SYDNEY, June 15 -- A film rarely needs another trophy after it has won the Grand Prix at Cannes. The Sydney Film Festival handed Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur one anyway on Sunday, and in the arithmetic of the festival circuit the second prize can matter as much as the first, because it is the one that keeps a film in the conversation long enough to reach a screen near anyone.

Minotaur, a thriller set against contemporary Russia, took the Sydney Film Prize and its A$60,000 cheque as the 73rd edition of the festival wrapped a 12-day run. The award goes each year to the film a jury judges most audacious, cutting-edge and courageous, a deliberately loaded brief that the Sydney prize uses to separate itself from the popularity contests furth...