Press release from the Australian Directors' Guild
The Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG) today announced that it has re-ignited its partnership with the Directors Guild of America Finders series. One Australian feature film, which is yet to secure US distribution and is an entry in the 2012 ADG Awards, will be selected to screen in Los Angeles to key industry figure, including distributors.
The winning film will be announced at the ADG Awards, part of the Guild’s 30th anniversary celebrations, to be held on May 11 at the Australian Maritime Museum in Sydney.
The deadline for entry to the Awards has been extended from February 27 to March 5.
The last Australian film to win the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Finders Awards was Kriv Stenders’ Boxing Day in 2007.
“Capturing the attention of the North American market is an aspiration most filmmakers share but it can be incredibly difficult to achieve that cut-through. The Finders series guarantees that the winning filmmaker will get to show their film to and meet with some of the most important players in the US screen industry,” said Kingston Anderson, General Manager of the ADG.
Kriv Stenders said: "Winning the DGA Finders Award has been the single most defining Award I have received in my career so far. It set in motion an incredible chain reaction of contacts and opportunities that are still playing out for me today. The whole experience was invaluable and allowed me the chance to meet LA based managers, producers and agents. In fact, one of these meetings led directly to the chance for me to direct Red Dog, an opportunity I will always be truly grateful for.”
The Directors Finder Series is a DGA initiative to spotlight undistributed independent feature films directed by Guild members. After its original inception in the USA, the series was expanded to also include International Association of English Speaking Directors Organizations (IAESDO) members’ work as well (including USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom and Canada).
For films to be eligible for the DGA Finders Award they must be entered in the ADG Awards and have secured domestic distribution, with a public screening before December 30, 2011.
All ADG Award applicants must be financial ADG members for the 2011 – 2012 year. Membership details available at: www.adg.org.au.
The 18 categories in the 2012 ADG Awards are:
1. Feature Film
2. Telemovie
3. Animation
4. Documentary Standalone
5. Documentary Feature
6. Documentary Series
7. TV Drama Series
8. TV Mini Series
9. TV Drama Serial
10. TV Comedy
11. TV Reality / light entertainment
12. TV Children’s
13. Cross Platform project
14. Original online project
15. TVC
16. Short film
17. Music video
18. Student
To submit your entry and for further information to the ADG awards, go to: www.adg.org.au/awards.aspx