DAVID STRATTON – 2024 NATIONAL CINEMA PIONEERS OF THE YEAR DAVID STRATTON AM was born in the U.K. in 1939 and came to Australia in 1963. He was Director of the Sydney Film Festival for 18 years (1966-1983), feature film programmer for SBS TV, host of Movie of the Week and Cinema Classics on SBS…
ANDREW MACKIE & RICHARD PAYTEN – 2023 NATIONAL CINEMA PIONEERS OF THE YEAR Richard Payten and Andrew Mackie have worked in the Australian and New Zealand film industry for the last thirty-five years as distributors, marketers, and producers – but always on the side of the independents. Richard began his career at Chauvel Cinemas in…
TONY BURKE – NATIONAL PIONEER OF THE YEAR 2022 Tony commenced working in the Film Industry as the office junior in the Brisbane Branch of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1956 at the age of 15 years. This was towards the end of the musical era but with the highly entertaining Guys & Dolls and High Society yet…
SANDRA ALEXANDER – NATIONAL PIONEER OF THE YEAR 2021 Sandra came to the screen industry from a background as a teacher and academic, where she pioneered a film study and film-making course in NSW high schools and made instructional videos for Macquarie University. She joined the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op and soon became a board member.…
JOHN CRONIN – NATIONAL PIONEER OF THE YEAR 2020 It was obvious from a very young age that John Cronin was destined to be a showman. As a young primary school student he would often stage backyard concerts and invite his school mates to pay him a penny to see him perform “Take Me Out…
RON REYNOLDS – 2019 NATIONAL CINEMA PIONEER OF THE YEAR. Ron has had a career as a projectionist of 73 years and 9 months as at date of publication of this Bulletin. We are delighted to celebrate Ron as National Cinema Pioneer of the Year. He has had a long and storied career serving…
RUSSELL ANDERSON – NATIONAL PIONEER OF THE YEAR 2018 Commencing his career in the motion picture industry at 16, Russell joined GUO Wests Theatre in Adelaide as an Office Boy in January 1965. Not long after, he was offered a position as Assistant Projectionist at the Majestic Theatre in King William Street. Later becoming a Dispatch Clerk at United Artists, Russell…
Zareh Nalbandian began his career in the film industry as an intern at Australia’s then leading film post production group, Colorfilm. Already an avid photographer, he quickly developed a passion for film optical effects and worked in Colorfilm’s optical effects department on various iconic Australian films in the 1980s. Zareh took on several diverse management…
Peter Fenton began his film career as a sound mixer with Merv Murphy’s Paddington production company Supreme Sound in 1958. The complex (which included a laboratory), specialised in cinema and television commercials, as well as documentaries and the occasional television pilot. Peter had worked with radio 2UE as an on-air panel operator, and later as a Production Operator recording commercials, jingles and serials. After a brief stint at Natec…
John has had an illustrious career in the Western Australian Cinema Industry spanning some 60 years. He began his career in the Industry in 1951 in the Despatch Department at Metro Goldwyn Mayer in Perth. The following year, he moved to Paramount Pictures as a Despatch Assistant. Here he gained experience as a Film Examiner…