The Australian Directors’ Guild has announced the winners of the 2020 ADG Awards via a virtual ceremony hosted this evening from Sydney.
Ben Lawrence has taken out the Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget $1M or over) Award for his much-lauded feature Hearts & Bones. The film was released in the US last week following its successful Australian release earlier this year.
The Awards were notable for the number of female directors to win ADG Awards – 10 of the 19 Awards were won by women, a reflection of the industry’s move towards gender parity.
Amongst the many female directors to be applauded this year, Josephine Mackerras won the ADG Award for Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget under $1M) for Alice, Maya Newell won Best Direction of a Documentary Feature for In My Blood It Runs, and Emma Freeman received the Award for Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Mini-Series for Stateless: Episode 3.
ADG President Samantha Lang said: “The Awards come at a moment when key creatives and organisations in our screen industry are lobbying government to ‘Make It Australian’ and keep Australian storytelling on our local and global screens. The films, television shows, music videos, student films and commercial work of directors nominated and awarded tonight are a shining example of the creative, cultural and fiscal success of Australian content. It’s also heartwarming to see an immense diversity of Australian directors awarded tonight – a reflection of who we are – both as content creators – and audiences.”
A record 202 entries were received in this year’s ADG Awards, up from 117 in 2019.
The Awards celebrate the outstanding work of Australian screen directors over the past year across 19 categories including film, television, online, music and advertising.
Any Australian Directors’ Guild member is able to submit for the ADG Awards. The judging panels are drawn from ADG membership (Full Members).
The ADG Awards recognise excellence in the craft and art of directing, as well as honouring individual contributions by Australian screen directors to the screen industry. The Awards are the only opportunity for Australian directors and their work to be acknowledged by their directing peers. The Awards cover the breadth of screen directing with categories across feature film, documentary, television, subscription video on demand, commercial, short film, animation, online, music video and interactive media.
The full winners list is below. The 2020 ADG Awards Ceremony is available to be viewed online via social media on the @AustralianDirectorsGuild Facebook page. For a digital copy of the program for the show or go to the awards section on ADG website.
2020 ADG AWARDS WINNERS LIST
Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget $1M or over)
Proudly sponsored by ASDACS
Ben Lawrence – Hearts and Bones
Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget under $1M)
Proudly sponsored by Panavision
Winner prize $10,000 Camera Package
Josephine Mackerras – Alice
Best Direction of a Documentary Feature
Proudly sponsored by Screenrights
Maya Newell – In My Blood It Runs
Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Drama Series
Proudly sponsored by ABC
Jeffrey Walker – The Commons – Season 1 Episode 1
Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Mini-Series
Proudly sponsored by Docklands Studios Melbourne
Emma Freeman – Stateless – Episode 3
Best Direction of a Documentary Series
Proudly sponsored by Media Super
Rosie Jones – The Cult Of The Family – Episode 1
Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Comedy Series
Proudly sponsored by The Post Lounge
Matthew Saville – Upright – Episode 5
Esben Storm Award for Best Direction of a Children’s TV or SVOD Drama Program
Proudly sponsored by Australian Children’s Television Foundation
Kacie Anning – Hardball – Episode 6
Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Drama Serial
Proudly sponsored by Fremantle
Kate Kendall – Neighbours – Episode 8052
Best Direction of an Animated Project
Proudly sponsored by Animal Logic
Jo Boag – Alice-Miranda Friends Forever
Best Direction of Commercial Content
Allan Hardy ACS – Volvo Penta Makes Australian Farming Possible (Allabah Pastural Co.)
Best Direction of Commercial Advertisement
Luke Shanahan – NZ Post – Little Fibs
Best Direction of an Online Drama Series
Husein Alicajic – One Sided – The Acquired Inability To Escape – Episode 1
Best Direction of an Online Comedy Series
Proudly sponsored by Kaleidoscope Digital
Winner Prize $1000 Screen DIrector’s Identity Package
(Social Media and Website Services)
Michael O’Neill & Dylan Hesp – Australia’s Best Street Racer
Best Direction of a Documentary Short Subject
Karen Pearlman – I Want To Write A Film About Women
Best Direction of a Music Video
Matthew Thorne – The Only Boy Racer Left On The Island (Artist: The Howl & The Hum)
Best Direction of an Interactive or Immersive Title
Matthew Sleeth – A Drone Opera
Best Direction of a Short Film
Proudly sponsored by Panavision
Winner prize $5,000 Camera Package
Melissa Anastasi – Chlorine
Best Direction of a Student Film
Alies Sluiter – Ayaan