ABC TV entertainment boss shifts to Adelaide Film Festival

Tim Burrowes

December 8, 2011 10:14

Amanda Duthie, the woman who narrowly kept her job after approving The Chaser’s controversial “Make A Realistic Wish” dying kids sketch, is quitting the ABC to become CEO and director of the Adelaide Film Festival.

Duthie’s appointment comes a few months after she championed the ABC investing $200,000 in a joint venture with the film festival.

Duthie will leave her role as head of arts and entertainment at the ABC in January. She had the comedy portfolio removed from her remit in 2009 after it emerged that she had failed to refer upwards a Chaser’s War on Everything sketch about dying kids which caused widespread public outrage and led to the show being temporarily taken off the air.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.