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.
Julia Overton Wins 2012 AIDC Stanley Hawes Award
Industry phenomenon Julia Overton has been awarded the 2012 AIDC Stanley Hawes Award. She will accept the award at the opening of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) being held in Adelaide, South Australia from February 27 - March 1.
During her time at the Australian Film Commission, the Film Finance Corporation, and most recently, at Screen Australia, Overton was known to be the human element within the bureaucracy.
She was always willing to look at guidelines as guidelines and not interpret them as rules. She will go to great lengths to assist individual filmmakers and promote the documentary genre as a whole, and has opened more doors for documentaries, both in Australia and to the rest of the world, then anyone in the business.
Besides her work at the agencies, she has a multi-faceted track record in production, encompassing feature films (Cut, Spider and Rose, Fistful of Flies, Until the End of the World, Travelling North), TV drama (Aftershocks, The Long Ride, Tudawali) and the multi-award winning documentary (Black Man’s Houses). Prior to her work as an independent producer Overton worked on documentary programs for CBC Canada and drama for London Weekend Television, UK.
Mitzi Goldman, Co-Chair of the AIDC Board describes Overton as a ‘powerhouse’ and says that, “Julia’s imprint on Australian documentary has been immeasurable and AIDC is absolutely delighted to honour her with this year’s Stanley Hawes Award”.
Following the Award Ceremony on Monday 27 February, Overton will deliver the Stanley Hawes Address.
The Stanley Hawes Award was established in 1997 to honour Stanley Gilbert Hawes (1905 -1991) who was the first Producer-in-Chief of the Australian National Film Board and Commonwealth Film Unit. The award recognises the significant support Hawes gave independent filmmakers in the documentary sector and is awarded to a person or organisation that makes an outstanding contribution to the industry in Australia.
Winners in recent years include David Bradbury (2008), Bob Connolly (2009), Tom Zubrycki (2010) and Rachel Perkins (2011).
Established in 1987, AIDC is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2012 and is a significant and pivotal event on the Australian and international factual production and documentary industry calendar.
Australian International Documentary Conference
Monday 27 February – Thursday 1 March 2012
The Stamford Grand Adelaide, Glenelg, South Australia
Award Winners
2012 - Julia Overton
2011 - Rachel Perkins
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).
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.
Mitzi Goldman, Co-Chair of the AIDC Board describes Overton as a ‘powerhouse’ and says that, “Julia’s imprint on Australian documentary has been immeasurable and AIDC is absolutely delighted to honour her with this year’s Stanley Hawes Award”.