After 18 days, over 370 movies were shown in person and an allocation of a prize fund worth $210,000 AUD (approx. The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), which is worth $145,000 USD, has been one of the longest, most exciting and lucrative film festivals around. The winning films were announced at Saturday evening’s closing gala, with Afrofuturist sci-fi musical “Neptune Frost,”A U.S.-Rwandan coproduction directed by Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman won the Bright Horizons top award of $140,000 AUD ($100,000. USD). Jub Clerc is an Indigenous Australian director of coming -of-age movie. “Sweet As,”Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, $70,000 AUD (or $45,000 USD) was won by her
Bright Horizons is the competition’s first year. After being selected from an exceptionally strong 11-film lineup, which included festival favourites like Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Laura Wandel’s “Playground” and Natalia López Gallardo’s “Robe of Gems,”Uzeyman and Williams were clearly moved when they accepted the Zoom award.
“It was a film we made with all of our hearts, and we are so thrilled that it touched you,”They said. The film’s debut feature was well-received by the jury. It included Lynette and Lynette Walworth from Australia, as well as Adam Arkapaw (cinematographer) and Mouly Surya (writer-director). “penetrating deeply into your heart and soul”By “disrupting the colonial gaze and connecting the rising influence of technology in all our lives.”
Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation is also in its initial edition. This competition was created to encourage and recognize emerging Australian film talent. Clerc was joined by five other film directors, a screenwriting group, and an editor. She accepts her award for direction of “Sweet As”Clerc was on stage with many of her collaborators, Clerc stated. “This is not my film but our film,”Before you start joking “Not the prize money, of course, that’s all mine.”She then mentioned her Indigenous heritage. “Storytelling is in our blood. We never had a written language; we sang, we danced and painted all of our stories, and now we have a new medium,”She said this, pointing to the screen in front of her. Her remarks were echoed in the jury statement, which highlighted how Clerc’s film “helps show just how resilient and beautiful Indigenous women are.”
Speak to VarietyAn audience of over 20,000 people cheered as the marathon festival finished. “exhausted and exhilarated” Al Cossar, MIFF artistic director, was delighted with the results, as emblematic of the new competitions’ remit to champion emergent talent.
“MIFF is a huge program,”He stated. “But one of the principle motivations for us is building that sense of outright discovery. I think this space supercharges that mentality.”
Cossar also mentioned MIFF’s challenges, which were first run in physical form since Melbourne emerged from the longest and toughest lockdown period in the world.
“We’re of the mindset that we’re not through COVID, but living with it for years to come… It’s a big step in the right direction this year — to be back in the world — but to get back to that full scale of audience is going to be incremental for a while yet.”
Cossar, however, is optimistic. “We have a very determined, adaptive mindset at this point,”He continued. “Certainly [the pandemic] propelled us to look in the mirror and ask fundamental questions… that will help expand MIFF’s own access and inclusivity in a way that’s much broader than being a response to COVID.”
The innovations this year, particularly the lavish prize fund, are designed to raise MIFF’s international profile, but the festival is also trying to strengthen its regional roots. Philippa Hawker is a keystone of Melbourne’s critical landscape. She writes for The Age and The Saturday Paper, and was part of 2022 MIFF Critics Campus with international mentors Jessica Kiang. VarietyJourdain Sarras of The Hollywood Reporter, and Danny Kasman, of Mubi, stated the following: “It is good to have a shiny new prize for early-career filmmaking, especially one as lucrative as this.” But she especially wanted to shout out MIFF 2022’s local strands, adding “In the festival’s 70th edition, it was so good to see a program of significant and sometimes unpredictable examples of filmmaking from the city’s past.”
For another week, the festival will be available online. This means that more people from all walks of the globe can enjoy the festival’s flexible format.