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Sue Brooks snags ADG Finders Award with Looking for Grace

Looking for Grace.

Director Sue Brooks has won this year's Australian Directors Guild Finders Award for her film Looking for Grace

The Finders Award is a partnership between the ADG and the Directors Guild of America, where an Australian film yet to secure US distribution is selected to screen in Los Angeles and New York to key industry figures, including distributors. 

Last year’s winner Craig Monahan will present Brooks with her award. 

Looking for Grace was released in January 2016 by Palace Films and starred Radha Mitchell, Richard Roxburgh and Odessa Young.

ADG chief executive, Kingston Anderson, said the collaboration between the DGA and the ADG recognised the singular vision of independent film directors and promoted it to the wider film industry. 

"The ADG has great pleasure in awarding the Finders Award to Sue Brooks for her outstanding work on Looking for Grace," he said. 

"We know the screenings of her film in Los Angeles and New York will be a great success.”

The recipients of the Michael Carson Award and The Cecil Holmes Award have also been announced. 

The Michael Carson Award recognises excellence in the craft of television drama direction. 

This year the ADG will present the award to Geoffrey Nottage. 

Nottage has worked on many iconic Australian dramas and has been a director on Home and Away since 2004. 

Long-term Home and Away cast member Ray Meagher will present Nottage with his award. 

Anderson said: “Geoffrey Nottage is one of our most distinguished television directors," he said. 

"He has worked in all aspects of TV drama directing from series to serials to mini series. 

"He is a worthy recipient of the Michael Carson Award for TV Drama Directing”.

The Cecil Holmes Award was established in honour of Australian cinema pioneer Cecil Holmes, a filmmaker of the 1970s whose work was largely unheralded, and who was later instrumental in mentoring a number of Australian screen directors. 

The Cecil Holmes Award was instigated in 1995, and is presented by the ADG board from time to time to honour recipients who have advocated for the role of the director. 

This year the ADG will present the Cecil Holmes Award to lawyers Michael Frankel and Greg Duffy, recognising their long-term dedication to the Australian screen industry. 

Anderson said: “For more than 20 years Michael Frankel and Greg Duffy have provided pro-bono legal services to ADG members. 

"This support of the ADG and directors in general is reflected in the work their firm does in the screen industry," he said. 

"Their support and dedication to directors and their support for the ADG has been significant.”

The winners will be announced at the ADG Awards on May 6 at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins.

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