Press release from 6dc
The IF Awards has today announced two new awards in television highlighting the Australian talent that has seen TV audiences on local productions break ratings records in the last 12 months. Many of our most celebrated film actors that are honoured each year at the IF Awards began their careers in television.
To acknowledge these young television actors who are already bringing in larger than ever audiences on TV dramas such as Underbelly (3.1 million) Hawke (1.6 million) and Sea Patrol (1.16 million) IF wants to recognise our immense talent on the box as well as those people behind the scenes responsible for cultivating our local industry.
The IF Outstanding Contribution to Television award will acknowledge a person who has underpinned the strength of the industry over at least 10 years while the IF Out of The Box Award will recognise an emerging talent who is likely to make the jump to the big screen in the future.
Guy Pearce’s (Animal Kingdom, The Hurt Locker) career began with a regular role in Neighbours, and Isabel Lucas (Transformers, The Waiting City) and Ryan Kwanten, who stars in this year’s IF Awards eligible film Red Hill, both made the move from Home and Away to international stardom. Similarly fellow Home and Away alumni Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek, Thor) and Isla Fisher (Confessions of a Shopaholic, Wedding Crashers) are US based now and starring in international productions.
Sydney based Talent Agent Mark Morrissey acknowledges, “My experience with Chris and Liam Hemsworth and now with Luke Bracey proves that Australian TV drama can be a valuable and successful training platform for young talent which can lead to major international film careers. The fast creative pace of Australian TV drama presents a major challenge for actors. How to perform and excel in your craft whilst under pressure. How to never compromise the quality of the work yet shoot it within the scheduled shoot period. Those that are able to meet the challenges successfully in Australia can be confident that the skills they are honing will be embraced by the international film and TV community.”
Actor Matt Day has made this leap successfully, going from A Country Practice to starring in films including Muriel’s Wedding and My Year Without Sex. He will join the panel to select nominees for the Out Of The Box IF Award and says ”I'm more than pleased to be associated with an award that looks to open doors and better the odds for actors starting out in this most uncertain yet rewarding of professions.”
Out of The Box IF Award
IF Awards are seeking submissions for Australian actors or actresses between the age of 15 – 35 years from a Drama, Comedy, Sit Com or long run series across free to air and subscription TV. The submissions will be reviewed by an industry panel including TV executive producer Kim Vecera and TV producer Steve Knapman, agent Mark Morrissey and actor Matt Day. The Out of the Box Award will announce 6-8 nominees encompassing both male and female talent at the IF Awards Media Launch on Tuesday 12th October. The winner will then be determined by a public online poll and announced at the IF Awards in mid November 2010.
“Building people's careers has never been more important. A new wave of actors are all over our television screens. Subscription television's commitment to new dramas has played a huge role in giving young actors solid, quality work to hone their skills.” Kim Vecera
IF Outstanding Contribution to Television Award
As people continue to build careers across both film and television, IF will also be acknowledging the television industry professionals whose work has created an environment and platform for the development of creative talent in Australia through a second new category the Contribution to Television Award. The winner of the award will be decided by an industry panel and will be announced at the IF Awards in mid November.
With close to 200 000 ratings placed each year by Australian movie lovers the IF Awards are the only People Choice Awards for Australian Film. By continuing to encourage Australians to support local films as well as TV actors starting their career, IF can also help to foster and grow local production offering our industry (both in-front and behind the camera) opportunity, experience and a platform to develop their creative skills and careers.
The 2010 Inside Film Awards is the favourite celebration of the Australian film Industry and the ceremony will be held in mid-November in Sydney.