After a massive 10 days of local and international, short and feature film, showcasing both drama and doco, the Byron Bay Film Festival has announced its winners.
Festival, Director J’aimee Skippon-Volke this morning released the full line-up of winning films in the 12th outing of the Byron event.
Woman at War – the Cannes award-winning follow-up to Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men – took both Best Dramatic Feature and Best Film while Jirga, a redemption tale set in Afghanistan, won the Best Byron Film – the Locals Award, for its director, Bangalow-based Benjamin Gilmour.
The film which was in the spotlight at the Festival’s closing gala, Sharkwater: Extinction, won BBFF2018 Best Environmental Film Award. The film was the last work by the late shark conservationist Rob Stewart and in honour of the work that Stewart achieved, Ms Skippon-Volke announced that from 2019 the award would be known as the Rob Stewart Best Environmental Film Award – giving further gravitas to the importance of recognising Environmental Films and the strong impact they have in changing minds and behaviour.
Set in Armidale Backtrack Boys won the festival’s Best Documentary Award, beating four international nominees and the Taree-based autobiographical doco Teach A Man to Fish, made by Grant Leigh Saunders.
The award for Best Music Documentary went to Michael Franti’s Stay Human, and Best Surf Film went to Big Wata, set in Sierra Leone;.
The Best Animation award went to the French short Bavure and the Best Cinematography Award went to Cielo for its entrancing photography of the sky above Chile’s Atacama desert.
The Best Young Australian Filmmaker Award went to Melbourne-based Greta Nash for her film The Locker Room.
The festival had another trophy added to its 2018 awards list – an Encouragement Prize sponsored by Canon, gifting a professional camera to a deserving Young Australian filmmaker. This year’s prize went to brothers Jay and Shaun Perry, for their work creating their short film The Intentions of F Scott Fitzgerald.
Byron Shire band Parcels took home the Best Music Video Award for their film, Tied Up Right Now, and the coveted InteractiveVR award was awarded to a unique Virtual Reality Music Video Experience – Chorus.
So that’s a wrap for 2018!
