This Award was originally known as the “National Film Man of the Year” until 1994, when it was changed to “National Film Pioneer of the Year”. Then in 1998, it was re-named again to read “National Cinema Pioneer of the Year”.
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…
DetailsANDREW 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…
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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…
DetailsSANDRA 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.…
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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…
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