March 2009 Archives

Evangeline Than was volunteer, guest, and award-recipient-in-training at this year's WASAs. (She's also a student of Diploma of Screen & Media - Animation at FTI.) Read her blog about WA screen's night of nights. For the full version of this entry - and many others - visit her website, evangelinethan.com.

 

I was fortunate enough to attend the 22nd West Australian Screen Awards on Saturday night. Actually, my entrée to this glistering event was due more to sweat than luck: I volunteered to be a runner on the day, in the hope that I would be able to watch some of the ceremony while performing my duties.

So I ran errands in and out of the Octagon theatre, got soaked cleaning filthy 40-gallon drums that would be reborn as golden cocktail tables, and did some speed-typing on a Macbook (why is there no right mouse button, Apple? WHY?)

At the end of it all (including some exciting last-minute wrist-banding duties), I had a shiny WASA ticket (RRP $70, including two hours of free booze and finger food) in my grubby little hand, and scrubbed up to watch the ceremony.

In the last-minute fracas before the show started, I also got to meet Diana Warnock, a gracious and charmingly un-snobby lady, who would present the Bill Warnock Award to Meg Shields later that evening. She looked very glamorous in a black and purple ensemble that she said she had just "thrown together". I can only pray that I will look that good in a few years.

The show's opener was a slick musical act by Matt Lovkis (I later discovered that my partner had been on a radio show with him once-Perth is a small town indeed!) and Ash Gibson-Greig. Matt and Ash also closed the ceremony with a number that I thought was a little risqué-boys have been beaten up behind the bike shed for less-but the audience were in good spirits, so all's well that ends well.

Here are Shani (in the right hand pic) and I posing in the picture area. Just practising for next year (we can dream, can't we?)

Pictured:  Templeton Prize Winner MichaÅ‚ Heller

Our society is obsessed with Awards.  We have to know who is the best at doing something. Anything.  The earliest evidence of an awards ceremony was discovered in 1964. Archaeologists in East Africa unearthed the remains of a small hominid, believed to be Homo habilis, clutching a trophy like stone with some engraved markings etched on the base.  It has been hypothesised that the award was for technological advancements in stone tool making.

Wikipedia quotes a comprehensive list of awards and prizes.  There are awards for doing good deeds, science and technological breakthroughs, sporting achievements, arts, culture, even awards for those who are but merely the best looking people of all time.  But the award that brings the highest financial reward is the “Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities”.  What a mouthful.  But it carries a $1.6 million dollar price tag.  Yes, I said million.  

The 2008 winner was MichaÅ‚ Heller who has a Ph. D. in Cosmology.  He won the Templeton for his extensive philosophical and scientific probing of big questions, specifically his advancement in reconciling the known scientific world with the unknowable dimensions of God.

But before you ladies rush out there to find out if he’s single, you won’t see him spending up big in Vegas.  Heller is establishing himself an institute to further reconcile science and theology.

Awards ceremonies and prizes are a great way for people to recognise the talents and achievements of people who have dedicated their time and passion to a greater goal.  On Saturday 21st March, the WA Screen Awards will be held at the Octagon Theatre at UWA.  It’s a great opportunity to meet some of the most talented people in the industry and see who will take home the highest honours of Outstanding Contribution to the Industry and Young Filmmaker of the Year.  Tickets are available from www.bocsticketing.com.au.