Stars flocked to the Gold Coast to celebrate the 10th annual V Australia Inside Film Awards last night.
The action packed ceremony was hosted by RocKwiz queen Julia Zemiro and broadcast live on SBS, with Vince Colosimo, Marcus Graham, Sigrid Thornton, Tom Long, Jeremy Sims, Susie Porter, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Bill Hunter, Barry Otto and Gracie Otto among the celebrity presenters and special performance by Kate Miller-Heidike.
Festival success story Men’s Group took out the SHOWTIME IF Best Film Award for Michael Joy and John L Simpson, the Queensland Events Corporation IF Award for Best Actor for Grant Dodwell’s first leading role since the glory days of A Country Practice and the Screen Australia IF Award for Best Script.
Queensland production Unfinished Sky took home the Screen Australia Best Director award for Peter Duncan and Best Actress for Dutch leading lady Monic Hendrickx. This is a reprising role for Monic who first performed the role for the Dutch original. Monic won the Best Actress at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival in 1999 and the Netherlands Film Festival for De Poolse Bruid in 1998 for her first performance. Unfinished Sky was also awarded the Production Book IF Award for Best Production Design and the Cutting Edge IF Award for Best Editing.
"This year IF have awarded the V Australia IF Award for Living Legend to the enigmatic Hugo Weaving. The Australian film industry would be unimaginable without his presence", said V Australia IF Award General Manager Clare Sawyer.
The IF Award for Box Office Achievement went to The Black Balloon which earned $2.2 million at the box office. Independent Spirit was heralded by Benjamin Gilmour and Carolyn Johnson in the making of Son of a Lion. It also picked up the Dinosaur Designs IF Award for Best Music (Amanda Brown).
Other awards on the night went to; the first of the Tropfest feature fund slate September which snapped up the Sony IF Award for Best Cinematography for Jules O’Loughlin; Cathy Henkel, Jeff Canin and Trish Lake picked up the the SBS IF Award for Best Documentary for their socio-environmental documentary The Burning Season; up-and-coming filmmaker Erin White and producer Zyra McAuliffe picked up the Holding Redlich IF Award for Best Short Film, fOUR; Brisbane duo Joshua Beahan and Ruwan de Silva received the Autodesk IF Award for Best Animation for their quirky short The Covenant of Mr Kasch.
Also, director Matthew Pond and producer Tina Lymberis took the IF Award for Best Short Documentary for their drag queen extravaganza Undressing Vanessa; the 3 IF Award for Best Music Video went to directors Angus and Julia Stone, Josh Groom and Andrew Yoole and producers Madeleine Milasas and Jodie Passmore for Just A Boy by Angus and Julia Stone; The Zig Zag Lane IF Award for Best Sound went to Sam Petty for The Square; Kieran Darcy-Smith was presented the ZTudio What IF? Award for Best Unproduced Screenplay for his script Memorial Day; while the EFilm IF Award for Rising Talent declared Leon Ford as the one to watch! The Inside Film Magazine awarded Flickerfest the Festival of the Year.
"I’ve been going to Flickerfest for over ten of its 17 years and have always been struck by the calibre of films it attracts and its undeniable good taste in selection, which has earned it the honour of being the only Oscar accredited Australian short film festival. It has also strongly supported the emergence of Australian filmmakers through its dedicated Australian program", said Rachael Turk, Inside Film Magazine Editor.