Warwick Thornton won the Golden Frog at the Camerimage Film Festival in Poland over the weekend for his cinematography on The New Boy, which he also wrote and directed.
Thornton is now the second Australian to win the main competition prize, with Greig Fraser having previously won in 2016 for Lion. Fraser would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award.
El Conde cinematographer Ed Lachman won the Silver Frog for his work on the Pablo Larrain horror fantasy, while Robbie Ryan won both the Bronze Frog and Audience Award for his work on Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things.
The New Boy premiered in Cannes in May as part of the Un Certain Regard program.
Set in the 1940s, the film is led by newcomer Aswan Reid as a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun, played by Cate Blanchett.
Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair also star, alongside a host of other new faces Shane Brady, Tyrique Brady, Laiken Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Kyle Miller, Tyzailin Roderick and Tyler Spencer.
Producers include Dirty Films’ Blanchett, Andrew Upton, and co-producer Georgie Pym, Kath Shelper for Scarlett Pictures and Lorenzo De Maio of De Maio Entertainment. Coco Francini is the executive producer for Dirty Films alongside Packer of Longbridge Nominees.
The list of winners:
Main Competition
Golden Frog: The New Boy
cin. Warwick Thornton
dir. Warwick Thornton
Silver Frog: El Conde
cin. Ed Lachman
dir. Pablo Larraín
Bronze Frog: Poor Things
cin. Robbie Ryan
dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Fipresci Award
The International Federation of Film Critics Award for Best Film: The Zone of Interest
cin. Łukasz Żal
dir. Jonathan Glazer
Polish Films Competition
Best Polish Film: Doppelgänger. The Double
cin. Bartłomiej Kaczmarek
dir. Jan Holoubek
Film and Art School Etudes Competition
Laszlo Kovacs Student Award – Golden Tadpole – Cremation, Or The Quarantine Hotel
cin. Wen Lau
dir. Ning Qian
School: National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA)
Silver Tadpole: Plastic Touch
cin. Celia Morales
dir. Aitana Ahrens
School: The Madrid Film School (ECAM)
Bronze Tadpole: Poor Boy Long Way from Home
dir. Tuur Oosterlinck
cin. Jonas Hollevoet
dir: Sint-Lucas School of Arts, Brussel (LUCA)
Documentary Features Competition
Golden Frog — best feature documentary: The Echo
cin. Ernesto Pardo
dir. Tatiana Huezo
Documentary Shorts Competition
Golden Frog — best short documentary: Oasis
cin. Myriam Payette
dir. Justine Martin
Directors’ Debuts Competition
Best Director’s Debut: Inshallah a Boy
cin. Kanamé Onoyama
dir. Amjad Al-Rasheed
Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition
under the patronage of the Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP)
Best Cinematographer’s Debut: A Song Sung Blue
cin. Jiayue Hao
dir. Zihan Geng
Music Videos Competition
Best Music Video: Son Lux „Undertow”
cin. Drew Bienemann
dir. Alex Cook
TV Series Competition
Best Episode: The Offer: A Seat at the Table
cin. Salvatore Totino
dir. Dexter Fletcher
Audience Award
Poor Things
cin. Robbie Ryan dir. Yorgos Lanthimos