BABYTEETH TAKES BITE OUT OF TRANSILVANIA F.F. AWARD ROSTER

Australian director Shannon Murphy’s striking debut feature Babyteeth, featuring a star-solidifying turn by actress Eliza Scanlen (pictured, below), continues its award-winning festival circuit run with two top awards courtesy of the 2020 Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). The winners of the 19th annual gathering were announced last Sunday, August 9, at an outdoor event in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Selected from 12 debut or follow-up features from around the world, Murphy’s (pictured, below) fiercely original coming-of-age story earned the ‘Transilvania Trophy’ for Best Film. The top honour was voted for by an all-Romanian jury, a first for the event in the wake of an enforced COVID-19 restructure. 

Babyteeth also won the highly-coveted Audience Award ahead of a particularly strong line-up that included Tim Mielants’ Patrick (Belgium) and Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud in Her Room (China), whose helmers shared Best Director honours; Nigina Sayfullaeva’s Fidelity (Russia), which secured leading lady Evgeniya Gromova the gender-neutral Best Acting trophy; and, Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Sister (a Bulgarian/Qatari co-production), the winner of a Special Jury Prize.

 In his first Australian feature in nine years, Ben Mendelsohn stars alongside Essie Davis as Henry and Anna Finlay, the overprotective parents of gravely sick Milla (Eliza Scanlen). When their daughter becomes enamored with a local drug dealer (Toby Wallace) and begins living her waning life to its fullest potential, Henry and Anna’s life takes on a newly energized perspective.

Even by the limited opportunities presented in the truncated 2020 festival calendar, Screen Australia and production partners Spectrum Films, Jan Chapman Films and Whitefalk Films are filling their trophy cabinets with Babyteeth accolades. It has earned Shannon Murphy festival honours in Luxembourg, Palm Springs, Pingyao, São Paulo and Zurich; screenwriter Rita Kalnejais took out a Screenplay Jury Prize at the Portugese event, FEST; and, cast members Scanlen and Wallace (pictured, left) have statuettes in the mail coming from Venice and Marrakech festival organisers.

Babyteeth is currently in release in Australian cinemas via Universal Pictures Australia; with other territories to follow.