Track 29

Track 29

Thank you for coming to this talk on the Australian Film Institute, or AFI as most of us know it. We pride ourselves on the work we have done over the last 50 years, and I hope to let you know how we will keep promoting and developing this great country’s film industry. I’m going to start by giving you a little bit of history about the AFI, then I’ll go on to tell you about the work we’re involved in at the moment, and then tell you a little bit about what the future holds for the AFI.

So, let’s start at the beginning. 1958 is an important date in our history, as it was when the Institute was founded. Since then, we have been working continuously for the following purpose; to promote film and television in Australia. I think however our celebrated film and television awards are what we at the AFI are most well known for, which do indeed fulfill our aims of promotion of the industry. In fact, we think these awards have also elevated the standards of Australian film since their inception in the sixties.

We’re incredibly proud of them. The awards became so popular that we expanded them. In 1986, TV categories were added to the list of prestigious awards we offered. The awards have grown in popularity and status over the years, and there is no doubt that we are one of the leading film and television award ceremonies in the country. We have just recently held our 50th anniversary, which took place at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre. Some big names in the film and television industry were there and it was a real celebration of success. Now, this leads me up to our present work…