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‘Slim & I’, ‘Morgana’ take home Gold Coast Film Festival awards

The Screen Industry Gala Awards. 

Despite the event itself being cancelled, Gold Coast Film Festival soldiered on with its annual Screen Industry Gala Awards last night – albeit online.

Winner of the Best Australian Film was director Kriv Stenders’ documentary on Slim Dusty’s wife Joy McKean, Slim & I. Produced by Chris Brown and Aline Jacques, the film sees McKean tell the story of her career, marriage, and her determination to be recognised as a performer and songwriter in her own right.

Indie doco Morgana, co-directed by Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard, took home the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Independent Film Award, winning a Blackmagic Pocket Camera 6K. The film follows Morgana Muses, who in her 40s was an unhappy housewife in Albury. By 50, she was a feminist pornography icon.

Post-production house The Post Lounge won the inaugural Queensland Screen Business of the Year Award and special FX makeup and prosthetics specialist Jason Baird was awarded Gold Coast Screen Professional of the Year.

Nathan Mewett and Curtis Taylor’s Yulubidyi – Until The End won best film in the festival’s short film competition, SIPFEST: Shorts in Paradise, collecting a prize $3,000. Pearce Hoskinson won the $1,000 runner-up prize, as well as the $1,000 best screenplay prize for Desert Island Secret Santa. After a four-day online screening window and 800 votes, TJ Power’s The Bus to Birra Birra won the $1,000 People’s Choice Award.

Hannah and Eliza Reilly’s Sheilas took home Best Australian Webseries, while Griffith University student Narissa Amies won the student shorts competition for Not So Grim.

Stephen Lance won the $5,000 Queensland Screenwriting Prize, with Tim Sayer runner-up and Noah Southam and Dustin Schmidt tying for third.

“While the screen industry is in a tough time right now, we were pleased to be able to bring everyone together to celebrate the films, scripts and achievements of the award winners,” said Gold Coast Film Festival director and CEO Lucy Fisher,

The full list of winners:

Blackmagic Design Best Australian Independent Film Award

Sponsor: Blackmagic Design

Prize: Blackmagic Design product (Pocket Cinema Camera 6K worth AU$4,065)

Winner: Morgana – Isabel Peppard & Josie Hess

 

PKF Best Australian Film Award

Sponsor: PKF Accounting and Business Advisors

Winner: Slim & I – Kriv Stenders

 

SIPFest Short Film Festival presented by Surfers Paradise Alliance

Sponsor: Surfers Paradise Alliance

Winners:

Best International Film $500 – Back to Graceland – Sakari Sankkinen

Best Australian Film $3000 – Yulubidyi – Until The End – Nathan Mewett, Curtis Taylor

Runner up Best Australian Film $1000 – Desert Island Secret Santa – Pearce Hoskinson

Best Actor $500 – Bronte Pearce – Desert Island Secret Santa

Best Screenplay $1000 – Desert Island Secret Santa – Pearce Hoskinson

Best Film from a Gold Coast Resident $1000 – Eye for an Eye – Elizabeth Cullen

People’s Choice Award $1000 – The Bus to Birra Birra – TJ Power

 

Webseries Awards with thanks to Bond University

Sponsor: Bond University

Winners:

Best International Webseries- Man of Joy – Jordan Kenneth Kamp, Rob Johnson

Best Australian Webseries – $500 – Sheilas – Eliza Reilly, Hannah Reilly

 

Queensland Screenwriting Award, thanks to The Heaton Group

Sponsor: The Heaton Group

Prize: $5000 for winner, $500 for second prize, $500 for third prize

Winners

1st ($5000): The Secret Lives of Dresses – Stephen Lance (script written by Stephen Lance and Megan Simpson Huberman)

2nd ($500) Olivia’s Song – Tim Sayer

3rd ($250 each – tie): How To Kill A Genre – Noah Southam and The Lost Girls – Dustin Schmidt

 

Queensland Screen Business of the Year Award

Winner: The Post Lounge

 

Gold Coast Screen Professional of the Year

Sponsor: Burleigh Brewing Co.

Prize: Burleigh Brewing Co. beer, Backstage double pass and 4 VIP Burleigh Cinema tickets (valued at $400)

Winner: Jason Baird

 

EMERGE Best Student Short Film

Sponsor: HOTA – Home of the Arts

Awards/Prizes: Best Student Film $250

Winner: NOT SO GRIM – Narissa Amies – Griffith University