About 

The $5,000 Stanley Hawes Award is given to a person or organisation that makes an outstanding contribution to the documentary sector in Australia.

It was established in 1997 to honour Stanley Hawes as first Producer-in-Chief of the Australian National Film Board and Commonwealth Film Unit.

The award recognises the significant support he gave independent filmmakers in the documentary sector. 

AIDC continues the tradition of this important award and presents the $5,000 prize each year.

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Call for Nominations

The AIDC Board is calling for nominations for the 2012 Stanley Hawes Award, the most prestigious industry recognition for contributions to Australian documentary.

This award recognises individuals or organisations that have enhanced the value and awareness of documentary in Australia.

They will have had a significant impact on Australian documentary and have made a substantial contribution to the sector over a period of time.

The nominated person or organisation may be a producer, director, editor, cinematographer, sound recordist, facilitator, educator, broadcaster, distributor, etc.

Nominations are sought before the 13 December 2011.

Nominations (in form of a half-page statement) should be sent to Joost den Hartog. For more information email Joost den Hartog, Executive Director at AIDC, or telephone 08 8934 2595.

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Award Winners  

2011 - Rachel Perkins 

Rachel Perkins is an established filmmaker who has contributed extensively to the development of indigenous filmmakers in Australia and, more broadly, the Australian film industry.

2010 - Tom Zubrycki

2009 - Bob Connolly

2008 - David Bradbury

2007 - Michael Gissing

Other previous winners include:  John Hughes (2006); CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) Productions (2005); Robin Hughes (2004); Stewart Young (2003); Pat Fiske (2001); John Heyer (1999). 

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About Stanley Hawes

He started work in 1922 as a committee clerk with the City of Birmingham Corporation, but started his film career in 1931, when he co-founded the Birmingham Film Society. He arrived in Australia in 1946, from the National Film Board of Canada, to take up a position as Producer-in-Chief with the Australian National Film Board, initially as a temporary assignment but made permanent within a couple of years of his arrival.

Hawes is regarded as working primarily in the classical style of documentary he learnt with John Grierson in the 1930s. As Moran writes, 'Films such as School in the Mailbox, Flight Plan and The Queen In Australia make clear his aesthetic preference for the classic documentary rather than for drama or the more evocative, poetic forms of documentary'.

He was elected a member of the board in 1952 and became a member of the British Film Academy the following year. He joined UNESCO in 1958 and chaired the National Film Theatre of Australia between 1970 and 1974. In 1971 he was appointed to chair the Film Board of Review.