1977 Australian Film Institute Awards

1977 Australian Film Awards
1977 Australian Film Awards
Date	Wednesday, 21 September 1977
Site	Regent Theatre; Sydney, New South Wales
Hosted by	Karen Black; Keir Dullea; John Gorton;
Highlights
Best Film	Storm Boy
Most awards	Don's Party (6)
Most nominations	Storm Boy (9)
Television coverage
Network	ABC
	← 1976; AACTA Film Awards; 1978 →;

The 1977 Australian Film Awards ceremony, presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), honoured the best Australian films of 1976 on 21 September 1977 at Regent Theatre, in Sydney, New South Wales. It was televised on ABC. Actors Keir Dullea and Karen Black, and former Australian Prime Minister John Gorton hosted the show.

Don's Party won six awards including Best Direction and Best Actress. Other winners were The Picture Show Man with four awards, and Storm Boy with two awards including Best Film and the Jury Prize. Charles Chauvel was posthumously awarded the Raymond Longford Award.

Ceremony

The ceremony was held on 21 September 1977 at Regent Theatre, in Sydney, New South Wales. It was hosted by actors Keir Dullea and Karen Black, and former Australian Prime Minister John Gorton.^[1] Films were nominated for awards in thirteen categories, marking the first time the awards were presented competitively and not as a film prize like previous years, with the exception of the non-feature film categories.^[2] The Awards were televised on ABC.^[3]

Winners and nominees

The Australian Film Institute (AFI) presented awards across eighteen categories. Three new award categories were presented for Best Achievement in Sound, Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction, and the award for Best Original Music Score was reinstated after it had not been given since 1973.^[4] The recipients of the peer voted feature-film awards included the film Storm Boy, for Best Film; Bruce Beresford for Best Direction, for Don's Party; John Meillon for Best Actor, for The Fourth Wish; and Pat Bishop for Best Actress, for Don's Party.^[4]^[5] Charles Chauvel received the Raymond Longford Award posthumously for his contribution to Australian screen culture and environment, and was presented to his wife Elsa Chauvel.^[1] Storm Boy was nominated for nine awards but only received two; and Don's Party won five of the six awards it was nominated for, winning the most awards at the ceremony.^[4]
Non-feature films were presented with a gold, silver or bronze prize, or an honourable mention, and the awards were determined by a jury.^[1] The Love Letters from Teralba Road received a gold and silver prize, and a special award for creativity.^[1]

Peer voted awards

Winners of competitive awards marked first in boldface and highlighted in gold.

Category	Winners and nominees
Best Film	Storm Boy – Matt Carroll
	Break of Day – Patricia Lovell
	Don's Party — Phillip Adams
	The Picture Show Man — Joan Long
Best Direction	Bruce Beresford – Don's Party
	Philippe Mora – Mad Dog Morgan
	Chris Löfvén – Oz
	Henri Safran – Storm Boy
Best Actor	John Meillon – The Fourth Wish as Casey
	Noel Ferrier – Eliza Fraser as Captain James Fraser
	David Gulpilil – Storm Boy as Fingerbone
	John Meillon – The Picture Show Man as Maurice 'Pop' Pym
Best Actress	Pat Bishop – Don's Party as Jenny
	Jeanie Drynan – Don's Party as Kath Henderson
	Sara Kestelman – Break of Day as Alice
	Robyn Nevin – The Fourth Wish as Connie
Best Supporting Actor	John Ewart – The Picture Show Man as Freddie Graves
	John Ewart – Let the Balloon Go as PC Baird
	Bill Hunter – Mad Dog Morgan as Sgt. Smith
	Christopher Pate – Raw Deal as Dick
Best Supporting Actress	Veronica Lang – Don's Party as Jody
	Anne Haddy – The Fourth Wish as Dr. Kirk
	Ingrid Mason – Break of Day as Beth
	Judy Morris – The Picture Show Man as Miss Lockhart
Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)	Don's Party – David Williamson
	Storm Boy – Sonia Borg
	The Fourth Wish – Michael Craig
	The Picture Show Man – Joan Long
Best Art Direction	The Picture Show Man – David Copping
	Break of Day – Wendy Dickson
	Oz – Robbie Perkins
	Storm Boy – David Copping
Best Costume Design	The Picture Show Man – Judith Dorsman
	Let the Balloon Go – Ron Williams
	Oz – Robbie Perkins
	Storm Boy – Helen Evans
Best Sound	Don's Party – William M. Anderson
	Oz – Les Luxford
	Raw Deal – Bruce Lamshed
	Storm Boy – Bob Cogger
Best Original Music Score	The Picture Show Man – Peter Best
	Storm Boy – Michael Carlos
	Mad Dog Morgan – Patrick Flynn
	Oz – Ross Wilson
Best Cinematography	Break of Day – Russell Boyd
	Storm Boy – Geoff Burton
	Raw Deal – Vincent Monton
	Summer Of Secrets – Russell Boyd
Best Editing	Don's Party – William M. Anderson
	Oz – Les Luxford
	The Fourth Wish – Gerard Turney-Smith
	Deathcheaters – Ron Williams

Jury voted prizes

Winners of the gold prize.
Winners of the silver prize.
Winners of the bronze prize.

Category	Winners
Jury Prize	Storm Boy – Matt Carroll
Best Documentary	We Are All Alone My Dear – Paul Cox
	Greg – Tom Manefield
	Here's To You Mr. Robinson – Peter Tammer, Gary Patterson (Honourable mention)
Best Short Fiction Film	The Love Letters from Teralba Road – Richard Brennan
	The Singer and the Dancer – Gillian Armstrong
	Do I Have to Kill My Child? – Janet Isaac
	The Idyll – Aphrodite Jansen (Honourable mention)
	In The Beginning – Mark D'Arcy-Irvine (Honourable mention)
Best Cinematography – Documentary	The Love Letters from Teralba Road – Tom Cowan
Best Cinematography – Documentary	The Last Harvest – David Foreman
Advertising	Italy – Adrian Ussher

Special awards

Raymond Longford Award

Charles Chauvel

Jedda Award

Storm Boy – Matt Carroll

Creativity award

Tom Cowan – Journey Among Women
Stephen Wallace – The Love Letters from Teralba Road
Alexander Stitt – Rover
Adrian Ussher – Phone Home To...

Macro Photography

Densey Clyde, Jim Frazier – Garden Jungle

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Paul Heinrichs (22 September 1977). "Storm Boy is best film". The Age. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
^ French, Lisa; Poole, Mark (2009). Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. Australian Teachers of Media. pp. 142–182. ISBN 1-876467-20-7.
^ French, Lisa; Poole, Mark (2009). Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. Australian Teachers of Media. p. 111. ISBN 1-876467-20-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c "AACTA - Past Winners 1977". Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
^ French, Lisa; Poole, Mark (2009). Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. Australian Teachers of Media. p. 145. ISBN 1-876467-20-7.

External links

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Official website

[theage-1] Paul Heinrichs (22 September 1977). "Storm Boy is best film". The Age. Retrieved 17 September 2011.

[2] French, Lisa; Poole, Mark (2009). Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. Australian Teachers of Media. pp. 142–182. ISBN 1-876467-20-7.

[3] French, Lisa; Poole, Mark (2009). Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. Australian Teachers of Media. p. 111. ISBN 1-876467-20-7.

[aacta77-4] "AACTA - Past Winners 1977". Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2011.

[5] French, Lisa; Poole, Mark (2009). Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. Australian Teachers of Media. p. 145. ISBN 1-876467-20-7.

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