AD - 2004

AD - Art of the Documentary Film Competition
The AD Competition is a national documentary film competition for new and emerging documentary filmmakers with less than 20 minutes of screen credits.

The competition format is for a documentary under 5 minutes, in 3 week, on 1 topic. In 2004 the topic was "Canberra: Living in Space”

The 5 in 3 on 1 AD:04 Art of the Documentary Film Competition screening and announcement of prizes took place on Wednesday 24 November 2004, at the National Museum of Australia, SAS Visions Theatre.

This free public event was attended by 150 people.

The evening commenced with a lecture by renowned Australian documentary film maker, Bob Connolly discussing his book “Black Harvest’, with excerpts from his film of the same name.

Following a short interval, the seven finalists of the 5 in 3 on 1 AD:04 Art of the Documentary Film Competition were screened with the announcement of prizes at the end of the evening.

First prize of $1500 was awarded to Christopher Eley for his social commentary in the documentary "Living in Space: Greenway" , Second prize of $850 was jointly shared between Clare Young for her humorous look at electronic toilets in "Flush Gordon: Space Age Toilets" and Kate Ames of North Queensland for her film "Walter's Roundabouts" exploring the similarities in design between Canberra and a small rural town. Clare Young also won the ABC Stateline 3 week internship.

The Highly Commended prize of $400 went to Sarea and James Coates for film crossing cultural boundaries in "The Drought", with the other shortlisted entries receiving supplementary prizes.

This year the judges were Bob Connolly (documentary film maker), Troy Lum (Hopscotch Films), Andrew Pike (Ronin Films), Debra Beattie (documentary film maker) and Catherine Summerhayes (ANU School of Humanities, Film Studies).

The prizes and event were generously supported by the ANU National Institute of the Humanities & Creative Arts, the National Museum of Australia, Ronin Films, Hopscotch Films and Icon Film Distribution.

Selected entries were also screened on ABC Stateline for the ACT.