Following 12 days of packed cinemas, more than 150 sold-out sessions and record-breaking box office revenue, the 72nd Sydney Film Festival wrapped overnight with a moving awards ceremony at the State Theatre.
The prestigious Sydney Film Prize this year went to acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi for his reimagined thriller, It Was Just an Accident. The announcement was made ahead of the Australian Premiere screening of Michael Angelo Covino’s comedy Splitsville, capping off the highest selling festival in Sydney Film Festival’s history.
The Sydney Film Prize is a $60,000 cash prize for an “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous” film, selected by a prestigious international jury headed by acclaimed Australian director, writer and producer Justin Kurzel.
In a rare and significant appearance, Panahi was in Sydney to accept the award in person. Panahi was announced at SFF’s opening night, fresh from winning the Palme d’Or, the major prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
One of the most celebrated figures in contemporary world cinema, Panahi has spent the past three decades creating boundary-pushing films about the lived realities of people in Iran, made in defiance of restrictions and censorship by the Iranian government.
As well as screening It Was Just an Accident in competition, the 72nd Sydney Film Festival also featured a retrospective of all 10 of Panahi’s feature films. Since he has been in Sydney, Panahi has stepped back from attending screenings to stay in touch with family and friends during the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
On awarding the Sydney Film Prize, the Jury said in a joint statement: “In these times of great conflict and uncertainty it is more important than ever that filmmakers are given the freedom to express what they see around them. The films we watched led with empathy, compassion and kindness. The directors trusted that their stories would make us feel first, connect to a personal point of view, they were political but human first.”
“The winner of the Sydney Film Festival for 2025 embodied all these qualities, a courageous film with a deep soul and a powerful sense of forgiveness. It has outstanding performances and an understated authority which is brimming with truth.”
Other SFF winners this year include Australian filmmaker Shalom Almond, who was awarded the $20,000 Documentary Australia Award cash prize for Songs Inside, a moving portrait of women prisoners who find healing through a unique music program.
The 2025 recipient of the $40,000 Sustainable Future Award, the largest environmental film prize in the world, is Australian filmmaker Jordan Giusti for Floodland, a deeply resonant portrait of a flood-affected community in Lismore, Australia’s most disaster-prone postcode.
The recipient of the largest cash prize for First Nations filmmaking, the $35,000 First Nations Award proudly supported by Truant Pictures, is Canadian filmmaker Lisa Jackson for Wilfred Buck, which explores the life and teachings of charismatic Cree educator and “star man” Wilfred Buck.
Five short film prizes were awarded for The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films. The $7,000 Dendy Live Action Short Award was awarded to Faceless, directed by Fraser Pemberton and William Jaka; the $7,000 Yoram Gross Animation Award was awarded to The Fling, directed by Jemma Cotter; and the $7,000 Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director was presented to Rory Pearson, director of Mates.
The AFTRS Craft Award for Best Practitioner (a $7,000 cash prize) went to Josh Peters, music and sound designer of Faceless. The Event Cinemas Rising Talent Award for Screenwriting (another cash prize of $7,000) was awarded to Rory Pearson and Marcus Aldred-Traynor, the co-writers of Mates.
The $10,000 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award, bestowed by Screen NSW to a trail-blazing NSW-based screen practitioner, went to the Big Bang Sound Design team Wayne Pashley and Libby Villa.
Sydney Film Festival CEO Frances Wallace said: “This year has been extraordinary. The 2025 Sydney Film Festival is the highest-selling festival in the festival’s history, welcoming over 150,000 attendees – an 11 per cent increase on last year. Across 12 days, we screened 242 films, hosted 448 screenings and events, and saw over 150 sessions sell out. We’re so grateful to the audiences, filmmakers, patrons, partners and supporters who made this year such a success.”
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