Artist and filmmaker Lynette Wallworth, whose world premiere film Tender screened to great acclaim at last year’s Adelaide Film Festival, was one of the winners announced at the Australian International Documentary Conference’s (AIDC) closing night.
Lynette was awarded the David and Joan Williams Documentary Fellowship Award, winning $25,000 to explore and expand her filmmaking practice and continue to raise the level of excellence in Australian documentary cinema.
Tender was green lit out of the inaugural HIVE Fund, an initiative of the Adelaide Film Festival, Australia Council for the Arts and ABC Arts. The HIVE Production Fund supports screen-‐based projects from Australian artists and filmmakers in a true convergence of arts and film practise.
Lynette’s work spans video installation, photography and film and has been exhibited widely including the Lincoln Center NYC, Sundance Film Festival New Frontier as well as festivals across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Her directional debut in traditional documentary Tender, produced by leading Australian producer Kath Shelper, focuses on a feisty and resilient community centre in the industrial seaside town of Port Kembla, which is in the process of setting up a community-‐based funeral service when they are suddenly faced with caring for one of their own.
Amanda Duthie, Adelaide Film Festival Director and CEO, said of Lynette’s AIDC win: “Lynette is one of Australia’s major visual artists -‐ and now she has demonstrated she will be a leading Australian filmmaker. The world premiere of Tender at the Adelaide Film Festival still has audiences talking. It is an extraordinary film that stays with you – for all the right reasons. I am so happy for Lynette to be recognised this way with the Documentary Fellowship Award and that the spirit of HIVE – enabling artists to create work for the big and small screen -‐ is being celebrated by industry and audience alike.”
Tony Grybowski, CEO Australia Council for the Arts, said: “Lynette Wallworth is recognised as one of Australia’s leading artists and we are thrilled to see her awarded the David and Joan Williams Documentary Fellowship for Tender. Three years on we are seeing exciting outcomes from the investment made in the HIVE Production Fund – an innovative initiative which enables artists to collaborate with filmmakers to create new Australian films.”
Katrina Sedgwick, Head of Arts, ABC TV added: “Central to the inspiration behind the HIVE Production Fund was the hope that an invitation to leading artists from across the artforms to consider the new ‘canvas’ of film and television could deliver wonderful new work for the screen. Lynette’s Tender, and now this fellowship, demonstrates this beautifully. We are greatly looking forward to screening all three inaugural HIVE commissions on ABC TV in June this year.”
Lynette has had a long association with the Adelaide Film Festival, with her ReKindling Venus: In Plain Sight project (2011) funded out of the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund as well as Duality of Light, which premiered at the Samstag Museum of Art during the 2009 Film Festival, along with a major retrospective.
Lynette Wallworth’s latest project, a collaboration with Antony and Martu Artists, is in the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Dark Heart exhibition at Art Gallery South Australia.
Download the full press release below.
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