Roger Camilleri

Senior Advisor, Media and Public Affairs

speech

EU Film Awards 2010 presentation at Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) 4 December 2009

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Minister Peter Garrett,

Michael Smellie, AFTRS Board,

Ms Sandra Levy, CEO AFTRS

Graham Thorburn and teaching staff at AFTRS, students, family and friends.

It is my pleasure to be here at this AFTRS Graduation Assembly for the presentation of the 2010 EU Film Award.

The EU has sponsored this Award since 2003 and I would very much like to thank Graham Thorburn and his team for the wonderful collaboration we have had over these past years. It started as an idea more than 10 years ago as to how we at the European Union could promote cross-collaboration of European and Australian cinema. While showing more European film festivals in Australia had its attractions, it also had its detractions. It was only after approaching Graham that we developed this idea of a EU film award by taking emerging Australian talent to experience at first hand, European cinema in the making.

We started with the Berlin film festival in 2003 and since then have moved to a string of festivals across Europe.

Of course, this Award would not be possible without the cooperation of the EU Member States and the respective European film festivals engaged each year.

We organise a different festival each year to maximise the diversity of experience. Access to the full benefits of the festival are accorded the winner, presenting valuable opportunities for learning the latest techniques being used in European cinema and, even more importantly, developing a network with other film makers from across the world. Our hope is that the Award winners share their Australian experience with European film makers and to come back to AFTRS to share their European experiences. This exchange is the seed for further collaboration.

When it comes to culture, Europe is hard to beat. It is the diversity of that culture that is truly European. And what better way to show Europe's diversity than through the popular medium of cinema. European cinema has a reputation of excellent story telling, of being compelling, moving and invigorating. Through this Award, we seek to share some of these traits with Australia's leading film-makers.

At the same time we are more than curious to meet Australian talent and learn from their artistry.

The popularity of these awards prompted us to hold two Awards in 2010, both in Helsinki. Here I would like to acknowledge and thank Ritva Kettunen and the Embassy of Finland for their hard work in securing these two festivals for 2010.

The first Award is for Directing Documentary Film where the winner will travel to Finland 's DocPoint festival being held towards the end of January (26-31 January). The winner will view a wide range of international work and participate in the seminars and workshops. Of course, the networking and experience are equally important and past winners have raved about this opportunity.

The second Award is for Direction in Feature Film and the host festival is the Helsinki International Festival held in September (16-26 September). This festival promotes innovative, visually stunning and controversial new films, revealing the promising talents of tomorrow. This year the festival has as its theme Love & Anarchy which also harbour the bizarre and the strange, so we are convinced that the winner of this Award will have an unforgettable festival experience in Finland .

Before announcing the winners, I would like to thank once again Graham Thorburn and his colleagues for the effort required in organising the Awards.

AFTRS has produced some of the biggest names in the industry and has built an international reputation for excellence. Many of the household names we hear of today, have received their training at this school. The courses on offer are innovative and of a high international standard. This no doubt reflects the fine management and teaching staff the school has enjoyed over the years of its relatively young existence.

This brings me to the winners.and I will announce both of them so please hold your congratulations until both are announced.

For the DocPoint Helsinki Film Festival, the winner is Lucy Gaffy.

And for Helsinki International Film Festival, the winner is Dave Edwardz.

Congratulations.

Roger Camilleri, Lucy Gaffy, Dave Edwardz

This page updated December 10, 2009