53rd Festival 2006

This year saw four Australian films premiere at gala events: Mark Lee’s The Bet, Morgan O’Neill’s Solo, Gillian Armstrong’s Unfolding Florence and Andrew Denton and Anita Jacoby’s documentary God on My Side. Peter Ho-sun Chan’s Perhaps Love, which he introduced, and the restoration screening of the Harold Lloyd silent Girl Shy also had major screenings.

Other films screened included Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris’ eventual Audience Award Winner Little Miss Sunshine, Emmanuel Carrere’s La Moustache, Paul Greengrass’ United 93, Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth, Rian Johnson’s Brick; and in the Danish Spotlight presentation a screening of the entire Pusher trilogy, directed by Nicolas Winding-Refn (who would go on to win the Sydney Film prize for Bronson in 2009).

As 2006 was a FIFA World Cup year, three documentaries on the world game were screened, including the Pele in America story in Once in a Lifetime.

A retrospective program of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville was shown, with each screening introduced by Dr. Adrian Danks of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

A tribute to Australia documentarians Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson was held, with a 10th Anniversary screening of their political doco Rats in the Ranks.

The Ian McPherson lecture was delivered by John Hartley.

Opening Night Film: Ten Canoes (directed by Rolf de Heer)

Closing Night Film: Thank You for Smoking (directed by Jason Reitman)

Award Winners

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Documentary):

Girl in a Mirror, directed by Kathy Drayton

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Experimental):

Looking Back, directed by Mark Tsukasov

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Long-Form Short):

Stranded, directed by Stuart McDonald

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Short-Form Short):

The Eye Inside, directed by Cordelia Beresford

Yoram Gross Animation Award:

The Safe House, directed by Lee Whitmore

CRC Award:

Switch on the Night, directed by Alejandra Canales

Rouben Mamoulian Award:

Kathy Drayton, director of Girl in a Mirror