The Australian Academy of Cinema Television Arts has announced a number of changes to their annual awards, including the creation of six television craft awards.
Numerous factors prompted AACTA to conduct a review of the Awards earlier this year. Namely, AACTA sought to restructure the awards in light of their current financial situation (AACTA is still looking for a new naming rights sponsor) as well as feedback from AACTA’s guild partnerships and an industry appeal for additional rewards.
The 3rd AACTA Awards will feature a total of 40 AACTA awards – just one less than last year – however with the creation of six new awards; others have been placed on hold indefinitely.
These include Best Direction in a Documentary, Best Cinematography in a Documentary, Best Sound in a Documentary, Best Editing in a Documentary, Best Visual Effects, Best Young Actor, Best Screenplay in a short film and the discretional Outstanding Achievement in a Short Film Screen Craft Award.
The AACTA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Feature Length Documentary Screen Craft will now be a discretionary award, as will the Best Performance in a Television Comedy.
Overall, AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella said he was pleased with the restructuring given the organisation’s financial position and the growing need to better recognise television crafts.
“We did our own survey later last year and found a unanimous response to the fact there was a lack of recognition in Australia for screen professionals. In particular television was a huge gap,” he says. “The problem is we can’t then just go and introduce [a bunch of new awards], we only have a limited number and we already have 40.
“But a recognition of television crafts is a priority for the industry at this time. There is agreement across the guilds on this. Australian television has continued to go from strength to strength and this has led us to a historic position, in that we are able to recognise television as well as film.
“It’s about finding the right mix; the most relevant mix for industry at this time.”
Trewhella said he was saddened by the temporary loss of the VFX Award, which ultimately was decided too expensive an Award to run at this time.
“The VFX award – it’s a really important category and we are very disappointed not to be running that,” he says. “But it’s a labour intensive category. It covers short films, documentaries, TV shows… it’s very cost intensive to run and doesn’t have the revenue stream associated with it.
“Maybe a campaign from VFX artists coordinated with industry may possibly see us squeeze something else in [in the future] – there’s a lot of jostling.”
The changes appear to have been welcomed by a number of guilds, with the APDG, AGSC, ASSG, ADG and ASE all issuing statements of support.
AACTA is also currently calling for entries and jurors. More information can be found here: http://www.acta.org
The 3rd AACTA Awards will be held in Sydney in 2014.
To see a full list of the 3rd AACTA Awards, see below:
3rd AACTA AWARDS
TELEVISION
1. AACTA Award for Best Children’s Television Series
2. AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy or Light Entertainment Series
3. AACTA Award for Best Reality Television Series
4. AACTA Award for Best Documentary Television Program
5. AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series
6. AACTA Award for Best Telefeature or Mini Series
7. AACTA Award for Best Direction in Television (Drama)
8. AACTA Award for Best Direction in Television (Non-Drama)
9. AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Television
10. AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in Television
11. AACTA Award for Best Editing in Television
12. AACTA Award for Best Sound in Television
13. AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score in Television
14. AACTA Award for Best Production Design in Television
15. AACTA Award for Best Costume Design in Television
16. AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama
17. AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama
18. AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama
19. AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama
20. AACTA Award for Best Performance in a Television Comedy (Discretionary)
FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
1. AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary
2. AACTA Award for Outstanding Feature Length Documentary Screen Craft (Discretionary)
SHORT FILM
1. AACTA Award for Best Short Fiction Film
2. AACTA Award for Best Short Animation
FEATURE FILM
1. AACTA Award for Best Film
2. AACTA Award for Best Direction
3. AACTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
4. AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
5. AACTA Award for Best Cinematography
6. AACTA Award for Best Editing
7. AACTA Award for Best Sound
8. AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score
9. AACTA Award for Best Production Design
10. AACTA Award for Best Costume Design
11. AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor
12. AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress
13. AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor
14. AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress
ADDITIONAL AWARDS
1. AACTA Raymond Longford Award
2. Byron Kennedy Award
Audience Choice Award(s) will be announced later in the year, as usual.