THE ROCKET TAKES FEATURE DIRECTOR HONOURS AT PEER-VOTED GALA

The Rocket upped its award season tally further with director Kim Morduant (pictured, below) taking home the top honour at the Australian Director’s Guild annual ceremony, held tonight at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney’s CBD.

Morduant’s trophy cabinet has grown heavy since the film hit the international festival circuit; in addition to the honours he has amassed as director of the low-budget drama, his script was recognised by the Australian Film Institute and Australian Writer’s Guild.

The win represents the 26^th international trophy that the Australian/Laotian/Thai co-production has snared, which has previously won kudos from such renowned judging bodies as Berlin Film Festival, Calgary Film Festival and Film Critics Circle of Australia; it has also won audience awards at the Tribeca, Leeds, Cinekid, Sydney, Melbourne and American Film Institute festivals.

The Feature Documentary Award went to Sophia Turkiewicz (pictured, right) for her autobiographical chronicle, Once My Mother. The deeply moving film tells of the director’s investigation into her family heritage, where she explores why her Polish mother might have abandoned her when she was only seven years of age.

Julietta Boscolo received the Best Director Short Film Award for her drama, Sam’s Gold, a project that was awarded Screen NSW’s Emerging Filmmaker Fund. It is the first win for Boscolo, who has enjoyed warm acceptance for her film from such festivals as Perth’s Revelation Festival (where it premiered in 2013), the Brisbane International Film Festival, the recent Byron Bay Film Festival and will screen at the prestigious St Kilda Film Festival on May 28. Her previous short, Safe, was nominated for top honours at the Canberra Film Festival. (Read the SCREEN-SPACE interview with Boscolo here).

In a cross-cultural show of support, the Director’s Guild of America partners with their Australian colleagues and funds the Finders Award, an initiative that ensures US exposure for a feature film that has yet to find American distribution. The 2014 recipient was Catriona McKenzie for her film Satellite Boy; the director will now accompany the film at industry screenings in Los Angeles and New York.

The honorees reflect the progressive industry stance adopted by the Australian Director’s Guild, with seven of the sixteen category winners being female filmmakers; all six directors nominated for the Documentary Feature honour were women.

The full list of winners from the 2014 ADG Awards can be found here.