Normalizing pedophilia continues

Belgian film Close, about teen male friendship, wins Sydney Film Festival's top prize

Belgian director Lukas Dhont has won Sydney Film Festival's $60,000 Sydney Film Prize for "audacious, cutting-edge and courageous" film for his queer teen tragedy Close, about a powerful friendship between two 13-year-old boys that is ruptured by their transition to high school — with tragic results.

The film, which screened in Sydney off the back of winning the Grand Prix (second prize) at Cannes, was praised by the Sydney Film Festival jury as "a tender, moving, powerful film. A mature film about innocence".

Dhont's film won against a field of 11 other films that included Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Utama, Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarràs, three films straight from Cannes' Un Certain Regard line-up, and two Australian films: Archibald Prize-winning artist Del Kathryn Barton's feature debut Blaze, and Goran Stolevski's witch fable You Won't Be Alone.

It was a line-up notable for stories with teen protagonists: a boy searching for his father, in Mexican drama The Box; a 12-year-old girl whose imagination becomes a tool for surviving trauma, in Blaze; an under-loved nine-year-old who blossoms over summer with relatives, in Irish-language film The Quiet Girl; and the gaggle of children and teens enjoying one last summer on their family's land, in Catalonian drama Alcarràs.

Presenting the award at Sydney Film Festival's closing ceremony on Sunday evening at the State Theatre, the jury, led by actor/director David Wenham, said Close "displayed a mastery of restraint, subtle handling of story, astute observations and delicate attention to finer details".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-19/sydney-film-festival-winner-close-director-lukas-dhont/101160816