Marta Dusseldorp, Glenn Gainor, Alex Dimitriades and Ben Young will join chair Rachel Ward on the jury which will determine the winner of this year’s $100,000 CinefestOz Film Prize.
Owen Trevor’s GO!, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness, Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure will compete for Australia’s biggest film prize.
“The quality of this year’s Film Prize finalists is exceptionally high and we are delighted to have a jury of equal calibre to decide on the winner,” CinefestOZ chair Helen Shervington said.
Dimitriades made his acting debut in Michael Jenkins’ The Heartbreak Kid followed by Ana Kokkinos’ Head On. Other film performances include Three Blind Mice, Ghost Ship, Deuce Bigalow, Kings of Mykonos, Summer Coda, The Infinite Man and Ruben Guthrie.
His TV credits include The Slap, The Principal, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Wanted, Wake in Fright, Tidelands and The Cry.
Dusseldorp won the AACTA Award for best lead actress in a TV drama for ABC’s Janet King. Among her other TV credits are A Place to Call Home, Jack Irish, the six-part Blackjack telemovies and miniseries After the Deluge.
Her film credits include Paul Cox’s Innocence, John Curran’s Praise, Bruce Beresford’s Paradise Road, Jonathan Teplitzky’s Burning Man and, most recently, Monica Zanetti’s gay romcom Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt).
Gainor is president of Sony Innovation Studios and head of physical production at Sony’s Screen Gems. He is this year’s CinefestOZ Industry Program keynote speaker.
Young’s debut film Hounds of Love screened in competition at film festivals including Venice, SXSW and Tribeca. His follow up feature Extinction was released worldwide on Netflix last year.
The prize will be presented on the gala night on August 31.