Beautiful Kate is a haunting exploration of teenage sexuality
As the Sydney Film Festival draws to a close, three Australian movies are in the running to win the official competition – and Australia’s largest cash prize for a film – at the closing gala tonight.
The festival opened with a screening of Ken Loach’s latest work Looking for Eric, and also featured the animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, Tsai Ming Liang’s Face, and Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience.
But the official competition for the best film is held tonight, with Beautiful Kate, Missing Water and Disgrace the three Australian films competing for the $60,000 prize.
Directed by Rachel Ward, Beautiful Kate is a portrayal teenage sexuality, which sees the main character Ned return to the bush farm that was once his home to visit his dying father who is being cared for by Ned’s twin sister Kate. Memories of a summer of transgression and ultimately loss are rekindled as Ned sees his sister again, making for a gothic and unsettling tale.
Missing Water is a powerful film that explores the realities of life in Australia for Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. Working with non-professional actors, themselves refugees or descendents, director Khoa Do takes you on a raw and emotional journey with this terrifying tale of two girls trying to make it to Australia.
Finally Disgrace is a film set in South Africa and which explores the political and racial tensions in the country. Starring John Malkovich and Jessica Haines, the film is based on the book by JM Coetzee and takes a honest and painful look at the gender and generational issues in contemporary South Africa, and the mess of post-apartheid politics
So with three very powerful films to choose from, just what makes for an award-winning film?
Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig is on the judging panel and explains what the adjudicators are looking for:
“We’re looking for a film that is audacious, courageous and cutting edge.
“And those are the three elements that are supposed to be found in all the films. We haven’t seen all of them so far, but the level is very high I think.”
Scherfig says the prize is a fitting reward for filmmakers who are willing to take risks.
“The best film award is an award to the producer, and that would mean that someone encourages the producer to take that financial risk that you often have to take if you do something that’s audacious and courageous and cutting edge,” she said.
You can watch the trailer for Disgrace below.
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