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The chauvel award

In 2016, the Gold Coast Film Festival reinvigorated The Chauvel Award – a prestigious industry award previously part of the Brisbane International Film Festival.

Established in 1992, in honour of two of Australia’s most significant filmmakers, Charles and Elsa Chauvel, the award acknowledges significant contribution to the Australian Screen Industry.

Their early silent films, Moth of Moonbi and Greenhide, were both set entirely in Queensland, while their later films; Heritage and Rats of Tobruk included substantial sequences filmed on location in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Their greatest film, Sons of Matthew, draws on tales of the O’Reilly family and their selection of property around Springbrook on the Lamington Plateau and is the quintessential Australian pioneering epic.

Today, Gold Coast Film Festival venues are within sight of some of the locations that inspired some of the most stirring sequences in the Chauvel oeuvre.

About Charles Chauvel (1897 - 1959)

CHARLES CHAUVEL 1897 – 1959 Charles Chauvel was one of the most influential and significant directors in shaping our early Australian film industry. He was an individual – idealistic, persevering and passionately Australian. He and his wife, Elsa, formed a dynamic filmmaking partnership that spanned thirty years of tremendous change and innovation in film craft, from the silent era to sound, colour film and finally television. Chauvel made films when it was difficult to raise financial backing, there were few technical resources and no Australian filmmaking school. He produced and directed his own films and wrote his own scripts. Chauvel’s films were milestones that helped to launch stars – Errol Flynn, Chips Rafferty, Peter Finch and Michael Pate. The Chauvel’s were innovators and pioneers, constantly testing the boundaries of how to interpret Australia and Australians on screen. Charles had many unfulfilled dreams, but what he achieved, often against all odds, testified to his amazing vision, tenacity and enthusiasm. He kept Australian features on the screen during the Second World War when other Australian feature-length films had virtually ceased. Elsa’s contribution was enormous, but Charles had the vision, a very personal one.

PREVIOUS CHAUVEL Award recipients

2021

Sue Maslan ao

2019

SIGRID THORNTON

2018

SUE MILLIKEN

2017

DEBORAH MAILMAN

2016

CLAUDIA KARVAN

2008

Health ledger (posthumously)

2007

David Stratton

2006

Jack thompson

2005

David bradbury

2004

Geoffrey rush

2003

Anthony Buckley

2002

Jan chapman

2001

Robin Anderson & bob Connolly

2000

Bryan brown

1999

Bob ellis

1998

Rolf de heer

1997

John Seale, ACS, ASC.

1996

Dr. George Miller

1995

Gillian Armstrong

1994

Fred Schepisi

1993

PAUL COZ

The chauvel committee

The Chauvel Award Committee features four of Australia’s most respected film industry members.  Melanie Coombs, producer of the Academy Award® winner Harvie Krumpet and film industry veteran, actor and producer Alan Finney, Professor Emeritus Bruce Molloy, and screen distribution heavyweight Michael Selwyn are the esteemed 2024 Chauvel Committee members.

MELANIE COOMBS

ALAN FINNEY OAM

PROFESSOR EMERITUS BRUCE MOLLOY

MICHAEL SELWYN