Australian director Robert Nugent has received the First Appearance Award at the 2007 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) for his feature documentary End of the Rainbow.
End of the Rainbow is the first Australian film to win the First Appearance Award that supports young and upcoming filmmakers. The film was awarded a prize of ? 5,000.
End of the Rainbow is an elegiac portrait of the changes brought by the arrival of an industrial gold mine in a remote region of West Africa. It was described as a ‘critical and multi-facetted story of globalisation,’ by IDFA Jury chair Arik Bernstein.
End of the Rainbow is the directorial debut of AFTRS graduate Robert Nugent. The film was produced by Mitzi Goldman, written by Rachel Sanderson and edited by Andrea Lang. It is an Australian/French co-production that received funding from the FFC.
Robert attended IDFA with the support of an AFC Type A festival travel grant. Mitzi Goldman and Andrea Lang also attended the festival.
Australian documentaries had a strong year at IDFA with three other Australian projects also screening during the prestigious festival. Night (writer/director Lawrence Johnson) had its European premiere in the Joris Ivens competition, Donkey in Lahore (director Faramarz K-Rahber) screened in First Appearances and His Mother’s Voice (director Dennis Tupicoff) was part of Animation Docs.
[release from the AFC]