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ADG names Finders Award winner

Writer-director Craig Monahan will get the chance to screen his film Healing to key industry figures in Los Angeles and New York after winning the Australian Directors Guild’s Finders Award.

In partnership with the Directors Guild of America Finders series, the ADG selects one Australian feature film which is yet to secure US distribution and is entered into the ADG Awards.

Monahan will accompany the film when it’s screened later in the year for distributors, managers and agents in LA and NY.

ADG CEO Kingston Anderson said, “The ADG selects a film that is submitted to the Awards that does not have US distribution and would provide the director with an opportunity to showcase their work. Healing and its director Craig Monahan fit perfectly for the Finders Award."

Produced by Tait Brady and Monahan’s Pointblank Pictures and co-scripted by the director and Alison Nisselle, the drama starring Don Hany, Hugo Weaving, Xavier Samuel and Anthony Hayes grossed $497,000 in Australia.

Since its inception in 2004, the Finders Award has been presented just three times, to Kriv Stenders for Boxing Day (2007), Tony Krawitz for The Tall Man (2012) and Catriona McKenzie for Satellite Boy (2014).

The award proved to be a pivotal point in Stenders’ career because he met producer Nelson Woss at the LA screening. The result: Woss hired him to direct Red Dog. The pair is now collaborating on Blue Dog.

The winner is chosen by ADG president Ray Argall in consultation with Anderson. Still to be named is the recipient of the Michael Carson Award for TV drama.

The award is usually presented by the previous recipient but McKenzie is in the US developing projects and won't be able to attend the ceremony.

It will be one of 17 presented – across feature film, television, documentary, animation, commercials, shorts and digital media – in Melbourne on Friday May 8, the first time the awards have been held outside Sydney.

Tickets to the awards ceremony and dinner or ceremony are available at: www.adg.org.au