After 18 days of in-person screenings, more than 370 films and a new prize fund totaling A$210,000 (~US$145,000), the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has to be one of the longest-running and liveliest films ever, and now it is The most profitable film festivals in the world. The winning films were announced at the closing ceremony on Saturday evening, with the science fiction Afrofuturist film Neptune Frost, a Rwandan-American co-production directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Ozeman, taking home the A$140,000 (US$100,000) Bright Horizons Prize. ). . Jub Clerc, Aboriginal Australian director of the new road movie ‘Sweet As’, has been awarded the A$70,000 (US$45,000) Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award.
This is the first year of the Bright Horizons competition. Chosen from among 11 exceptionally strong films, which included festival favorites such as Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Laura Wandel’s “Playground” and Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s Robe of Gems, Williams and Ozeman were visibly impressed as they accepted the award via Zoom.
They said, “It was a movie we made with all our hearts, and we’re so glad it touched you.” The jury, made up of Australian filmmakers Sharina Clanton and Lynette Walworth, along with cinematographer Adam Arkabau and Indonesian writer and director Muli Surya, praised it for “penetrating deep into your heart and soul” by “disrupting the colonial outlook and linking the growing influence of technology in all of our lives”.
The Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Competition is also in its first edition and is designed to recognize and inspire emerging Australian film talent, regardless of their area of expertise. Five film designs were nominated along with Clerc: two other directors, a screenwriting team, a production designer, and an editor. Accepting her award for directing “Sweet As” on stage with several of her collaborators in attendance, Clerc said, “This is not my movie but our The film “Before Joking” is not the prize money, of course, that’s all I have. She went on to remember her Aboriginal heritage: “Storytelling runs in our blood. We’ve never had a written language. She said, pointing to the screen behind her. Her remarks were echoed in the jury’s statement, which highlighted how Clerc’s film “helps demonstrate the resilience and beauty of Aboriginal women.”
Talking to diverse As the marathon festival neared the finish line, MIFF Technical Director “Exhausted and Exhilarated” was delighted with the results, as a symbol of the competitions’ new mission in defending emerging talent.
“MIFF is a huge programme,” he said. But one of the primary motivations for us is to build this sense of direct discovery. I think this space charges that mindset.”
Kosar also noted the challenges for the MIFF, which are in physical form for the first time since Melbourne emerged from one of the world’s longest and harshest periods of lockdown.
“We have a mindset that we’re not through COVID, but we’re living with it for years to come… It’s a huge step in the right direction this year – to be back in the world – but to get back to that full range of audience is going to be growing for a while.”
But Kosar is optimistic. “We have a very determined and adaptable mindset at this point,” he continued. “surely [the pandemic] It prompted us to look in the mirror and ask basic questions…that would help expand the reach and inclusiveness of MIFF in a way that is much broader than it is a response to COVID.”
This year’s innovations, notably the lavish prize fund, are designed to raise MIFF’s international profile, but the festival is also trying to cement its regional roots. Philippa Hooker, a cornerstone of Melbourne’s critical landscape who writes for The Age, The Saturday Paper and Senses of Cinema and was part of the 2022 MIFF Critics Campus, along with international mentors Jessica Kiang from diverse“It’s nice to have a shiny new award for filmmaking early in her career, especially one as lucrative as this one,” said Jordan Searles of The Hollywood Reporter and Danny Kasman of Moby. But she particularly wanted to shout out to the local MIFF 2022 chapters, adding, “At the 70th edition of the festival, it was very good to see a program of important and sometimes unpredictable examples of filmmaking from the city’s past.”
As the festival continues in an online format for another week, we hope that more attendees, near and far, will be able to admire a very flexible program that includes local, global and all points in between.
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