Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL : THE WRAP

When the 66th Sydney Film Festival wrapped up at its closing night gala at the State Theatre for many film attendees there was a moment of sadness as for them this was one of the most beloved of Sydney’s festivals. There were as many as a hundred and sixty sold out sessions with a record attendance of nearly 200,000 people. The Festival also coincided with the State Theatre’s 90th anniversary.

Screening over 300 films and hosting some 120 filmmakers both locally and international, the Sydney Film Festival deserves its award as one of 13 UNESCO film festivals.

As well as the State Government announcing a $5,000,000 boost to facilitate the Sydney Film Festival travelling regionally, the Film Festival Board extended Nashen Moodley’s contract to continue in his role for a further four years, rewarding him for growing the Festival in the past eight years as itsArtistic Director.

The Film Festival was bookended by two delightful comedies, beginning with Rachel Ward’s  Palm Beach and ending with Richard Curtis’ film Yesterday, directed by Danny Boyle.

Amongst the big winners in the first instance was the winner of the Sydney Film Prize worth $60,000 awarded to Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho  with his film Parasite.This film was also a Palme D’Or winner at Cannes and it is the second time that Joon-Ho has won the Sydney Film Prize.

The documentary Australia foundation award for Australian documentary was awarded to She Who Must Be Loved from indigenous filmmaker Erica Glynn about her mother Frieda Glynn, a pioneer of indigenous film and television.

The $10,000 Sydney-Unesco City of Film Award, bestowed, by Create NSW was won by Blackfella Films helmed by Darren Dale and Rachel Perkins with Debra Mailman presenting the award to her dear friend and colleague Rachel Perkins.

The Festival has announced the Audience Awards, the list of the audience’s top five voted features and documentaries. Winner for best narrative feature went to Sequin in a Blue Room directed by Samuel Van Grinsven and winner for best documentary went to Martha: A Picture Story directed bySelina Miles.

Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley said: “The people have spoken – and it is with great pleasure that the Festival announces Sequin in a Blue Room and Martha: A Picture Story as the winners of the 2019 Audience Award. The fact that the majority of the top-voted titles were local productions gives a great insight into our collective appetite for excellent Australian storytelling.”

“Sequin in a Blue Room is a very highly-accomplished film, particularly as the debut feature of young Australian filmmaker Samuel van Grinsven,” he said. “This coming-of-age tale about a high schooler whose hook-up app obsession sends him down a dangerous path is a breath of fresh air from the independent Australian queer film scene.”

“Delving into a story beyond our own borders, Martha: A Picture Story is a wonderful Australian production about an unexpected icon of New York’s vivid graffiti scene – one of the biggest art movements in history,” he said.

The Sydney Film Festival which acts as a filter will see several of its feature films obtain a general release.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum. Featured image-  Rachel Perkins & Her Son with Sydney UNESCO Prize Presented by Deborah Mailman

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.