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Australians nominated at Rose d’Or Festival

By Morgan Hind

IF Award-winning documentary The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce by Australian filmmaker Michael James Rowland has been nominated for the 2010 Rose d’Or Festival’s award for a Drama and Mini Series.

The 2008 documentary about the last days of Irish convict Alexander Pearce before his execution, shot on location in Tasmania and Sydney, was also shown at the recent 2010 European Independent Film Festival in Paris.

“My interest is to do really good work and good work that has something to say,” Rowland told INSIDEFILM. “I am far more concerned with a story than I am with genre and all the other preoccupations that are overtaking the film industry.”

“I have my interests and I pursue them really hard, and these awards are what make me visible to others in the industry with similar ideas.”

John Safran’s comedy documentary series Race Relations was also nominated in both the Comedy and Social Awards categories at the festival, which will be held this September in Lucerne, Switzerland, celebrating the year's best global television programming.

The controversial eight-part ABC series was described as Safran’s “most daring and personal adventure yet” by production company Princess Pictures and explores cross-cultural, interracial and interfaith love.

Last year’s only Australian nomination, Julien Temple’s film opera The Eternity Man, won its Rose d’Or in the Best Performance Arts category.

Other notable mentions include Chris Lilley’s 2006 win for We Can Be Heroes in the Best Male Comedy Performance category, and the 2008 nomination of The Chaser’s War on Everything for Comedy.