THE SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2022 FESTIVAL JURY

Two Festival Jury members will judge across all the eligible categories:

ANTHONY O’CONNOR / A writer, reviewer, teacher and journalist, Anthony has written original screenplays for the indie romcom Angst (2000) and the horror Redd Inc. (aka Inhuman Resources; 2012). His skill with dialogue and story beats and additional writing has led him to work with Alex Proyas, Michael Rymer and Tom Savini. In 2021, his first novel was published; Straya is set in the post-apocalyptic ruins of New Sydney, and was described by Blunt Magazine as “the most Aussie sci-fi epic ever”. It is currently being developed into an animated series.

Official Website: https://anthonyoconnorauthor.com/

GIORDAN PAKES / Based in Coffs Harbour, Giordan has been working for the Screenwave International Film Festival since 2019 in the key role of Program Coordinator and juror for the Nextwave Youth Film Program and Short Film Competition. With a special love for all things genre film and extreme cinema, Giordan Pakes discovered her appreciation for genre films like most fans – by watching movies that she was far too young to be seeing at the time.

Joining Anthony and Giordan in adjudicating key awards are:

BEST ANIMATED FILM

EMILY DEAN / An Asian-Australian writer, director, and artist currently living and working and living in LA, Emily graduated in Animation Directing at Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS); in 2012, her short Forget Me Not was nominated for an Australian Academy Award. From a stint training at Pixar, she worked as story artist and visual consultant for Warner Bros and Animal Logic on The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and The Lego Movie 2 (2019) and on Sony Pictures Animation’s Oscar-winning Hairlove (2019). Her most recent directorial success is The Very Pulse of The Machine, featured in volume 3 of the Emmy-award winning Netflix series Love, Death + Robots. Emily currently writes, directs and executive produces content under her production banner, Grade 8 Productions and is serving on the inaugural Alumni Advisory Committee for AFTRS for 2022-2023.

Official Website: https://emilydean.net/

BEST STUDENT FILM

SANDRA SCIBERRAS / One of Australia’s most acclaimed independent film voices, Sciberras is a screenwriter, director and co-producer whose credits include the sci-fi thriller The Dustwalker (2020), the award-winning drama The Caterpillar Wish (2006) and the romantic drama Surviving Georgia (2011). Her micro-budget short feature ‘Deeper than Blue’ went on to premier as part of the New Directors showcase at the 50th Sydney International Film Festival. Sandra is currently one of Australia’s most respected academics in her role as Senior Lecturer In Film & Tv (Narrative) at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Official Website: https://sandrasciberras.com/

SHORT FILM AWARDS – BEST FILM; BEST DIRECTOR; BEST ACTOR; BEST ACTRESS

HUGO DUVERGEY / Filmmaker: The French-born Duvergey moved to Sydney in 2017, where he attended the Sydney Film School. Since graduation, he has consistently in key production roles within the sector on feature films, shorts, commercials, corporate content and music videos. As a director, his works include the semi-autobiographical State of Vertigo (2018), the comedy The Great Maple (2018) and the thriller Inspiration (2020). He is an alumni of the festival; his dystopian drama The Other Side (2019) was a prominent inclusion in the inaugural 2020 program.

Official Website: https://hugoduvergeyfilms.com/

“We could not be more privileged to have a jury of this standing for our 2022 program,” says Simon Foster, Festival Director. “We have sourced over 50 films from 20 countries, representing an immensely vast field of speculative vision from Australia and around the world, and I knew it would take a team of genre experts and true film minds to honour our filmmakers. These five individuals, each of whom I respect beyond measure, will do just that.”

The most prestigious of the festival’s awards is THE RON COBB BEST FEATURE FILM honour, named after the iconic conceptual artist on such films as Dark Star, Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Conan the Barbarian and The Abyss, who called Sydney his home with his beloved wife Robin for nearly 50 years.

The full category roster is:

THE RON COBB BEST FEATURE FILM AWARD

BEST LIVE SHORT FILM (INTERNATIONAL) and BEST LIVE SHORT FILM (AUSTRALIA):

BEST ACTOR (Feature Film) and BEST ACTOR (Short Film)

BEST ACTRESS (Feature Film) and BEST ACTRESS (Short Film)

BEST DIRECTOR (Feature Film) and BEST DIRECTOR (Short Film)

BEST ANIMATION SHORT

BEST STUDENT SHORT

ION SCI-FI AUDIENCE AWARD: The most popular feature film as voted upon by Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival audiences is being presented in conjunction with Australia’s leading science-fiction news and fan website, Ion Sci-Fi. Audiences will be directed to a poll on the https://endeavour.tv/blogs/ion-sci-fi website to vote for their favourite film in the 2022 line-up.

THE SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL WILL BE HELD ACROSS AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY: AUGUST 25-28 at EVENT Cinemas George Street

NATIONAL SITES from SEPTEMBER 2-3:

EVENT Cinemas Tuggerah (NSW)

EVENT Cinemas Shellharbour (NSW)

EVENT Cinemas Brisbane City MC (Qld)

EVENT Cinemas Whitford (WA)

EVENT Cinemas Palmerston (NT)

EVENT Cinemas Marion (SA)

MELBOURNE SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL: AUGUST 25-28 at Cinema Nova

https://www.cinemanova.com.au/events/science-fiction-film-festival

Full details regarding the 2022 program can be found at: