A Sydney Mum Has Won the First Place Prize at the First Tropfest Film Festival Since 2019
Local filmmakers were the real stars of the grand return of a globally recognised short film festival.
Tropfest, the world's largest short film festival, made a grand (albeit rainy) reappearance since it was shuttered in 2019 to a crowd of 35,000 braving wet conditions in Centennial Park on Sunday.
The festival featured a star-studded jury of judges, including Australians Margot Robbie (Wuthering Heights), Sarah Snook (Succession), Danny Phillippou (director of Talk to Me and Bring Her Back) and producer Bruna Papandrea, English actor Taron Edgerton and a virtual appearance from legendary director James Cameron — all judging 16 short film entries with huge prizes on the line.
John Polson and Margot Robbie photographed by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images
Taking the coveted top prize of $50,000 was Crescendo, directed by Sydney local Lianne Mackessy, which follows a young mother who has to scramble to find a new babysitter on the morning of a career-defining audition — jury president Margot Robbie described the film as "pitch perfect". Following in the second and third place for prizes of $30,000 and $20,000, respectively, were Jasper Sharpe's We Don't Take Breaks and Nicky Tyndale-Biscoe's Silent Night.
The NIDA Emerging Performer Award for Best Female Actress went to lead actress and new mother Laura Bunting for her role in Crescendo, while the NIDA Emerging Performer Award for Best Male Actor was presented to Ben Keller for his performance in We Don't Take Breaks.
Lianne Mackessy photographed by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images
The inaugural Chery Creative Acceleration Award, celebrating the rising and boundary-pushing talent of the next generation of filmmakers, was presented to Georgina Haig, director of No Thank You. As part of the honour, Haig also took home a Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid valued at $34,990.
Best Cinematography, presented by Sony, was awarded to Josh Flavell for his work on Project Hourglass. Flavell also received a complete Sony camera and lens package valued at almost $20,000.
Sarah Snook and Laura Bunting photographed by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images
Taking home the new Pandora Women's Brilliance Award, created to recognise a woman in film whose vision, voice, and creative impact truly shine, was Tyndale-Biscoe for Silent Night, who was also gifted a Pandora Infinite lab-grown diamond jewellery set. Tyndale-Biscoe will also be invited to collaborate with Pandora on a bespoke piece of content. And the winner of the iconic Tropicana Award went to Sean Bayles for his film The End.
You can watch a recording of the Tropfest 2026 livestream or any of the winning films on YouTube now.
This article first appeared on Variety Australia.
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