Filmmaker Julia Overton will receive the 2012 AIDC Stanley Hawes Award at this month's Australian International Documentary Conference in Adelaide.
The AIDC said Overton's long tenure at government funding agencies was characterised by humanity rather than bureaucracy, and she never viewed guidelines as rules.
"She will go to great lengths to assist individual filmmakers and promote the documentary genre as a whole, and has opened more doors for documentaries, both in Australia and to the rest of the world, then anyone in the business," the AIDC said in a statement.
The co-chair of the AIDC board, Mitzi Goldman, said Overton was a "powerhouse" and her "imprint on Australian documentary has been immeasurable".
Overton has worked for the Australian Film Commission, the Film Finance Corporation, and Screen Australia, and has also produced feature films (Cut, Spider and Rose, Fistful of Flies, Until the End of the World, Travelling North), TV dramas (Aftershocks, The Long Ride, Tudawali) and the multi-award winning documentary, Black Man’s Houses. Overton also previously worked on documentary programs for CBC Canada and drama for London Weekend Television, UK.
Following the AIDC Award Ceremony on February 27, Overton will deliver the Stanley Hawes Address. The award was established in 1997 to honour Stanley Gilbert Hawes (the first producer-in-chief of the Australian National Film Board and Commonwealth Film Unit) to recognise independent documentary filmmakers who have made an outstanding contribution to the Australian industry.
Past winners include David Bradbury (2008), Bob Connolly (2009), Tom Zubrycki (2010) and Rachel Perkins (2011).
The AIDC will be held in Adelaide betwen February 27-March 1.
Contact this reporter at bswift@www.if.com.au or on Twitter at @bcswift.