22 February 2012

Julia Overton has been awarded the 2012 AIDC Stanley Hawes Award. She will
accept the award at the opening of the Australian International Documentary
Conference (AIDC) being held in Adelaide, South Australia from February 27 – March
1.

According to the AIDC commendation, ‘during her time at the Australian Film
Commission, the Film Finance Corporation, and most recently, at Screen Australia,
Overton was known to be the human element within the bureaucracy. She was
always willing to look at guidelines as guidelines and not interpret them as rules. She
will go to great lengths to assist individual filmmakers and promote the documentary
genre as a whole, and has opened more doors for documentaries, both in Australia
and to the rest of the world, then anyone in the business.

‘Besides her work at the agencies, she has a multi-faceted track record in production,
encompassing feature films (Cut, Spider and Rose, Fistful of Flies, Until the End of
the World, Travelling North), TV drama (Aftershocks, The Long Ride, Tudawali) and
the multi-award winning documentary (Black Man’s Houses). Prior to her work as an
independent producer Overton worked on documentary programs for CBC Canada
and drama for London Weekend Television, UK.’

Mitzi Goldman, Co-Chair of the AIDC Board describes Overton as a ‘powerhouse’ and
says that, “Julia’s imprint on Australian documentary has been immeasurable and
AIDC is absolutely delighted to honour her with this year’s Stanley Hawes Award”.

Following the Award Ceremony on Monday 27 February, Overton will deliver the
Stanley Hawes Address.

The Stanley Hawes Award was established in 1997 to honour Stanley Gilbert Hawes
(1905 -1991) who was the first Producer-in-Chief of the Australian National Film
Board and Commonwealth Film Unit. The award recognises the significant support
Hawes gave independent filmmakers in the documentary sector and is awarded to a
person or organisation that makes an outstanding contribution to the industry in
Australia.