My Uncle Bluey Wins First Prize

9 March 2010

2010 Australian Short Film Festival

Organisation

My Uncle Bluey, a short Documentary funded through the Link initiative has just been awarded First Prize at the 2010 Australian Short Film Festival.

This is the fifth award for the film and it came within a field of great films including this year’s Oscar nominated short Miracle Fish.

The judges were Rachel Ward, Darren Gilshenan and Peter Castaldi. Rachel Ward announced the winners in front of a packed cinema of over 600 people with first prize going to My Uncle Bluey, second prize to Miracle Fish and third prize to Apricot.

My Uncle Bluey is a short documentary concerning Britt Arthur’s personal story about her estranged Uncle Robert – a white man who found his home in a remote West Australian Aboriginal community.

The film is no stranger to success, after a world premiere at the 56th SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL and an international premiere ‘In Competition’ at the prestigious INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL of AMSTERDAM (IDFA), the film has gone on to win the award for BEST DIRECTION IN A SHORT FILM at the 2009 AUSTRALIAN DIRECTOR’S GUILD (ADG) AWARDS, NATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST FILM at the 2009 CANBERRA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL, THE MERIT AWARD at the 2009 SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL and BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT at the 2009 AUSTRALIAN TEACHER’S OF MEDIA (ATOM) AWARDS.

The filmmakers were also notified this week of two further festival screenings at the Short film International Competition program of It’s All True – 15th International Documentary Film Festival screening between April 8th & 18th, 2010 , in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and also at DOXA Documentary Film Festival Vancouver, Canada screening between May 7 and 16, 2010.

The Australian Short Film Festival is the closing night event of the Australian Film Festival. The festival closes the streets for a food and film themed festival to which 20,000 people attend. The screenings are held at the iconic Ritz Cinema, Randwick in Sydney NSW.

Each year the festival inducts two great filmmakers who have made invaluable contributions to the film industry. This year it was Claudia Karvan and Steve Bisley, and the presentations were made by Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts Peter Garrett, AM, MP.

My Uncle Bluey was funded by WA’s Film & Television Institute, ScreenWest & LotteryWest and received marketing funding from Screen Australia.

The film was shot in various locations around Western Australia, including Onslow, Baandee, Merredin, Rockingham and Perth.

For more information please visit My Uncle Bluey