The Adelaide Film Festival today announced the results of its FOXTEL Movies Audience Awards for Best Feature, Best Short and Best Documentary.
These awards are the people’s choice awards, and the winners reflect the most popular films seen at the Festival, which ran October 10-20 across Adelaide. After each screening, audience members were invited to rate each film and the results are:
Most Popular Feature – Charlie’s Country, directed by Rolf de Heer
After glowing reviews at the Festival from such publications as The Guardian, Screen Daily, Fairfax and ABC Radio, audiences agreed. Starring David Gulpilil, Charlie’s Country tells the story of an Aboriginal man living in a remote community who takes off, to live the old way, but in doing so sets off a chain of events in his life that has him return to his community chastened, and somewhat the wiser.
Most Popular Short – The Gallant Captain, directed by Graeme Base and Katrina Mathers
Screened as part of the Festival’s Family Triple Bill, The Gallant Captain is the animated film debut of renowned children’s book illustrator and author Graeme Base. Adapted from Base’s hugely popular picture book The Legend of the Golden Snail, The Gallant Captain is a child’s pirate fantasy that celebrates the power of the imagination.
Most Popular Documentary – Once My Mother, directed by Sophia Turkiewicz
This is the story of two women: Turkiewicz, an award-winning Australian filmmaker, and her mother Helen. It is a story of survival and forgiveness, and finally a deeply affecting love story. In her old age her daughter leads her through a rediscovery of the epic journey of her life, from Poland to a wartime Siberian gulag, and through Uzbekistan, Persia and a refugee camp in Africa before she comes to rest in Adelaide. Turkiewicz traces her own life in parallel with her mother's in an effort to make peace with their troubled relationship.