56th Festival 2009

Following the previous year’s launch of the new Sydney Film Prize, this year the FOXTEL Documentary Prize was kickstarted. Meanwhile, after a number of gruelling events of up to 16 days and 200+ screenings, the festival moved to a more streamlined 12-day program.

Films screened this year included Henry Selick’s Coraline, Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate, Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s Bastardy, Scott Sanders’ Black Dynamite, Steven Soderbergh’s epic Che: Parts 1 and 2, Lynn Shelton’s Humpday, Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control, Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool and Abbas Kiarostami’s Shirin.

Restoration screenings of Agnes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7, Mai Zetterling’s The Girls and King Vidor’s The Big Parade were held in lieu of a full retrospective program.

Official Competition Jury President was Australian director Rolf de Heer.

The Ian McPherson lecture was delivered by Peter Carlton.

Opening Night Film: Looking For Eric (directed by Ken Loach)

Closing Night Film: An Education (directed by Lone Scherfig)

Award Winners

Sydney Film Prize:

Bronson (directed by Nicolas Winding-Refn)

FOXTEL Australian Documentary Prize (co-winners):

A Good Man, directed by Safina Uberoi

Contact, directed by Martin Butler and Bentley Dean

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Best Fiction):

Miracle Fish, directed by Luke Dolan

Yoram Gross Animation Award:

The Cat Piano, directed by (Eddie White and Ari Gibson)

Rouben Mamoulian Award:

Rene Hernandez, director of The Ground Beneath