Addison Heath’s Under a Kaleidoscope and Timothy Spanos’s Sizzler ’77 tied for best film at the 16th annual Melbourne Underground Film Festival.
Named as best international film was Terry McMahon’s Patrick’s Day, the chronicle of a young man with mental health issues who becomes intimate with a suicidal flight attendant, prompting his obsessive mother to enlists a dysfunctional cop to separate them, featuring Kerry Fox, Moe Dunford, and Philip Jackson.
Under a Kaleidoscope stars Kenji Shimada, Kristen Condon, Aston Elliot, Tim Jason Wicks and Glenn Maynard in the saga of two brothers and a female neighbour who begin a voyage of discovery through the small hole in the wall that secretly joins the two apartments.
Sizzler ’77 follows a crime war on Melbourne’s streets as two cops are forced to don frocks and go undercover as trannies in order to infiltrate a gang, featuring Alan King, Teri Yeboah, Tim Burns, Oti Willoughby, Reylene Pearce, Baby Lemonade Lamarr and Kristen Condon.
The festival ran Sepember 11-19 at the Backlot Studios. “MUFF has always played a predominantly Australian and local selection of Indy, micro budget and underground movies and content,” said founder Richard Wolstonecraft.
“That’s around 70 per cent- so we support and foster the amazing work being done at the edges here that is so Promethean, aAll without government funding or cost to the taxpayer.
“It may not always be the most commercial thing for a festival to do – -as opposed to playing big art house hits like Love or Eli Roth's Knock Knock – but it is the right thing I think for MUFF and it is what it's all about for me.”
Here is the full list of winners
Best film (tie)
Under a Kaleidoscope, Sizzler ‘77
Best international film
Patrick’s Day
Best director (tie)
Addison Heath (Under a Kaleidoscope)
Terry McMahon (Patrick’s Day)
Best screenplay
Sizzler ’77 (Tim Burns)
Best documentary (tie)
Gone Lesbo Gone (dir Jarret Gahan)
Come Back Mr Bule (dir Jamie Wilson)
Best cinematography
Emma Matsuda (Under a Kaleidoscope)
Best lead actor
Tim Burns (Sizzler ’77)
Best Lead Actress
Kristen Condon (Under a Kaleidoscope)
Best supporting actor
Alan King (Sizzler 77)
Best supporting female actor
Kerry Fox (Patrick's Day)
Special Jury Prize
Nina Forever
Best Use of the Guerilla Aesthetic
I am Evangeline
Best Short (tie)
Rubbers by Harry Anderson
Shy Latte by Cathy Yu