Ildiko Enyedi’s “On Body and Soul” wins Sydney Festival Film PrizeJune 19, 2017 - 12:22 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi has followed up her Berlin Golden Bear win for On Body and Soul by taking out the Sydney Film Prize as part of the International competition at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival, it was announced on Sunday, June 18, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The $45,000 (AUS$60,000) cash prize for 'audacious, cutting-edge and courageous' film was awarded to Enyedi at the Festival’s Closing Night Gala awards ceremony ahead of the Australian premiere screening of Bong Joon-ho's Okja. On Body and Soul, the idiosyncratic love story about two lonely slaughterhouse employees who go to absurd lengths in their pursuit of one another, beat out Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s The Other Side Of Hope, Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled and Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, and eight other films in the 10th anniversary edition of the International Competition. ”It was such an amazingly strong competition. It's marvelous that such a film can move so many people, it gives me so much hope in cinema and in human communication,” Enyedi said. A raft of other awards for local documentary and short films included the $10,000 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award, given by Create NSW to a trail-blazing NSW-based screen practitioner. The winner for 2017 was Indigenous Australian actor, director and writer Leah Purcell, who has directed episodes in series one and two of Sundance TV’s Cleverman. The 64th Festival was hailed a success, with the tenth year of record-setting attendance figures to 185,000 for 2017, with an average 72 percent capacity across all sessions. At the same time it was announced that the Sydney Film Festival’s current chair Chris Freeland, is stepping down after eight years, during which time attendances have almost doubled. Freeeland will remain as a director while pay TV net Foxtel executive and the chair of independent TV production company, Hoodlum, Deanne Weir, will become chair. Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley said: “2017 has been a significant year for film and filmmakers. As the world looks for ways to understand and interpret the momentous events and challenges facing humanity, filmmakers across the globe have risen to the challenge. “From refugees and the horrors of war, to the state of the world’s oceans, this program of films - screened to Australian audiences for the first time at the 64th Sydney Film Festival - has provided an opportunity to debate and discuss some of the most pressing and contentious issues of our time,” Moodley added. Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Government reveals details from Pashinyan’s meeting in border village Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has met with a group of residents of a border village in Armenia’s northern Tavush province Narek Manasyan wins European Boxing Championships silver for Armenia Armenia’s Narek Manasyan (92kg) won Armenia’s second silver medal at the European Boxing Championships 2024 on April 28. Blinken urges Azerbaijan to continue negotiations with Armenia Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has urged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to continue negotiations with Armenia. Pashinyan, Blinken talk Armenia-U.S. ties over the phone Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a phone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 28, Pashinyan’s office reports. |