AFF has announced the winners of this year’s Feature Fiction, Feature Documentary, Short Film and Change Awards with Indian director Jatla Siddartha’s In the Belly of a Tiger winning the Feature Fiction Award.

The Feature Fiction Award, which includes a $10,000 prize, is sponsored by Nunn Dimos Foundation. In awarding the Best Fiction prize to In the Belly of a Tiger the AFF Competition Jury also gave a special mention to cinematographer Tyson Perkins’ work on Samuel Van Grinsven’s haunting Went Up the Hill.

In the Belly of a Tiger is a poignant allegorical critique of capitalism from India’s burgeoning arthouse movement.

In awarding the prize, the Jury said: “This film deftly wove a very human story about family and the tenacity of workers in the face of great adversity with a mesmerising mythological framework that nevertheless sings of the human spirit. It transported us to a world both recognisable and incredible.”

Director Jatla Siddartha and producer Esther Li were in Adelaide to accept the award. Jatla said:

“Winning the hearts of audience and jury at the Adelaide film festival only gives me more determination and courage to make more such films. Couldn’t have asked for more. Thankyou for being so kind.”

The Feature Documentary Award prize, which includes a $10,000 prize sponsored by Crumpler, was awarded to the Canadian film Simon and Marianne, directed by Pier-Luc Latulippe and Martin Fournier, a moving story about a couple’s final journey through terminal illness, love and loss.

In awarding the prize, the Jury said: “(We) were profoundly moved by this raw, poetic and incredibly intimate portrayal of the last weeks of a devoted couple’s life together, after Simon is diagnosed with a terminal illness. We applaud the restraint and poetry of the filmmaking vision and commend the courage of both subjects and filmmakers in rendering this tragic human experience into a work of cinema that enshrines this couple's love and proves that art can conquer death.”

Directors Pier-Luc Latulippe and Martin Fournier said: “It is with great joy and honour that we receive this award. Making documentaries for us is a love of cinema and people. We produce, think and create documentaries on our own. By the sweat of our brow, always at a human distance. It's not our day job. It is our passion. Meaning, that we have a job somewhere else to pay our bills and live. It is very difficult to live in Canada and do documentaries. But we don't really care. We do it because it is necessary for us to do it. Our freedom allows us to do whatever we want. And that is the beauty of it. Making art for no other reason than for the love of it.

“Your prize will be very helpful for us to continue. To say to ourselves that our works touch someone somewhere, somehow. Thanks to the jury and thanks to everyone at AFF 2024. This prize is significant to us.”

The Jury for the Feature Film and Feature Documentary Awards was Claudia Rodríguez Valencia, CEO of Preciosa Media, a company focused on film distribution, alliances, fundraising and media consulting in Latin America and Europe; Leena Khobragade, who was the Director of Film Bazaar, South- Asia’s largest film market, and leader of the Screenwriters’ Lab at NFDC Film Bazaar, which has nurtured acclaimed films; Matthew Bate, the co-director and founder of Adelaide-based Closer Productions, and an award-winning writer and director whose work spans feature documentaries, television drama, virtual reality, factual series and interactive television; Glasgow-born and Melbourne-based film journalist and critic Stephen A Russell; and Penny Smallacombe, who is a member of the Maramanindji people, from the Northern Territory, and formerly Head of the First Nations Department at Screen Australia where she oversaw a large slate of highly successful film and TV projects, before joining Bunya Productions and Netflix. Penny is currently Head of Scripted for Blackfella Films.

The winner of the Change Award sponsored by good.film is the feature documentary Union, directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story, a David and Goliath story of a fired Amazon worker daring to take on the multi-national, fighting for workers’ rights.

Established in 2020, the Change Award is for positive or environmental impact and cinema expressing new directions for humanity, and this year saw five films competing for a $5000 cash prize. The Jury comprised three young women leaders in environmental, social and cultural change – campaigner Aira Firdaus, marine biologist Anita Thomas and AACTA-nominated producer Bonnie McBride.

In accepting the award, Stephen Maing and Brett Story said: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be awarded the Change Award at the Adelaide Film Festival this year. Thank you so much to the jury for honouring us, and also for honouring the protagonists of our film, the Amazon warehouse workers who defied all expectations to successfully win the first Amazon union in U.S. history. Our desire as filmmakers was to document the courage and commitment of ordinary people daring to fight for a better world, in the hope that this courage might be contagious. We couldn’t have asked for a greater honour than an award that recognises the importance of such struggles. Thank you so much.”

This year’s Shorts Award, which includes a cash prize of $3000 sponsored by Flinders University, was won by Finding Jia, directed by South Australia’s Alice Yang. The Jury for the award comprised of writer/director Lucy Campbell, producer Julie Ryan and First Nations producer Nara Wilson.

AFF CEO & Creative Director Mat Kesting said: “A huge thank you to our sponsors and to our Juries for their diligence and passion as well as to the wonderful filmmakers who have made AFF 2024 such a special experience. I’m incredibly proud to have presented such an exceptional program that showcased so many local South Australian films alongside the very best of world cinema. And a huge thank you also to our audiences who have embraced AFF once again and whose passion for cinema ensures AFF is a signature cultural event in our wonderful city.”

JURY CITATIONS:

Best Feature Fiction Award

“We wandered from the lush green woods of the Catskills to the cobblestones of Prague, on to the snowy mountains of New Zealand and doused ourselves in Romanian waterfalls, encountering so much beauty both physical and psychological along the way, but one luminous feature shone brightest of all. This film deftly wove a very human story about family and the tenacity of workers in the face of great adversity with a mesmerising mythological framework that nevertheless sings of the human spirit. It transported us to a world both recognisable and incredible. Even with juror Leena Khobragade recusing herself, the majesty of director Jatla Siddartha’s In the Belly of a Tiger roared as our unanimous decision for the Adelaide Film Festival feature prize, with a special mention for cinematographer Tyson Perkins’ work on Samuel Van Grinsven’s haunting Went Up the Hill.”

Best Feature Documentary Award

“The Jury was privileged to consider five outstanding Feature Documentaries in Competition at this year's Adelaide Film Festival. With incredible access, we stormed the capitol with America’s far right, were sent back in time to the birth of Australia’s hippie left, witnessed a photographer using her art to escape the oppression of Soviet-era Czechoslovakia, were adopted into the lives of a nomadic Mongolian family coming to terms with climate change and celebrated the final weeks of a love cut short by terminal illness. If cinema is our most powerful art form, then documentary is both its beating heart and its conscience. We need truth tellers more than ever before, and the Jury applauds each director for going far beyond the headlines to tell complex and intimate stories that hold our consciences to account.

“The Jury would like to give Special Mention to director Klara Tasovska’s I’m Not Everything I Want to Be — for her creative and assured direction in bringing the incredible life and work of photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková to international attention.

“We unanimously award the AFF 2024 Feature Documentary Award to Pier-Luc Latulippe and Martin Fournier’s Simon and Marianne and were profoundly moved by this raw, poetic and incredibly intimate portrayal of the last weeks of a devoted couple’s life together, after Simon is diagnosed with a terminal illness. We applaud the restraint and poetry of the filmmaking vision and commend the courage of both subjects and filmmakers in rendering this tragic human experience into a work of cinema that enshrines this couple's love and proves that art can conquer death.”

Change Award

The negative impact of capitalism on human and environmental health emerged as a consistent theme across the incredible selection of films that we judged. Union is our unanimous decision for this year’s Change Award because it highlights both the human cost of overconsumption and the enduring power of solidarity. It’s a powerful documentary that portrays the struggles of workers at Amazon as they fight for their basic human rights against a formidable corporate adversary. The film highlights their anger and hope, illustrating the hostilities they face while collectively organising to win better working conditions. Global decision makers fear collective action viewing it as a threat to the status quo, which is often driven by corporate greed. Union serves as a vitally relevant commentary on the fight for justice in an unequal system and we hope this year’s Change Award prize will help the film reach audiences far and wide.

Shorts Award

“This festival season, the jury were thrilled to see five incredible shorts from across the globe that showcased amazing filmmaking talent. After some deliberation, they unanimously decided that the heartwarming and amusing South Australian short, Finding Jia, was worthy of the award of Best Short. The film stood out with its beautiful direction and honest portrayal of familial connection and identity in an Australian immigrant household. The jurors were impressed by Alice Yang and the team’s confident filmmaking voice, and are excited to see what they do next. “