The world’s largest short film festival, Tropfest has announced Matt Day and his film, The Mother Situation as the winner of the 25th anniversary event which took place in Parramatta Park in Sydney’s West on Saturday 11 February 2017.
Starring Day and well-known actors Harriet Dyer, Sacha Horler and Peter O’Brien, The Mother Situation tells the comedic story of three adult siblings who assist their terminally ill mother to commit suicide. However it transpires they have ulterior motives to profit from the sale of her house.
Screening to a crowd of nearly 40,000 people, the 16 finalist films went head to head to take out the top prize, chosen by the impressive lineup of judges, which included Head of Jury, Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, X-Men: Apocalypse, upcoming Peter Rabbit), George Miller (Academy Award Winner, Mad Max: Fury Road), Sam Neill (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jurassic Park, upcoming Peter Rabbit), Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae, upcoming Jasper Jones), Bruna Papandrea (Gone Girl, Wild, TV’s upcoming Big Little Lies) and Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with Benefits, upcoming Peter Rabbit).
“It has been another incredible year of Tropfest and it has been amazing to see audiences come and enjoy the event at our new home in Parramatta Park, despite the extreme heat,” said Founder and Chair John Polson. “I am thrilled that this year half of our sixteen finalists are women and while all sixteen films were truly outstanding, The Mother Situation had the edge to take out the top prize.”
Day takes home an incredible array of prizes including $10,000 courtesy of Kennedy Miller Mitchell, and a return trip to LA for meetings with industry professionals and networking.
Second prize was awarded to Arielle Thomas and Ellenor Argyropoulos for their film Meat and Potatoes, and third prize went to Daphne Do for Wibble Wobble. Arielle Thomas and Sacha Horler were announced as joint winners for best actress, with Edward Chalmers being named best actor for Wibble Wobble. Cecilia Rumore won the People’s Choice award for Another Olga.
Earlier in the day, Nick Ward was announced as the winner of Tropfest Junior for his film, Pupils – a tale of a boy who goes to school surrounded by the blinded and must decide whether he should be a victim or a hero.
For more information, visit: www.tropfest.org.au for details.
Image: Matt Day, 2017 Tropfest winner – photo by Andy Green / Red Bull Content Pool