Heartbeats wins at SFF

Xavier Dolan’s French Canadian film Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats) has won the third Sydney Film Festival competition.

Australian teenage film Wasted on the Young (dir. Ben C. Lucas) and Russian drama Kak Ya Provyol Etim Letom (How I Ended This Summer – dir. Aleksei Popogrebsky) received honourable mentions from the jury, headed by producer Jan Chapman.

Chapman said Heartbeats had won because of its witty and insightful script and strikingly playful use of cinematic language.

“The jury found Heartbeats to be a boldly truthful and compassionate observation of one of the great crippling foibles of human nature – the hopeless crush,” she said. The filmmakers will receive the $60,000 prize.