32nd Festival 1985

This year featured films such as Robert Epstein and Richard Schmiechen’s The Times of Harvey Milk, Alan Parker’s Birdy, Allan Francovich’s Short Circuit, Wim Wender’s Tokyo-ga and Eric Rohmer’s Full Moon Over Paris. In addition to the main program, screenings of new Polish and Swiss cinema were held, following the trend of prior years in showcasing regional movements in cinema.

Two retrospectives were held, titled ‘Rebels’ and ‘Manifestly Oberhausen’. The first Greater Union Distribution Prize was awarded in the Australian Short Films competition.

The Ian McPherson lecture was delivered by Susan Dermody, a film theorist who authored The Screening of Australia. (She is also the mother of actress Maeve Dermody, who appeared in Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate, which screened at SFF in 2009.)

Opening Night Film: That’s Dancing (directed by Jack Haley, Jr.)

Closing Night Film: Insignificance (directed by Nicolas Roeg)

Award Winners

Greater Union Award for Australian Short Films (General):

Letters of Sylvia Plath – A Film (directed by Nicolette Freeman)

Greater Union Award for Australian Short Films (Fiction):

The Drover’s Wife (directed by Sue Brooks)

Greater Union Award for Australian Short Films (Documentary):

Anyone Can Be a Genius! (directed by Julian Russell and Tony Gailey)

Rouben Mamoulian Award:

Sue Brooks (director of The Drover’s Wife)

Greater Union Distributors Prize:

The Cellist (directed by Robert Marchant)