Long-time exhibitor and distributor Robert Ward is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia (ICAA).
Ross Entwistle and Barry Peak have also been honoured by ICAA as the inaugural recipients of the Mark Sarfaty Award for outstanding contribution to independent cinemas in the past year.
The awards were presented as part of the ICAA Conference which has been happening at Sydney’s Dendy Opera Quays this week.
Entwistle and Peak have been recognised for their hard work in putting a virtual print fee deal in place to help independent exhibitors – including non-ICAA members – meet the cost of converting to digital.
As ICAA says on its website, they “put the interests of members before their own businesses in spending countless hours negotiating this scheme.”
The award honours former chief executive of ICCA, Mark Sarfaty, who passed away in November 2011.
The conference program is a mix of presentations from distributors and panel discussions. As has been the case for many years, the move to digital dominates the discussion.
Entwistle is nearing the end of his three-year term as a board member of Screen Australia.