Matt Day’s black comedy The Mother Situation has taken out this year’s Tropfest.
The film follows three adult siblings as they assist their terminally ill mother to commit suicide.
“I didn’t expect this to happen, I was just really looking forward to getting my film in front of as many people as possible so receiving the win is just a bonus,” said Day, best known for his acting work on the likes of Rake and Tangle.
Day took home $10,000 and will also receive a return trip to LA for meetings with industry professionals and networking, among a host of other prizes.
Runner-up was Arielle Thomas and Ellenor Argyropoulos’ Meat & Potatoes, which follows a vegan couple stuck in the apocalypse without food. Daphne Do’s Wibble Wobble placed third.
Arielle Thomas and Sacha Horler were announced as joint winners for best actress, with Edward Chalmers being named best actor for Wibble Wobble.
The films, each inspired by this year’s signature item ‘pineapple’, were assessed by head of jury Rose Byrne and judges Sam Neill, George Miller, Rachel Perkins, Bruna Papandrea and Will Gluck, the director of Animal Logic’s currently-shooting Peter Rabbit.
Despite soaring temperatures in Sydney over the weekend, Tropfest officials said the festival, now in its 25th year, managed to draw a crowd of almost 40,000 to its new home in Parramatta Park.
“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,” said festival founder and chair John Polson.
On Friday night, young NSW filmmaker Nick Ward took out the children’s comp, Trop Jr, with his film Pupils.