Press release
Director Julian Shaw was honoured by the Byron Bay International Film Festival and Sydney International Film School overnight with the prestigious Best Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award.
The prize was for his powerful dramatic short Clearing the Air, recently licensed to QANTAS In-Flight Entertainment. Set in a single hotel room overlooking Sydney International Airport, the emotionally charged film captures an exchange between an estranged father and son, played by AFI Winner Marcus Graham and AFI nominee Rhys Wakefield. The award is a happy outcome for Shaw and Wakefield, who were schoolmates at the McDonald College of Performing Arts.
“Rhys is the heart and soul of the film,” Shaw said whilst in Byron Bay to personally receive the award. “Obviously James Cameron has seen something in Rhys because he has hand-picked him for the new 3D movie Sanctum. I’d like to think that I beat Mr. Cameron to it – because I spotted Rhys when he was about 11-years-old at the McDonald College and thought ‘this kid could be bloody brilliant.’”
The young pair decided to collaborate when they were re-united at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival – Wakefield attending with the Crystal-bear winning The Black Balloon and Shaw with the Panorama Audience Award Runner-Up Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story. “We decided it would be a lot of fun to do something together,” Shaw says.
The BBFF honour is Julian Shaw’s first major award for a fictional piece of filmmaking, after winning accolades from around the globe for his documentary Darling!, including a British Film Institute gong.
“This award means so much to me personally – to be recognised for a fictional work that I’ve written and directed,” Shaw observed. “People are always keen to pigeon-hole you, and while I’ve been on an amazing journey in the world of documentary, I do think I have more to offer. Clearing the Air is a lean and simple character study – but for me it is also the first step toward doing a fictional feature film. Hopefully an acknowledgement like this from the Sydney International Film School and of course the wonderful Byron Bay International Film Festival means I’ve taken another step toward that dream.”
Shaw developed the production through Sydney University’s SCA, whilst completing a Master of Film and Digital Image degree. The film’s production was also assisted by Metro Screen, The Lab and New Zealand’s DOCNZ and DIGIPOST. Clearing the Air was co-produced by Jonathon Green and Jeff McDonald, with editing by Frans Vandenburg ASE.