home | news l

Indigenous filmmakers honoured

21 May 2002 - Indigenous stars of film and television have been honoured in a prestigious awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House.

Winners from the Third Tudawali Indigenous Film and Video Awards:

• Open Craft Award: Goolarri Media - the Mary G Show (shown on SBS)
• Best Cinematography: Allan Collins - Beneath Clouds
• Best Script in a Drama: My Mother My Son - Erica Glynn
• Best Documentary: Whispering in Our Hearts - Mitch Torres
• Best Television Series: Everyday Brave - Film Australia - involving six half-hour documentaries made by indigenous filmmakers
• Best Short Drama: Dust - Ivan Sen
• Best Long Format Drama: Beneath Clouds - Ivan Sen
• Best Actor: David Gulpilil - The Tracker by Rolf de Heer
• Best Actress: Deborah Mailman - The Secret Life Of Us
• Award for Contribution to Indigenous Media: Freda Glynn - established the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association
• Lifetime Achievement award - Justine Saunders - actress for more than 30 years
• Bob Maza Memorial Award ($10,000) - Ursula Yovich
• Silver Logie winner Deborah Mailman and actor Aaron Pederson played hosts to the third Tudawali Indigenous Film and Video Awards.

The vibrant Secret Life of Us star won the Best Actress award, with David Gulpilil receiving the Best Actor accolade for his performance in Rolf de Heer's The Tracker.

The national event was in memory of one of Australia's first indigenous actors, Robert Tudawali, who played the lead role in Charles Chauvel's 1955 Australian classic Jedda.

The 13 awards celebrated the achievements of indigenous people in film, video and television.

Organiser Erica Glynn said the medium provided a unique opportunity to develop a greater understanding of indigenous culture.

"Film and television, unlike any other medium, intimately reveals an indigenous world and experience previously hidden to most Australians."

Ivan Sen's Beneath Clouds won the Best Long Format Drama award and Allan Collins picked up the Best Cinematography award for his work on the film which received critical acclaim at the Berlin Film festival earlier this year.

Actress Ursula Yovich received the $10,000 Bob Maza memorial award for professional development.

Source: The Courier Mail

related links:

• Man who lives in two worlds
  11 December 2002 - You can imagine the controversy if Nicole Kidman or Russell Crowe was shown smoking marijuana on the national broadcaster. But this week one of Australia's best-known actors will be seen smoking a bong on an ABC documentary - and no one will turn a hair. Since 1971, when he became an overnight sensation in Walkabout, Nicholas Roeg's classic about a clash of cultures, David Gulpilil has been the world's favourite Aboriginal star.
• Aboriginal Stories Enrich AFI Entries
  18 September 2002 - An unprecedented four feature films competing in this year’s AFI Awards tell stories centred on Aborigines or Aboriginal themes, including one, Beneath Clouds, written and directed by Aboriginal filmmaker Ivan Sen, enriching and expanding the body of Australian film making.
• Great black hope
  June 2002 - Ivan Sen has been hailed as the Great Black Hope of Australian cinema - the indigenous director most likely to follow in the footsteps of Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi and Baz Luhrmann.
• The Cherry Pickers
  16 May 2002 - The Guardian (UK) - The history of Aboriginal playwriting begins here, with a compendious piece chronicling the theft of the indigenous Australians' country.
  
• The long way home
  15 February 2002 - All those behind the film ... recognise how hard it is for an Aboriginal film to find a mainstream cinema audience. The last success, some say, was Jedda in the 1950s.
  
• In black and white
  Certain to collect a few Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards later this year – possibly even best film – The Tracker is a powerful new Australian drama set deep in South Australia, circa 1922.

Further information: culture issues page - includes news index and external links

|| click to go to the top of this page