Sydney Film Festival 2021 Audience Awards

Rebecca Varidel
17th Nov 2021

“What a welcome, breath-of-fresh-air the Sydney Film Festival has been this year, with a really terrific selection of international and Australian productions drawing crowds back into our theatres and the city as we re-open post-lockdown” our Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore exclaimed.

“There has truly been a film for everyone this year, from the opening night offering Here Out West - a wonderful celebration of Australia’s rich multicultural heartland from young local filmmakers - to the highly anticipated closing film The French Dispatch by extraordinary auteur Wes Anderson.”

Sydney Film Festival 2021 Audience Awards

Today the Festival announced the Audience Awards, the people’s votes for top five features and documentaries. Top voted narrative feature is Beautiful Minds directed by Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien and top documentary is Blind Ambition directed by Robert Coe and Warwick Ross.

“The people have spoken" declared Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley "and it is with great pleasure that the Festival announces Beautiful Minds//i> and Blind Ambition as the winners of the 2021 Audience Awards. It was brilliant to see audiences come out in support of local productions, with the majority of titles in the top five having a local connection.”

Beautiful Minds is a captivating French comedy selected as part of the Festival’s Screenability strand and was partially inspired by the real life experiences of co-directoral director and philosophical delivery man embark on an unconventional road trip across France.”

“Australian directors-producers-writers Warwick Ross and Rob Coe’s Blind Ambition explores the inspiring story of four determinedly optimistic refugees who "compete in the World Wine Blind Tasting Championships – the Olympics of wine – as Zimbabwe’s first-ever representatives,” he said.

As part of SFF On Demand, Audience Award top five films are available to stream nationally until 21 November.

The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Top Five:

Beautiful Minds directed by Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien (France, Switzerland)
Wyrmwood Apocalypse directed by Kiah Roache-Turner (Australia)
Here Out West directed by Fadia Abboud, Lucy Gaffy, Ana Kokkinos and Leah Purcell (Australia)
Friends and Strangers directed by James Vaughan (Australia)
Quo Vadis, Aida? directed by Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

The Audience Award for Best Documentary Top Five:

Blind Ambition directed by Robert Coe and Warwick Ross (Australia)
I’m Wanita directed by Matthew Walker (Australia) - also the winner of the 2019 Documentary Australia Foundation Award
When the Camera Stopped Rolling directed by Jane Castle (Australia)
The Seeds of Vandana Shiva directed by James Becket and Camilla Becket (Australia, USA)
Araatika: Rise Up! directed by Larissa Behrendt (Australia) tied with
Ithaka directed by Ben Lawrence (Australia)

Other Award winners On Demand include Sydney Film Prize winner There Is No Evil, I’m Wanita, Peeps, tough and Freedom Swimmer.

The full Sydney Film Festival 2021 program can be found online at sff.org.au