Fresh from winning the Grand Prix at Cannes, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur has scooped the top prize at the 73rd Sydney Film Festival.
The Russian filmmaker accepted the Sydney Film Prize, which includes a cash award of $60,000, at the festival’s closing ceremony on Sunday evening (June 14).
Speaking on the stage of Sydney State Theatre, Zvyagintsev said: “I would like to thank the jury for this decision because this film means a lot to people who are struggling at the moment in Russia. The Russian language is struggling. This film is very important to them.”
Set in Russia in 2022, the thriller centres on a successful businessman who suspects his wife of having an affair, leading him to make a fateful decision.
Sydney’s competition jury, headed by Oscar-nominated Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, said: “This is a film about something which unfortunately will never go out of style, which is power used to crush people. And it’s all done in a way that feels strongly Hitchcockian, strongly cinematic.”
Further prizes included the Sustainable Future Award of $40,000, the largest environmental film prize in the world, which went to New Zealand and Australian filmmakers Mataslia Freshwater and Lachlan McLeod for Sukundimi Walks Before Me – a documentary following an Indigenous PNG community’s campaign to preserve their future.
The $20,000 Documentary Australia Award went to Australian filmmaker Vee Shi for Time And Tide, a hybrid docu-drama on a multigenerational family navigating the pressures of familial obligation.
The recipient of the $35,000 First Nations Award was Banchi Hanuse for Ceremony, a hybrid film that traces memory, ceremony and the ripples of colonialism.
The $10,000 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award, given by Screen NSW to a New South Wales-based screen practitioner, went to writer/director Fadia Abboud.
The festival ran for 12 days from June 3-14 and organisers said it had achieved record-breaking box office figures for the second consecutive year. The 73rd edition closed with the Australian premiere of James Gray’s family thriller Paper Tiger.
Sydney Film Festival CEO Frances Wallace said: “SFF73 increased its audience by a projected 10% to 170,000 attendees (157,000 in 2025). We also saw a 30%+ increase in Youth Pass sales - seeing the cinemas fill with these new young generations of film lovers was such a delight.”
Sydney Film Festival 2026 winners
Official Competition – Sydney Film Prize
Minotaur, dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Documentary Australia Award
Time And Tide, dir. Vee Shi
First Nations Award
Ceremony, dir. Banchi Hanuse
Sustainable Future Award
Sukundimi Walks Before Me, dirs. Mataslia Freshwater, Lachlan McLeod
Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award
Fadia Abboud (writer/director)
Dendy Awards
Dendy Live Action Short Award
Maŋutji (Catching Eyes), dir. Siena Mayutu Wumarri Stubbs
Yoram Gross Animation Award
Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling, dirs. Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Marjorie ‘Nunga’ Williams, Nelson Armstrong
Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Australian Director
Cristabel Sved, Date 3
AFTRS Craft Award for Best Practitioner
Angelina Kovacs, Sophie Ravant (production designers), Flesh Fruit
Event Cinemas Rising Talent Award for Screenwriting
Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Marjorie ‘Nunga’ Williams, Nelson Armstrong, Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling
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