AACTA winner calls on “more famous” nominees to back his pledge to save the ABC
Partos
Nominees in the running to receive an Australian Academy of Cinema Television Arts awards on television tomorrow night have been asked to use their appearance to back a call to save the ABC.
Composer Anthony Partos, who took the AACTA award for best original music score in television for his work on the second series of ABC1’s Redfern Now, used his speech to call on the industry to protect their resources.
“I was alarmed to learn that the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party has advocated selling off the ABC entirely and the Murdoch press is actively doing everything in its capacity to undermine our national broadcaster,” he said.
“Arguments abound that either no one watches the ABC so it’s not worth funding, or that it is taking away too many viewers from commercial networks and therefore it is an unwarranted competitor. Clearly you can’t have it both ways.
“So if you would like to see more shows like Redfern Now in the future, I ask that you all take the time to write to our communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, as well as our Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and let them know that you want a well-funded ABC to be kept firmly in the public domain.”
Partos ended his speech with a call for support: “Lastly I ask the better-looking and more famous nominees amongst us to take the brave plunge and air some of these issues during the televised industry awards.”
Rush
AACTA president Geoffery Rush later thanked Partos for his passionate speech before he presented an award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects to the team from The Great Gatsby.
Partos, a composer who worked on the feature film Animal Kingdom and Nine’s new TV drama Love Child, said working on Redfern Now was one of the most satisfying experiences of his career.
He added: “It is rare to work on a show of this calibre where we have enough time, money and credit and freedom to achieve such a fabulous production.
“The past few years has been a renaissance in terms of ABC drama. and I truly hope that the current level of funding is maintained to help foster shows of this standard.”
ABC television series’ accounted for four AACTA awards presented yetserday including best TV documentary series for Redesign My Brain with Todd Sampson, while the documentary Desert War won best sound in a documentary and best editing in a documentary. The ABC documentary series Kakadu won best cinematography in a documentary.
ABC3 animation Peleda won the prize for best production design in TV and Mis Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on ABC1 won the AACTA for best costume design in television.
