Motion Picture Benevolent Society chair Murray Forrest, playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, and writer and performer Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa are among 732 Australia Day honourees this year.
Khalsa was awarded a Medal of the Order (OAM), while Forrest and Murray-Smith were made Members of the Order (AM).
It’s the latest honour in an already decorated career for Forrest, who was recognised for significant services to the film and television industry.
The former head of film processing labs Atlab and Colorfilm, Forrest has chaired charitable organisation Motion Picture Benevolent Society since 1996, becoming a life member in 2020.
His other industry roles include serving as the founding chair of Ausfilm (1994), the director of Screen Producers Australia (1982-1996), chair of the US Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (1982-1985), president of The Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers (1991), and Federation of Producers of Asia director (1978-1984).
In 2008, the National Association of Cinema Operators established the Murray Forrest Award for Achievement in Film Craft in his honour, with previous winners including Gillian Armstrong, George Miller, and John Seale.
Forrest is also the inaugural recipient of the Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers’ inaugural Humanitarian Award for his long commitment to the Motion Picture Industry Benevolent Society (MPIBS).
Speaking to IF, the industry veteran said being named a member of the order held special significance, given that he emigrated to Australia from Scotland on January 26 61 years ago.
“For obvious reasons, 61 years ago I didn’t set out to become a recipient of any award – far from it,” he said.
“When I arrived here, I set out to do a good job of everything that was ahead of me and started in the film industry. The AM is something I really never dreamt of but one I’m very happy, privileged, and honoured to receive.”
Khalsa, recognised for service to the performing arts, has also had time to reflect on her industry journey recently through the upcoming book Fully Sikh: hot chips and turmeric stains, which will be released at the start of next month.
The WA-based spoken word artist, writer, and performer made national headlines in 2016 with her performance of To Advance Australia on Australia’s Got Talent in 2016 and is also known for having written and performed poetry show Fully Sikh about growing up in the Perth suburbs.
As a screenwriter, she and her partner Perun Bonser were one of Sukhjit were one of 10 teams to be selected for the Imagine Impact Australia 2020 accelerator to develop their own rom-com series One of the Good Ones, and she was part of the team behind Urvi Went to an All Girls School, which was among the projects to receive funding through the ABC and Screen Australia’s Fresh Blood initiative.
Khalsa, who is the executive director of Perth’s Blue Room Theatre, told IF it was always “exciting for someone in the arts to be recognised on a national platform”.
“I feel like it’s a win for all of us because that’s what we’re fighting for, whether it’s performing arts, film, or literature,” she said.
“To be on the map is such an honour.”
Like Khalsa, Murray-Smith made the list for services to the performing arts, but as a writer.
The veteran playwright has authored nearly 30 plays across three decades, including Julia, Berlin, Pennsylvania Avenue, Fury, Rockabye, and Switzerland, which she adapted into a screenplay for Anton Corbijn to direct.
Her other screenwriting credits range from the 1988 mystery thriller Georgia to 2019 dramedy Palm Beach, and she has published three books – Sunnyside (2005), Judgment Rock (2002), and Truce (1994).
In an interview with IF last year, she spoke about the relationship between the different mediums of her work.
Murray-Smith said the medium had had a positive impact on her playwriting.
“As a playwright, you’re the final arbiter of what goes on stage and what people say, so that gives you a certain amount of freedom that is enormously pleasurable but it’s also very easy to overwrite because you like the sound of your own words,” she said.
“I think working on screen has made me much more aware of the benefits of economic language and also that you can tell a story with silence and with faces and with body language, as well as with words.”