After looking forward to it for so long, it’s hard to believe that another Sydney Film Festival is done and dusted. The quality of films was exceedingly high this year, and we had a wonderful time at the festival. Thanks and congratulations to the entire festival team and all of the volunteers.
The Sydney Film Prize (the prize given to the winner of the Official Competition) was this year awarded to Kleber Mondonca Filho’s Aquarius, which also happened to be our favourite film from the festival. The Audience Award (Feature) was awarded to Deniz Gamze Ergüven’ s Mustang; while the Audience Award (Documentary) went to Australian documentary Zach’s Ceremony, directed by Aaron Petersen.
After the jump we have picked out favourite films, performances, music, cinematography, and other achievements, from the films we saw at the festival. For context, Sam saw 40 films and Andy saw 49 – about 1/5 of what was playing. These selections are purely based on what we saw, and we have no doubt we missed some gems – please let us know what they are! We highly recommend you seek out any of the films mentioned in our “awards” after the jump.
Best Feature: Aquarius
Runner/s up: The Red Turtle (Sam), Childhood of a Leader (Andy)
Best Documentary: Tickled
Runner/s up: Life, Animated (Sam), Kate Plays Christine (Andy)
Best Actor: Peter Simonischek, Toni Erdmann
Runner/s up: Kacey Mottet Klein and Corentin Fila, Being 17
Best Actress: Sonia Braga, Aquarius
Runner/s up: Kristen Stewart, Personal Shopper
Best Supporting Actress: Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Runner/s up: Marion Cotillard, It’s Only the End of the World and Sandrine Kiberlain, Being 17
Best Supporting Actor: Craig Robinson, Morris From America
Runner/s up: Roland Møller, Land of Mine
Best ensemble: Mustang
Runner/s up: Chevalier and Certain Women
Best Director: Kleber Mondonca Filho, Aquarius
Runner/s up: Brady Corbet, The Childhood of a Leader
Best Screenplay: Toni Erdmann
Runner/s up: Chevalier
Best Cinematography: Childhood of a Leader
Runner/s up: High-Rise
Best Costume/Production Design: High-Rise
Runner/s up: Julieta and Paterson
Best Score: Childhood of a Leader
Runner/s Up: High Rise
Best Soundtrack: Aquarius
Runner/s Up: The Lure