The jury for this year’s Sydney Film Festival is finally out.
Celebrating its 60th year, the festival will take place from June 5-16 and audiences can expect a visual feast of local and international films and documentaries.
“The [Sydney Film Festival] has had an amazing history and this year I think we have put together a program of amazing films and we look forward to an even bigger audience than we’ve ever had,” said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
This year’s jury is led by President, actor Hugo Weaving, with film credits ranging from Lord of the Rings, Cloud Atlas to the The Matrix.
Mr Weaving will lead a team of four esteemed international arts professionals in deciding whoreceives the $60,000 cash prize from the 12 finalists. Alongside Mr Weaving in judging are Indian playright Anand Gandhi, South African director Pia Marais, Italian film critic Paolo Bertolin and Australian producer Kath Shelper.
“We look for film professionals from around the world and try to get a balance of people who do different things, so we get actors, directors, producers, film critics or festival programmers and then try to find people who are really engaged with cinema,” said Mr Moodley. “It’s quite a great deal of responsibility they have.”
Mr Moodley said the winning film will be one that is revered for being cutting-edge, its audacious cinema and one that marks a new direction for film.
Competition aside, the festival screens over 190 films from 55 countries.
The festival will showcase Nerve, a low-budget independent film making its debut. The film traces the emotional struggles of its protagonist Jakob Evans on his journey to find meaning over his wife’s sudden death and her infidelity.
“The film still wasn’t finished so we were submitting a work in progress,” said Nerve director and co-writer Sebastian Guy.
