Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton has been awarded the 2018 Sydney UNESCO City of Film Award, distributed at the Closing Night of the 65th Sydney Film Festival.
The annual $10,000 cash prize is handed every year to an outstanding NSW-based screen practitioner, whose work “stands for innovation, imagination and impact.” Now in its third year, the previous two winners have been Lynette Wallworth and Leah Purcell.
Archibald-winning artist Ben Quilty presented Thornton the award, describing the director as “perhaps the biggest conceptual thinker” he’s ever met.
In addition to working in television and documentary, Thornton has directed two hugely acclaimed films: Sweet Country and Samson & Delilah. He is also a renowned cinematographer, shooting films such as The Sapphires and Radiance.
Sweet Country, described by Flicks critic Blake Howard as “exquisite” and “mesmerizing,” is one of the most acclaimed Australian films of recent years. It has won several major awards including the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Here’s what Thornton said after accepting the 2018 Sydney UNESCO City of Film Award:
“This is awesome, thank you. My whole family is in the crowd tonight. I flew in last night to go and watch my son’s [Dylan River] movie Finke: There and Back, which just blew my mind, and it’s only because I taught him everything he knows.
But my mother flew in to watch the film as well, and I haven’t seen my mum for a while because she lives up in Cooktown. And I just want to say that everything that you see on that screen and every movie that you ever see that I make, is because of my mother.
She made me believe in dreams, made me run amok and do things my way, and she opened doors and introduced me to some of the most amazing filmmakers in Australia. And those amazing filmmakers taught me some of the most beautiful morals and ideas about cinema. And so for mum – I thank you, and to all those incredible filmmakers who taught me how to make a bloody movie – I thank you.”
