Television

Is the AFI shutting the doors on television?   Author: eNews staff and agencies | Nov 9, 2007, 18:36

The Australian TV industry has a good chance to take control over its awards system and make them independent of any network or media organisation.

This follows the decision by the precious Australian Film Institute to downgrade the role TV plays in the annual awards represents a form of cultural apartheid or cultural suicide.

The ABC revealed the appallingly ungracious decision by issuing a statement Friday morning revealing that it would no longer participate in this year's AFI Awards or the awards ceremonies, despite having 22 nominations.

It was a decision aimed at solely at TV and represents a snub to an industry which employs, at one stage or another, the majority of people in the film industry, from actors through to technical people.

SBS, which has 39 nominations in TV and film, is continuing with the AFIs, which will be broadcast on December 6

Many of the facilities used in Australia would not be economic without the finance or the business from TV: the Fox Studios lot in Sydney comes to mind.

So the decision is an opportune moment for the TV industry to organise their own awards next year and to take control of the concept from the Nine Network and ACP Magazines TV Week which has the Logies.

We will have the unedifying prospect of next year's Logies coming from a foreign controlled company in PBL Media, which is 75% owned by the CVC private equity group.

No matter what Nine says on its promos that it is 'proudly Australian' it is also foreign controlled.

The main awards for the US and British TV industries are domestically controlled, so why Australia?

It would give the awards credibility and in the spirit of generosity, ACP and Nine could donate the rights to the Logies to the awards to be administrated independently of everyone in the industry, and with voting for both popular and peer group awards, as it is now.

The voting could be administered independently and be via SMS (with the income going to cover the cost), magazines and newspapers and online.

ABC sources say the decision to split TV into the haves and the have nots seems to come from the top of the AFI and director, James Hewitson, who is a film person and doesn't think highly of TV.

The ABC said in its statement today:

"The Australian Film Institute has instigated some major changes to the broadcast of its annual awards to be held in December, which ABC TV feels shows a lack of respect for the television nominees, and seriously diminishes the role television plays in the ceremony.

"ABC TV has today withdrawn its support for the awards, and as a result, the network will not be attending either The AFI Industry Awards (December 5) or the on-air AFI Awards Dinner ceremony (December 6) or funding the attendance by any nominees.

"ABC’s Director of Television Kim Dalton said “We have not taken this decision lightly. The AFI has removed a number of major television awards from the broadcast night. Some categories remain part of the Award Dinner, while others have been moved to the Industry Awards, effectively splitting up some program teams.

“The AFI alone has selected those they believe are the highest-profile faces to attend the broadcast, while other members of the team do not receive an invite to the dinner/broadcast. Instead they are invited to view the telecast on a large screen elsewhere.

“As we all know, making television is a team effort, and ABC TV cannot support this move which favours some over others,” he said.

"The major TV nominations being moved include Best Comedy Series, Best Light Entertainment, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Children’s Drama, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, and Outstanding Performance in a Television Comedy.

“We have spoken with the AFI to see if there is any way they will address our concerns, and they have advised us that changes can’t be made. Therefore, ABC TV Management has decided, with regret, that we are unable to support this year’s AFI Awards,” said Dalton."

The decision means for example that the AFI has invited all the people from the ABC production, the Bastard Boys to the Wednesday night non televised awards night, but on the Thursday night, the likes of actor Jack Thompson (who was a supporting actor) was invited, but not the writer.

The AFI hasn't discriminated in any similar way between writers, directors and actors in any films up for awards.

The decision means that ABC programs like The Chaser, the most popular program in the area this year, would have been on the non televised Wednesday night and not on the Thursday night.

This year more people would have watched the Chaser than any Australian film produced and distributed this year.

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