Australia has celebrated the outstanding achievements of the film and television industries by announcing the winners of the L’Oréal Paris 2007 AFI Awards.
Held over two gala nights on 5th and 6th December at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, the industries’ most prestigious awards event was hosted by Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush, and welcomed home from Hollywood a star-studded cast of A-list film and television personalities.
The power of the resilient father and son relationship was cemented in Raimond Gaita’s acclaimed memoir, Romulus, My Father which was awarded the L’Oréal Paris 2007 AFI Award for Best Film.
The compelling film also celebrated Eric Bana collecting the AFI Award for Best Lead Actor for his role as Romulus, and in a remarkable triumph across generations, his on-screen son and co-star, aspiring young actor Kodi Smit-McPhee, was awarded the L’Oréal Paris AFI Young Actor Award. Martin Csokas took the tally to four when he received the award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Home Song Stories brought home the coveted AFI Award for Best Lead Actress through Joan Chen’s captivating performance as Rose, a beautiful nightclub singer struggling in seventies Australia with young children. In this remarkable story based on true-life events, Tony Ayres reveals much of his own childhood, and this moving story secured him both the AFI Award for Best Direction, and the Macquarie Private Wealth AFI Award for Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)
The AFI Award for Best Supporting Actress was presented to Emma Booth, for her role of Jill in the sexy and poignant coming of age story, Clubland.
In the television categories, Love My Way collected the AFI Award for Best Television Drama Series for the third year in a row. Claudia Karvan won Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama for her role as the loveable Frankie Paige.
Stephen Curry was awarded the AFI Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama for his outstanding portrayal of Australia’s King of Television, Graham Kennedy in The King (TV1). This much anticipated telefeature also took home the award for Best Telefeature or Mini Series
Rose Byrne, star of Damages on the Nine Network collected the International Award for Best Actress, while the International Award for Best Actor went to Dominic Purcell for his role as Lincoln Burrows in Seven Network’s hit series, Prison Break.
In non-feature films, the AFI Award for Best Documentary was awarded to Sally Regan and Anna Broinowski for the real-life thriller about a con artist, Forbidden Lie$. Best Short Animation was presented to Justine Kerrigan and Paul McDermott for The Girl Who Swallowed Bees, and the Award for Best Short Fiction Film was won by Spike Up, and collected by Anthony Maras and Kent Smith.
The Byron Kennedy Award, an award that is given in respect of a filmmaker’s relentless pursuit of excellence in filmmaking, was presented to Curtis Levy. In addition, David Hannay was honoured with the AFI Raymond Longford Award, the highest accolade the AFI bestows on a filmmaker in recognition of their enduring contribution to Australian screen culture.
The Global Achievement Award, acknowledging achievement on a global scale by an Australian or Australians working in the film and television industries internationally was awarded to Happy Feet director, Dr George Miller.
The News Limited Readers’ Choice Award went to Eric Bana.
A full list of L’Oréal Paris 2007 AFI Awards recipients is outlined on our website – http://www.afi.org.au/