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South Australian screen sector celebrated at 2024 Ruby Awards
05 December 2024
It was a great night for the South Australian screen sector at the 2024 Ruby Awards, South Australia’s highest honours for the state’s arts and creative industries sector, with three wins for SA screen creatives.
Multi award-winning sound designer, recordist and mixer James Currie was awarded the Premier’s Award for Lifetime Achievement, which recognises an extraordinary South Australian who, through a lifetime of outstanding service, has made an indelible contribution to arts and culture.
Since the 1970s James’s work has played a significant role in establishing and growing the South Australian screen industry. His near 50-year career has seen him work on more than 146 productions, with his international reputation built working innovatively on sound for high profile directors including Paul Cox, Rolf de Heer, Molly Reynolds, Darleen Johnson and Scott Hicks. His early credits include Hicks’ first film The Wanderer (1974), Breaker Morant (1980), Playing Beatie Bow (1986) and The Lighthorsemen (1987), as well as beloved SA TV series McLeod’s Daughters. He also worked on SA films Bad Boy Bubby, The Tracker, Ten Canoes, Red Dog, Hotel Mumbai, Oranges and Sunshine, and AACTA Award winning documentary My Name is Gulpilil, to name a few.
James worked on staff for the SAFC in the 1980s-90s, firstly as a sound recordist in the documentary unit, then mixing feature films at the SAFC’s Hendon Studios which became renowned as one of the nation’s foremost film mixing studios.
James has won and been nominated for 26 prestigious international and Australian film awards over his career including Venice, Chicago, AFI, IF, ASSG and AACTA. In 2017 he was awarded a Flinders University Distinguished Alumni Award, and he has also been bestowed an Honorary Doctorate for his contribution to Australian Film Sound and the title of Adjunct Professor by Griffith University. In 2022 the SAFC honoured James among six of South Australia’s longest-serving crew members at our 50th anniversary celebrations.
Multidisciplinary First Nations screen creative and arts worker Lilla Berry was named the winner of the Frank Ford Memorial Young Achiever Award, which recognises outstanding artistic or cultural achievement or contribution by an individual young South Australian.
A proud Yankunytjatjara woman, Lilla is a member of one of the three creative teams selected for the round three of the SAFC’s Film Lab: New Voices program, is one of seven writers selected for the SAFC’s First Nations Short Film Program and recently received short film production funding through the Mercury’s Quicksilver initiative.
Lilla is also the manager of First Nations Programs at Carclew and has been responsible for the growth of Carclew’s programs for, by and with community. She has won numerous awards including the 2019 Gladys Elphick Young Sister Rising Award, the 2021 South Australian Screen Awards Emerging Producer Award, and the 2021 Collaboration and mentorship residency at The Mill.
Dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Gina Rings took home the Stevie Gadlabarti Goldsmith Memorial Award, which recognises outstanding artistic or cultural achievement or contribution by a South Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person.
A Kokatha and Mirning woman, Gina is an inspiring principal dancer and choreographer with Bangarra Dance Theatre, she has performed extensively around Australia and overseas. As well as her accolades as a dancer, Gina is also an artistic director collaborator, costume designer, set designer, director, producer, filmmaker, opportunity creator, reconciliation advocate, and consultant. She was a writer and producer on SAFC supported ABC iview series production Deadly Family Portraits: Crombie Crew and more recently produced short film Ngarrindjeri Ruwi – Kondili for Illuminate 2024.
Also honoured at the Ruby Awards was feature documentary Isla’s Way from SA writer/director Marion Pilowsky and SA producer Georgia Humphreys of Corner Table Productions, which was nominated for Outstanding Work or Event Within a Festival for its premiere at Adelaide Film Festival 2023.
The Ruby Award winners were announced at an elegant awards ceremony on Friday 29 November at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Named after late arts patron Dame Ruby Litchfield, the annual Ruby Awards recognise artistic excellence, creative achievement, innovation, community involvement and inspirational leadership.
For the full list of winners, click here.