Australian Film Institute Awards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Australian Film Institute Awards (often abbreviated to AFI Awards) is an annual awards ceremony administered by the Australian Film Institute, held in late November or early December. It is the most prestigious awards ceremony for the Australian film and television industry. They are Australian equivalent to the American Academy Awards.
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[edit] Special Awards
- Longford Life Achievement Award (considered one of the highest AFI accolades).
- The Byron Kennedy Award
- Global Achievement Award
- Young Actor Award
[edit] Awards in the feature film category
- Best Film
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Direction
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)
- Best Achievement in Cinematography
- Best Achievement in Editing
- Best Original Music Score
- Best Achievement in Sound
- Best Achievement in Production Design
- Best Achievement in Costume Design
- Jury Prize
[edit] Awards in the non-feature film category
- Best Performance in Television Comedy
- Best Short Animation Film
- Best Short Fiction Film
- Best Documentary
- Best Achievement in Direction in a Documentary
- Best Screenplay in a Short Film
- Best Sound in a Non-Feature
- Best Editing in a Non-Feature
- Best Cinematography in a Non-Feature
- Best Foreign Film
In 2006, Australian actor Geoffrey Rush hosted the AFI awards for the Nine Network.
In 2005, Australian actor Russell Crowe was the host of the awards, which, for many years had not been televised until some of Australia's finest performers stepped up to deliver the ceremony live to the Australian viewing audience.
[edit] Criticisms and Contraversies
With censorship and political influence becoming more entrenched in the Australian public eye, more so since the AWB scandal and the controversial alleged ABC board stacking, this widespread interference and influence in the media is also seen to be prevalent in other government and cultural agencies like international film festivals and awards events. See The Australian article “Noyce: hands off film industry’ and ‘Cultural exchange, just do it our way’ in The Age.
A case-in-point is the controversial decisions of the Australian Film Institute Awards in breaking its own rules. Kylie Miller of The Age in her article AFI drama over bent rule highlights how the AFI has angered the television industry by breaking its own rules to include an unscreened miniseries in the 2005 awards judging. ‘The controversy is a blow for the institute, which after years of criticism this year revamped its awards in an effort to restore credibility. Producer John Edwards, who collected seven nominations for Foxtel's Love My Way, did not enter a second drama series, The Surgeon, because it missed the screening deadline.” If I'd known it was this flexible, of course I would have entered it," Edwards said. "Awards are useless if they break their own rules."’
On an international level, despite its critical international acclaim, the internationally multi-award winning feature documentary In the Shadow of the Palms was declined nomination for the AFI Awards. The feature documentary has been invited to over 50 international film festivals around the world, and is the first Australian feature in international competition at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 13 years, since Black Harvest by legendary filmmakers the late Robin Anderson and Bob Connelly.
In 2005 with the appointment of Susan MacKinnion of the Australian government’s Film Finacing Agncey - FFC as jury member, the AFI once again broke its own rule which states that jurors ‘should have no vested interest in any of the entries they will be voting on, and will be required to sign a statutory declaration confirming this fact’.
The alleged jury stacking has once again shone a distorted light on its credibility; on its tax-payer funded cultural event. International film festival directors have expressed dismay and surprise at the way in which artistic expression and opinion have been unofficially censored and suppressed in Australia, by the subversion of regulation for political effect.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/afi-drama-over-bent-rules/2005/10/25/1130239521543.html
http://www.afi.org.au/latestnews/news_detailed.asp?id=48
AFIA has also been castigated for narrow selection of artists for award nominations and an unfair judging process (ARIA Will Never Rock, Rhoderick Gates, Global Echo, 30th Oct, 06).
