Rosemary Myers' Girl Asleep has won the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival Best Feature People Choice's Award for her coming of age drama starring Eamon Farren and Bethany Whitmore.
Funded by the Festival’s Film Investment Fund and developed out of the HIVE Lab, Girl Asleep is based on Windmill Theatre’s hit stage show.
The film was not only a critical favourite but was loved just as much by audiences, screening to sell out sessions across the Festival.
Holding the Man documentary, Remembering the Man won the People's Choice Award for Best Documentary, while the most popular short was Meryl Tankard's Michelle's Story.
Remebering the Man traces the story Tim Conigrave and John Caleo, who fell in love at at Catholic boys' school in 1976.
Their romance lasted for 16 years, facing disapproval, temptation, separation, and the looming shadow of the Grim Reaper.
Their relationship has been immortalised in Conigrave's posthumous autobiography Holding the Man (now a major Australian film directed by Neil Armfield).
Michelle’s Story, also funded by the Festival’s Investment Fund, is an uplifting look at the life of Adelaide-based dancer Michelle Ryan, who was one of Australia's leading artists, dancing under choreographer Meryl Tankard at the Australian Dance Theatre.
From there she toured the world until her dancing came to an abrupt end after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
Betrayed by her body she loses her career, mobility and marriage.
This story offers insight into the world of dance and disability and the liberating power of art.
Adelaide Film Festival director Amanda Duthie said it had been a fantastic film festival for Australian directors, "especially women directors and producers."
"Congratulations to Meryl Tankard, Rosemary Myers and Eleanor Sharpe for these directorial achievements and to Nickolas Bird, co-director of Remembering the Man," she said.
"The 2015 stats show that we presented 61 women directors and 54% of women key creative for the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund commissioned films.”