Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has won the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize, Sydney Film Festival's top award, for his 2020 drama There Is No Evil, which meditates on the far reaching effects of capital punishment in Iran, over four separate stories.
Rasoulof's film won against 11 others in SFF's Official Competition, including The Hand of God, by Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, which won top gong at Venice Film Festival; Petite Maman, by Celine Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire); The Story of My Wife, by 2017 Sydney Film Prize winner Ildikó Enyedi; and The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, by actor, writer and director Leah Purcell.
The Sydney Film Prize is awarded at the closing ceremony of each festival to an "audacious, cutting-edge and courageous" film.
Sydney Film Festival Jury president David Michôd (The King; The Rover; Animal Kingdom) praised Rasoulof's film "for its moving, multi-angled exploration of a singular theme, about the ways in which an entire culture can carry the burden of institutional cruelty.
"It's a movie adventurous with form and genre, beautifully performed and realised with a deft touch for simple, elegant filmmaking craft."
The Jury also commended Scottish filmmaker Ben Sharrock for his Official Competition contender Limbo, a dark comedy about the asylum seeker experience in Scotland.
Scroll to the end for the full list of Sydney Film Festival prize winners.
The Sydney Film Prize was awarded at a ceremony at Sydney's State Theatre, alongside other major awards, including the Dendy Awards for short films and the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary.
It marked the end of a festival that had been postponed twice in 2021 due to COVID-19, following a reduced, online-only program in 2020.
This year's festival opened on November 3 with a limited audience capacity of 75 per cent, before moving to 100 per cent capacity in line with adjusted NSW guidelines from November 8.
The festival combined cinema screenings with a large on-demand program of more than 70 films that could be streamed from anywhere in Australia.
SFF's On Demand program is streaming until November 21, and includes Sydney Film Prize winner There Is No Evil, the Dendy Awards program of short films, and all finalists for the Documentary Australia Foundation Award.
In 2022, Sydney Film Festival will revert back to its usual June dates.
"We really hope to go ahead as planned," festival director Nashen Moodley told ABC Sydney.
Filmmaker's act of resistance
This year's Sydney Film Prize winner, There Is No Evil, is the 8th film by Mohammad Rasoulof, who has been banned from making films in Iran on political grounds.
His 2017 film A Man of Integrity, which won the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Prize, painted a portrait of life in Iran through a principled farmer's attempt to maintain his moral compass in the face of corruption and oppression. It was banned from screening by Iranian authorities.
There is No Evil was inspired by an incident where Rasoulof came across one of his former interrogators on the street in Tehran.
In his director's statement for the film, the director writes: "When I looked at him closely, and observed his mannerisms with my own eyes, I could not see an evil monster. How do autocratic rulers metamorphose people into becoming mere components of their autocratic machines?"
His film is composed of four distinct tales, each revolving around a different man who has been tasked with carrying out a state-sanctioned execution, and whose response to that order — following it or resisting it — has had profound, life-changing consequences.
There Is No Evil won the Golden Bear for best film at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival, where the director's daughter Baran Rasoulof, who stars in the film, accepted the award on her father's behalf as he was prevented from travelling by Iranian authorities.
Accepting the Sydney Film Prize from Tehran, via a prerecorded video, Rasoulof said:
"I want to thank the jury. I am very glad there is something more than simple appreciation in this prize; something like being heard, being understood. And this is what keeps hope alive."
Full list of winners
The Sydney Film Prize: $60,000 cash prize
Winner: There Is No Evil, Wri/Dir Mohammad Rasoulof
The Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award: $10,000 cash prize
Winner: Karina Holden (Strong Female Lead, executive producer)
Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary: $10,000 cash prize
Winner: I'm Wanita, Wri/Dir Matthew Walker
Deutsche Bank Fellowship for First Nations Film Creatives: $20,000 grant
Winner: Darlene Johnson (The Heights; River of No Return)
Inaugural Sustainable Future Award: $10,000 cash prize
Winner: Burning, Dir Eva Orner
Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films — Dendy Live Action Short Award: $7,000 cash prize
Winner: Peeps, Wri/Dir Sophie Somerville
Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films — Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director: $7,000 cash prize
Winner: Taylor Ferguson for tough
Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films — Yoram Gross Animation Award: $5,000 cash prize
Winner: Freedom Swimmer, Wri/Dir Olivia Martin-McGuire
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2021-11-14 09:38:24Z
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