Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and Helium Pictures’ Last King of the Cross were awarded best sound for feature film and television series, respectively, at the Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards held on Saturday.
A total of 12 awards were announced as part of the event, recognising audio achievement across feature film, television, documentary, short-form content, and commercials.
George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing was the only multiple winner of the night, taking out Best Sound Recording Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
Pete Smith, who has worked in the sound department on more than 170 titles across four decades, including Hotel Mumbai, The Nightingale, and Talk To Me, was given the Syd Butterworth Lifetime Achievement Award.
In accepting the award, Smith said he was pleased to be recignised as a freelancer, adding it was like “getting a gold watch”.
“My dad, who is turning 90 in a few weeks’ time, gave me some advice when I was 17,” he said.
“He said, ‘Choose a job a job you like doing because you’ll be doing it for a long time’, and it was good advice because I have been doing this job for 41 years and I still enjoy it.”
The 2023 ASSG Award winners are as follows:
Student Encouragement Award
Theodore Tan
Best Sound for a Children’s or Animated Series
Monkie Kid
Best Sound for a Commercial or Promo
RM Williams ‘Brand’
Best Sound for a Documentary
John Farnham: Finding The Voice
Best Sound for Lifestyle, Reality or Factual Entertainment
Shipwreck Hunters Australia
Best Sound for Short-Form Content
I’m On Fire
Best Sound for a Television Series
The Last King of the Cross – Joel McLean, Stephen Smith, Grant Shepherd, Jared Dwyer, Nigel Christensen ASSG, Ryan Hodkinson, Simon Allen, Adam Gold, Michael Ackroyd, and Josh Pearson
Best Sound for an Independent Feature Film
You’ll Never Find Me – Duncan Campbell, Pete Smith, Oliver McLoughlin, Tom Heuzenroeder, Pete Best, Adam Dixon-Galea, Jennifer Leonforte, Lachlan Harris, Olivia Aquilina, Indianna Bell, Ryan Squires, Sam Rogers, Charlie Alderson, Billie Lambert-Stockman, Hamish Keen
Best Sound for a Feature Film
Elvis – Wayne Pashley, David Lee, Derryn Pasquill, Fabian Sanjurjo, Jamieson Shaw, Andy Nelson, Michael Keller, Greg Fitzgerald, Libby Villa, Nicholas Breslin, Lauren Ligovich, Marisa Marsionis, Jared Dwyer, Rick Lisle, Andrew Miller, Amy Barber, Jonathan Bruce, Julia Huberman, Richard Wills, Ben Wyatt, James Nowiczewski, Gary Hamden, Evan McHugh, Tami Treadwell, Glenn Butler, Daniel Hackett, Sam Hayward, Tony Pilkington, Sophie Norfolk, Maddie Millett, Max Pashley, Harry Pashley, Nathan Davis, Wade Keighran, and Unsun Song
Best Sound Recording
Three Thousand Years of Longing – Ben Osmo, Sue Kerr, Todd Moore, Liam Moses, Angus Robertson , Troy Murphie, Craig Beckett
Andrew Plain Award for Best Sound Editing
Three Thousand Years of Longing – Robert Mackenzie, Yulia Akerholt, Leah Katz, James Ashton, Tara Webb, Tom Heuzenroeder, Mick Boraso, Adrian Medhurst, Duncan Campbell, Olivia Aquilina, Jessica Meier, and Marisa Marsionis
Best Sound Mixing
Three Thousand Years of Longing – Robert Mackenzie, Glenn Butler, Daniel Hackett, Jessica Meier, Chris Jenkins, Sal Ojeda