Event Cinemas in George Street, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Ritz Cinemas, Sydney Town Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art as well as the State Theatre.
the festival's director is Nashen Moodley, who commenced in early 2012, replacing Clare Stewart.
Patrons of the festival include Gillian Armstrong, Cate Blanchett, Jane Campion, Nicole Kidman, Baz Luhrmann, George Miller, and Sam Neill among others.
Competition and film prizes
Although a small number of prizes existed from the mid–1980s, prior to 2007, the Sydney Film Festival was classified by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as a Non-Competitive Feature Film Festival. On 10 September 2007, the Festival announced it had received funding from the New South Wales Government to host an official international competition, which rewarded "new directions in film". The FIAFP has since classified the Sydney Film Festival as a Competitive Specialised Feature Film Festival.
the total prize pool was worth . Prizes were awarded in the following categories:
- Sydney Film Prize (awarded to the most "audacious, cutting-edge, and courageous" film in the Official Competition; endorsed by FIAPF): cash prize
- Sydney UNESCO City of Film Award (for a filmmaker based in New South Wales "whose work stands for innovation, imagination and high impact"): cash prize
- Documentary Australia Award for Australian documentary: cash prize
- Sustainable Future Award: cash prize
- First Nations Award, supported by Truant Pictures (new in 2024; the largest cash prize for Indigenous filmmaking in the world, open to First Nations filmmakers from around the globe):
- Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films:
- Dendy Live Action Short Award: cash prize
- Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director (named after Armenian-American film and theatre director Rouben Mamoulian, who first presented the award in 1974): cash prize
- Yoram Gross Animation Award (sponsored by Sandra and Guy Gross in honour of Yoram Gross): cash prize
Winners of the Sydney Film Prize
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Film
! Director
! Countrie(s)
!
|-
| 2008
| Hunger
| Steve McQueen
| Ireland, United Kingdom
|
|-
| 2009
| Bronson
| Nicolas Winding Refn
| United Kingdom
|
|-
| 2010
| Heartbeats
| Xavier Dolan
| Canada
|
|-
| 2011
| A Separation
| Asghar Farhadi
| Iran
|
|-
| 2012
| Alps
| Yorgos Lanthimos
| Greece
|
|-
| 2013
| Only God Forgives
| Nicolas Winding Refn
| Denmark, France
|
|-
| 2014
| Two Days, One Night
| Dardenne brothers
| Belgium, France, Italy
|
|-
| 2015
| Arabian Nights
| Miguel Gomes
| Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland
|
|-
| 2016
| Aquarius
| Kleber Mendonça Filho
| Brazil, France
|
|-
| 2017
| On Body and Soul
| Ildikó Enyedi
| Hungary
|
|-
| 2018
| The Heiresses
| Marcelo Martinessi
| Paraguay
|
|-
| 2019
| Parasite
| Bong Joon-ho
| South Korea
|
|-
| 2020
|colspan="3" align="center"
|-
| 2021
| There Is No Evil
| Mohammad Rasoulof
| Germany, Czech Republic, Iran
|
|-
| 2022
| Close
| Lukas Dhont
| Belgium, France, Netherlands
|
|-
| 2023
| The Mother of All Lies
| Asmae El Moudir
| Morocco, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
|
|-
| 2025
| It Was Just an Accident
| Jafar Panahi
| Iran, France, Luxembourg
|
|}
Festival directors
- David Donaldson (1954–1957)
- Sylvia Lawson and Robert Connell (1959)
- Ian Klava (1962–1965) – Inaugural full-time paid director
- Rod Webb (1984–1988)
- Paul Byrnes (1989–1998)
- Gayle Lake (1999–2004)
- Lynden Barber (2005–2006)
- Clare Stewart (2007–2011)
- Nashen Moodley (2012–present)