Exiled Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev has taken out the Sydney Film Festival's top prize with his latest film, Minotaur — a crime thriller that doesn't hold back on criticising Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
The $60,000 Sydney Film Prize was announced Sunday night at the State Theatre by a jury led by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho. They called the film "audacious, cutting-edge and courageous" and praised its "Hitchcockian" style.
"This is a film about something which unfortunately never goes out of style, which is power used to crush people," the jury said.
Minotaur follows a wealthy Russian businessman who is forced to lay off staff and discovers his wife is having an affair — all while Putin launches the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In a modern twist on the Greek myth, the businessman must nominate 14 employees to be sent to the front line.
The win caps an incredible comeback for Zvyagintsev. The 62-year-old, known globally for The Return, Leviathan and Loveless, nearly died from COVID in 2021. He spent two weeks in a medically induced coma and 11 months paralysed in hospital, struggling to breathe. He calls his recovery a "rebirth".
Three weeks ago, Minotaur won the Grand Prix at Cannes. After that win, Zvyagintsev wrote an open letter to Putin, urging him to end the "senseless" war. "Except for the limbs torn off from your fellow citizens in the name of an illusory goal, except for the massacre of young people that the country needs to build life and the future – nothing good is on the horizon if we don't stop," he wrote.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov hit back, saying Zvyagintsev had no right to call for peace because he never condemned the "massacre in the Donbas" — the alleged violence against Russian speakers that disinformation campaigns used as a pretext for the invasion.
Zvyagintsev, who now lives in France, flew for two days to get to Sydney for the premiere and a masterclass. "He felt as if he was flying to Mars but he got to Australia and he is really excited," his interpreter said. "It's an adventure."
Minotaur beat out some serious competition. The Sydney prize lineup included Fjord, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and Ben'Imana, which took the Camera d'Or for best first film. Minotaur will screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August and is expected to get a cinema release after that.
In the Australian documentary competition, Time and Tide took home the $20,000 prize. Chinese-Australian writer-director Vee Shi made the film about returning to his hometown in Fuqing and uncovering family pain. The jury called it a "transcendent work [that] delivered raw and authentic emotion".
The Dendy Awards for Australian short films were dominated by Indigenous stories. Siena Mayutu Wurmarri Stubbs' Manutji (Catching Eyes), a romance set in an Aboriginal community, won best live action short. Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Marjorie 'Nunga' Williams and Nelson Armstrong's Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling, about the Ntaria Choir, won the Yoram Gross animation award and the rising talent prize.
Cristabel Sved won the Rouben Mamoulian award for best Australian director for the romance Date 3. Production designers Angelina Kovacs and Sophie Ravant won best craft practitioner for Flesh Fruit, about the mysterious origin of a farmer's new product.
The Sydney-UNESCO City of Film award went to writer-director Fadia Abboud (Here Out West, House of Gods). Banchi Hanuse's Ceremony won the First Nations prize and Matasila Freshwater and Lachlan McLeod's Sukundimi Walks Before Me claimed the Sustainable Futures award.
Unseasonably warm winter weather helped the festival draw solid crowds over 12 days. Other highlights included Christopher Nelius' documentary Whistle, a comic look at an American whistling competition; Anthony Maras' Pressure, a tense drama about a meteorologist involved in the D-Day landing; and Genevieve Clay-Smith's warm-hearted family drama Boss Cat. Two more standouts came from South Korea: Yeon Sang-ho's zombie action film Colony and Yoon Ga-eun's The World Of Love, a tender comic drama.