The Feature Documentary Award prize at the Adelaide Film Festival, which includes a $10,000 prize, was awarded to SHE, directed by Parsifal Reparato.

The film is a searing and moving study on globalisation’s impact on the collective lives of Vietnamese women factory workers, living away from their families.

In awarding the prize, the Jury said: Through a lens both covert and compassionate, director Parsifal Reparato crafts a documentary of startling intimacy. Despite the physical and emotional distances these women endure, their inner lives, marked by longing, resistance, and resilience, emerge with quiet power. Reparato’s restrained yet expressive visual style allows his subjects’ stories to unfold with dignity, transforming their testimonies into acts of subtle defiance against systemic erasure.

Parsifal Reparato said: When I first started this project, the workers would often tell me, Who would ever care about our stories, the stories of us poor factory girls?

Today, receiving this recognition carries deep meaning, it’s a huge achievement for all of us. For us as filmmakers and producers, it’s a powerful encouragement to continue investing our time and energy in telling stories about workers’ rights around the world. And for the workers themselves, it’s a reminder that they are not alone, that the world cares, and that their struggles are seen, heard, and shared.

We are truly grateful. As with all my films, SHE is a personal act of resistance, and in this case, a portion of the prize will be shared, in solidarity, with the workers through a support fund. It’s our way of giving back and standing together with labourers everywhere.

Thanks to all our crew, united we are strong.