Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi has gained the highest award on the 72nd Sydney Movie Competition with It Was Simply An Accident, three weeks after scooping the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
The award was offered on Sunday (June 15) at Sydney’s State Theatre and features a money prize of $39,000 (A$60,000).
Scroll down for full checklist of winners
The competitors jury, led by Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel, offered the award in unorthodox trend because the jurors walked off the stage on the grand 2,000-seat theatre and into the viewers handy the trophy to Panahi – an acknowledgement of his misery at Israel’s assault on Iran two days earlier.
The jury, which additionally included New Zealand actor-director Rachel Home, producer and Marrakech Movie Competition director Melita Toscan du Plantier, Australian actor-writer Thomas Weatherall, and Hong Kong-based movie distributor Winnie Tsang, took under consideration movies that have been “audacious, cutting-edge and brave”.
It Was Simply An Accident marks Panahi’s first function since his launch from jail in Iran in February 2023 after seven months’ incarceration. Impressed by that point, the story offers makes use of comedian undertones to deal with darkish occasions as a person remembers torture and imprisonment, whereas giving a number of former political prisoners an opportunity for revenge towards a brutal captor — uncertain they’ve the fitting man.
Panahi offered among the screenings in a 10-film retrospective of his work on the pageant earlier than the Israel-Iran battle instantly escalated on June 13. He then ceased appearances, together with on the three weekend classes of It Was Simply An Accident. He did, nevertheless, give a masterclass.
Following the awards on Sunday, the pageant closed with the Australian premiere of Michael Angelo Covino’s intercourse comedy Splitsville.
Additional prizes noticed the Sustainable Future Award – the largest environmental movie prize on this planet at $26,000 (A$40,000) – go to Jordan Giusti’s documentary Floodland. The movie explores the influence of repeated floods on residents of the northern NSW city of Lismore, the author/director’s hometown, and acquired its world premiere at Sydney.
The First Nations Award – the biggest international prize for indigenous filmmaking at $22,800 (A$35,000) – went to Lisa Jackson’s Canadian hybrid documentary Wilfred Buck, which centres on the titular Cree educator, information keeper and elder.
Shalom Almond’s Songs Inside picked up the Documentary Australia Award, value $13,000 ($20,000). The movie chronicles how studying music and writing songs – and performing with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – has helped a bunch of incarcerated girls get again on their ft. It beforehand gained the viewers award at Adelaide Movie Competition.
File-breaking attendance
Sydney Movie Competition CEO Frances Wallace stated this 12 months’s version, which ran from June 4-15, was the very best promoting version in its 72-year historical past. The 150,000 attendees represented a 11% improve on 2024. One-third of the 448 screenings and occasions have been offered out.
Even earlier than the deadline, viewers voting on the 242 chosen movies had additionally damaged the document.
On the closing night time of the pageant, Australian politician and New South Wales treasurer Daniel Mookhey stated that greater than $65m (A$100m) will go in the direction of a capital fund to seek out companions and a location for a second Sydney movie studio.
Area is in brief provide because of the current re-named Disney Studios not being as accessible since being taken over by twentieth Century Fox. Manufacturing was being pushed into warehouses or to Victoria “which is worse”, he added.
Mookhey added that Australia’s display screen and digital video games trade is value $780m (A$1.2bn) and helps greater than 13,500 jobs. With the additional dedication, the federal government contribution for 2025/26 can be $247.5m (A$380m).
Sydney Movie Competition 2025 winners
Sydney Movie Prize: It Was Simply An Accident (Iran-Fr-Lux) dir. Jafar Panahi
Sustainable Future Award: Floodland (Australia) dir. Jordan Giusti
First Nations Award: Wilfred Buck (Can) dir. Lisa Jackson
Documentary Australia Award: Songs Inside (Australia) dir. Shalom Almond
UNESCO Sydney Metropolis of Movie Award: Wayne Pashley and Libby Villa of Huge Bang Sound
Dendy Australian quick movie award winners
Dendy stay motion quick: Faceless dir. Fraser Pemberton, William Jaka
Yoram Gross Animation Award: The Fling dir. Jemma Cotter
Rouben Mamoulian Award for greatest director: Rory Pearson (Mates)
AFTRS Craft Award for greatest practitioner: Josh Peters, music and sound designer (Faceless).
Rising Expertise Award for screenwriting: Rory Pearson, Marcus Aldred-Traynor (Mates)