PRESS RELEASE
Last week, the ATOM Awards website was given a makeover and is now sporting a brand new look for 2014! The site includes all available information about the 2014 IPAF ATOM Awards, plus all the wonderful online content from last year’s Awards (now listed under its own ‘2013 Awards’ menu).
The 2014 online entry system is up and running, and we are currently calling for entries across more than thirty diverse categories of film, television, animation, games, multimedia and educational resources. As always, the ATOM Awards offer student categories, tailored to all levels of education, as well as general categories that are open to both independent and established media producers. There’s a category for everyone!
ATOM is also proud to announce three new international animation categories for primary and secondary students. Through the addition of these categories, ATOM will forge even stronger relationships with overseas educators and with the next generation of international screen producers.
The ATOM Awards are the second-longest-running film and media awards in Australia, behind the AFI/AACTA Awards, and – for the second year running – the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF) is generously supporting the Awards as naming sponsor.
Past ATOM Award winners include Adam Elliot (creator of Mary and Max and Harvie Krumpet), Working Dog Productions (Frontline), Blackfella Films (The Tall Man, Redfern Now) and Network Ten (Scope).
The ATOM Awards offer great opportunities for budding screen content creators to engage a vast audience, and to network with industry professionals.
ATOM Awards Officer Jen Farrow said:
After the success of the 2013 IPAF ATOM Awards, we are seeing ever-increasing exposure for our finalists and winners. For example, every year, two films from the Awards are selected to screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).
The ATOM Awards website hosts a page promoting each of the finalists’ productions. Plus, we now run audience choice competitions for selected student categories and a National Screenings Tour during the following year.
Selected winners and finalists from the 2013 Awards – including all the finalists in the student categories – can be streamed online at www.atomawards.org.
Awards Events
The 2014 IPAF ATOM Awards recognise film and media excellence through two distinct awards ceremonies: the Student Awards Evening in October and the Tertiary & Industry Awards Night in November.
The Student Awards Evening covers the primary and secondary student categories and includes a showing of the winning student films on the big screen.
The Tertiary & Industry Awards Night is for tertiary students and all screen-industry personnel, and is a great opportunity for emerging and independent producers, directors, cinematographers, composers, songwriters, game/multimedia producers, etc. to mingle with established Australian and New Zealand screen-content creators. Last year, the event was hosted by the urbane Brian Nankervis from RocKwiz and was attended by representatives from SBS, the ABC, the ACTF, and Australia’s leading screen-funding bodies.
National Screenings Tour
The 2014 IPAF ATOM Awards National Screenings Tour will comprise free screenings of recent ATOM Awards content across metropolitan and regional Australia throughout this year. There are three programs, each aimed at a different age group – primary, middle years and senior secondary students – but they appeal to the general public too. The first screening, which includes all three programs, will be on the Big Screen at Federation Square in Melbourne from midday on Friday 28 February.
Primary School Program: 12.00–1.00pm
Middle School (Years 7–10) Program: 1.00–2.05pm
Senior Secondary Program: 2.05–3.25pm
Bookings are not required. For more details, visit www.atomawards.org/screenings/, where you can download PDF information sheets on each of the three programs.