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Sydney Film Festival has announced the Official Competition jury for the 72nd edition of the Festival, taking place 4–15 June 2025.
The jury will award the prestigious Sydney Film Prize, a $60,000 cash award for ‘audacious, cutting-edge and courageous’ cinema, at the Festival’s Closing Night Gala on Sunday 15 June at the State Theatre.
Presiding over the jury as Jury President is acclaimed Australian director, writer and producer Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Nitram) whose debut documentary Ellis Park will also screen at the Festival out of official competition.
Joining him on the Jury is Festival Director of the Marrakech International Film Festival and producer Melita Toscan du Plantier, Aotearoa New Zealand director and actor Rachel House (The Mountain, SFF 2024), Hong Kong-based producer and distributor Winnie Tsang, and Kamilaroi writer and actor Thomas Weatherall (Exposure, SFF 2024).
‘The Sydney Film Prize honours bold and visionary filmmaking that continues to evolve the language of cinema,’ said SFF Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
‘Each of these jurors brings a deep understanding of storytelling, drawn from their own exceptional creative practices and cultural contexts. I’m especially pleased to welcome Justin Kurzel as Jury President, whose uncompromising and powerful body of work makes him an ideal figure to lead this conversation.’
In addition to chairing the jury, Justin Kurzel will deliver the 2025 Ian McPherson Memorial Lecture, a Festival tradition that honours the legacy of the man who helped establish Sydney Film Festival. The lecture will take place at the Festival Hub, where Kurzel will be in conversation with Festival Director Nashen Moodley, reflecting on his career and the art of filmmaking.
Now in its 17th year, the Official Competition is the only international film competition in Australia that is FIAPF-accredited.
The 2025 Competition will feature 12 titles from around the globe, competing for one of the country’s most significant film awards, whose past winners include Parasite (2019), A Separation (2011), and There’s Still Tomorrow (2024).
The Sydney Film Festival 2025: jury bios
Justin Kurzel – Jury President:
Justin’s background as one of Australia’s best theatrical designers informs his strong visual storytelling as a director.
His VCA graduating short, Bluetongue, was screened in over 13 international film festivals including International Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival, New York Film Festival and won Best Short at Melbourne International Film Festival. Justin’s first feature film Snowtown premiered at Adelaide Film Festival in 2011, winning the Audience Award. Justin was awarded Best Director at the AACTA Awards and the film screened at numerous international festivals including Toronto in 2011 and International Critics Week Cannes in 2012, where it was awarded Special Distinction of the President.
Justin’s other films include an adaptation he directed, Boner McPherlin’s Moll which forms part of a feature film comprising the adaptations of all short stories in Tim Winton’s novel, The Turning; Macbeth (2015); Assassins Creed (2016); The True History of the Kelly Gang (2019); Nitram (2021), The Order (2023). Justin’s miniseries adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s book The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi, Odessa Young, Ciaran Hinds and Thomas Weatherall, debuts on Prime Video in April 2025.
His debut documentary Ellis Park, about legendary musician and conservationist Warren Ellis, will have its NSW Premiere at Sydney Film Festival this June.
Rachel House:
Rachel House is one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded actors. She has had a long and celebrated career, both locally and internationally, which has traversed stage, television, and film. House has recently appeared in Our Flag Means Death, Heartbreak High, Foundation, Time Bandits, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Her work as an actor includes Moana, Soul, Thor: Ragnarok, Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Penguin Bloom, Cousins, Millie Lies Low, The Moon is Upside Down, Next Goal Wins, and The Portable Door.
As a student at the renowned Prague Film School, Rachel was awarded ‘Best Director’ and the Audience Award for her two short films. She continued to garner awards as a director, notably for Te Reo Māori version of Troilus and Cressida performed at the Globe Theatre in London.
Her debut feature film The Mountain had its Australian Premiere at Sydney Film Festival in 2024, was shortlisted for the inaugural First Nations Award, and received widespread critical acclaim.
As an acting coach she has worked alongside Jane Campion for Top of the Lake S2 and The Power of the Dog; and with Taika Waititi on Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jojo Rabbit, and Next Goal Wins. In recognition of her significant contributions to the theatre, film, and television industry, House has been awarded an Arts Laureate, NZ Order of Merit, ‘Mana Wahine’ from WIFT, and Te Waipuna a Rangi (Matariki Awards) as an actor and director.
Melita Tuscan du Plantier:
Melita is the co-founder and Director of the Marrakech Film Festival for over two decades, establishing it as one the world’s major showcases of cinema, with a special focus on elevating Arab, Gulf, and Levantine films, plus orchestrating workshops for emerging African filmmakers.
She has also worked as a producer, most known for Masaan (2015), In the Fade (2017), Eva (2018) the Australian film Freedom is Beautiful (SFF 2023).
Winnie Tsang:
Winnie has been a prominent figure in the Hong Kong film industry since the early 1980s, with extensive experience in film acquisition, distribution, and marketing. She served as the General Manager of Panasia Films Limited before becoming a Board Director at Golden Harvest Entertainment (Holdings) Limited from 1989 to 1998. In 1998, she established Golden Scene Company Limited, a company celebrated for bringing a wide range of high-quality Chinese and international films to audiences.
Beyond collaborating with acclaimed directors like Ann Hui, Stanley Kwan, and Fruit Chan, Winnie has consistently championed original works by emerging Hong Kong filmmakers. One notable success is her production and distribution of The Way We Dance, which garnered critical acclaim and impressive box office returns, motivating a new wave of young filmmakers to follow their creative aspirations. Under her guidance, first-time directors she has supported have garnered 25 Best New Director nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards, with 8 wins. Currently, Winnie also serves as a board member of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and the Hong Kong Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival.
Thomas Weatherall:
Thomas graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2021. From the age of six, he trained professionally as a dancer in styles across musical theatre, contemporary dance, tap, ballet, jazz and hip hop. He trained in singing with Kirri Adams, and is also a trained acrobat.
Thomas’s first professional on-screen role was in the AACTA Award- winning ABC iview teenage drama series, Deadlock. He went on to appear in the Network Seven drama series RFDS alongside Stephen Peacocke, Rob Collins and Justine Clarke, and the ABC crime series TROPPO.
In 2021 Thomas made his professional stage debut in the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) production of Follow Me Home, staged at the Griffin Theatre.
Thomas is well known for the role of Malakai the hit Netflix International Emmy award winning series Heartbreak High, inspired by the original 1990’s series and reimagined for a new generation. His performance won him the 2022 AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, followed by a nomination for the AACTA International Award for Best Actor in a Series. He also appeared in the Disney+ Australian series The Last Days of the Space Age (2023).
In 2023 he won the TV WEEK Silver Logie nomination for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor. In 2020 Thomas was also named as one of the Casting Guild of Australia’s Rising Stars.
In 2021 Thomas was the recipient of the Balnaves Fellowship which funds the creative development of Australian talent, bringing new work to theatre audiences. This award enabled him to further develop his writing talent and to complete his one-man play Blue, which went on to play a critically acclaimed season at Belvoir Theatre in early 2023. Thomas also performed this heartbreaking monologue, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews for both his writing and performance. In November 2023, Blue was invited to the Australian Theatre Festival in New York where he performed on stage for the first time for a U.S. audience.
More recently Thomas appeared in the Australian Stan mystery thriller series Exposure, and the Australian television screen adaptation of the acclaimed Richard Flanagan novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, alongside Jacob Elordi and directed by Justin Kurzel.
The full Official Competition line-up will be revealed as part of the Festival’s full program launch on Wednesday 7 May 2025.
Sydney Film Festival 2025: films announced so far
Features
The Blue Tail
Bring Them Down
DJ Ahmet
The End
Fwends
Lesbian Space Princess
OBEX
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Stranger Eyes
ScreenHub: Sydney Film Festival 2025: first films announced
Documentaries
Exergue – on Documenta 14
Farming the Revolution
Make It Look Real
Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
