58th Festival 2011

This was Clare Stewart’s last year as Festival Director. The Official Competition included Terrence Malick’s visionary The Tree of Life, Miranda July’s second feature The Future, Australian director Ivan Sen’s Toomelah, Australian director Julia Leigh’s controversial drama Sleeping Beauty, Jeff Nichols’ acclaimed Take Shelter and eventual SFF Prize winner A Separation, from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi.

With the support of Screen Australia, a special ‘User Generated’ segment was unveiled, featuring the Ridley Scott-produced YouTube film Life in a Day and its Australian short counterpart We Were Here. In TV Marathon screenings of This is England ’86 and Dreilben were shown in the AFTRS theatrette. This year’s retrospective series highlighted the Hollywood melodramas of Douglas Sirk and guest programmer Richard Kuiper’s Freak Me Out series found great success with the grindhouse tribute Hobo with a Shotgun, the highly anticipated horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and apocalyptic Korean chiller End of Animial. A protest program was held for Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, who had been sentenced to six years prison by their government earlier in the year.

The expansion of the festival’s activities included a giant outdoor screen in Martin Place and a successful series of talks at the Apple Store featuring Miranda July, TV producer Phil Rosenthal and American indie director Joshua Marston.

The Ian McPherson Memorial Lecture was delivered as a back-and-forth conversation between former SFF Director David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz in celebration of their 25th Anniversary as film critics on the small screen.

Opening Night Film: Hanna (directed by Joe Wright)

Closing Night Film: Beginners (directed by Mike Mills)

Award Winners

Sydney Film Prize:

A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi

FOXTEL Australian Documentary Prize:

Life in Movement, directed by Bryan Mason and Sophie Hyde

Dendy Award for Australian Short Films (Best Fiction):

The Palace, directed by Anthony Maras

Yoram Gross Animation Award:

Nullarbor, directed by Alister Lockhart and Patrick Sarell

Rouben Mamoulian Award:

Craig Irvin, director of Tethered