A quirky Hungarian romance about two slaughterhouse workers who fall in love has surprisingly won the $60,000 Sydney Film Festival competition.
While the racially-charged American documentary I Am Not Your Negro was widely considered the likely winner, the jury went for Hungarian writer-director Ildiko Enyedi's??? On Body And Soul.
She became the first woman director to win in the 10-year history of the competition for "courageous, audacious and cutting edge" cinema.
The droll film, centring on two people who work in an abattoir outside Budapest and share the same dreams at night, has previously won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Jury president Margaret Pomeranz??? called On Body And Soul "graceful, measured and profoundly compassionate".
"It's a film that shows us that even in this in this divided world we are capable of sharing the same dreams; that amongst the ugliness of a slaughterhouse, kindness, gentleness can be found," she said.
Accepting the award, Enyedi sheepishly admitted she had spent the day "in deep melancholy" believing she had not won.
"It was such an amazing, amazing, strong competition," she said. "It's marvellous that such a film can move so many people. It gives me so much hope in cinema and in human communication."
The festival announced its awards before the closing night screening of the South Korean comic thriller Okja on Sunday.
The $10,000 prize for best Australian documentary went to Sascha Ettinger Epstein's??? The Pink House, about a famous Kalgoorlie brothel that is under threat from cheap internet rivals.
The jury praised the director for "a deeply personal and intimate" film, handling a subject that could have been voyeuristic with "affection and grace".
A delighted Epstein was surprised to win, saying: "It's such a weird, dark film, I just can't believe it appealed to anybody."
After barely surviving a financial crisis that led to it being scaled back in 2009, the festival has now increased ticket sales for the eighth year in a row.
Chief executive Leigh Small said paid attendance was expected to be 185,000 - up 6 per cent on last year - after the festival added an extra cinema in the Randwick Ritz and more sessions at Dendy Newtown.
While attendance at free events was "slightly down", Small said that was due to the lack of a video art event at CarriageWorks this year.
But a push to bring more filmmakers to talk about their work at the festival has proven popular with audiences.
"Our mission is shared experience," Small said.
Director Nashen Moodley's??? sixth festival was particularly strong for documentaries, led by Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro, a blistering take on race in America, and Laura Poitras' Risk, a revealing look at Julian Assange???.
Among many lively "only at the festival" experiences were world premieres for David Wenham's walk-around-Sydney experimental drama Ellipsis and Kriv Stenders' pop documentary The Go-Betweens: Right Here.
But closing weekend was dominated by two actresses at very different stages of their careers - little-known Australian Danielle Macdonald and acclaimed English veteran Vanessa Redgrave.
Macdonald, 26, stars as an aspiring New Jersey rapper in the American film Patti Cake$, a full-throttle blast of musical, comic and dramatic energy that lived up to the hype from the Sundance Film Festival.
The Clareville-raised actress is exceptional, bringing heart, warmth and rapping skill, in a challenging role.
While unassuming and almost shy answering questions on stage, Macdonald told the State Theatre audience she had been cast in two new movies - the comic drama Dumplin', playing an unlikely beauty pageant contestant opposite Jennifer Aniston, then Skin, about the redemption of an infamous white supremacist played by Jamie Bell.
Redgrave, 80, was given a standing ovation when she introduced Sea Sorrow, a deeply personal and poetic take on the refugee crisis in Europe that is her debut as a director.
Showing she has lost none of her fire, the longtime political activist said it was "hugely, hugely urgent" that governments around the world comply with international laws and help refugees, especially children.
"The Australian government is illegal, not the refugees," Redgrave said. "So is every single government, including the British government, in Europe."
In other awards, Indigenous actor, writer and director Leah Purcell won the $10,000 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film prize for her trailblazing work that includes the hit play The Drover's Wife.
In the Dendy short film awards, Daniel Agdag's??? Lost Property Office won both best animation and the Rouben Mamoulian??? award for best director.
Best live-action short went to Mirene Igwabi's??? Adele, with Michael Cusack's After All winning best screenplay.
