45th Festival 1998

Paul Byrnes’ final year as Festival Director and the 45th year of the Sydney Film Festival both fell on 1998. On his time, Byrnes wrote:

“If there is one guiding idea behind what I’ve tried to do in selecting films for the festival, it’s that cinema does matter, that it’s more than just an entertainment medium; that immersing yourself in it is a sustaining act which can make us more human, more tolerant, somehow bigger. I think that is why the festival survives now, 45 years on, and why it will continue to survive. It feeds us all, for a short time each year, with other people’s dreams.”

Films screened included Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy, Michael Haneke’s first version of Funny Games, Takeshi Kitano’s Hana-bi, Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together, Abbas Kiarostami’s A Taste of Cherry, Shane Meadows’ TwentyFourSeven, William Gazecki’s Waco: The Rules of Engagement and Guy Maddin’s Twilight of the Ice Nymphs.

The fifth Sydney Salute was a tribute to documentarians (and life partners) D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus (Town Bloody Hall, The War Room). A special screening of Phillip Noyce’s Australian classic Newsfront (1978) featured a discussion with members of the production team. A dialogue between John Seale and Chris Doyle was also presented. A special presentation of modern African cinema was also shown. The two retrospectives highlighted films from Wales, and the films of Frank Capra and Barbara Stanwyck.

Opening Night Film: In the Winter Dark (directed by James Bogle)

Closing Night Film: Meet John Doe (directed by Frank Capra – retrospective from 1941)

The Ian McPherson Lecture was delivered by Professor Marcia Langton.

Award Winners

Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films (General):

I, Eugenia, directed by (Gabrielle Finnane)

Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films (Fiction over 15 minutes)

My Bed Your Bed, directed by Erica Glynn

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Fiction under 15 minutes):

Two/Out, directed by Kriv Stenders

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Documentary):

A Breath, directed by Christopher Tuckfield

Ethnic Affairs Commission (EAC) Award:

A Breath, directed by Christopher Tuckfield

Yoram Gross Animation Award:

Feline, directed by May Trubuhovich

NSW Film and Television Office Rouben Mamoulian Award Mamoulian Award:

Phillip Crawford, director of Denial