Australian actor and filmmaker Matt Day has won the Tropfest short film festival for his dark comedy linking euthanasia with Sydney's high house prices.
Well known for his on-screen roles in Rake and Tangle, as well as feature films Muriel's Wedding, My Year Without Sex and Kiss or Kill, Day is now trying to manage a transition to roles behind the camera.
His comedy, The Mother Situation, stars Day alongside Australian actors Peter O'Brien and Harriet Dyer and centres on a family assisting their mother to die by euthanasia. However it transpires the children have ulterior motives to profit from the sale of her house.
Day said he got the idea at a dinner party where one of the guests spoke about their mother who had chosen euthanasia.
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"House prices are at a constant level of chatter in Sydney and so is suicide," he said.
"I heard someone talk about this out one night saying, 'Well he's going to be fine when his parents die because he's got the house at Balmain and the place on Pearl Beach'.
"All that stuff just kind of congealed and came together and made me laugh. I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if they'd all come to their mother's bedside and she decided not to do it."
Day said he was "elated" with the win.
"Just to get into Tropfest was a win," he said. "The plan was to get the film to as many people as possible. I'm elated."
Day said he has multiple filmmaking projects in the pipeline, including a television series set in Australia during the seventies and a film script riffing on The Mother Situation.
"I have a very dark sense of humour. My friend gave me some good advice: make sure the mother doesn't speak in the film so people don't get to like her," he said.
The second prize-winning film, Meat and Potatoes, was equally dark and comical: a domestic dispute between a vegan and her partner – set in the outback during an apocalypse. The couple has to decide which human body they will eat to survive.
"We wanted to use the Australian bushland, because that usually resonates on the national festival circuit," said co-director and actor Arielle Thomas. "First and foremost I'm an actor so we really wanted there to be heavy character work and focus on the domestic argument between the couple. Just keep it really simple."
The third prize-winning entry, Wibble Wobble, another domestic comedy, set itself apart as an improvised production shot in just one day.
Edward Chalmers, one of the two actors in Wibble Wobble, was named Best Actor, a nod perhaps to his mammoth effort consuming six packets worth of jelly on screen.
Tropfest fell on a challenging day to re-emerge in Western Sydney. By 8pm on Saturday, when the finalist entries were beginning to be unveiled, Parramatta Park's temperature was just short of 40 degrees.
By the second-half of the screenings, Tropfest management estimated the crowd to be upwards of 35,000 – under the former estimates of 50,000, but enough to comfortably fill the festival's new location and allow a breeze to pass between the picnic rugs of audience members.
Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller said Parramatta has already proved itself as Sydney's artistic hub.
"Tropfest fell down last year and Parramatta basically said yes, we want to get our hands on it. And it is the geographical heart of Sydney," he said. "When places get a bit lazy I think they begin to lack vitality."
Another familiar face to grace the festival's VIP tent was that of Julian Dennison, who starred next to Sam Niell in the acclaimed Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
He said his favourite entrant invoked a deeper meaning for him.
"I loved The Wall – it was just greatly executed and the script was perfect to the story," he said. "It was a beautiful story about refugees. It had a deeper meaning behind the story, which is an aspect of all the films I love."
Sydney-born actor and head judge Rose Byrne said there were "a lot of great things" coming out of Parramatta, including dance, and theatre, from a thriving creative community.
"I think [Sydney] has changed a lot, like any city. When I come back to Sydney I can definitely feel the change."
Despite elevated temperatures, festival-goers seemed positive about the Parramatta Park move.
"It's going to be plenty of fun. I think it was a great decision to make, especially given the festival is family focussed," said Newtown resident Cara Giovannini.
Big moves and changing spaces were definitely themes on the agenda of Tropfest entrants.
The event's opening film, Nick Baker and Tristan Klein's The Wall, a whimsical but powerful animation narrated by David Wenham, jumped straight into the contested politics of Trump's America and Australia's immigration policies by illustrating a family's need to escape their daily circumstances.
An entry from Germany, James Dewhirst-Prineas The Beekeepers followed an elderly couple's decision to emigrate from their home on a Greek island. Olly Sindle's Service Update profiled Carl Downer, a station attendant originally from Jamaica, who uses his talent as an MC to brighten the lives of London commuters.
John Polson, the creator of Tropfest, announced next year's signature item for those looking to enter Tropfest 2018: a rose. He said it was chosen in acknowledgment of this year's head judge Byrne.
Fairfax Media, AAP