DON DUNSTAN AWARD

The recipient of this year's Don Dunstan Award, to be presented on our Opening Night, is Rolf de Heer.

Rolf was born in Holland in 1951 and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959. He worked at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1969 to 1976, before graduating from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1980. His company, Vertigo Productions, is based at Hendon in Adelaide.

De Heer has consistently been the boldest and most diverse of Australia’s directors over the past two decades. His debut feature, Tail of a Tiger (84) was a children’s film which he followed up with a sci-fi thriller Incident at Raven’s Gate (87). In 1991 he brought Miles Davis to the Australian outback in Dingo and then Bubby to the streets of Adelaide in Bad Boy Bubby (93). His other features include The Quiet Room (1996), Epsilon (97), Dance Me to My Song (98), The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (01), The Tracker (02) and Alexandra’s Project (03).

Ten Canoes, an AFFIF film, world premiered at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 2006. It started its international campaign by winning the special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival and ended the year by taking six AFI Awards including Best Film and Best Director. In December 2006, Rolf was named South Australian of the Year.

The Don Dunstan Award is presented at each AFF by the festival’s Board in recognition of outstanding contribution to the Australian film industry. Previous winners have been David Gulpilil (2003) and Dennis O’Rourke (2005).