Overview
When Sydney Film Festival arrives each June to fill the Harbour City's cinemas with the latest and greatest movies, it does so mere weeks after its prestigious counterpart in Cannes. That's always excellent news for local film lovers, with plenty of the French fest's flicks making their way swiftly Down Under. And, it can make an impact with the Sydney Film Prize — Bong Joon-ho's Parasite scored both the Palme d'Or and SFF's gong in 2019, Lukas Dhont's Close earned the Grand Prix at Cannes and then Sydney's top accolade in 2022, and now Asmae El Moudir's The Mother of All Lies has collected the Un Certain Regard Best Director award and SFF's shiny Sydney Film Festival Prize trophy.
Sydney Film Festival's 2023 jury, which featured director Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur), actor Mia Wasikowska (Blueback), writer/director Larissa Behrendt (You Can Go Now), filmmaker Visakesa Chandrasekaram (Earth), and film curator and journalist Dorothee Wenner, picked El Moudir's documentary as the best movie in this year's Official Competition. The Sydney Film Festival Prize winner was announced at SFF's closing-night festivities, before the Australian premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, with The Mother of All Lies emerging victorious for its inventive exploration of Morocco's 1981 Bread Riots using doll-like figures.
"Commending the courage of choosing a theme perhaps wilfully obliterated from public memory, appreciating the storytelling methods of playful yet calculated visual narration, the jury hails the winning film of SFF which fictionalises the interplay between facts and memories," announced Kashyap and company in a joint statement.
"Juxtaposing evidence from barely existent public materials with private family memory, this film reconstructs the history of the state, the family and the individual in three distinct levels."
In winning the Sydney Film Prize, The Mother of All Lies joins not only Close and Parasite, but fellow past winners There Is No Evil (2021), The Heiresses (2018), On Body and Soul (2017), Aquarius (2016), Arabian Nights (2015), Two Days, One Night (2014), Only God Forgives (2013), Alps (2012), A Separation (2011), Heartbeats (2010), Bronson (2009) and Hunger (2008).
It's also just one of this year's Sydney Film Festival award recipients, with the fest also handing out annual prizes for Australian documentaries, films focused on sustainability and shorts.
Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) won the $20,000 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary, with the 24-minute-long film following Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch on a road trip back to Country, and adding the accolade to its Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film) and Teddy Award for best queer short film at this year's Berlinale.
Documentary jury members Christoffer Guldbrandsen (A Storm Foretold), Sascha Ettinger Epstein (The Pink House) and Laurrie Brannigan-Onato praised the film for being "an incredibly evocative, precise and raw film" that's "exploratory and playful in its form" and "tests the line of fact and fiction, and in turn unearths something that sits at the root of the human experience".
"The film has a highly accomplished and distinct aesthetic that allows for a powerful contemplation of culture, Country, identity and belonging. Derik Lynch is utterly mesmerising in the way he shares his life experiences, on his country, and in his Yankunytjara language. This is a film that is both deeply affecting and matter of fact in its approach, and although it is short in its duration, the film is so concisely exacted, it only leaves you wanting more," they continued.
The documentary jury also gave Kindred, a feature doco about two Indigenous Australian friends who were both adopted into white families, an honourable mention.
With SFF's third-ever $10,000 Sustainable Future Award, Against the Tide from Indian filmmaker Sarvnik Kaur did the honours, while the jury also called out Rachel's Farm and Power to Country.
"Savnik Kaur's beautiful film Against the Tide is an audacious documentary that spans six years. A thoughtful, nuanced documentary in which the director has clearly earned the deep trust of the subjects as they navigate a rapidly changing world," said the jury featuring Amanda Maple-Brown (June Again), Steven McGregor (Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky) and War on Waste presenter Craig Reucassel.
"We appreciated the dedicated undertaking of showing the difficulties of traditional fishing practices in these communities as they are overrun by more modern, unsustainable, and illegal fishing practices, all in an effort to feed their own families and look forward to future films by this director."
And, in the Dendy Short Film Awards, The Dancing Girl and the Balloon Man won Best Australian Live Action, and nabbed star Robyn Liu the Rising Talent Award. Teacups earned the Yoram Gross Animation Award for Best Australian Animation, while Linda 4 Eva's Sophie Somerville received the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director. Also, the AFTRS Craft Award for Best Practitioner went to Kalu Oji, Faro Musodza and Makwaya Masudi, the screenwriters of What's in a Name?.
The 2023 Sydney Film Festival ran from Wednesday, June 7–Sunday, June 18, with the festival screening four days of encores until Thursday, June 22.